Emma had gone quite pale.

‘Anyway, last night when I got home from work Dora was waiting for me and she gave me the address of a lady in Spitalfields who she thought might be connected to him. So I set off to see her and sure enough she did know him. In fact he was married to her before he married Mother. He left her with five children when he met Mother but the thing is … Well, from what she told me, your marriage was illegal because if he’s alive he is still very much married to her. They never got divorced.’

‘Oh my goodness!’ her mother gasped.

Emma smiled at her. ‘But surely you realise that this is a good thing for you? Don’t you see? You’re free now to get on with the rest of your life. With Mr Dolby if that’s what you want.’ She smiled ruefully as her mother blushed prettily. ‘I’ve noticed how close you’ve become on my last couple of visits,’ she admitted. ‘And now there is nothing to stand in your way. The more I’ve got to see of him the more I’ve realised he is in fact a very kind, gentle man. The only downside to this discovery is that I now find I am actually illegitimate.’

She waited for her grandfather to rant and rave as he would have in the past. He had made no comment up to now so he shocked her when he said, ‘If that is the case it is not your fault, nor your mother’s,’ he added hastily. ‘The man was a trickster, a con man but it’s all in the past now. Looking back I realise I behaved very badly to you both. I wanted your mother to make a good marriage and when she chose your father I couldn’t accept it and I almost lost her. Even when she came home to have you I held you both at arm’s length. I think I was still grieving for my wife, but that’s no excuse. Now I just want to see both of you happy so all I can say is, I’m sorry.’ He did something then that Holly could never remember him doing before. He stood and took her in his arms and she sobbed on his shoulder.

‘And what about your, er … friend?’ Emma questioned and got a scowl from her father.

‘It’s obvious Holly doesn’t want to talk about that so let’s just leave it for now, and she can tell us if and when she’s ready, eh? We’ve got enough to take in today with what’s she’s just told us.’

Ivy tapped at the door then and bustled in with a tray of coffee, looking concerned. She could tell that something was wrong but knew that Holly would tell her when the time was right. They had never kept secrets from each other. ‘Cook says to tell you dinner will be ready in about half an hour,’ she informed them and quietly went away.