‘I know, but this is still before the swinging sixties. She might have been out and about with different men, but I don’t think she’d have gone to bed with just anyone.’

‘There was a lot of media speculation at the time. If it was easy to work out, then one of those journalists would have cracked it. If it was a full-blown love affair, Nana Joy succeeded in keeping it a secret.’

I thought about that. ‘Someone must have known. A best friend. Or her agent. The cleaner. Do we know who any of those people are?’

‘Bea, I’m not going to be able to find out who Nana Joy’s cleaner was from sixty years ago. Even if she is still alive.’

‘No, but maybe Nana Joy would tell you, and then you could contact her daughter, who she’d revealed the secret to before she passed away…’

‘That’s a lot of work to find out the name of someone who is probably also dead, and if not is highly unlikely to have the funds to keep Charis House going, even if they wanted to.’

My stomach clenched in a horrible knot at the reminder of why Jed was chasing down these flimsy leads.

‘I know. But miracles have a much higher chance of happening if you try.’

Jed blew a long sigh down the phone. ‘Okay, I’m not giving up yet.’

‘Once I’m back, you know I’ll help.’

‘How’s the interview going?’

‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’

‘That bad?’

‘Well, I’m top of the scoreboard, so not that bad, no.’

‘The scoreboard? Oh, hang on a minute.’ There was a pause while Jed had a muffled conversation with someone else. ‘Okay, Mia says hi and she hopes you’re smashing it but we really need to go.’

After that, it was almost impossible to drag my mind away from what was happening at home. Whether or not I changed jobs seemed insignificant compared to losing Charis House. When my parents first started plans to open an alternative provision school, they were met with a torrent of local protest from Hatherstone residents concerned about the impact of inviting ‘those kinds of children’ into the local area. Mum and Dad worked tirelessly to show that ‘those kinds of children’ deserved the right kind of chance, inviting anyone who’d listen to summer picnics, sporting events, and the Christmas Spectacular. The work experience programme became so successful that there were soon more offers of placements than there were pupils to fill them.