‘Then you will be a good daughter and go with your parents to Nice, and then, I suppose, to India, which is the destination these days of all failed débutantes. Your parents do not seem too anxious to pay for another season.’

‘You are blunt, too blunt.’

‘I call a spade a spade.’

‘Indeed! Are you usually so cliché-ridden?’

‘Good day to you, Lady Rose.’

‘Infuriating woman!’ said Harry to his manservant, Becket, when he returned to his Chelsea home that evening.

‘Do you think Lady Rose will actually go ahead with it, sir?’ asked Becket, placing a decanter of sherry and a glass on the table next to Harry.

‘Oh, I’m sure she will. Stubborn as a mule!’

Daisy chewed her thumbnail and glanced nervously at her mistress. If the weather hadn’t been so cold! Also, she had become used to lavish meals and pretty clothes. And to think that she had almost persuaded Rose to go to Nice after she had learned that Captain Cathcart intended to holiday there. But the captain had cancelled his plans for a vacation, becoming embroiled in setting up his new business. Daisy thought the captain would make Rose a very suitable husband, and she herself was fond of the captain’s servant, Becket. Her face lit up as an idea struck her.

‘I saw the captain’s advertisement in The Tatler the other day. He’s just started that detective agency. Maybe he needs a secretary. Be more exciting than working in a bank.’

‘What a good idea!’ exclaimed Rose. ‘And I could help him to detect like I did last year. We will go out tomorrow to say we are looking for working clothes and we will go there instead.’

On the following day, Miss Jubbles looked up from her typewriter at the beautiful creature facing her flanked by her maid. ‘May I help you?’ she asked.

‘I am Lady Rose Summer. I wish to speak to Captain Cathcart.’

‘I am afraid Captain Cathcart is not here. What is it about, my lady? I can take notes.’

‘That will not be necessary. I am here to offer my services as a secretary.’

Miss Jubbles looked at her in horror. Then her sheeplike face hardened and the two hairs sticking out of a large mole on her chin bristled.

‘But he does not need a secretary. I am his secretary.’

‘But the captain and I are friends,’ said Rose.

Miss Jubbles rose to her feet. This spoilt beauty was trying to take her job away from her.

‘I work here,’ she said, ‘because I need to work for money, not on a whim. You should be ashamed of yourself, trying to take the bread out of my mouth. Get out before I throw you out!’

Daisy moved forward, her eyes blazing. ‘You and who else?’

Rose strove for some dignity. She put a restraining hand on Daisy’s arm. ‘I made a mistake,’ she said. ‘Come, Daisy.’