She grinned at him for a moment, then the smile faded and she looked back at the papers. ‘How will we find out whether the baby’s yours?’

‘This may be a start.’ He’d set the marriage certificate aside almost absent-mindedly, but now jerked to full attention as he realised he was looking at a copy of a birth certificate. The date would fit his brief involvement with Dorothy. Was it … could this be his child?

Gemma read it, then turned to him. ‘She had a girl, then: Catherine Jane. If she’s alive, she’s my half-sister. She’s only a bit older than me.’

‘Dorothy always said how much she loved the name Catherine.’

‘What are we going to do now?’

‘Start looking for a woman called Dorothy Dobson in the latest electoral rolls. We have her husband’s and daughter’s names. We ought to be able to find out something about her.’

‘Is it that easy to find someone?’

‘It can be.’

‘Do you want this Catherine Jane to be yours?’

‘I don’t know. But if she is my daughter, I want to meet her.’

Gemma scowled down at the papers. ‘Well, I don’t want a big sister trying to boss me around, thank you very much, so don’t expect me to cheer if you are her father.’ She flounced off into her hotel room, which was next to his, slamming the door hard.

For a moment she’d looked frightened. Maybe of losing him as well as her mother. As if he’d not be there for her! How long would it take her to trust him?

He stared down at the mess of papers, then sighed and began trying to sort them out. Some of them were paper-clipped together, others had little sticky labels on marked ‘Miscellaneous’ or ‘Discarded’. Topham seemed to have been a careful researcher.

But somehow Adam couldn’t bear any more discoveries today, so he didn’t read any further. You could only face so much at a time.

Of course, they might not find Dorothy or her daughter. They could have died or gone into hiding. If people wanted to stay hidden, there were usually ways. Or they could even have emigrated.

What worried him most was that this search might come between him and Gemma. Perhaps he ought not to have started it. But he couldn’t abandon it now. Oh, his thoughts were all in tangles.

After a while, he went next door and tapped on the door. There was no answer.

He tapped again. ‘Gemma! Let me in.’

It seemed a long time till she opened the door and there were tears on her eyelashes. ‘Oh, darling, I’m so sorry you’re hurting.’ He gathered her into his arms and kicked the door shut behind him as she sobbed against him.

When she’d calmed down, he asked, ‘Is it the search that’s upsetting you? Do you want me to abandon it? Your happiness and welfare are very important to me, you know.’

She looked at him, so sadly, so solemnly that he could see for a moment what she’d look like when she grew older, then she shook her head. ‘No, Dad. We’ve come halfway round the world to find her. We may as well carry on with our quest.’