The Legacy of Hope House by Dilys Xavier Page A

like over there in those days.’
    It all felt incredibly real as the man looked back at her with a funny little smile and eased himself to sit beside her, that she did not question the reality of the experience at all. To her right now, this was the life she was living.
    ‘You would? You really would like to know all that?’ Then with a look of delight and a smile that lit up the whole of his handsome face, he said, ‘Then I will tell you all I know.’ The answers came at her in a stream so fast she wanted to tell him to stop so she could take it all in, but dared not interrupt.
    The colonel became pensive for several moments while he gathered his thoughts, then slid off the desk and looked bright-eyed at Anna. ‘Ah, there’s something I want to show you.’ He opened a drawer in the bookcase near the window, pulled out a small, framed likeness and held it up. ‘This,’ he said proudly, ‘is a drawing of George, my grandfather. There is no other likeness in existence, so take great care of it. It’s old, it’s fragile. And very precious.’
    He replaced the drawing and sat down to continue his story, making himself comfortable again. ‘Would you like to see the places I have seen and meet the family?’ He looked into her eyes. ‘Would you? It would be so much easier than talking about them.’
    ‘Oh, I wish,’ Anna said, ‘but I can go on wishing forever for such an impossibility.’
    ‘Nothing is impossible in a dream world, child. Come, and I will take you on a journey the likes of which you could never imagine.’ He continued to talk in his singsong way, and although she vaguely knew who she was, where she was and why, she was strangely aware that at this moment there was no dividing line between the now and the past or the real and the dreamtime.
    Even though her eyes were closed, her mind’s eye was seeing everything the colonel was describing, and she was keenly aware of every word that was being said. By now, crystal clear images filled her mind as Papa described them. The lilt of his voice lifted her gently out of her own time and space, and transported her into the picture he was unfolding. She felt as though she were witness to, and, indeed, part of, the actual experience, and looked around at what was now reality to her. Being there, in that time, felt quite normal.
    *
    Anna found herself standing in front of a huge house that faced a sparkling, azure sea. A large lily pond close by was full of huge aquatic flowers. Dragon flies, butterflies, and exquisite, tiny green-plumed humming birds darted amongst the flowers in the garden. To the right of the pond was a path that wound its way through a fern grotto and led right down to the water’s edge. A gentle breeze swept over her, carrying the heady fragrance from a jasmine hedge that bordered the path. She breathed deeply of the scent, when the colonel’s voice suddenly broke into her reverie.
    ‘Come, let me introduce you to a great uncle of mine; your great, great, great, great, great, great, great Uncle George.’ He beckoned Anna onto the veranda of the magnificent house, and as she crossed it the sweet and intoxicating perfume of gardenias wafted around her like a perfumed cloak.
    The colonel grasped her hand and drew her into a large sitting room where a tall man, with his back to the door, gazed out through the window at the clear blue sea.
    He swung around as they entered and beckoned them closer with arms wide open as he greeted them with a beaming smile. His black, curly hair was shoulder length, and a small black moustache and triangular shaped beard on his chin almost hid his brilliant smile. Her instant thought was… handsome.
    He touched his forehead, then swept his arm wide across as he bowed low.
    ‘Welcome to my humble abode, dear long distant niece.’ His sonorous voice had the most melodic Welsh accent she had ever heard. ‘It is indeed an honour and a great pleasure to meet with you.’
    Anna smiled and curtsied, because