Dwight pushed her into the car, slammed the door and clambered in the back. ‘We’re coming with you, whether you like it or not.’

She cast a mutinous glare at the men, and then folded her arms, shivering slightly.

‘Your coat is in the back. Give it to her, Dwight.’

Once Jenny had struggled into her coat, Matthew turned in his seat to face her.

‘’Now, tell me where you’re going.’

‘Russell Square, and I’ll direct you from there.’

Matthew put the car in gear and headed for Bloomsbury.

32

Never in her life had Jenny been so angry. She wanted answers only her family could give her. Her face was contorted with disgust. Family? She was going to finish this business once and for all, and the only way to do that was to confront each of them in turn. They weren’t going to get away with this. Oh, no! Her hands clenched into tight fists. They would be dealing with a very different girl from the one they had tried to swindle.

The fact that she now had some money of her own didn’t interest her. What was making the red mist rise before her eyes was the way they had lied about her father. She beat her fists on her knees. How could they do that? How could they be so cruel?

‘Where to now?’

Matthew’s voice penetrated her seething mind, and she managed to spit out the directions to her aunt’s house. She would go there first.

As soon as they were parked, she opened the car door, got out, ran up the steps and banged on the front door with all her might.

The door opened almost at once, and she pushed the butler aside. He caught her arm and she tried to rush past him.

‘Let her go!’ she heard Dwight drawl in his lovely American accent, so reminiscent of her father’s.

‘Where’s Mrs Osborne?’ Matthew demanded.

‘In the drawing room,’ the man spluttered, glaring at Matthew and Dwight. ‘But who are you? And how dare you burst in like this!’

‘I’ll announce myself.’ Jenny ran up the stairs and erupted into the room, throwing the door open with such force that it crashed against the wall.

The occupants rose in alarm.

Jenny glared at her mother, aunt and Greaves. ‘How kind of you all to be here at the same time,’ she snarled.

‘Eugenie!’ Her mother was the first to recover, and eyed her daughter up and down with a look of distaste. ‘What disgusting clothes you are wearing.’

‘I’ve got holes in my shoes as well.’ Jenny couldn’t resist taunting her mother, who was always so immaculate.