‘What is this about?’

‘At the police station, sir. Come along. We don’t want to put the cuffs on you.’

Harry was taken to the market town of Hidwell and ushered into an interview room.

Daisy was sitting in the housekeeper, Mrs Henry’s, parlour, having a cup of tea. She was privately hoping Rose would be successful in persuading Harry to talk to Becket and get permission to work. The news of Harry’s departure had not yet filtered below stairs.

‘Must have been awful losing your baby,’ said Mrs Henry, a woman as fat and comfortable as a well-worn sofa.

‘You know, I don’t want babies,’ said Daisy. ‘Is that unnatural?’

‘Not after all you’ve been through.’

‘It’s all right for the men,’ complained Daisy. ‘If they don’t want babies, they can wear a condom.’

The condom had been around since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs. Some say it was named after Dr Condom, who supplied Charles II with animal-tissue sheaths.

‘There is a country way for women,’ said Mrs Henry.

‘What’s that?’

‘You get a piece of green elm and stick it up your whatsit. The wood expands and blocks everything.’

‘I wouldn’t know green elm. Can you get me some?’

‘If you’re sure, m’dear. Seems bit hard on your man.’

‘I would only use it for a little.’

‘I’ll see what I can do.’

‘I am Inspector Robinson,’ said the inspector, facing Harry across a table scarred with cigarette burns and tea stains. ‘You visited Miss Thomson, the woman accused of the murders, last evening, did you not?’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘Why?’

‘I was curious about her state of mind. I had begun to consider writing a book on the criminal mind.’

‘And she was well when you saw her?’

‘Spitting venom, but otherwise fairly well. What is this about?’

‘Half an hour after you left her bedside, she was found stabbed to death.’

‘Good heavens, man, that had nothing to do with me!’

‘We checked with the prison hospital and you, sir, were the last to see her.’

The questioning went on and on and then finally Harry was told they would be holding him overnight. He was formally charged with the murder of Thomson. Before he was led off to the cells he called his lawyer, who promised to be there first thing in the morning.

One of the policemen told his wife that evening of the arrest and the gossip swirled out of the town and reached Stacey Court.

The earl and countess were alarmed. Rose was strictly forbidden to visit Harry.

‘We must get her away from here,’ said the earl, ‘or Rose will decide to elope with a jailbird.’

‘She can’t elope with him if he’s locked up.’

‘Superintendent Kerridge is a friend of Cathcart’s and will probably get him released. We must get her away. Let’s take her up to Tarrach as fast as possible.’ Tarrach was the earl’s hunting lodge in Perthshire. ‘I’ll get Matthew to make all the arrangements.