“Of course. If he doesn’t mind roughing it. I don’t think he’d want to stay in the house, would he? Not his thing at all. There’s a gardener’s cottage that’s unoccupied at the moment. It never seemed worth having a live-in gardener since I only come here once in a blue moon, and one can always find handy little men when one wants them.”

“A cottage? That’s wonderful.” I found there was a big bubble of happiness inside me at the thought of having Granddad close by. “I’ll send him a telegram, shall I? I’ll tell him we’re in trouble and desperately need him. And we’ve taken care of his journey for him. And it will be so good for his chest to be in this climate.”

“That’s turning into an expensive telegram,” Mummy pointed out.

“I’ll shorten it a bit, then. But I did win money at roulette last night, so I can afford it. Also Jean-Paul taught me a method of winning.”

“This child will have to be watched,” Mummy said. “I have a feeling that once she’s started down the road to ruin, there will be no stopping her.”

“Just like you,” Vera said.

Mummy laughed. “Exactly.”

“If we send him a ticket, all arranged, he’ll feel obliged to come, won’t he?” Vera said. “I’ll see to it when we go into town today.”

“I don’t suppose Granddad will be able to come for a few days, even if he agrees to come at all,” I said. “We should get working on this straight away.”

“What do you suggest we do?” Vera asked.

“Granddad always says ‘start with what you know.’ Somebody knew the jewels were real. Usually at a fashion show one would expect the accessories to be paste, wouldn’t one? So who would have heard that you were borrowing the queen’s jewels?”

“Servants at the palace, but they are all devotedly loyal. And besides, they’d have opportunities to steal a piece anytime they felt like it. So apart from them . . .”

“An employee at the bank,” Mummy suggested. “I presume you told them what you were locking in their vault.”

“I did not,” Vera said. “One does not tell bank employees what one is putting in a vault. Of course I had to tell the local gendarmerie that the jewels were valuable. But the police don’t normally go around stealing things. So apart from them, I really can’t think.”

“Surely Coco publicized the fact that you were going to use the queen’s jewels,” Mummy said. “Wasn’t that part of the appeal of the collection—royal and simple, masculine and feminine?”

“Well, yes,” Coco admitted, looking a trifle uncomfortable. “I may well have spoken about this.” She gave a delightfully Gallic shrug.