‘You’re right. I’ll nip over and see when she’s available.’ Without waiting to hear what Olivia thought, Maude trotted over to the queue and caught the cook’s attention. Olivia saw the cook looking at the clock and saying something, then nodding as Maude repeated it back to her.

Maude came back to Olivia. ‘She won’t be able to talk until ten this evening.’

‘Thanks, Maude. I’m sorry if I’m being a pain in the neck, because I daresay it wasn’t what you had in mind for my visit.’

Maude waved a dismissive hand. ‘I’ve always liked the idea of playing detective, and this is quite thrilling, especially if we find him or her …’ She looked inquisitively at Olivia who had let out a small gasp.

‘I had a girl!’ she said, her eyes growing round.

‘How on earth do you know that?’ asked Maude, astonished.

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ said Olivia. ‘The cook lived at Greystones – surely that must mean it was a home for girls?’

Maude shrugged. ‘Maybe …’ She smiled at Olivia. ‘I think we’ve just solved a piece of the puzzle!’

Maude and Olivia found a quiet table and tried to make sense of what they’d learned so far.

‘I’m struggling to work out what was going through my dad’s mind,’ Olivia said. ‘I’m guessing that he was so worried we’d discover the truth, he just fobbed us off with a tissue of lies. Trouble is, he couldn’t remember what he’d said, which is why things kept changing, so he had to invent new lies to cover the old, and even he didn’t know truth from fiction.’ Her heart quickened with anticipatory excitement at the thought her child could still be alive, but then she imagined the hard truth behind the doors of an orphanage. She had never been in one herself, but if Oliver Twist was anything to go by, then her daughter would have lived a miserable existence with the poorest diet and filthiest living conditions, and not an ounce of love to be found within the cold walls. She thought of the name: Greystones. It sounded more like the name of a graveyard than an orphanage. How could her father, a man of means, give his only grandchild up to such a dreadful institution, purely because he didn’t approve of her relationship with Ted? Fishing a hanky out of her pocket, Olivia dabbed her tears. ‘I know my father’s a businessman who puts his own needs before anyone else’s, but this? He can’t claim he was protecting me and Mum, because he didn’t have to go this far. He’s done this simply to ensure we never saw her again.’

‘It would have worked, as well, had Ted not come calling.’

Olivia hung her head. ‘How could I have been so lackadaisical over my own child?’