“Nothing at all, William, except for an old dressing gown,” Darcy said. “Tell me, when did you see Miss Carrington last?”

“Let me see. It would have been four days ago,” William said, frowning as he tried to remember. “That’s right. Sunday, I think it was.”

“Did she say where she was going? Did she have a suitcase with her?”

“No, the last time I saw her it was just like any other evening. She was dressed to go out, evening gown, long fur coat. I asked her if she wanted a taxicab but she said she was meeting someone, and off she went toward Park Lane. Of course, Frederick might have seen her since then.”

“Thank you, William,” Darcy said. “My best regards to your family.”

“We hope to see you again soon, Mr. O’Mara,” William said. “When this nasty old business is taken care of, whatever it turns out to be.”

How sad, I thought. Nobody knew that Bobo was dead and would not be coming back to her flat. Darcy hailed a taxicab and took me back to Kensington. I invited him to join us for dinner but he said he had better get straight back to Sir Jeremy so they could put together a plan of action. I wished he might have included me, but I understood that he couldn’t. And I regretted not going with him even more so when I found out that Marina was dining with her parents at the Dorchester and my dinner companion was Countess Irmtraut.

Chapter 29

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, FOLLOWED BY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11

KENSINGTON PALACE

It feels strange not having anything more to do with the investigation into Bobo’s death. Darcy will show the letters and photographs to Sir Jeremy and they’ll know how to look into the lives of powerful men. I must put the whole thing from my mind and just help Marina prepare for her wedding.

Queenie was in my room, waiting to undress me. “I ain’t going near that foreign lady no more,” she said. “You should have heard her shouting at me, and all because I used the wrong polish on a pair of shoes. Blimey, miss, you’d have thought I had just drowned her only child in a bathtub.”

I sighed. “I suppose you can’t be blamed for not knowing how to treat suede. I don’t possess any suede shoes. And it’s probably a good idea that you stay away from her. I really don’t want word of your behavior getting back to the princess or the major. They’d know you weren’t a suitable maid and it might even get back to the queen.”

“I don’t know why you think I’m so unsuitable,” she said. “I take care of you all right, don’t I?”