Cass sighed. ‘Well, she was very beautiful. And spirited.’

‘I suppose so,’ said Georgie.

‘So, what are we going to do with it, when we do find it? If we do, I should say,’ asked Georgie.

They were having supper in the kitchen, well into a second bottle of red wine.

‘We will find it,’ said Adam.

‘We may not,’ said Cass.

‘Yes, but if we do?’ said Georgie.

‘We were thinking it’d pay for the converting of the old buildings.’

‘Oh. But I thought you were going to go ahead with all that anyway,’ said Georgie.

‘Well, yes. But we’d have had to take out a loan and this way we could do it without the bank. Plus we don’t want to go on working for ever, you know,’ said Adam.

‘How much were you budgeting, to do the building work? I thought you said the medal was worth about two hundred grand?’ said Georgie.

Neither Cass nor Adam answered right away and Georgie detected a shiftiness in her sister.

‘I think it might be worth a bit more than we’d thought originally. Because it’s one of the first actions that a military VC was awarded for. I’ve been looking into the history of it,’ said Adam.

‘How much more?’ Georgie asked.

‘Maybe as much as four hundred thousand,’ said Adam.

‘Cass?’ Georgie pressed.

‘Well, look, we talked it over and we came to the view that really we’d be entitled to the lion’s share of whatever the medal fetched. Because it was here, presumably, when you agreed to sell out your half to us; so effectively we paid you for your share of everything then. I mean, I offered you pretty much anything you wanted out of the house and you never mentioned the medal at the time.’

‘You didn’t offer me things! I was left half this house and half its contents by Mum, just as you were. It wasn’t up to you to offer me stuff that already belonged to me. And you didn’t mention it then, either.’ Georgie could hear her voice rising.

‘But you had plenty of opportunity at the time we bought you out. If you’d been interested in the medal then, you could easily have said so,’ said Adam. ‘There has to be some limit, time-wise, otherwise you could start taking the teaspoons or whatever every time you visit.’

‘Hang on, let me get this straight,’ said Georgie. ‘You get me to come down here to help you rifle through every inch of this house, every drawer and cupboard, to search for this medal. And then, even if I find it, you keep it. And when you sell it, you don’t split the money with me? Fucking unbelievable.’ Georgie could not help looking around the room for supporters, even though there were only the three of them at the table.