I rather expected that Doris would come to visit me, but it took much longer than I thought it would.

At first we just chit chatted about this and that. And then she said, “I’ve been thinking about what you were saying the other day, Jean. Do you really think that a person who was adopted as a baby could inherit?”

“Well, Doris,” I said. “I too have been doing some thinking and what’s more some researching on the subject. I am so glad I decided to go with broadband, and I spend hours each night looking up things. It is so easy.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know about that. I don’t have a computer. Too late to learn and can’t see the point myself.”

“Well, the point for me is, that if I want to know something, all I have to do is turn on the computer and ask it the question. It hardly ever lets me down.”

“So did you ask your computer about babies who get adopted and their inheritance?”

“Yes, I did just that, but the question was, Does an illegitimate child have any rights of inheritance?”

“And what did your computer say?”

“Well, it isn’t quite as straightforward as that. I found a whole raft of articles about legal cases where this was the issue. And I found out that it certainly isn’t impossible. For instance, there was a case in America where a man who was born in Italy, whose parents weren’t married, then moved to America. His father subsequently died, and he tried to make the case that he had a right to inherit. In the American court it was decided that he couldn’t, as his parents had not actually lived together. But then it was taken to a higher court, and they decided that because in Italy, inheritance rights go with the father, and this father had clearly indicated to everyone that this child was in fact his son. So he won his case in the end.”

“That is all very interesting, but this is neither Italy nor America. Did you find out if that could happen here?”

“Well, you know Italy isn’t that much different now that we are all part of Europe. Lots of legislation that might have seemed impossible to get through in this country, now because of the European Court of Human Rights – whatever it is called – gets through. Anyway, in this country much of the legislation regarding children and their legal rights was changed with the 1989 Children’s Act.”

“Oh don’t go on about it. I don’t care for the details, only the answer to the question.”

“Do you have any proof in any way that Lord Nascent was the father of your child?”

“I wrote to him and told him about it – so maybe he kept the letter with all those pictures.”

“Did he acknowledge to you in writing that he had received your message and accepted that the child was his?”

“Not in writing, no. He wasn’t much for writing letters. He told me that he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. And he didn’t want much to do with me after that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Doris. That must have been a really hard time for you. Did your parents help or were they angry?”

“They screamed and shouted and carried on like I had murdered somebody. And they were so worried somebody would find out. Now, since you know, I expect everybody knew, and it wasn’t as if I was the first person in the world that it happened to.”

“And then you went to stay with your aunt or somebody didn’t you?”

“Yes, I got farmed out to Newcastle, about as far away as you can get from these parts, and my aunt, who was being paid to take care of me by my parents, was not very nice to me either. She made sure I had a roof over my head and food, and that I went to the doctor for visits, but she hardly ever talked to me and made me feel like I was an awful sinner. I was so pleased when it was all over with.”

“Did you get to see the baby at all?”

“Not really. Well as much as you can see when they take him from you and do the cord cutting and things like that. I could see he was a big baby, with a shock of black hair, and an almighty scream. But they wouldn’t let me hold him.”

“Would you have kept him if your parents hadn’t minded?”

“No, I don’t think that I ever even considered doing that. We didn’t in those days. Nobody wanted to be an unmarried mother and I was only fifteen. If Lord Nascent had shown any interest maybe I would have, if he would have said he would marry me or something like that. But of course, I was underage, and he was worried about being had for statutory rape. Not that it could ever have been described as rape.”

“No, we all were quite happy to spend time with him. He was such a charmer.”

“Did you sleep with him too, then, Jean.”

“Of course not. What sort of girl do you think I was?” Seeing the expression on Doris’ face I had to add quickly, “I didn’t mean that like it sounded. I can understand how you could have gotten carried away with him. But I was too worried about the consequences of my actions to ever let things get out of control completely, if you know what I mean.”

“So you didn’t let him go all the way, and he still kept seeing you?”

“He called me a not very nice name, a something tease, but I think he kept hoping that he would get me to change my mind, and he nearly did.”

“Anyway, back to your computer stuff. Did you find out anyone in England who managed to get their natural father’s inheritance?”

“Not as such, but it did say that if the father had left a will which specifically mentioned those he wanted to have his property, then those not mentioned, whether they were legitimate or not, did not get a look in. However, if the father didn’t leave a will, there was much more of a case for the child who was illegitimate as long as the child could prove that he was the person’s son in some way.”

“I wonder if he left a will? Could we find that out?”

“Oh yes, the record office would have to have a copy of his will. It’s always public knowledge.”

“So you mean I would have to have a letter from him saying that he knew he was the father, something like that?”

“Yes, I suppose the other possibility these days is DNA testing, but I doubt if they would exhume Lord Nascent just on the off chance.”

“Can they use DNA on people who are dead then?”

“Oh, yes, I am sure they can. And it can be any part of the person – skin, hair, secretions.”

“I have some of his hair.”

“What? Do you mean he gave you a lock of his hair? How romantic.”

“Well, it wasn’t hair from his head and he didn’t actually tell me I could take it, if you know what I mean. But I sort of thought it would be fun to have a souvenir, and when he was sleeping, I got out my little scissors and just took a little curl. I put it in an envelope and I think I still have it somewhere in with my keepsakes up in the attic.”

“I can’t believe you did that. Did he ever find out and say anything?”

“No, I was careful not to wake him and it’s not like you expect your hair in other parts of your body to be cut - so you wouldn’t be looking for it, would you? Anyway, he never said, so I assume he never knew.”

“Well, Doris. I think, unless I am very much mistaken, that if they tested your souvenir and it matched the DNA in your child, that would certainly make for an interesting court case. However, I don’t suppose that you can prove it was his hair and not some other man’s who might have been your child’s father?”

“He was the only one, I’ll have you know. I didn’t go with any more men until I got married.”

“I believe you, but the court might not. But I just thought of something else. He probably had some blood taken when he was in the hospital before he died. They might have kept some of it.”

“They can’t store bits of everybody’s blood that they take samples of. Don’t be daft.”

“Well, you just don’t know. I had blood taken from me a few years ago because I was asked to take part in a research project for uterine cancer. I was in the end only used as a control, but they told me they were going to store my blood for a very long time – 20 years or so.”

“But you think there is a chance then?”

“Doris, I think the real question is, do you want to meet your child again? None of this can happen unless he is interested in pursing the case. You can’t do it on his part – especially when you don’t even know where he is or what he is now called. Are you interested in getting to know him, even if it seems rather unlikely that he would ever inherit anything from the manor?”

“Sometimes I think its best to let sleeping dogs lie. Sometimes I think how wonderful it would be if he really wanted to see me and we got to be really close. I don’t think it ever would have occurred to me to look for him if you hadn’t brought all this up the other day.”

“Well, if you are interested, the thing to do is to get a leaflet about how you can go about doing it. You can get one of those from social services. Or if you don’t want to do that, you could call an adoption service – they have them listed in the yellow pages. Apparently they help give you information. And of course there is always the internet. I know you don’t have a computer, but you could use mine. There is a website called adoptiontracker.com.”

“And is it likely that I could find him then?”

“Much more likely if he is also trying to find you. But I do think they have a pretty good rate of success.”

“I need to think about this all some more before I make any decisions, Jean. But thanks for all your help and support, and I will go and see if I can find that hair again. Can you ask your computer how we can go about getting our pictures back and maybe that letter I wrote to him too?”

“I’m pleased I was able to help, Doris. Let me know if you want to use my computer. Bye, now.”