“Please feel free to dine without me,” I said. “I’m not very hungry.”

Binky came over to me then. “You’re obviously upset, old bean,” he said. “One can understand that. Why don’t you go and have a nice long bath and then Mrs. McPherson can make you something simple like an omelet.”

“I don’t see why we should impose on Mrs. McPherson . . .” Fig began, but Binky cut her off. “Mrs. McPherson is dashed fond of Georgie. I’m sure she’ll be delighted to help her to feel better.”

“You’re very kind,” I said to Binky. Then I pressed my lips together. I had a horrible feeling that I might burst into tears at any moment.

“I sincerely hope you did not ask your grandfather whether you could stay with him, after our little discussion, Georgiana,” Fig said.

Binky looked at her in surprise. “Why would she want to stay with her grandfather? Dashed inconvenient that far out of London.” He looked at me long and hard. “Are you not happy here, Georgie?”

“Binky, you are so dense sometimes,” Fig said, before I could reply. “She’ll obviously need somewhere to stay when we go to France.”

“Why can’t she stay on here?” Binky asked.

Fig glared at him. “Because we are going to close up the house and send the servants back to Scotland,” she said.

“Georgie lived here quite successfully without servants once before, I seem to remember. She cooked me a boiled egg for breakfast.”

“When you were falsely accused and arrested for murder, if I remember correctly,” I said.

“Quite right. You were splendid. Solved the whole thing.” Binky nodded to Fig.

“In exactly the same predicament as Darcy’s father finds himself right now.” I drove home the point in case they hadn’t picked up on it.

“Not exactly the same,” Fig said. “Binky was innocent and everybody knew it.”

I was about to say that Darcy’s father might be innocent too until I remembered that Darcy himself believed his father to be guilty. A wave of despair swept over me as Binky went on cheerfully,

“And Georgie did look after me jolly well, Fig. She was an absolute brick the whole time. I owe her my life, Fig, so I don’t see why we can’t let her stay on here.”

“Binky, my dear, I must protest . . .” Fig began to say, but I cut in. “No, please don’t worry about me. I’m leaving in the morning. I’m going to stay with friends. It’s all arranged.”