‘Oh, you really must tell me what he’s done to you.’

‘He hasn’t done anything to me, but he has to someone I know.’

There wasn’t time to say more as the door opened to reveal a footman in dark blue and gold livery. Pretentious, Matt thought, as he considered the simple uniforms his mother insisted her footmen wore.

‘Yes?’

‘We’re from Mayfair Automobiles and we’d like to see Mr Greaves, please.’ Harry spoke politely.

‘What’s it about?’

‘We’d like to talk to him about his Rolls-Royce. We service it for him.’

Matt stayed in the background, just like an apprentice should. He was happy to let Harry deal with this, but he wanted to get the Winford car off Greaves so badly he could almost taste it.

‘I’ll call the chauffeur. You can talk to him and he will relay the information to Mr Greaves.’ The footman gave a haughty toss of his head and disappeared, leaving Matt and Harry standing outside. He even had the damned cheek to close the door on them.

Harry’s muttered comments about the footman had Matt chortling. ‘My, my, Harry. I didn’t know you knew such words.’

Another man appeared, obviously the chauffeur. ‘There’s some worry with the car?’

‘No, it’s in good condition,’ Harry said. ‘Mayfair Automobiles wondered if Mr Greaves would consider selling.’

‘I doubt there’s any chance he would be prepared to part with it.’

There was something in the chauffeur’s tone that made Matt’s hopes rise. He hadn’t intended to speak but changed his mind. ‘Would you ask Mr Greaves? We’ll pay a fair price for it – in cash.’

‘I’ll ask the master.’ The chauffeur stood aside. ‘You’d better come in.’

They were shown to a small room on the first floor and told to wait. Matt roamed around the room, inspecting the furniture, and then he stopped and gazed at a wall devoid of mirrors or paintings. He reached out and ran his fingers over some marks.

‘What you looking at?’ Harry stood beside him.

‘See these marks? It looks as if something used to hang here and the wall has been cleaned to remove the marks. Paintings, I should think.’

‘So?’

Matt spun round, his eyes taking in every detail of the room as he headed for the door.

‘Where are you going?’ Harry was alarmed that Matt might start to wander around this elegant house.

‘I’ve got to have a quick look at another room.’ He stepped out of the door, nipped across the passage to the room opposite. It was a dining room and sumptuous. Or was it? It didn’t take him long to make up his mind. The signs were obvious.