‘Every one? Your daughter and Mr Paul Ancred too?’

She said much too lightly: ‘My poor Fen does go in a little for the Ancred temperament, but not, I’m glad to say, to excess. Paul, thank goodness, seems to have escaped it, which is such a very good thing, as it appears he’s to be my son-in-law.’

‘Would you say that during this discussion any of them displayed singular vindictiveness against Miss Orrincourt?’

‘They were all perfectly livid about her. Except Cedric. But they’re lividly angry with somebody or another a dozen times a month. It means nothing.’

‘Mrs Ancred,’ Alleyn said, ‘if you’ve been suddenly done out of a very pretty fortune your anger isn’t altogether meaningless. You yourself must surely have resented a little your daughter’s position.’

‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘I knew, as soon as she told me of her engagement to Paul, that her grandfather would disapprove. Marriage between cousins was one of his bugbears. I knew he’d take it out of them both. He was a vindictive old man. And Fen hadn’t bothered to hide her dislike of Miss Orrincourt. She’d said…’ She stopped short. He saw her hands move convulsively.

‘Yes?’

‘She was perfectly frank. The association offended her taste. That was all.’

‘What are her views of all this business—the letters and so on?’

‘She agrees with me.’

‘That the whole story is simply a flight of fancy on the part of the more imaginative members of the family?’

‘Yes.’

‘I should like to see her if I may?’

The silence that fell between them was momentary, a brief check in the even flow of their voices, but he found it illuminating. It was as if she winced from an expected hurt, and poised herself to counter it. She leant forward, and with an air of great frankness made a direct appeal.

‘Mr Alleyn,’ she said, ‘I’m going to ask a favour. Please let Fenella off. She’s highly strung and sensitive. Really sensitive. It’s not the rather bogus Ancred sensibility. All the unhappy wrangling over her engagement and the shock of her grandfather’s death and then—this horrid and really dreadful business: it’s fussed her rather badly. She overheard me speaking to you when you rang up for this talk and even that upset her. I’ve sent them both out. Please, will you be very understanding and let her off?’

He hesitated, wondering how to frame his refusal, and if her anxiety was based on some much graver reason than the one she gave him.

‘Believe me,’ she said, ‘Fenella can be of no help to you.’

Before he could reply Fenella herself walked in, followed by Paul. ‘I’m sorry, Mummy,’ she said rapidly and in a high voice. ‘I know you didn’t want me to come. I had to. There’s something Mr Alleyn doesn’t know, and I’ve got to tell him.’