“I’m sure any judge would understand that the children didn’t realize what they were doing,” I said.

“If they believe the children acted alone.”

The penny dropped. “You were the one who stabbed Cedric. You wanted everyone to suspect Jack.”

“Nasty, common, Australian brat,” she snapped. “How can he possibly be the rightful heir? Cedric should have adopted Nicholas. He’d be a proper heir . . . not an Australian, and certainly not a French servant.”

“But you were sound asleep. They couldn’t wake you,” I said, and then I added, “Oh, I see. You stabbed Cedric and then you took your sleeping draft that morning. No wonder you were so deeply asleep. You’d only just taken it.”

“I made up my mind to go up to town early and see our solicitor before Cedric could get in touch with him,” she said. “I wanted to find out whether he could really go ahead with this stupid adoption and how we could stop him. But I didn’t want anyone to know. I told my maid I had a migraine and she was not to wake me. I slipped out through the secret passage we used to use as children.”

“Mummy, there really is a secret passage, then!” Nick exclaimed. “We’ve been looking and looking.”

“It comes out into the folly,” I said. “Right above the glen. You saw Cedric lying there, did you?”

“He was dead,” she said. “He had a letter clutched in his hand. A letter to our solicitor. I took it. It was hard to prize it out of his dead hand. Horrible. I was going to go for help. I started back toward the house. Then I realized what a chance this was. I crept back through the bushes up to the tack room, took the knife and went back to him. But I wasn’t strong enough to stab him through that jacket, so I had to take it off. I thought everyone would believe that Jack did it.” She took the bottle that Nick was holding. “Hold her hands, children.”

“What are you going to do?” Nick asked.

“Make her drink it, of course. We’ll tell everyone that she tried to poison you. We caught her and she drank it herself.”

“No, Mummy,” Nick said.

“Don’t be stupid. This is the end of everything, don’t you see? They’ll send me to prison. They’ll take you away to some awful institution. Is that what you want? Grab her hands.”

“Let go of me,” I shouted and shook myself free. Irene was still between me and the door.

“You are not leaving this room alive,” Irene said. She looked almost insane, with eyes bulging and face distorted. “No one is going to take my children from me.” She came at me with the bottle. I backed away. Suddenly she buckled and slumped to the floor.