She looked at me and laughed. “You didn’t ask. All right, I confess I do adore gambling. I’m actually rather good at it. It’s what keeps my head above water, financially. And I rarely have to come up with the money for my own stake. Older men love to befriend a helpless and charming young woman.” She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “Did you find out anything there?”

“Only that several people I know gamble more than they should.”

“One needs some excitement in life, doesn’t one?” Belinda said. She got up and left me alone at the breakfast table, still not knowing if she was a suspect or not.

My mother came in before I had finished and I latched on to her. Max was off golfing so she wasn’t averse to some time with her daughter. She whisked me up to her room for some “girl time,” as she called it, and made me try endless jars of cosmetics and various perfumes. I feigned interest while trying to think how to tell her that my life was in danger. Knowing her, she’d just tell me not to be silly and go on as if nothing had happened.

“What are you doing with yourself?” she asked. “Not still working at Harrods in that awful pink smock?”

“No, I got the sack, thanks to you.”

“I got you the sack? Little moi?”

“They told me I was rude to a customer and I couldn’t very well tell them that you were my mother.”

She gave a great peal of laughter. “It’s too, too funny, darling.”

“Not if you need money to buy food, it’s not. I’m not getting anything from Binky, you know.”

“Poor Binky. He may not be in a position to give anyone anything again. Such an awful thing to have happened. How did that terrible de Mauxville man come to be in your house in the first place?”

“You know him, do you?”

“Of course. Everyone on the Riviera knows him. Odious man. Whoever drowned him did the world a service.”

“Except that Binky is likely to be hanged for a crime he didn’t commit unless I can find out who did it.”

“Leave that kind of thing to the police, darling. I’m sure they’ll sort it all out nicely. Don’t worry about it. I want you to enjoy yourself—come out of your shell, start flirting a little more. It’s time you snagged yourself a husband.”

“Mother, I’ll find myself a husband when the time is right.”

“What about the Student Prince at dinner last night? You’d never find a man with more orders or medals.”

“Or flabbier lips,” I said. “He looks like a cod, Mother.”

She laughed. “Yes, he does, rather. And deadly dull, I should imagine. Still, future queen isn’t to be sniffed at.”