“It’s no laughing matter, Georgie,” Binky snapped. “It’s our home, damn it. It’s been in the family for eight hundred years. I’m not just handing it over to some Continental gambler.”

“Then what are we going to do?”

He shrugged. “You’re the bright one. I hoped you might come up with a brilliant idea to save us.”

“I’ve already thought of pushing him off the mountain. Pushing him out of the train on the way north, maybe?” I smiled at him. “I’m sorry, Binky. I wish I could think of something. Let’s hope the solicitors will know a legal way out of this in the morning.”

He nodded. “I’m going straight to bed,” he said. “I’m exhausted. Oh, and just a simple breakfast in the morning, I think. A few kidneys, and maybe some bacon, and the usual toast, marmalade, coffee.”

“Binky!” I stopped him. “I’ve told you we have no servants. I can manage a boiled egg, toast, and tea. That’s it.”

His face fell. “Dash it all, Georgie. You can’t expect a chap to face the world fortified only by a boiled egg.”

“As soon as I get a job I’ll engage a servant who will cook you all the kidneys and bacon you want,” I said, “but in the meantime you should be grateful for a sister who is willing to cook for you.”

Binky stared at me. “What did you just say? Get a job? A job?”

“I’m planning to stay on in London and make my own way in life. How else do you think I’m going to support myself?”

“I say, Georgie. People like us don’t get jobs. It’s just not done.”

“If Castle Rannoch goes to de Mauxville, you may have to face finding a job yourself or starving.”

He looked utterly horrified. “Don’t say that. What on earth could I do? I’d be hopeless. I’m all right pottering about the estate and all that. I’ve got a reasonably good seat on a horse, but apart from that I’m an utter failure.”

“You’d find something if you had to support your family,” I said. “You could always become a butler to rich Americans. They’d be tickled pink to have a duke waiting on them.”

“Don’t even say that in jest,” he groaned. “The whole thing is just too dreadful to contemplate.”

I took his arm. “Go to bed,” I said. “Things may look better in the morning.”

“I hope so,” he said. “You’re my rock, Georgie. An absolute brick. I’m counting on you.”

I came to London to escape from my family, I thought as I made my way to my own bedroom. But it seemed that escape was not as easy as I had thought. For an instant marrying Prince Siegfried didn’t seem such a bad option after all.

Chapter 10

Rannoch House
Tuesday, April 26, 1932

In the morning I insisted on going with Binky to our solicitors’. After all, it was my family home too. I wasn’t about to give it away without a darned good fight. Messrs. Prendergast, Prendergast, Prendergast, and Soapes were in chambers just off Lincoln’s Inn. Binky and I arrived early so that we could speak with them before the dreaded Gaston arrived. We were informed that Young Mr. Prendergast would be delighted to see us and ushered into a wood-paneled room in which a man of at least eighty sat. I found myself wondering, if this was Young Mr. Prendergast, what Old Mr. Prendergast might look like. I was already so tense that I started to giggle. Binky turned and glared at me, but I couldn’t stop.