I think we were all relieved when the luncheon gong sounded. It provided a moment of normality in an Alice-in-Wonderland world. Edwina had not been with us in the morning room, but she joined us as we made our way to the dining room. I approached her. “Did you want your grandchildren to join us for luncheon today?” I asked.

She reacted as if she had just come out of a trance. “What? Oh, yes. Please. By all means. If you’d be good enough to escort them down. I can see this nightmare has overexcited them. Not good for them to be alone too much.”

I nodded and went up the stairs to the nursery. As I opened the door, the twins and Nanny looked up at me, openmouthed.

“Oh, your ladyship,” Nanny said. “I’m so glad to see you. It was awful. The children should never have been put through something like that.”

“Like what?” I asked.

Nicholas and Katherine rushed over to me. “The police came and took away Mr. Carter,” Nick exclaimed, his eyes as wide as saucers. “They found his fingerprints on the bottle of cyanide in Uncle Cedric’s darkroom.”

“He made an awful fuss,” Katherine added. “He told the police he had helped Uncle Cedric with his photo developing, so of course his fingerprints would be on the bottles in there.”

“He started crying!” Nick exclaimed delightedly. “Can you imagine? A man, crying. Papa would have been disgusted.”

“He was shell-shocked in the war,” I said. “You have to make allowances for men who were in the trenches.”

“That would explain it, then,” Nanny said. “His mind has gone. He’s not responsible for his actions, poor soul. I always found him a nice enough man—pleasant and polite, and so patient with the children, who aren’t the easiest, let me say.”

“Us? We’re angels, Nanny,” Nick said.

“Well, I’ve come to bring you angels down to luncheon,” I said.

“Good-oh,” Nick said. “I’m awfully bored with nursery food.”

“What about Sissy?” I asked. “Is she in her room?”

“She is, poor thing,” Nanny said. “Very upset about Mr. Carter. I don’t think she’d want to be taken downstairs. Could you ask for her luncheon to be sent up on a tray?”

“Of course. And tell her I’ll come up and see her,” I said. “Come on, you two angels.”

They ran ahead of me along the hall and then down the stairs. Nick swung himself off the banister post; Kat didn’t. She was rather quiet for her. I suspected that the arrest of Mr. Carter had upset her more than her brother. Perhaps she was secretly fond of him.

By the time we entered the dining room, the news of Mr. Carter had obviously reached the rest of the household.