Frost glittered on the pavement outside the theatre, shining under the stuttering gaslights, as they made their way round to the side of the building.

Rose presented her card to the stage-door keeper. ‘Follow me,’ he said, and winked at her. Oh dear, thought Rose. He thinks I’m the female equivalent of a stage-door Johnny.

They followed the stage-door keeper up narrow stairs and along a passage. ‘That’s him,’ he said, jerking his hand at a door. He turned and left them.

‘Here we go,’ said Daisy. She rapped at the door and a voice called, ‘Come in.’

They entered a small dressing-room which smelled strongly of dog. The Singing Blacksmith was sitting in front of a mirror.

He stared in the mirror at them. ‘Who are you?’

Rose stepped forward. ‘I am Lady Rose Summer and this is Mrs Levine. Are you really Roger Dallow?’

‘So what’s it to you?’

‘I was briefly a friend of Miss Dolly Tremaine. I am trying to find out what happened to her.’

He swung round. ‘I remember your name now. It was in the newspapers.’

‘Was Miss Tremaine going to join you?’

‘Yes. I stood outside the house and she dropped a note out of the window. She said she would join me. She said she couldn’t bear it any longer because they were forcing her to marry some old man. She said I was to meet her the following day at the Shaftsbury Monument in Piccadilly at four in the afternoon. The following day, I waited and waited, but she didn’t come. Then I heard the newsboys calling out about some murder. I bought a paper. I can’t read very well but enough to know she had been murdered.’

‘Did she ever tell you she was frightened of anyone?’ asked Rose.

‘I wasn’t allowed to go near her in the village after someone reported we’d been seen together. I got a whipping from my dad. I wouldn’t have run away but then I heard Dolly had been taken off to London. I don’t earn much here but it would have been enough for us to live simply.’ He buried his head in his hands. ‘I loved her.’

‘The police have been looking for you,’ said Rose. ‘May I tell them we found you?’

‘No!’ he cried. ‘I’d nothing to do with it, but if the police come round here and take me away for questioning, innocent or not, I won’t have a job when I get back.’

‘What’s the awful smell in here?’ asked Daisy, wrinkling her nose.

‘I’ve got to share with the dog act. He’s taken them out for a walk.’

‘So you have no idea at all who might have killed her?’ asked Rose.

‘Who would want to kill Dolly except that Lord Berrow? Maybe he got mad when she told him she wouldn’t marry him.’

‘I do not think she would he allowed to do anything other than accept his proposal,’ said Rose.

‘Someone tried to kill you, didn’t they?’asked Roger.