“Honestly, Georgie,” she said, laughing and looking worried at the same time, “who else but you could fall off a boat with her foot tangled in a rope?”

“I can’t imagine how it happened,” I said. “The beastly thing was absolutely knotted fast around my ankle. I tried to get it off but I couldn’t.”

“I’m going to watch over you like a hawk for the rest of the trip,” she said. “Now come back on deck and let’s see if we can dry out your clothes.”

“They are your clothes and I’m afraid they are rather the worse for being in Thames water,” I said. “It tasted foul.”

Darcy was waiting as I came out of the cabin. “Are you sure you’re all right?” he said. “My God, you look like a drowned rat. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather I took you home?”

I had to admit that I wasn’t feeling too well. I must have swallowed gallons of Thames water and I was still shivering, probably with delayed shock.

“If you really don’t mind,” I said. “It might be best. But I don’t want to spoil your afternoon.”

“I am also, as you might notice, pretty darned wet,” he said, “and Eduardo didn’t offer to take me to his cabin and dry me off.”

I laughed.

“That’s better,” he said. “You looked as if you were about to pass out a minute ago. Come on, let’s see if Eduardo knows how to back this thing up.”

A few minutes later we were moored, once again, at the jetty.

“Watch out for ropes this time,” Belinda called after me. “See you tonight.”

Darcy hailed a taxi.

“Belgrave Square, isn’t it? What’s the number?” he asked.

“I can’t go home,” I said dismally. “The police may still be there and anyway the house is surrounded by reporters and the morbidly curious.”

“Then where are we going?”

“I’ve been sleeping on Belinda’s sofa,” I said. “I do have a change of clothes there and I can wash out the clothes she lent me before they are stained forever with this Thames water.”

“You want to go back to Belinda’s place?”

“I can’t think where else to go right now,” I said, and my voice wobbled. “The problem is that it’s her maid’s day off and I only know how to cook baked beans and I was so looking forward to a lovely picnic.”

“I tell you what,” Darcy said. “Why don’t we go back to my place? Don’t look like that. I promise to behave like a gentleman and there is good wine in the cellar and I know a great place to have a picnic. And I am about to catch pneumonia myself and you wouldn’t want that, would you, especially after I dived into that awful water to rescue you.”