Underwear, far sexier than she’d worn for him, went into the big plastic bag, followed by equally sexy nightdresses. They looked just about new so he asked Gemma which bag had the good things in and shoved them in as well.

To his relief there was nothing incriminating.

As he was pushing the last emptied drawer of the second chest back in, it stuck. It was the top one and jiggling it about made no difference. Pulling it out again, he bent his head to peer into the shoulder-height hole, thinking some piece of clothing must have been caught at the back.

To his surprise he could see a small piece of wood sticking out in one corner. When he reached in and tried to move it, it jerked and with a loud click the carved outer panel on that side opened. ‘What on earth—?’

Gemma peered out of the walk-in wardrobe. ‘Something wrong? Oh. That must be the secret hiding place. Mum once told me there was one in one of the chests, but she wouldn’t tell me where it was or how to open it. She said I had to wait till I was twenty-one.’

His heart sank. What were they going to find?

‘I wonder if there’s anything in it.’ He touched the panel and found it opened wider, showing a tall, thin space with narrow shelves. The top two had big envelopes, presumably full of papers, standing upright on them, held in by strips of what was clearly modern elastic strung across from old brass hooks. The other shelves held small boxes, the sort which usually contained hatpins or sets of buttons.

He looked at his daughter. ‘There are quite a few things hidden in it. Who’d have thought?’

As she reached out to pick up the nearest packet, he blocked her hand. ‘I’ll deal with whatever it is.’

Gemma glared at him. ‘I’m staying here. You’re not hiding anything of Mum’s things from me. She might have left me a letter, in case. People do, you know.’

He’d intended to send her away, just in case there was anything incriminating, but Gemma had that stubborn look on her face and if there was a letter for her she had a right to see it. ‘Since you insist.’

If she didn’t like what they found, she’d just have to accept it. ‘I won’t hide anything, but I’m going to take all these bits and pieces out first and put them on the bed. You can watch but I’ll open them. If you try to interfere, I’ll lock you out of the room again.’

With a disgusted look, she stepped back and folded her arms across her chest. ‘All right. Go ahead, play Mr Dictator.’

‘Sometimes you forget that you’re still a child and I’m the parent.’

‘You’ve never let me forget it. Mum was a lot kinder to me than you.’ She sobbed suddenly and clapped one hand to her mouth. But she shoved his arm away as he would have put it round her for comfort and grabbed a tissue from the box to wipe her eyes.