I said, ‘Gone where?’

Doug said, ‘Well, whoever was in charge by then said they didn’t know! Your dad went with your mum to the hospital, and they spoke to the nuns, and they were told that all the war babies had been sent out of London to escape the Blitz and there was no record of what had happened to a lot of them. They told Jim and your mum, ‘You need to put this behind you.’

Excuse my French, but I said, ‘That all sounds like bullshit to me. Don’t think I won’t be asking for a DNA test,’ and Doug nodded and said, ‘Your father was pretty sure you’d say that but he told me to tell you that the story’s true, and we have a birth certificate and so on to prove it.’

I said, ‘I take it from what you’re saying that this woman is definitely alive?’

Doug said, ‘Oh, yes, she’s alive!’

I said, ‘And where exactly is she?’

Doug said, ‘She lives in a little village called Bucklebury, just outside London. She’s a widow, but she has two children and five grandchildren.’

And I thought, ‘Oh great, I have a sister who’s a grandma. Even more reason for her to come running for my money.’

I said, ‘Have you spoken to this woman?’

And Doug said, ‘I have. I’ve explained to her who her father was but she doesn’t know about the clause in the will. I was waiting to tell you about it, before I told her.’

I said, ‘How long ago did you speak to her, Doug?’

And he said, ‘Not very long ago. Your father was dying, Snow, and he gave me clear instructions that this was something he wanted me to do. He wanted me to try to find out, once and for all, what had happened to this little girl. I think he thought I’d fail at it but so many of the old records have opened up. It wasn’t even difficult. I went straight back to Jim the minute I found her, but he was so close to death there was no way for them to meet or even speak. But he said, “I want Snow to meet her.”’

I said, ‘He was obviously delirious. If he was so stuck on finding this woman why didn’t he try to do it before?’

Doug said, ‘I think he did, Snow. He made a number of enquiries on the internet over the years, with sites like Ancestry.com, but it had all come to nought. A lot of the old records have only recently become available. Maybe your mum didn’t want him to do it, or maybe he thought this girl might be living with a different family and wouldn’t want to know him . . . Maybe he was frightened of finding out she was dead . . . There could be a million reasons.’

I said, ‘You had an obligation to tell me this while my father was still alive, Doug.’ He gave me some waffle, but all I was thinking was, ‘If any of this actually happens – if a stranger waltzes into my life and walks away with half that fortune – I’m going to sue Doug Grenfell for malpractice, for not telling me when Dad was still alive so I could get him to delete that ridiculous clause in his will.’