“Maybe. And I might also have missed him. Nanny came in to help me dress about seven thirty as usual, and then there was a short time while I was sitting alone until my breakfast was brought up to me by Elsie at eight. I know it was eight because I’ve a little clock on my mantel, and it has a pretty chime. Papa bought it for me when we lived in Paris.” A wistful look came over her face.

“And you didn’t see your uncle Cedric at all, either before your breakfast arrived or when you were eating?”

“I didn’t. If he went out about eight, as they said, then I was probably concentrating on eating my breakfast while it was still hot.”

“Did you see anybody else at all?” Darcy asked

She looked up at him warily, the rather dashing and dangerous-looking stranger she didn’t know. “The only person I saw was that man who came up to the house the other day and shouted at the butler—remember, Georgie?”

Darcy stopped pushing. I spun to face her.

“You saw the young man who had previously come up to the house ranting and raving, and you didn’t mention it to the inspector?”

She chewed on her lip, her eyes darting from Darcy’s face to mine. “I meant to. There never seemed a right moment, what with everyone talking and shouting. And I didn’t think he’d believe me, after what I’d told him about Jack, and anyway it probably wasn’t important because it was too early. I’d just finished dressing when he came running up the hill probably about twenty to eight. He looked as if he was out of breath and had been running hard. When he got close to the house he stopped, looked up at it, stood staring for a while, then he turned around and walked away again. Extraordinary, wasn’t it? But at that time Uncle Cedric wouldn’t even have left the house.”

“And did he go back down the hill by way of the glen?” Darcy asked.

“No, he set off down the driveway, toward the main gate.”

“You must report this to the policeman right away,” I said.

“Oh, golly, do I have to?” She chewed on her lip again. “He’ll cross-question me and make me flustered. And surely it isn’t even relevant—because I told you, it was too early.”

“Don’t you see he could have set off for the main gate then changed his mind and cut across the grounds lower down, out of sight of the house, then doubled back to wait for Cedric in the glen?”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because he was William, the footman whom Cedric had sacked only recently for moving the papers on his desk.”

“That’s awful,” she said. “Unfair.”