All I had to do was to pull rank. “Good afternoon, this is Lady Georgiana Rannoch,” I said, switching into full royal mode. “I would like to come and speak to your matron about my great-uncle. He has been acting, well, a little strangely lately and we in the family feel that—he needs a place where he would be looked after.”

“I quite understand, my lady,” she said. “And we would be just the place you are looking for. When would you like to come and visit us?”

“The thing is that I have Uncle in the car at this moment, so I wondered if I could bring him to see you in a few minutes. He goes back to his own house in the far north tomorrow and frankly he shouldn’t be going there alone.”

“This is most irregular.” She sounded flustered now. “Matron never lets anybody visit without an appointment.”

“I rather hoped you’d make an exception,” I said, “seeing that this property is on land originally purchased from the Rannoch estate, and that we are neighbors of long standing.” It was completely untrue that Rannoch land extended this far east, but she wasn’t to know that.

“One moment, please. Let me go and talk to Matron,” she said. “Please hold the line.”

There was a long silence, then I heard the sound of footsteps and the voice said, a trifle breathlessly, “Matron says she’d be willing to make an exception in your case.”

“Splendid,” I said. “You may expect us in a few minutes.”

“Do you mind telling me what this is all about?” Granddad asked as we drove back to the sanitarium. “Exactly why do we need to get inside a loony bin?”

“Because its name was written on a map that was left for me, and the person who wrote it was subsequently murdered,” I said.

“You think it’s one of the inmates who is running around causing mischief?”

I thought about this. If by some ridiculous chance the Duke of Clarence was shut away there, a virtual prisoner, then it wouldn’t be likely that he’d have the ability to influence actions in the outside world. His captors would see that he had no contact with anybody.

I shook my head. Too ridiculous for words. “I’m not quite sure why we’re going there,” I said, “but I just know it has to be important. We’ll keep our eyes open—especially for an old man, about your age.”

“What kind of old man?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea. One who looks like King George?”