So I was none the wiser when I returned to Darcy and Zou Zou. Then Zou Zou insisted she had to visit her aeroplane to make sure it was all right. This time the constable on duty waved us past. Apart from a coating of snow on the tarpaulin, the plane seemed to have weathered the storm quite well.

“As soon as the snow melts I’m going to fly around looking for this Professor Peabody,” she said. “I could cover so much more ground than we could in the motorcar.”

Darcy had to laugh. “You can’t buzz every village, Zou Zou. And I feel you’d be rather conspicuous. We don’t want the whole world knowing what we’re doing. It would make more sense to ask at the train station and the harbor to see whether he has already left Ireland.”

“You spoil all the fun,” she said.

Lord Kilhenny opened the door warily, peered around it and scowled. “Oh, it’s you,” he said. “What do you want?”

“What a charming greeting,” Zou Zou said. “Did you really mean to say, ‘Oh, how wonderful to see my son and his friends’?”

I thought I saw a smile twitch at the corners of his mouth and realized I had rarely seen him smile once. “I suppose you want to come in,” he said, “but I can tell you, you won’t make me change my mind about accepting charity and this barrister I can’t afford to pay.”

“You’d rather hang, would you?” Zou Zou said. “Your choice, of course. If it were me, I’d choose life.”

“Because you have plenty to live for,” he said.

“Recently, yes, but only because I came through incredible darkness, just like you. I saw my husband hacked to pieces. I had to flee for my life with just the clothes on my back. I had to rely on the charity of others to get me out of Poland, across Europe and to England, where I was made welcome by people who didn’t know me. I spoke good French but little English. I had to start from square one with my life, and look at me now.”

He was looking at her. He nodded. “You’ve turned out quite well.”

“I should bloody well say so,” she replied and he actually laughed.

“But we won’t talk of barristers or crime today,” she said.” And we come with a special request. Your aunt Oona wants you to join us for luncheon. It’s leg of lamb. The Rolls is waiting outside, but we’ll wait for you to dress more suitably.”

“Is this Aunt Oona’s idea or yours?” he asked.

“The request came from your aunt originally but I added mine to it.” She looked at him long and hard. “Will you come?”

“Very well,” he said gruffly. “I am fond of roast lamb.”