‘One son,Jeremy, aged twenty-seven. I think they might come up with more information when they get over the shock.’

‘Odd, that,’ commented the earl. ‘Only two children. Thought those Church of England fellows bred like rabbits.’

‘Not in front of Rose,’ said Lady Polly. Then she stifled a sigh, thinking of all the little graves in the churchyard at Stacey Court, their country estate – all eight of Rose’s little brothers and sisters who had died in childbirth.

‘When did you leave the ball last night?’ Harry asked Rose.

‘Around two in the morning.’

‘And was Miss Tremaine still there?’

‘I remember no longer seeing her around midnight.’

‘So sometime between, say, midnight and six in the morning, someone murdered her and dressed the body. You will need to search the rector’s town house.’

‘The parents say her bed was not slept in. She planned to run away,’ said Kerridge. ‘She may have changed into that costume to please a lover who then murdered her.’

‘I don’t like this,’ said Harry. ‘I think whoever murdered her knew she was going to meet Lady Rose early in the morning. Lady Rose, do you still have that note?’

‘I must have dropped it at the ball. But I remember putting it in my reticule, which I left with Daisy when I danced.’

‘We’d better have Daisy here.’

Lady Polly ordered Daisy to be brought to the drawing-room.

When she entered, Kerridge said, ‘Lady Rose says she left her reticule with you while she danced. Did you leave it unattended at any time?’

‘I left it on a chair when I danced with the captain,’ said Daisy. ‘I was sitting next to Countess Slerely. I usually do. Anyone picking it up and searching in it would be noticed.’

‘I think you danced with Captain Cathcart before Dolly gave me that note,’ said Rose. ‘Did you leave it at any other time?’

‘Well, one time I had to go to the you-know-what. That was just before midnight.’

‘I’d better call on Countess Slerely,’ said Kerridge. ‘Lady Rose, if you can think of anything else . . .’

‘No, she can’t,’ said the earl. ‘She shouldn’t have been out at that ungodly hour unchaperoned.’

‘I was there,’ said Daisy.

The earl ignored her. ‘No more cycling for you, young lady. Go to your room.’

‘As for you,’ said the earl, glaring at Harry, ‘as my daughter is somehow involved in this, I expect you to clear things up as soon as possible. And while you’re here, what do you think you are doing ignoring my daughter in such a manner?’

‘I am sorry. My apologies, but pressure of work –’

‘Pah! Behave yourself in future or I shall call off this ridiculous engagement myself.’

‘I wonder’, said Harry later that day to his manservant, ‘where Dr Tremaine got enough money to take a house for the Season and to furnish an expensive wardrobe for his daughter.’

‘He’s well-connected,’ said Becket. ‘His aunt was Lady Tremaine and she married well and left him quite a large legacy.’