‘No.’ Luke shook his head. ‘She insisted that they belonged to her, but Father dismissed her as a thief without any proof. Mother tried to stop him. He wouldn’t listen, though; you know what he’s like when his mind is made up. When he tried to send her away without the dress and the necklace, she grabbed them off the table and held on to them tightly. The girl was determined to keep the things she declared were hers.’

John looked across at their parents and shook his head. ‘This is a very strange business. She was frightened, and in her agitation her accent changed to that of a very well-educated girl.’

‘I always felt she was hiding something.’ Matt was furious with himself for not following his instinct about her.

John rounded on his younger brother. ‘If you had some doubts about her, then why the hell didn’t you tell us, Matt? It would have saved all this trouble.’

Matt shrugged. ‘What could I say? It was only a feeling I had. You’d have thought me mad if I’d said that we should look into her background.’

‘Well, Gilbert, what are you going to do about it?’ Louise Stannard had by no means finished with her husband. ‘The girl is obviously in terrible trouble, and you have just turned her out on to the street.’

He looked thoroughly disgruntled. ‘We’ve paid her a fair wage –’

‘Gilbert!’ His wife raised her voice in exasperation. ‘Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said?’

‘It isn’t our responsibility.’

Matt flinched when he saw his mother’s face change. She normally had a placid nature, but he knew that she could erupt on the rare occasion. And this was obviously one of those times. If his father had overruled her in the matter of hiring and firing of staff, then he was really in trouble.

‘Oh, isn’t it? You accuse an obviously well-bred young girl of being a thief and then turn her out.’

‘How was I to know? For God’s sake, Louise, she’s been scrubbing our floors.’

‘Exactly! So how desperate do you think that makes her?’ Louise wiped a hand over her eyes and sighed. ‘This is terrible, Gilbert. I didn’t expect her to flee from this house so quickly. I thought I would have time to see her on her own and put the matter right. We’ve got to find her before anyone else does. She might not have anywhere else to go.’

Finally his parents became quiet, and Matt could almost taste the tension and worry in the room. The sense of triumph he’d felt, when the engine had roared into life after he’d put it back together, evaporated. What was going to happen to that poor girl now?