‘So they could,’ he agreed cheerfully, ‘and we can find out if they have. There’s no need, you see, to fly into a huff with me.’

‘I do not,’ said Miss Able mulishly, ‘fly into huffs.’

‘Splendid! Now look here. About this medicine your kids had. I want to trace its travels. Not inside the wretched kids, but en route to them.’

‘I really don’t see why—’

‘Of course you don’t and I’ll tell you. A bottle of medicine for Sir Henry came up at the same time and its history is therefore bound up with theirs. Now, as the pudding said to the shop assistant, can you help me, Moddom?’

This laborious pun was not immediately absorbed by Miss Able. She looked at him with wonder but finally produced a tolerably indulgent smile.

‘I suppose I can. Miss Orrincourt and Mrs Alleyn…’

Here came the now familiar pause and its inevitable explanation. ‘Fancy!’ said Miss Able. ‘I know,’ said Alleyn, ‘about the medicine?’

‘I was really very annoyed with Miss Orrincourt. It seems that she asked Mrs Alleyn to drive the trap round to the stables and she herself brought in the medicine. Instead of leaving it in the hall, or as you would think she might have done, bringing it in here to me, she simply dumped the whole lot in the flower-room. It seems that Sir Henry had given her some flowers out of the conservatory and she’d left them there. She’s abnormally egocentric, of course. I waited and waited, and finally, at about seven o’clock, went over to the other side to ask about it. Mrs Ancred and I hunted everywhere. Finally, it was Fenella who told us where they were.’

‘Was Sir Henry’s medicine with theirs?’

‘Oh, yes. Mrs Ancred sent it up at once.’

‘Were the bottles alike?’

‘We made no mistake, if that’s what you’re wondering. They were the same sort of bottles, but ours was much larger and they were both clearly labelled. Ours had the instructions attached. Unnecessarily, as it turned out, because Dr Withers came up himself that evening and he weighed the children again and measured out their doses himself. It was odd, because he’d left it that I should give the medicine and I could have managed perfectly well; but evidently,’ said Miss Able with a short laugh, ‘he’d decided I was not to be trusted.’

‘It’s a fault on the right side, I suppose,’ Alleyn said vaguely. ‘They have to be careful.’

Miss Able looked unconvinced. ‘No doubt,’ she said. ‘But I still can’t understand why he wanted to come up to Ancreton, when he was supposed to be so busy. And after all that fuss, we’ve had to go back to the ointment.’

‘By the way,’ Alleyn asked, ‘did you happen to see the cat Carabbas before it died?’