Chapter 27
Lili turned to the old man with one more question before she left the cemetery. ‘Do you remember the names of my grandmother and grandfather, who you met at the funeral?’
He shook his head. Lili sighed. Of course he didn’t remember. It had been too long ago. She would need to have some patience and leave it to Ray to look into her ancestry and her family tree. At least she could tell him one thing: he’d been looking in the wrong place. He needed to turn his sights from England to Israel.
The caretaker started talking and gesturing towards his house. Lili didn’t fancy stopping for tea or coffee, although she wasn’t surprised that he was offering; during the little time she’d spent so far on the island, she’d found that the people were friendly and generous to a fault. However, she would have to decline his kind offer. She was intent on getting in touch with Ray and telling him all about her trip to the British Cemetery.
Spiros said to Lili, ‘He has kept records over the years. Come with me if you want to know their names.’
‘Are you serious?’
‘You would not believe the red tape. We must keep records as long as your arm. Officialdom is officially a royal pain in the arse over here.’
Lili laughed at the English turn of phrase as she followed the caretaker into his little single-storey stone-built home. She wasn’t laughing when she stepped outside.
‘Are you all right, Lili?’
She turned to Spiros. The caretaker had accompanied them outside too.
Lili swallowed. ‘Yes, I think so.’
‘It must be quite overwhelming, hearing your grandmother’s name for the first time.’
But that was just the thing – it wasn’t the first time Lili had heard that name.Miriam. She couldn’t wait to return to England and speak to Joseph. Perhaps he could tell her why her mother had been estranged from her family when she died. Lili couldn’t help but think it must have been more than discovering her own mother had been born out of wedlock. There must be something else.
Lili’s thoughts turned to Alena’s secret lover, the father of her love-child; that was probably something she would never find out.But on the other hand, she thought. Her eyebrows shot up. Right now,Joseph was her only living link to her past. He’d known her great-grandmother, Alena, and her grandmother, Miriam. He’d been smuggled to the island of Zakynthos with Miriam – she was sure of it.What could he tell her about Alena? Would he have known Alena’s sweetheart, Miriam’s father? Lili thought of the Hebrew wedding ring in his possession that Sarah knew nothing about. Was it possible that Miriam’s father had given it to him for safekeeping?
All those questions were running through her mind as she walked with the two men back toward the entrance to the British Cemetery. She glanced to her right through the trees and spotted a headstone. That wasn’t unusual. They were dotted about, some quite inconspicuous, partially hidden under the dense foliage. What had caught her attention was an inscription she thought she saw on the slab.
She approached the headstone and read the engraving. ‘That’s weird.’
Spiros caught up. ‘What is it?’
‘I know of someone back in England who has the same name.’ Lili was thinking of Joseph’s father.
‘Perhaps he was buried here,’ he commented.
Lili shook her head. ‘That’s not possible.’ Lili stared at the gravestone. ‘This person died in nineteen forty-three.’
‘I see. Then it’s just a coincidence.’
Lili was about to agree, when she caught sight of a little headstone next to the deceased young man. It appeared to be his son, a boy – Joseph. They had the same surname. Lili could accept one coincidence – but two? The father and son buried there were around the same age that Joseph and his father would have been when they escaped the island while these two perished. Lili went cold.
The caretaker caught up with them.
‘Is something wrong?’ he asked in broken English.
Spiros, who was staring at Lili, replied, ‘I’m not sure.’
Lili barely registered their presence. According to Sarah, her grandfather, George – the same name on the memorial – was a Jew from Vienna, and he’d travelled to England after the war to bring up his son, Joseph. Lili’s eyes flickered to the second headstone of a little boy aged five called Joseph. George and Joseph.
Lili stared at the simple markers. She was there to uncover the truth about her family and find her grandparents – if they were still alive. She had not travelled all this way to unravel a new mystery. Why had Joseph’s father stolen the identities of this man and his son? And why had they both lived in England for decades under assumed names?