‘Good. Go and have your dinner. If you are not too fatigued I should be glad if you would call upon me later in the evening.’

‘When do you retire?’

‘Not early. I find I am restless,’ said Miss Emily.

They fell silent. The wind made a sudden onslaught on her windows. ‘Perhaps it is the storm,’ she said.

‘I’ll see if there’s a light under your door. Au revoir, then, Miss Emily.’

‘Au revoir, my dear Roderique. Enjoy, if that is not too extravagant a word, your dinner. The dressed crab is not bad. The filet mignon, on the other hand, is contemptible.’

She waved her hand and he left her.

Fox, Bailey and Thompson were already in the dining-room. Alleyn had been given a table to himself. As there was not room at theirs, he took it, but joined them for a minute or two before he did so.

Everyone else had gone except Jenny and Patrick who sat at the family table, nursing balloon glasses. They had an air of subdued celebration and as often as they looked at each other, broke into smiles. When Jenny saw Alleyn, she waggled her fingers at him.

Alleyn said: ‘Afraid it’s a case of pressing on, chaps. We’ll meet in the hall, afterwards, and go down to the shop. Have you ordered drinks?’

‘Not so far, Mr Alleyn.’

‘Well, have them with me. What shall it be? Waiter!’

They settled for beer. Alleyn went to his own table and was fawned upon by Miss Emily’s waiter. Jenny and Patrick passed by and Jenny paused to say: ‘We’re going to try and whip up a bit of joie de vivre in the lounge, like they do in ships. Patrick’s thought up a guessing game. Come and help.’

‘I’d love to,’ Alleyn said, ‘but I’m on a guessing game of my own, bad luck to it.’ He looked at Patrick. ‘I hear you’ve offered to do the driving tomorrow. Very civil of you. Miss Emily’s looking forward to it.’

‘It’s going to be a rough crossing if this keeps up.’

‘I know.’

‘Will she mind?’

‘Not she. At the age of sixty, she was a queen-pin in the Resistance and hasn’t noticed the passage of time. Get her to tell you how she dressed up a couple of kiwis as nuns.’

‘Honestly!’Jenny exclaimed.

‘It’s quite a story.’

The waiter came up to say that Dr Maine had arrived and was asking for him.

‘Right,’ Alleyn said. ‘I’ll come.’

‘In the writing-room, sir.’

It was a small deserted place off the entrance hall. Dr Maine had removed his mackintosh and hung it over the back of a chair. He was shaking the rain off his hat when Alleyn came in. ‘What a night!’ he said. ‘I thought I wouldn’t make it.’

‘How did you cross?’