“So they will get what they wanted,” Jack said. “But their mother won’t get off so easily, will she?”

“She didn’t actually kill anybody,” I said. Although she tried to, a voice in my head whispered. I remembered her blazing eyes—the lioness protecting her young.

“She’ll probably be charged with desecrating a corpse, I should think,” Darcy said. “That is, if she can convince a jury that she knew Cedric was already dead.”

“But deliberately using my knife and trying to pin it on me,” Jack said. “She shouldn’t get off with that, should she? I could have been waiting for the gallows by now, if Georgie hadn’t figured out the truth.”

“That’s true,” I said. “But I rather suspect that a jury would think she did it to take suspicion away from her children.”

“But she didn’t even know they were responsible at that moment,” Darcy said.

“All the same, I suspect that is the tack that her solicitor will want to take. Sympathy, you know. A mother doing anything to protect her young.”

“What a family,” Darcy muttered.

“Poor Edwina,” I said. “I feel sorry for her. Whatever happens to Irene, this family is broken. Things will never be the same.”

“And what about Sissy?” Jack asked suddenly. “She’ll lose everybody.”

“She has her grandmother,” I said. “And she has you.”

“And you’re a rich duke,” Darcy said. “You could pay to send her to Switzerland for the expensive treatment.”

“Is that right?” Jack’s face lit up. “Crikey. I could do that, couldn’t I? She might walk again. And I know she’s only fifteen, but what does English law say about cousins marrying?” His cheeks went rather pink.

“It’s quite legal. Royals do it all the time,” I said, laughing.

“You’ve got a lot of learning and a lot of growing up to do before you think about things like that, my lad,” Darcy said. “You want to become a man of the world first. Find out about life beyond the sheep station.”

“I don’t suppose I can go back home to Australia now, can I?” Jack said. “I’m stuck here whether I like it or not.”

“I wouldn’t say that being the owner of all this is such a hardship.” Darcy smiled as he looked up at Kingsdowne, its stone glowing in the afternoon sunlight.

“If Mr. Carter recovers all right, I hope he’ll stay on and give me a bit of book learning,” Jack said.

“I think it’s quite hopeful that he will recover,” I said. “They got to him in time. Funny, isn’t it? He was branded a coward in the war but he’s just shown us what a brave man he is.”

“How do you mean?” Jack asked.

“He worked out that the twins must have killed their uncle and he took the blame for them.”