Despite her nervousness about telling Julian everything concerning her inheritance of Orsbrick Hall and the sightings of the strange woman in the purple shawl, she felt relieved that his reaction was not disbelief but a serious and practical reflection on the whole matter and a desire to help her further solve the mystery and get Orsbrick Hall back into shape. Julian suggests a pleasant pub by the canal to have lunch which he had not been to for many years. But when they arrive, Victoria is amazed to learn that her pub visit had not only already been anticipated but more startling who she discovers there when she walks in.

Next morning, back in the Adelphi Hotel, without telling Abby who had already let slip she had arranged a lunchtime ‘business meeting’ with Lynton, Victoria quietly decides over breakfast to meet Julian and take him to Orsbrick Hall, anticipating his historic knowledge of old buildings would be very useful. Picking him up from Liverpool, she remains nervous of revisiting her old childhood haunts and worried about the woman in the purple shawl. But once they arrive, the house and contents are not at all what she assumed and unexplainable events force her to finally come clean with Julian and reveal secrets of her past she had not anticipated doing as well as raising more questions, this time about Julian.

Recovering from seeing the strange appearance of the woman again in the purple shawl, sat in the back of their hired SUV, Victoria treats Abby and herself to some tea and cake in a nearby café to calm down. Abby suggests a family visit to her brother in Wigan to take Victoria’s mind off the event and they head off there for the rest of the day. But when Victoria offers to buy dinner and heads to the chip shop another strange happening occurs which instead of frightening her, gives Victoria a start to possible answers to how the woman may be connected. However, on driving back to Liverpool they are both distracted – by unexpected communications from the men they didn’t expect to hear from again.

Still in Liverpool, Victoria and Abby agree to hire a car and drive immediately to Parbold to search out the elderly lady, identified by solicitor Lynton Grey, who holds the conditions for Victoria’s potential inheritance of Orsbrick Hall. But along the way, the strange woman in the purple shawl appears again and not where Victoria, inside her remotest dreams, could have remotely envisaged. Unexpected revelations from Abby persuade Victoria to keep calm and they continue to Appleby Lodge to find the mysterious Eveline West, who reveals not only her true identity but the most astonishing secrets and tales of the McKenzie family which Victoria cannot believe possible. She now has to make the most important decision of her life.

Chapter Four finds Victoria and Abby in Liverpool, searching for the legal office of Green and Burgess so Victoria can ascertain the facts about her unexpected inheritance of Orsbrick Hall. Finally, she meets solicitor Lynton Grey but the more she learns the greater the mystery of her benefactor deepens. Along the way unexpected circumstances give rise to renewed male interest for both Victoria and Abby, but another irritating situation arises. Who is the strange woman in the purple shawl following Victoria around?

This chapter brings the story onwards in Victoria’s life to when she finally settles in Rotterdam in her new apartment which she shares with her best friend, Abby, a former fashion designer and artist. Working as a senior polymer scientist at the Ahrendolie refinery, a serious and unsettling plant incident upends her life and forces a likely career move. But whilst she and Abby decide on a long holiday to recharge and think about their futures, she receives notification of an inheritance requiring a trip back to Liverpool and the revisiting of past childhood memories she wanted to permanently escape from.

Intrigued by her news, she is summoned to a strange meeting with a Liverpool solicitor and bumps into the quaint Julian, an introverted steampunk writer, all grey hair and flying scarves. But what is it about her past that nobody wants to talk about? Why does her life now unravel into an unexpected explosion of crazy scientific revelations and discoveries a hundred and fifty years before, which she would never have believed possible or credible? With Abby she must track down the source of past family secrecies and find out who the terrifying woman in the purple shawl really is. But will this unleash evil and powerful forces hell bent on her eternal destruction and damnation? And is Julian all he makes out to be?