“You tried duchess and you didn’t stick with it for long.”

“True enough.” She looked at me critically. “You do need better clothes, now that you’re out in society, that’s obvious. I’ll see if I can worm a little something out of Max. What a pity you’re not my size. I’m always throwing away absolutely scrumptuous things that I can’t wear because they are last year’s. Of course, if poor Hubie actually dies, I’d imagine you’d be able to buy yourself a decent wardrobe, and a house to go with it.”

I stared at her. “You said I was mentioned in his will, but—”

“Hubie is rich as Croesus, darling, and who else does he have to leave it to? Poor little Tristram will probably get his share, but I got the impression that Hubie wanted to make sure you were provided for.”

“Really?”

“He was so fond of you. I probably should have stayed with him for your sake, but you know I couldn’t take all those months with no sex while he was rafting up the Amazon or scaling some mountain.” She pulled me to my feet. “Let’s go for a walk, shall we? I haven’t had a chance to explore the grounds yet.”

“All right.” A walk would be a good chance to tell her about my “accidents.”

We went down the stairs, arm in arm. The house was remarkably quiet. It seemed that most of our party had gone to play golf. A blustery wind was blowing outside and my mother decided she had to return to the house to find a scarf for her hair or she’d look a fright. I waited outside the house, wondering about a lot of things. If I was going to inherit money from Sir Hubert’s will, then Tristram did have a motive to want to marry me. But to kill me? That didn’t make sense. He was due to receive his own share of the inheritance. Besides, he hadn’t been on the boat, and I hadn’t spotted him at that tube platform either. What’s more, he seemed like the kind of person who would faint at the sight of blood. He had certainly looked as if he was about to faint when that woman choked to death beside us.

There was a sound above me. I started to look up. At the same time my mother’s voice screamed, “Look out!” I jumped and one of the marble statues from the balustrade crashed to the ground beside me. Mother rushed down the steps to me, her face deathly white.

“Are you all right? What an awful thing to have happened! Of course, it’s so windy today. That thing had probably been unstable for years. Thank God you’re all right. Thank God I wasn’t still standing beside you.”