‘Yes,’ said Jeremy. ‘It gave us a chance to be alone. And I find family dinner parties a bit difficult, a strain, you know. I felt I needed some fresh air.’ He stopped, wondering if he was talking too much.

‘While you were in the car did you and Miss Theobald discuss Mrs Ottway’s disruption at the dinner party?’

Jeremy hesitated. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I can’t remember.’

‘Surely you would have talked about it?’ Benwell insisted. ‘It’s not every day that an old woman accuses an MP of breaking the law. Or perhaps Miss Theobald was too polite to mention it?’

‘No,’ Jeremy said. ‘ Politeness has never been one of Eve’s virtues.’

‘So how did she react to the incident?’

‘I think she was probably amused, entertained.’

‘Doesn’t that strike you as rather strange?’ Benwell asked. ‘She’s a member of an animal rights organisation. Wouldn’t you expect her to be shocked, outraged, even?’

‘I didn’t think about it,’ Jeremy said. ‘ She’s not particularly militant, you know. Not like some of them. Neither of us took the thing seriously. There was no proof then that any of Ursula’s allegations were true.’

‘No,’ Benwell said. ‘Quite. But now there is proof. Do you have anything to say about that?’

Jeremy shook his head uncomfortably.

‘When you walked back from the dam,’ Benwell said, ‘you wouldn’t have had to go past Back Rigg?’

‘No,’ Jeremy said. ‘ I came up the east drive and went straight to bed.’

‘Did you meet anyone on the road?’

‘No,’ Jeremy said. ‘No one.’

Then Benwell had smiled, quite unexpectedly, and said that the interview was over.

Jeremy would have liked to avoid lunchtime at home. He wondered if it might be possible to go to Appleworth to see Eve. He needed to talk to her. But when he made some excuse his mother insisted that he should be there and in her presence he reverted as always to the compliant school boy.

‘These are difficult times,’ Olivia said. She had emerged from the kitchen and was laying the dining-room table. ‘We must present a united front. You, after all, must consider yourself at least in part responsible for what has happened.’

‘Why?’ The stammer had returned. He was shocked, pale.

‘Someone must have leaked this story to the newspapers. Someone with a grudge against the estate. Your father thinks that it might have been your friend, Miss Theobald.’

‘No!’ he said. ‘Father’s wrong. Eve wouldn’t do a thing like that.’

But as he spoke he thought that one of Eve’s attractions was her recklessness and he could never be quite sure what she would do.

Olivia paused, surprised by his outburst. ‘All the same,’ she said. ‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t see her again. At least for a while.’

He said nothing and they sat in silence, waiting for his father to join them at the table.