“Into who might have set such a trap on Castle Rannoch land?”

He leaned his red, whiskered face closer to me. “I suspected it was someone from the estate who just wanted to snare the odd rabbit and now dare not come forward and own up.”

“What if it was deliberately set by someone with a grudge against us?”

He gave me a startled look. “Now who would ever do a thing like that?”

“I understand that a boy called Willie McDonald was let go recently. Have you spoken with him?”

“You’d have a job speaking with him, my lady. He went off and joined the Royal Navy. He said that leaving the estate was the best thing that ever happened to him and now he was free to see the world.”

“Good for him,” I said. Back to square one.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Beside a loch in Scotland
August 18
Weather brisk (which is Scottish terminology
for blowing a howling gale).

We ate our picnic in the shade of a large Scots pine tree. My mother returned from visiting Binky up at Castle Rannoch and came to join us as the picnic was being set up.

“How utterly beastly for poor Binky,” she said. “He looks awfully pale. I suggested he go to my little pied-à-terre on the Riviera to recuperate but he claims he has no money to travel.”

“That’s true. He doesn’t,” I said. “Father saddled him with enormous death duties.”

“Typical of your father,” she said. “Utterly useless and never thought about anyone but himself. If he’d truly adored me, I would have stayed, but he preferred all those horrible outdoor sports, like shooting and fishing, to staying home and amusing me.” She broke off and touched my arm. “Who is the rather divine-looking blond boy?”

“That? His name is Huge Beasley-Bottome.”

My mother burst out laughing. “What an unfortunate name. So tell me about him.”

“He seems to be a sponger. He was with the motorboat party and now he’s invited himself to Castle Rannoch.”

“So no money then?”

“Not your type at all,” I said. “Decades too young and penniless, I suspect.”

“But darling as one ages, one likes them young. So good for the ego, even though they’ve no staying power at that age.”

“What do you mean?”

She looked at me strangely. “They go off like rockets, darling. Really, didn’t I manage to give you the slightest hint of the facts of life when you were growing up?”

“You were never there,” I said. “My education was hopelessly lacking. I didn’t even manage to find a friendly gamekeeper.”

She laughed again. “You’d better make up for lost time, hadn’t you? Isn’t there a likely male in the picture?”

“Not at the moment,” I said, glancing around to see if Darcy was still anywhere around, but he and the señorita had disappeared.