Darcy put a firm hand on my shoulder. “You’re getting too worked up about this, Georgie. Too involved. Leave it be. You’ve got to stop this belief that all crimes are your responsibility. You are the daughter of a duke and the granddaughter of a princess, and your job is to do charitable good works, enjoy yourself and choose a suitable husband.”

“I’ve obviously already failed at all of the above,” I said as Darcy laughed.

Nursery tea was still going on in Sissy’s room as we came in. Mr. Carter and Nanny were sitting with the three children. Nick and Kat jumped up excitedly when they saw us.

“What’s been happening?” Nick asked. “We’ve been dying to know. We heard shouting and we saw the police bundling someone into a police car.”

“It was William the footman,” I said. “It was a good thing that you told the inspector what you’d seen, Sissy.”

“But I didn’t see how he could have had anything to do with Uncle Cedric’s murder,” she said. “I’m sure I saw him come up to the house well before eight. My clock had just chimed half past not long before.”

As if on cue, the clock chimed again, striking four. We turned to look at it.

“Well, that explains one discrepancy,” Darcy said. “Your clock is slow, Sissy. It’s already four twenty.”

“Oh dear,” Sissy said. “That clock has always been unreliable. That was Papa for you. He couldn’t even give me a trustworthy clock.” She turned away and stared out of the window. “So I really might have seen William running up to the house after he murdered Uncle Cedric?”

“He claimed that he stumbled upon the body and that was why he was running up to the house,” I said. “Then he realized that he might be implicated.”

“What does ‘implicated’ mean?” Katherine asked.

“Involved. Possibly guilty,” Mr. Carter said. “Really, Katherine, if you read a little more, you’d increase your vocabulary.”

“Reading is boring. I like doing things better,” Kat said. “Like our experiments. They’re good. And detecting, like Sherlock Holmes. I bet we could find some good clues if you let us loose in the grounds. I bet we could solve the murder before those silly policemen.”

“So now the police think William did it, and not Jack?” Nick asked.

“I don’t think Chief Inspector Fairbotham has made up his mind yet,” I said. “He still wants to suspect Jack.”

“It sounds awful to say that I hope it was William,” Sissy said, “but I really do.” Her cheeks were quite pink.

We chatted a little longer then took our leave.

“You will come up again when there is any more news, won’t you?” Nick asked. “We simply have to know what’s going on. It’s so unfair.”