‘We always do,’ I replied with a smile.
Much later, when we’d finally made it out of the bath and had tucked into a fresh fish in tamarind sauce, we took a stroll down to the beach and lay there looking up at the stars.
‘Show me which one your star is,’ Ace asked me.
I located the milky cluster and pointed to it. ‘I’m the third one down from the top, at about two o’clock.’
‘I can only count six.’
‘There are seven, but it’s really hard to see the last one.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Merope.’
‘You’ve not mentioned her before.’
‘No. She never turned up. Or at least, Pa only brought six sisters home.’
‘That’s weird.’
‘Yeah, now I think back, my whole childhood was weird.’
‘Do you know why he adopted all of you?’
‘No, but you don’t really wonder when you’re a child, do you? You just accept it. I loved having Star and my sisters around me. Have you got brothers or sisters?’
‘I’m an only child, so I never had to share anything.’ He gave a sharp laugh, then turned to me. ‘You don’t talk much about your other sisters. What are they like?’
‘Maia and Ally are the two oldest. Maia is really sweet, and so clever – she speaks about a million languages – and Ally is amazing, like, really brave and strong. She’s had a bad time recently, but she’s getting through it. I really admire her, you know? I’d like to be like her.’
‘So, Ally is your role model in the family?’
‘Maybe, yeah, she is. And Tiggy . . .’ I thought for a second, wondering how best to describe her. ‘Other than Star, she’s the sister I’m closest to. She’s very . . . what’s the word for someone who seems to understand things without you saying them out loud?’
‘Intuitive?’ Ace guessed.
‘Yes. She’s got this incredibly positive way of looking at the world. If I painted it the way she saw it, it would just be the most beautiful thing. And then there’s Electra,’ I mumbled, ‘but we don’t get on.’ Then I turned the questioning back on him. ‘What about your childhood?’
‘Like you, I didn’t think it was weird at the time. I loved my mum and being brought up in Thailand, then shortly after she died I was sent to school in England.’
‘That must have been hard, being away from everything you knew.’
‘It was . . . fine.’
‘What about your dad?’ I asked.
‘I told you, I don’t know him.’
The timbre of his voice was terse, and I sensed not to ask him more, even though I was seriously curious.
‘Have you ever wondered if Pa Salt was your real father?’ he asked eventually out of the darkness.
‘I’ve never even thought about it,’ I said, even though suddenly I was thinking about it. ‘That would mean he travelled the world collecting his six illegitimate daughters.’
‘That would be strange,’ Ace agreed, ‘but surely there must be a reason?’
‘Who knows? And actually, who cares? He’s dead now, so I’m never going to find out.’
‘You’re right. No point dwelling on the past, is there?’
‘No, but we all do. We all think of mistakes we’ve made and wish we could change them.’
‘You haven’t made any mistakes to change, have you? It was your parents who did that by giving you up.’
I turned to look at Ace then, and maybe it was the moonlight, but his eyes seemed too bright, like he was holding back tears.
‘Is that what your dad did? Gave you up?’
‘No. So, are you going to search for your birth parents in Australia then?’
It was the patented Ace method of question-tennis and the ball had been expertly returned to me. I let him have this one because I knew he was upset.
‘Maybe,’ I said with a shrug.
‘How did you find out that’s where you were born?’
‘When Pa died last June, he left all us girls something called an armillary sphere, which had the coordinates of where he’d found us engraved on it.’
‘Where was yours?’
‘A place called Broome. It’s on the northwest coast of Australia.’
‘Right. What else?’
‘He told me I should go there and find out about a woman called Kitty Mercer.’
‘Is that all?’
‘Yes, from him anyway, but I also found out a few days later that I’d been left an inheritance.’
‘ “Curiouser and curiouser”, as Alice once said. Did you ever try to look up this Kitty Mercer on the internet?’ he asked.
‘Er, no.’ I was glad that it was dark so he couldn’t see me blush. I was beginning to feel like I was being interrogated. ‘It’s not really fair that you’re asking me all these questions when you won’t answer any of mine.’
He chuckled then. ‘You’re great, CeCe. You just tell it how it is.’ Then he rolled me on top of him and kissed me.
*
Two days later, I woke up realising I had no idea what the date was and knowing I’d completely lost track of time. I climbed out of bed and rifled through my rucksack to find the printout of my tickets back to Bangkok and on to Sydney. Then I checked my mobile for today’s date.
‘Oh shit! I leave tomorrow,’ I groaned, feeling horrified at the prospect. I slumped onto the bed just as Ace came through the door with the habitual tray. Perched amongst the croissants was a book.
‘I got you something,’ he said as he set the tray down.
I stared at the book. On the front cover was a black and white photograph of a beautiful woman. She was wearing an old-fashioned dress with a very high neckline, fastened with rows of tiny pearl buttons. It took me a good few seconds to work out the name on the cover.
‘Kitty Mercer, the Pearling Pioneer,’ I read out loud.
‘Yes!’ Ace said triumphantly, jumping under the covers with me then handing me a cup of coffee. ‘I looked her up on Google – she has her own Wikipedia page, CeCe!’
‘Really?’ I nodded dumbly.
‘She sounds incredible. From what I read, she achieved a lot in an age when women struggled to be in charge. So I ordered her biography and had it express delivered by speedboat from a bookshop in Phuket.’
‘You did what?’ I eyed him.
‘I’ve already skimmed through it and it’s such an interesting story. You’ll love it, really.’ He picked up the book and pushed it towards me and it was all I could do to stop myself recoiling from both him and it. I set the coffee down on the side table and climbed off the bed.
‘Why have you gone to all this trouble?’ I asked him as I pulled on my T-shirt. ‘It’s none of your business. If I’d wanted to find all this out, I’d have done it myself.’
‘Christ! I was only trying to help! Why are you cross?’
‘I’m not cross,’ I snapped, even though we both knew I was. ‘I haven’t even decided yet if I want to find out anything about my original family!’
‘Well, you don’t have to read it now, you can keep it for when you’re ready.’
Ace tried to hand me the book again and I pushed it away.
‘Maybe you should have asked me first,’ I said as I put on my shorts and immediately lost my balance, which didn’t look as dignified as I’d needed it to.
‘Yeah, maybe I should have.’