Mrs Sidcup shook her head. ‘I suspected Olivia might be his daughter, or at least that it was possible, but it wasn’t until she started to get older that I was sure. Olivia had no hair at all until she was almost two years old, and it was another six months after that before I was certain. I wrote to Finlay, just the one letter, but I never got a reply. Shortly after that I heard that he had been posted as missing. Daniel served in France right from the start of the war and there was nothing to be done. He loved Olivia dearly, so how could I ever tell him that the daughter for whom he was fighting a war was a child who belonged to someone else?’ She stopped speaking quite abruptly.

‘I see.’ Ann tried to take it all in. ‘And why are you coming here now, seventeen or eighteen years later, to tell me about this?’

‘Finlay always spoke well of you. Because of that, I am here to ask for your help. Or rather it is Olivia who needs your help – although she doesn’t know any of this, and I would prefer that it stays that way, for obvious reasons.’

Ann took charge at last. ‘The only evidence you are providing is the fact that your daughter has curly hair and you and your husband do not. My brother never mentioned this to anyone.’

‘I told you, Finlay didn’t know. Even if he had suspected, he was Daniel’s friend and he could hardly announce that we had—’ She broke off in mid-sentence.

‘I suppose not,’ Ann conceded. ‘Exactly what is it that you need help with?’

‘It’s complicated.’ Beatrice Sidcup took a sip of tea. ‘As I said, my husband is an engineer.’

‘As Finlay would have been.’