“Go on. Ride. Go!” I slapped her pony’s rear and it took off like a rocket. I let her get a head start before I followed. Her pony was going as fast as it could but it was small and our progress seemed painfully slow. At any moment I kept expecting to feel a bullet hit me in the back. Then the path dipped into a stand of trees and swung around some rocks. Only then did I realize that we were probably out of range and slowed to a trot.

“Are you sure someone was shooting at us?” Elizabeth asked, wide-eyed.

“Pretty sure. The speed those things went past, they had to be bullets. And I heard a sort of ping when one struck a rock.”

“But who would want to shoot at us?”

“I’ve no idea. But somebody was shot yesterday.”

“I know. Mummy told me. She said he was silly to have wandered off, and the other shooters couldn’t see him in the mist, but it’s not misty today, is it, and we’re not near the grouse moor.”

“There are supposed to be policemen all over the estate, looking after us,” I said. “Let’s hope we run into some of them soon, because we can’t risk going back the way we came.”

“There’s a house over there.” Elizabeth pointed to a large gray stone building nestled in a dip in the landscape and half hidden by large pine trees.

“Good idea. Let’s go and they can presumably telephone the castle.”

We urged on our horses again and dismounted outside a white gate.

“Do you know who lives here?” I asked.

Elizabeth shook her head. “Someone who works for Grandpapa, I suppose.”

We tied the horses to the front fence.

“We should loosen the girth straps if we’re going to be here long,” Elizabeth said. “We don’t want my pony to be uncomfortable.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. And we shouldn’t be here long.”

We left the horses and walked up a short gravel path to the front door. I was about to rap on it when I saw the name. Gleneagles.

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Gleneagles
August 21

The door was opened by a tall thin woman wearing a rather shapeless green silk dress. Her iron gray hair was drawn back into a bun, making her narrow face look even longer. She looked at me warily.

“Yes? Can I help you?”

Then she looked past me and saw the princess. “Your Royal Highness!” she exclaimed, and bobbed a curtsy. She frowned at me, trying to remember, then smiled. “And it’s Lady Georgiana, isn’t it? I haven’t seen you for a long while. How very kind of you to pay us a visit.”

“I’m afraid we weren’t intending to visit anybody,” I said. “We were out riding and came here because someone was shooting at us.”