We went up to change for dinner. Queenie was abnormally helpful. Clearly she had taken to heart my threat of the night before. Thank heavens there was no talk of another séance after dinner. We sat near the fire in the drawing room, making small talk but consciously avoiding the thing that was on all our minds. I expect the others were as relieved as I when we went up to bed. As we had been talking I found myself considering—now that we knew Cedric had been poisoned, that changed everything. Poison does not require strength or agility. Any of the women in the room could have easily slipped poison into something Cedric ate or drank.

The next day, we all felt we were in a sort of limbo, not sure what to do with ourselves. Edwina wanted to arrange for Cedric’s funeral, but couldn’t find out when his body might be released, so she was in a bad temper. It was a bright and windy day, and the twins came bursting excitedly into the morning room, where we were reading the papers.

“Mama, Jack says he’ll take us out riding,” Kat said. “And Mr. Carter said it will do us good to get some fresh air. That’s all right with you, isn’t it?”

Irene frowned then turned to me. “Do you think you could go with them, Georgiana? I’m not sure that I want them out alone with Jack.”

“Why not?” Kat demanded.

“Well, after all . . .” Irene began.

Nick cut her off. “Come on, Mama. You can’t think Jack is the murderer any longer. Now that we know that Uncle Cedric was poisoned it can’t have been Jack. He wouldn’t poison anybody.”

“Besides,” Kat added, “how would he know where anything poisonous was kept?”

I got to my feet. “I’ll be happy to go with you,” I said. “I’d love a ride.” I looked at Darcy. “Coming?” I asked.

“I never say no to a good ride.” Darcy followed me out of the room.

We had a terrific gallop across the Downs. Both twins were good riders and had probably never been allowed to go so fast in their lives. We were all red-cheeked and glowing as we came down the hill to the house.

“It seems hard to believe that we can be normal up here and once we get back to the house it will be back to that awful air of suspicion again,” Jack said. “I can tell they’d all like to believe I did it. None of them want me here.”

“Cheer up, old chap,” Darcy said. “I’m sure it will all be sorted out soon.”

“We want you here,” Nick said. “We like you. And we know jolly well that you didn’t do it.”

“I just can’t imagine who did,” Jack said. “It had to be one of those strange little blokes who followed Cedric around.”