They rushed through. Philips came running down the stairs. Rose quickly reloaded the shotgun and turned to face him.

‘Open the front door,’ she ordered.

‘You’d never use that on me,’ said Philips. ‘That would be murder.’ Because of the ear-plugs, Rose could barely hear what he was saying but she took careful aim and blasted a hole in the step below the one on which Philips was standing. He fell backwards. Rose reloaded. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘open up.’

But he turned and rushed back up the stairs, shouting, ‘Helga!’

‘That bitch looks as if she might have a gun,’ panted Daisy. ‘Shoot the front lock.’

Out on the road, Harry exclaimed, ‘Becket, I heard shots, coming from the house. We’d better go.’

Becket cranked up the motor and raced along at top speed of thirty miles an hour and into the drive of The Grange.

Rose and Daisy came sprinting down the drive, Rose carrying a shotgun. Behind them came Philips and two other men.

They stopped short at the sight of Harry.

‘Get in the car,’ shouted Harry.

Rose and Daisy leaped in. Becket turned the car and they drove off.

‘I’ve left me stays,’ said Daisy, and burst into tears. Rose hugged her. ‘I’ll buy you a whole shopful of stays.’

Daisy scrubbed her eyes with her sleeve. ‘With roses on the garters?’

‘With anything you like.’

At first Rose’s parents were outraged by being summoned to Scotland Yard. Surely Scotland Yard should come to them. But when Jarvis told them it concerned their daughter, Lady Polly summoned Humphrey, who was packing up Rose’s clothes, and they set out.

When Lady Polly saw her daughter sitting in Kerridge’s office, she let out a shriek of dismay. Rose’s left eye was nearly closed by the enormous bruise on her cheek.

‘What on earth happened?’ she cried.

In measured tones, Harry described Rose’s ordeal. When he had finished, he said, ‘Did you not consider it odd that Lady Rose should be admitted wearing only the clothes she stood up in?’

‘They said to send her clothes the following day.’

‘And what was she supposed to do in the meantime for clean linen or a nightdress?’

Lady Polly rounded on Humphrey. ‘This is all your fault!’

‘No, it’s not,’ said Rose – much to Daisy’s disappointment. ‘It is you, my unnatural parents. To have me locked up in an asylum because I would not accept a proposal of marriage from a man more than double my age.’

‘Here, now. We thought it was a country retreat,’ protested the earl. He turned to Kerridge. ‘Have you had McWhirter arrested?’

‘He is being brought in for questioning and The Grange is being raided. But Lady Rose cannot give evidence in court unless you wish the whole world to know that you considered your daughter mad.’