Mac and Hugo sat out the front of a cafe in Windenburg, sipping their coffee. Their investigation into Schiller had come up short - they still didn’t know who Daisy was, or have any lead to another member of the family. They were both disheartened - it felt like they had come here for nothing.
‘It feels like the trail has gone cold,’ sighed Mac. 'I guess this is as far back as my family history goes.’
'You’re retracing your family history?’ Mac and Hugo looked up to find the cafe waitress standing next to their table.
'Yeah,’ said Mac. 'But I don’t think there’s anything more for me here in Windenburg.’
'Have you tried checking out the Harrington Museum?’ asked the waitress. 'It’s got heaps of local history, it’s this old mansion up the hill that used to be owned by the Harrington family who were these big rich aristocrats. They pretty much originated with Windenburg.’
Mac had no other leads, and so they and Hugo decided to check out the small history museum. Maybe it would unearth some niche local history relevant to their cause.
They arrived at Harrington Manor, a big beautiful old house that had been restored into a museum. The first foyers were filled with photographs of the historical Harrington family.
'Welcome to the Harrington Museum,’ said a woman. 'I’m the current caretaker and curator of the Museum and a direct descendant from the Harrington family. Feel free to ask me any questions!’
'Who were the Harringtons?’ asked Hugo.
'The Harringtons were a wealthy family who owned much of the land that is now modern day Windenburg. Back then they managed majority of the landholding in the Windenburg estate and built Windenburg into what it is today. The family had to sell off parts of the estate during the Great Depression, and eventually went bankrupt due to inept management. Even the surname eventually died out. Let me know if you have any more questions!’
Mac and Hugo began to peruse the pictures on the walls. There were handpainted portraits and old, faded photographs. Mac approached one set of photographs, and noted the captions beneath them.
The first photograph they noted was of a young couple. The caption below read:
Wedding of Patrick Thomas Harrington and Marigold Joy Langston, circa 1916
Langston. There was that surname again. How was it connected to it all?
On the left side were some photographs of groups of people. The first photograph showed the same married couple, Patrick and Marigold. The second photograph read:
Wedding of Walter Andrew Harrington and Sybil Helena Langston, circa 1919
Langston, again. But there was no information on who any of the other people in the images were.
Mac traipsed around the room, reading the captions eagerly, searching for more photos of the Harrington men who married Langston women. The next photograph they came across was of a young family in the 1920s. The capton below read:
Walter Harrington, Sybil Harrington, Walter Harrington II and Ruth Langston.
Mac couldn’t believe their eyes. There, in the photograph, was a girl named Ruth Langston. The same Ruth Langston whose gravestone they had found in the Henford cemetary with her husband Theodore. The daughter of Daisy. What was she doing in this photograph? How had she come to be here?
And yet, next to the photograph of Ruth was another family photo, this time of Patrick and Marigold again. The caption below read:
James Harrington, Marigold Harrington, Thomas Harrington with Primrose Weston and Daisy Weston.
Here it was. The golden nugget that Mac had been searching for. Daisy Weston, a young girl, immortalised in a faded photograph. She was somehow related to this Harrington family. Primrose was her mother.
But who was Marigold? Why was Ruth a Langston and not a Weston? Why was she with the Harrington family? Mac thought about it long and hard, and soaked in the faces from all the photographs. They thought about what it all must mean.
Leaving the museum with Hugo, feeling like they had at last had a breakthrough, Mac revealed their theories.
'What we know is that Ruth was the daughter of Daisy… and that Daisy was daughter of Primrose. I think Primrose and Marigold are sisters - Langston sisters. If you look at their faces, they seem so alike. So maybe they continued living together - there was no husband in those photos of Primrose’s, so she must’ve been a Great War widow.’
'It makes sense,’ said Hugo encouragingly. 'Althought I still don’t understand why Ruth was a Langston, living with the Harrington family.’
'Ok ok… hear me out… what if, Ruth was born out of wedlock? And was hidden in secret with the Harringtons? These women were all Langstons, who married Harringtons… they must have used their maiden name to protect her.’
Hugo laughed. 'How salacious,’ they smiled. 'Talk about family drama.’
Mac smiled contentedly. 'Yeah it’s dramatic but… I dunno, I have a good feeling about this theory.’
As they walked on past the old country houses, Mac knew where their search needed to go next.
'Now we need to figure out who the Langstons were.’
