“Sit down, children,” Edwina said. “I understand that your tutor is being questioned by the police. Remember, in this country a man is innocent until proven guilty. You are not to come to judgment.”

“No, Grandmama,” the children muttered as they sat down, their eyes already on the food.

“See, what did I tell you?” Princess Charlotte said. “The spirits were correct all along. It wasn’t Castor, it was Carter. One of us clearly pushed the planchette to the S rather than the R. So easy to do with many fingers on it.”

“But I don’t understand,” Virginia said. “Surely the man was a tutor. Hired help. What could he possibly have to do with Cedric? He was nothing to our family.”

Edwina cleared her throat. “Actually, he was connected to us in a way,” she said stiffly. “He was at Oxford with Johnnie. Johnnie brought him here once during the holidays. He was very bright, I gathered. I rather suspect he helped Johnnie with his papers.”

“But that hardly constitutes a family connection,” Virginia said.

“He enlisted in the same regiment as Johnnie during the war,” Edwina said. “From what I’ve been told, he completely lost his nerve in the trenches. Refused to go over the top with the rest of them. Johnnie was going to have him shot for cowardice, but then Johnnie was killed that day. Then a mortar landed in the trench where Carter was being held. Apparently he was rather brave in taking care of the wounded and dying, and Johnnie was dead, so the charges against him were dropped. But maybe he felt betrayed by a man who had been his friend.”

“Still, that wouldn’t make him want to kill Cedric, surely?” Irene said frostily.

“He came to Cedric after the war—asking for help—a job, a recommendation. His nerves were completely in shreds, and Cedric couldn’t or wouldn’t help him. Then when the children needed a tutor, I remembered him and offered him the post.”

“And he repaid you by killing your son,” Charlotte snapped. “That’s gratitude for you.”

“I think we have to be charitable and believe that he was not entirely responsible for his actions,” Edwina said.

After luncheon, I took the children back to their nursery. Jack and Darcy came with me.

“Do you think Mr. Carter will be hanged?” Nick asked.

“If he is proven not to have been of sound mind, he will be committed to an insane asylum,” Darcy said.

“How awful for him.” Kat sounded near to tears, and I realized that my hunch was correct: she did have a soft spot for her tutor.

We recounted to Sissy everything that had happened, and then Jack and Darcy took the twins out to play ball. I sat with Sissy in her room, watching the four of them laughing as they chased a ball.