Those eyes. That hair.
She was thrown back in time to her own childhood. To the only person in the world who’d ever loved her. To gentle hands, tender words and a thick mass of curls of the same distinctive burnished bronze.
‘Where’s Uncle Jake?’
The little girl’s words dragged Caro back to the present. She tried to smile but her mouth trembled too much. Her knees gave way and she sank onto the padded window seat, her hand pressed to her middle as if to still the tumult inside.
‘He’ll be back in a minute.’ Her voice was barely audible, rough with emotion.
The girl’s eyes widened. ‘You speak like me!’
Caro hadn’t realised she’d spoken Ancillan.
Then the girl she’d come all this way to find, the girl she hadn’t known about till a few weeks ago, slowly crossed the room towards her.
Caro went hot then cold as relief, disbelief and wonder hit. She was torn between the urge to grin and the need to sob.
Or to gather Ariane close and never let her go.