‘Not that I noticed. Youngish. Tall. Bit of a beard. Nice smile.’

Something chimed in the depths of her memory. ‘Was there a dog with him?’ Although the man with the dog was unlikely to have a pleasant smile, on reflection.

‘Didn’t see one. Might’ve tied it up at the gate. He came round the back when nobody answered the knocker at the front.’

She was still thinking about the sour-looking man with a large dog that she’d met on the path the day before. He’d been the first person she had seen after her arrival, before encountering Grace under the trees. Why in the world he should come calling on her now was beyond imagining. And anyway, she thought confusedly, it wasn’t him, because she was fairly sure he didn’t have 119a beard. So who was it? The idea of a strange visitor, given recent events, was profoundly unnerving. ‘Didn’t he leave his name?’ she said.

‘Oh, well – he did, actually. Said he was called Clovis, and you’d remember him.’

120

Chapter Nine

‘Why didn’t you say that at the start?’ she burst out, loud with relief and surprise.

‘You didn’t give me a chance,’ he said reproachfully. ‘All those questions.’

‘Right. Sorry. Did he say if he was coming back?’ Did she want him to come back? Could she cope with the disgracefully glowingly handsome importunate Clovis Biddulph? How on earth had he found her, anyway? Could he have simply gone to the Broad Campden house and asked Drew where she was? And would Drew have told him?

She had met him a few months earlier, during a very upsetting murder investigation and, completely against her will, had found him disconcertingly attractive. Nice smile was a massive understatement. When Clovis Biddulph smiled, the world was bathed in light. She had just about kept her feelings hidden from Drew, even after the case was over and she assumed she would never see any of the Biddulphs again.121

‘Said he had to be somewhere, but might manage a quick return visit later today.’

‘Okay. Thanks, Sid.’ She wouldn’t be there then, either, she told herself. She’d be out showing police officers points in the Barnsley undergrowth, and then answering questions at the police station, and perhaps acquiring a car through Gladwin’s kind offices. If Fate had any sense, she would make absolutely sure that Thea Slocombe and Clovis Biddulph would never find themselves alone together in a lovely old Cotswold house.

She should phone Drew. She needed the grounding that he would provide, and a reminder of her identity as his wife. She also needed to update him on the matter of the dead Grace. The woman had been murdered. Somebody had stolen into the house during the few minutes that Thea had been just down the road admiring a forgotten barn and inventing fairy tales. That was a lot more frightening than she had permitted herself to acknowledge. It could only mean that somebody had been watching her and Grace, waiting for an opportunity. But then, as she rehearsed her account for Drew, it struck her with a shock that there was another possible scenario. The killer could have come into the house and crept up to the attic while Thea was still asleep in the spare bedroom. He could have silently listened at her – Thea’s − door. Luckily, the chair she’d used as a barrier would not have let him get in. Without Hepzibah to sound the alarm, it would have been easy for anyone to gain access to the attic. 122Thea had always slept deeply. As a child, her siblings had performed numerous practical jokes on her while she slept, and now Stephanie and Timmy were learning that they could get away with all sorts of mischief within inches of their dormant stepmother. But no – the back and front had at least been securely locked overnight. There was no chance that a killer could have gained entry without noise and damage.