Then I remembered something that made me feel cold all over. That first meeting with Darcy in Lyons. He had made a joke about being poisoned by their tea and how they carried out the dead customers. And Darcy had been on the boat last Sunday. I was very glad that I was getting away from all this to the safety of the country. Roll on tomorrow.

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Farlows
Near Mayfield, Sussex
Friday, May 6, 1932

I wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. Yesterday’s incident could be no more than a greedy woman choking to death, and yet it had happened after I handed her my sugar bowl. I was now almost ready to believe that there was a clever conspiracy against my brother and me. Perhaps Darcy and Belinda, maybe even Whiffy Featherstonehaugh were all in it together. It was just possible that Tristram was part of it too, although I didn’t think he had been on the boat on Sunday. The only thing I couldn’t come up with was a motive. Why would anybody want to kill me?

So it was with some apprehension when I climbed into the little two-seater beside Tristram and watched him strap my suitcase to the boot. He caught me looking and gave me a jaunty smile. How ridiculous to suspect him, I thought. But it was just as ridiculous to suspect Belinda or Whiffy. I didn’t want to suspect Darcy either, but with him I couldn’t be sure. At any rate Tristram would have two hands on the wheel, all the way to the Mountjoys’.

Fig had decided that traveling alone with a young man, especially one she had never heard of until this moment, was quite unsuitable. I practically had to wrestle the telephone from her grasp as she attempted to call a cab to take me to Victoria Station.

“Fig, I am over twenty-one and you and Binky have made it very clear that I am no longer your responsibility,” I snapped. “If you wish to reinstate my allowance and pay for my household staff, then you can start trying to order me around. If not, then my activities and choice of companions are none of your business.”

“I have never been spoken to like that before in my life,” she spluttered.

“Then it’s about time.”

“I must say that your lack of breeding on your mother’s side comes out now,” she sniffed. “I’ve no doubt it will be one unsuitable young man after another, just like her.”

I gave her a serene smile. “Ah, but think of the fun she’s had doing it.”

She couldn’t come up with an answer to that one.