‘At the dinner party at the Cadver.’

‘Oh then, of course.’ Molly thought she sensed relief. ‘ But not to talk to. I’ve probably not talked to her properly since Fred died.’

‘Why not?’

‘I felt awkward. She’d never got on with my father. And I was afraid she might see me as the squire’s daughter, playing Lady Bountiful. She would have hated that. As time went on it got more difficult so I just stayed away. But that business on Friday night really upset me. They were all saying that Ursula was barmy and had made the whole thing up but I knew that wasn’t true. She might have been a lonely old woman but she wasn’t insane.’

‘Was she lonely enough to have committed suicide?’

Joanna shook her head. ‘She was too much of a fighter,’ she said. ‘She wouldn’t have done a thing like that.’

‘We’re not absolutely sure,’ Molly said, ‘that her death was an accident.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘There was no apparent cause of death. She hadn’t been ill. There’s a possibility that she might have been poisoned.’

Joanna’s reaction appeared hysterical but Molly was not convinced by it. It was a performance. She wondered what possible reason lay behind it and thought that Joanna had always been cleverer than her family had realised.

‘You think Daddy killed her!’ Joanna cried. ‘Because of the fuss she made on Friday night. What a scream! After all those speeches he’s made about law and order. Did you know he always votes to bring back hanging?’

She paused, waiting for a reaction to the outburst. When none came she continued more reasonably: ‘It won’t do, you know. He couldn’t have murdered Ursula. He wouldn’t have had the guts.’

So, Molly thought, who could have done it? Who would have had the guts?

‘You can see Back Rigg from here,’ she said. ‘Did you see Ursula again late on Friday night?’

‘No,’ Joanna said. ‘ I didn’t see anything.’

‘I wondered if you might have gone to Back Rigg yourself, later, to check that she was all right. It’s the sort of thing you would have done when I first knew you.’

‘Yes,’ Joanna said. ‘Well. I’ve changed since then.’ She set the half-full glass of wine on the mantelpiece and stood looking through the window towards the farm.

The men came in. Simon was making every effort to be the perfect host, carrying bottles of wine and bowls of nuts and crisps, implying that in contrast Molly was being exceptionally rude not to see that they wanted to eat. Jeremy was silent and nervous. When Joanna saw them she became witty and lively again, turning the question of Ursula’s death into a trivial game. She seemed to be teasing them. Molly was confused by her tone.