‘My darling child, you had every cause to behave as you did. She was an enchanting creature but evidently not always prettily behaved,’ Octavius said. ‘I always think,’ he added, ‘that one does a great disservice to the dead when one praises them inaccurately. Nil nisi, if you will, but at least let the bonum be authentic.’

‘I’m not thinking of her!’ she cried out. ‘I’m thinking of Richard.’

‘Are you, indeed, my pet?’ he said uncomfortably.

Anelida said: ‘I’m sorry, Mr Alleyn. This is bad behaviour, isn’t it? You must put it down to the well-known hysteria of theatre people.’

‘I put it down to the natural result of shock,’ Alleyn said, ‘and believe me, from what I’ve seen of histrionic behaviour yours is in the last degree conservative. You must be a beginner.’

‘How right you are!’ she said and looked gratefully at him.

The point had been reached where he should tell them of the implications and he was helped by Octavius, who said: ‘But why, my dear fellow, are you concerned in all this? Do the police in cases of accident – ?’

‘That’s just it,’ Alleyn said. ‘They do. They have to make sure.’

He explained why they had to make sure. When he said that he must know exactly what had happened in the conservatory, Anelida turned so pale that he wondered if she, too, was going to faint. But she waited for a moment, taking herself in hand, and then told him, very directly, what had happened.

Timon Gantry, Montague and Richard had been talking to her about her reading the leading role in Husbandry in Heaven. Mary Bellamy had come in, unnoticed by them, and had heard enough to make her realize what was afoot.

‘She was very angry,’ Anelida said steadily. ‘She thought of it as a conspiracy and she accused me of – of …’ Her voice faltered but in a moment she went on. ‘She said I’d been setting my cap at Richard to further my own ends in the theatre. I don’t remember everything she said. They all tried to stop her but that seemed to make her more angry. Kate Cavendish and Bertie Saracen had come in with Mr Templeton. When she saw them she attacked them as well. It was something about another new production. She accused them, too, of conspiracy. I could see Unk on the other side of the glass door: like somebody you want very badly in a nightmare and can’t reach. And then Mr Templeton went out and spoke to him. And then I went out. And Unk behaved perfectly. And we came home.’

‘Beastly experience,’ Alleyn said. ‘For both of you.’

‘Oh, horrid,’ Octavius agreed. ‘And very puzzling. She was, to meet, you know, so perfectly enchanting. One is quite at a loss …’ He rumpled his hair.

‘Poor Unky!’ Anelida said.

‘Was Colonel Warrender in the conservatory?’