“Then I think it’s probably bedtime,” Pat said. “Coming, Fen?”

Fen headed across the room, then took a detour to the drinks table. She poured two hefty whiskies, handed one to Pat, said, “Now I am,” and led the way out.

“Cheers,” Bill said from behind them.

***

FEN’S MAID WAS WAITING in her room, eyes wide. “Miss Fen!”

“I know. Are you doubled up with someone for the night?”

“Yes, miss.”

“Good. Get along now. Miss Merton will be in here tonight, so she can unbutton me, if you shouldn’t mind, Pat.”

“Not at all.”

“But, miss—”

“No, go,” Fen said. “The sooner we’re all in our rooms the better. I don’t want you wandering around the corridors.”

“Sir Peter would want me to stay with you,” Travers said obstinately. “In case anything happens.”

“Miss Merton is armed,” Fen said. “With a gun. And she can shoot it, so off you go.”

“I’ll get my revolver if you like, but I’m not bringing it to bed,” Pat said, once the maid had left.

“I can’t think you’d need it. There’s no maniac prowling the halls, is there? He wasn’t killed at random.” Fen handed her a glass, hopped onto the bed, and patted the covers. Pat locked the door—she agreed about the homicidal maniac but there was no point taking risks—and came to sit by her. “I suppose you’re right that it had to be a man?”

“Probably,” Pat said. “I wouldn’t swear to it. I wanted to end that line of conversation, but the truth is, if the knife was sharp enough, I’m pretty sure I could have done it and so could any determined woman.”

“Oh. So Victoria could have killed him, theoretically?”

“Probably, but I can’t see why she would. She could have just left the house and never seen him again.”

“Unless you believe this idea that she would be naturally inclined to avenge an insult.”

“That sounds like a lot of nonsense to me,” Pat said. “I don’t know anything about Sikhs, but it’s a silly way to talk about people. I don’t feel ‘naturally inclined’ to behave like every Anglican alive. And Victoria studied at Girton, for heaven’s sake. I suppose there may be Girton women who would avenge an insult in blood, but she doesn’t strike me as one of them.”

“Indeed. I’m sure she hoped something awful would happen to Haworth; I’m sure we all did. But I can’t see why she’d kill him either, so when you said ‘any determined woman’, you were thinking of Lady Anna?”

Pat supposed she’d get used to Fen’s occasional sharpness, peeking out from her lush appearance like a velvet-handled stiletto. “I was, rather.”