‘I know this is going to sound odd, but have you got any idea where those old medals we used to have up on the top floor could’ve got to? Only Adam saw something on telly about a VC last night and he thinks it might be very valuable.’

‘Oh what larks!’ said Georgie. ‘A treasure hunt.’

‘Any ideas?’

‘How valuable, anyway?’ asked Georgie.

‘Possibly very. He mentioned two hundred thousand.’

‘No way! Shit.’

‘I know.’

‘Didn’t you have all that sort of stuff in a shoebox in the cupboard in Mum’s room?’

‘Genius! I’d completely forgotten. I’ll go and look now.’

‘Keep me posted. Let me know when you find them, so I can start planning my holiday of a lifetime.’

‘I will,’ said Cass.

Cass could feel her heart thudding as she went up to Celia’s old room. She didn’t consider herself to be an especially acquisitive person, but the prospect of unearthing something of such value was a bit like a fairy story. It was hard not to feel excited. The cupboard had long been emptied of her parents’ clothes and shoes, but on the shelf above were four or five boxes. She hadn’t opened any of them since sorting out her mother’s stuff after she died. She took the chair from in front of the dressing table and stood up on it. The boxes were heavy. She lifted them down and one by one took them over to the bed. Adam came in with two cups of coffee.

‘Oh, there you are,’ she said. ‘I could’ve done with a hand getting these down.’

‘I told you I’d be up in a couple of minutes,’ he said. ‘Anyway, I’m here now. What do you want me to do?’

‘Nothing, I’ve done it now.’ Sometimes Cass sounded sharper than she meant to. She worried that she was slowly turning into her mother and wondered if Adam shared the same concern. If he did, he was too kind to say so.

They began to sift through the contents of the boxes. The first was full of old letters, the second of photographs. In the third were a couple of old pocket watches. And there they were: several medals. There was one with a red and white striped ribbon, another with a ribbon of palest blue edged with yellow. Several more had stripey ribbons, but mostly the ribbons were various shades of red.

‘Which one is it?’ asked Adam.

‘I don’t know!’ said Cass. The sight of them made her feel strangely agitated.

‘It’s got to be one of these,’ said Adam, pointing at two crosses, each with white enamel decoration.

‘Let’s take them all down to the office, look them up online,’ said Cass.