‘I detest flittery little débutantes like you, Lady Rose, smug in your own beauty, poking your nose into other people’s business. That fool, Mrs Jerry, said that she couldn’t take any more and was going to the police. I was not blackmailing her for money, but I wanted her to join my society and work for me. I lied and said I had my own photograph back but had kept the one of her. She laughed in my face. So I doctored that champagne and put it in her room and then strangled the old bitch while she lay unconscious.’

‘So no one other than Freddy Pomfret was trying to blackmail you?’

‘No.’

Rose moistened her dry white lips. ‘So it was you who shot Freddy?’

‘Yes, and I enjoyed doing it. I ransacked his flat but couldn’t find anything. Where did you find it?’

‘He had put the material in a cigar box and given it to Tristram Baker-Willis for safekeeping.’

Angela gave a harsh laugh. ‘Amateurs, blundering greedy amateurs out to destroy my reputation. Do you know that the Duchess of Terford has just joined my society? A duchess!’

‘Please do put down that gun,’ said Rose, striving to keep her voice level.

‘No, must think, think, think. Ah, you, Levine, you will go back and fetch that photograph and if you are not here with it after an hour, I will shoot your mistress.’

‘I ain’t leaving her!’ said Daisy.

‘Go, Daisy,’ said Rose. ‘You know what to do.’

Daisy looked at her for a long moment and then got up and hurried from the room.

Harry was seated in front of Lord Alfred. He slowly drew the bundle of letters from his pocket.

‘How much?’ demanded Lord Alfred.

‘I am not here to blackmail you. In fact, if you can tell me one thing, I will give them to you.’

‘What do you want to know?’

‘Did you shoot Freddy Pomfret?’

‘No, I swear on my life I didn’t. I wanted to. I knew I would go to prison if those letters were ever made public’

‘How did he get hold of them?’

‘I met a young artist called Jimmy Portal. He was not a very good artist but he was very beautiful. He pursued me and I was seduced. Then I was terrified of it coming out, knowing I would be sent to prison. I returned his letters. He waited for me outside The Club one evening. He thrust his letters at me and said I must keep them forever. I told him harshly that I wanted to have no more to do with him. Pomfret told me afterwards that he had witnessed the scene from the window of The Club. He saw me hurrying off and saw Jimmy throwing the letters in the gutter. He nipped out and got them.