Offer a reward, Edwina wrote in her first letter to Charlotte. One substantial enough to set someone up for life. There is no honour amongst thieves – those two women from the lower orders will trample over each other to be the one to claim it and, once you have either one of them, you have Victoria. Advertise in every newspaper, magazine and periodical in the country. I realise there will be difficulty with the names, all changed since they left here either through marriage or deviousness, but they will recognise their original ones and rush for their reward. The name changes are a trial. Because of them there is no point in looking through the voting registers, which list every adult over twenty-one in the country. If only they were men, it would be so easy to find them because of the compulsory voting system there. I have done my research. There is no point in looking up Department of Immigration records or port entry records as they wouldn’t tell you where they went after they got off the boat and that’s the bit we’re interested in – in any case the private detective I hired already did that or so he claimed. No, a reward is the only solution, and I presume you can see why you are the only one who can do it. Every con man, trickster and gambler in the country will be after it and will try to claim it fraudulently. Only you know what Teresa and Dixon look like even after the lapse of years, and you would recognise Victoria because of the family resemblance. I’m confident you can do it. Just don’t stint on the reward.
Your father has become a hypochondriac since he suffered palpitations and breathlessness two months ago. He panics when he feels any irregularities in his heart rhythm, which he says is often. He is afraid of having a heart attack during the night, so has employed that ex-soldier Thatcher to sleep in the same room. What help he’d be is a puzzle as the few times I’ve seen him, he’s been as drunk as his master.
I expect to hear from you with results in the near future.
Charlotte crumpled the letter, opened the door of the stove and pushed the pages into the flames.