‘Yes, and when his lordship found out he was adamant that the child should be adopted.’

‘Not such an unusual outcome,’ Sybil murmured.

‘But Lady Veronica was having none of it,’ Rosie added. ‘Daisy’s fiancé heard them arguing in the back of the car when they were out on a drive: she was as adamant about keeping it as he was about adoption.’

Genuinely riveted and beginning to piece it all together, Sybil asked breathlessly, ‘So that’s where Monty came in?’

Rosie gave her a long provocative look. ‘Indeed. The valiant Brigadier stepped in and saved her ladyship’s good name – why else would Lady Veronica ever settle for the likes of him?’

Speaking out loud, Sybil tried to work out the possible sequence of events. ‘He must have proposed and promised to rear Marigold as his own, then come to some sort of agreement with Lord Stow.’

‘A FINANCIAL agreement,’ Rosie stressed. ‘Using family funds, I bet.’

‘How sad – a lovely young woman like her, with the world at her feet, wasted on Monty,’ Sybil cried. ‘What rotten luck.’

‘She must have accepted him rather than lose Marigold,’ Rosie concluded. ‘It has to be said she worships her daughter.’

‘So Monty’s privileged lifestyle is all down to the arrangement he made when Lady Veronica was pregnant with another man’s child?’

Rosie nodded grimly. ‘Like I say, this is all second hand to me: I didn’t witness any of it myself,’ she admitted. ‘Though I’ve never doubted it,’ she insisted. ‘I mean, why would Daisy make up a story like that when she was at death’s door? She could have taken her secret to the grave, but instead she told me just before she left Dowry House.’

‘I agree,’ Sybil said. ‘There must have been a good reason why she would bare her soul like that.’

‘I’ve thought about it a lot,’ Rosie confessed. ‘Did Daisy think that sometime in the future I could use the information to protect her ladyship if the Brigadier really did try to reveal the truth about Marigold’s father.’

‘Did you ever hear him threaten Lady Veronica?’ Sybil asked.

Rosie shook her head. ‘No, but I’ve heard them many a time arguing behind closed doors about him sleeping with other women. Like I said, none of us could understood why her ladyship put up with the Brigadier. It was only after Daisy had revealed her secret that it all made sense, to me at least.’

Sybil shivered in disgust. ‘So, while Monty was banking Lord Stow’s family funds, he was simultaneously blackmailing his wife. God, really, the man’s capable of anything.’

Swiping away a tear, Rosie said, ‘If the truth be told, I’ve fretted that I could have done more, said more. But who would listen to me, a poor servant girl?’