Mr Dickenson shrugged. ‘I suggest you call a staff meeting and inform them that they would be well advised to search for other posts. Like yourself they will need to vacate the premises within one month. Mr Hamilton-Tate has assured me that he will pay their wages until then. I’m so sorry, Mr Greenwood,’ he said as he hastily stood up. He had done as instructed and he had never felt so wretched in his career. ‘It only remains for me to wish you good luck for the future. If you should decide that you wish to contest the will, I will of course help all I can, but—’

‘I won’t be doing that,’ Barnaby interrupted him. There was no way he would give his father-in-law the chance to humiliate him more than he already had done.

‘In that case, good day, Mr Greenwood.’

The two men shook hands and once he was alone Barnaby sank onto the nearest chair and dropped his head into his hands. He was right back where he had started, a little better off admittedly, but now he had a daughter who was dependant on him and he would have to begin all over again.

It was some time before he managed to pull himself together enough to leave his office and when he did he immediately went in search of Mrs Boswell to ask her if she could arrange for the staff to gather in the hallway that evening at six o’clock.

And so at six o’clock sharp, everyone from the laundry maid to the gardeners were gathered together, all looking slightly apprehensive as they sensed they were about to hear something they were not going to like. The only person absent was Amber, who had sent Becky to hear what was going on as Charlotte could not be left alone.

After looking around at their solemn faces, Barnaby took a deep breath and told them in as few words as he could what had transpired, and before he had finished many of the female members of staff were weeping.

‘But what’ll we do, where will we go?’ some of them wailed and Barnaby felt wretched, but what choice did he have?

‘I am so sorry,’ he told them with a break in his voice. ‘And rest assured that you will all find a small bonus in your wages.’ Then he turned about and went and closeted himself in his study where he poured himself a stiff whisky. He had never been more in need of one.

Becky, meanwhile, had returned to the nursery looking stricken and the moment she entered the room, Amber asked, ‘Whatever’s the matter, lass? You’re as white as a ghost.’