Billie wondered if that changed anything.

‘So, what do you guys think? Should I leave well alone, or try and find out who she was?’

Julia frowned her thinking frown. ‘What about your birth father, or whatever you want to call him. Wouldn’t you want to know who he was too?’

‘Well, I suppose so. Although he might not even know I exist. The most likely explanation is that my mother was some young, unmarried girl who got pregnant and couldn’t keep me. Maybe he knew and couldn’t or wouldn’t stand by her. Or maybe she never told him.’

‘Maybe he was married,’ Julia added helpfully.

‘I think you should do whatever you think you need to.’ Annie returned to the original question and answered it. ‘If it were me, I’d want to know. But you have to be ready for the possibility of drawing a complete blank or finding out things that you’d rather not know.’

Billie had already made her decision. In fact, despite all the doubts she had been expressing, she had known from the moment she had read her dad’s letter that she couldn’t do nothing. She had to try and find out who she really was.

‘And what do you think, Julia?’

Julia finished her drink and got up to buy another round.

‘I think you should be very careful.’

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Now

Billie recalled Julia’s words as she reread the letter in front of her for the umpteenth time. The radio in her flat was tuned to Classic FM and the sweet strings and lilting melody of Czibulka’s ‘Love’s Dream After the Ball’ were completely at odds with her emotional turmoil. She had felt so much better after last night – finally sharing her news with her closest friends. Their company had made her feel normal again and dispelled the strange sense of displacement that had haunted her since she’d discovered her dubious pedigree. Had the letter arrived yesterday, its contents could have been debated too and Julia would, quite possibly, have spilled an entire round of drinks over her. This letter had also been forwarded by her dad’s solicitor – he’d be charging her for postal service soon – with a covering note explaining that the sender had been an acquaintance of Billie’s father for many years but had always communicated with him via the solicitor’s office.

Who the hell was Imelda Burova?

She was, according to her letter, someone who had information to share that would be to Billie’s advantage. She suggested that they should meet in a café on the seafront at Brighton on Thursday of next week. God – it sounded like an episode of Poirot! And Imelda Burova was certainly a name worthy of an Agatha Christie character. It was a brief letter that concluded with the words . . .