“I’m sure it’s very easy to listen in on conversations in a castle like this,” I said. “We have a laird’s lug at Castle Rannoch—you know, a secret room where you can listen to conversations in the great hall. And sound carries through all the pipes in the bathrooms, so I’m sure it must be the same here.”

“Well, I believe in calling a spade a spade,” Lady Middlesex said, annoyed now that I’d caught her out. “I don’t hold with trickery and deceit. Not the British way, you know. And if there is a murderer loose in this castle, then it’s high time he was found.”

I looked around to see who might be listening to this outburst. Luckily the hall appeared to be deserted, but at that moment I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Prince Nicholas came toward us, taking the steps two at a time.

“Well, that’s been accomplished, thank God,” he said. “My father saw him off.”

“How did you manage that?”

Nicholas grinned. “We carried him down to the car, wrapped head to toe in blankets against the cold. Father never had a chance to see any more of his face than a mustache peeping out. Good old Darcy. Splendid chap. Now we can hope that it takes a long time to mend the telephone wires.”

“So when do we hold the council of war?” Lady Middlesex demanded.

Prince Nicholas looked wary. “War?”

“I mean when do we meet to plan strategy and work out how we are going to solve this?”

“Oh, right.” Nicholas looked as if meeting with Lady Middlesex was not what he had in mind.

“We should pool our brains on this one, and our observations,” she said. “Deer-Harte thought she noticed one of the servants acting shiftily.”

“Very well. No time like the present, I suppose,” Nicholas said. “Maria is still with her ladies and the dressmakers, I presume?” I nodded. “So I’ll find Dragomir and my brother and we’ll meet in the library in fifteen minutes. Agreed?”

“Just gives you time to get out of those freezing wet clothes, Deer-Harte,” Lady Middlesex said.

I was making my way up to the floor that contained the library when I remembered that I hadn’t had any breakfast and took a detour to the breakfast room in the hope that there was still a roll I could grab. The room was empty but for Belinda, sitting alone at the table with a coffee cup in front of her.

“Where have you been?” she asked. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“I got up late and then went for a walk with Darcy,” I said.

“How romantic. But where is everyone else? The place is like a morgue.”

“Matty is having a dress fitting with her attendants and you know that the royal party arrived, don’t you?”