“Because we’ll soon be back at the house and I won’t have a chance to do this,” he said, and leaned across to kiss me. It was a long, wonderful kiss and was followed by another.

“I hope to God I can come up with enough money for us to marry in the foreseeable future,” Darcy said. “This waiting and not being able to make love to you properly is driving me insane. My appetites are too healthy for a chaste life.”

As we came up the drive and turned into the forecourt, two small figures dropped from the big, copper beech and came running toward us.

“You’re back,” Nicholas said as Darcy opened the motorcar door. “We thought you’d gone for good. Now perhaps we can find out what’s going on. We’ve been dying to do some real detective work all day but that rotter Carter hasn’t let us out of his sight.”

“You seem to be out of his sight at this moment,” I said, “or is he up the tree too?”

The twins grinned. “He was summoned to talk to the policeman. We escaped instantly,” Kat said. “We wanted to listen in but Mama caught us and banished us. Nobody will tell us anything. Mama says it’s too gruesome for young ears.”

“Quite right,” Darcy said. “There is nothing fun or exciting about a murder. Taking a life is the very worst thing that a human being can do. And your mother wants to keep you safe. If there is a murderer around, you might put yourselves in danger with your snooping.”

“We’ll be very careful,” Kat said. “We’re awfully good at snooping, aren’t we, Nick? So do tell, Georgie, who do you think did it?”

“I have no idea,” I said as we walked toward the house with a bouncy child on either side of us. “And if I did have an idea, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”

“Spoilsport,” Nick said. “We’ll just have to go back to our secret snooping, Kat.”

I noticed the black motorcar parked outside the garages. “So the inspector is back again, is he?”

“He arrived a little while ago. He told Grandmama he wants to speak to everyone again. And he wanted to talk to the servants first. That was when the dreaded Carter went, and we seized our chance to slip off.”

“I think you’d better slip right back to your own quarters,” Darcy said. “Among other things, you should keep an eye on your sister.”

“On Sissy? Why? She couldn’t have done it. She can’t walk,” Nick said scornfully.

“She looks out of the window,” Darcy said. “The murderer might think that she saw something that implicates him. She may be in danger.”

“Golly,” Nick said. “You might be right. We’d better get back up there, Kat.”