In the end, though, the risk of falling off a frozen road to their frozen deaths proved more worrying than the risk of falling victim to a mysterious gunperson in an otherwise warm and cheerfully lit hotel, so they made their way back around to the loch, and from there towards the main building.

At the front entrance, they met the trio of other guests that Ruby insisted upon referring to as “the boys.”

“Find anything?” asked Sir Richard.

“A lot of darkness, a lot of snow, and no sign of anybody,” replied Liza. “Probably a false alarm.”

The colonel made a sort of harrumphing noise and returned his pistol to his coat pocket. “In that case, I’m going for a nightcap. Anybody joining me?”

Sir Richard indicated that he would be, as did Ruby, but Reverend Lincoln demurred, citing the clerical virtue of temperance and the need to get a good night’s sleep.

“Yeah,” Liza said, casting a glance at Hanna, who did not seem especially keen to spend an evening in the drawing room with people who were all armed and drinking. “We might turn in too.”

Ruby smiled. “Well, if I’d known that was an op—”

“Stop it.” Hanna held up a hand. “It’s late, we’ve just been chasing a ghost around a snowfield for the best part of an hour, and none of us are in a mood to be seduced.”

One of Sir Richard’s eyebrows quirked upwards. “Speak for yourself.”

Leaving the trio of drinkers to negotiate the question of seduction or otherwise, Liza and Hanna decided that politeness required them to stop by Professor Worth’s room on the way back to theirs in order to tell him that whatever he’d shot at probably wasn’t a murderer.

They knocked at his door and he opened it a crack, the gun waggling through the gap and the gleam of his patent leather shoe just visible beneath. “Who goes there?” he asked in the tones of somebody who vaguely thought that was the kind of thing you should say, but who wasn’t really sure what answer he was expecting.

“Liza,” said Liza, “and Hanna. We’ve looked outside and we didn’t find anybody. We think you probably just shot at a shadow.”

“Oh.” There was a very, very audible sigh of relief from the other side of the door. “Well, thank you for telling me. Good night.”

The door clicked shut, leaving Liza and Hanna standing alone in the corridor, a little miffed at the abruptness of the farewell but generally pleased that they didn’t have a man who seemed to know nothing about guns pointing a gun at them.