‘How terrible for Mrs Eddlestone to find her own son that way,’ Raven said. Iain had not painted her well, but nobody would have wished her to witness such a thing. Family – even interfering in family – was often the thing that kept older people going. Now that she had lost everything, it was unsurprising that this proved the beginning of the end for her.

‘No, the mercy was that she did not,’ Iain said. ‘She was confined to bed at the time, and in fact was never to leave it.’

‘It’s just that you said “we”,’ Raven reminded him.

‘I meant myself and Mrs Eddlestone’s nurse. She lived with us for several weeks. She was recommended by Dr Fowler. Personally, I had little faith in the man, but he had been Mrs Eddlestone’s doctor a long time and she was not to be argued with.’

‘This nurse,’ Sarah said. ‘She didn’t happen to be called Mary Dempster, did she?’

Raven thrilled with anticipation at what was about to be revealed, sensing triumph in the air around him as he calculated the implications.

‘Yes. How do you know that?’ Iain asked, clearly surprised by her perspicacity.

‘Call it a woman’s intuition,’ Sarah replied.

‘We know Dr Fowler,’ Raven added, eager to assuage any curiosity. There was no time for detailed explanations about what it was they were trying to uncover.

‘Well, I’ll concede that his judgment was sound in this case,’ Iain went on. ‘She is a good woman, not just a good nurse. Bless her. Truth is, she found Stuart first, though only by a few moments. He had killed himself with morphine. When I came in, she was disposing of it in the hope that we would never know and might thus be spared the ignominy on top of the loss.’

Raven felt the ground shift beneath him as Iain spoke, vividly seeing what the man could not. Seeing what he himself had been wilfully blind to, despite Sarah’s efforts to reveal it. His triumph turned to ashes in a twinkling.

Mary Dempster had killed Stuart, and Iain had walked in on her getting rid of the evidence.

‘The pity is, had I been but a minute later, I would have believed he went the same way as Julia,’ Iain said. ‘I was grateful for Mary’s solicitude nonetheless.’

‘Indeed,’ agreed Sarah, flashing Raven a look. ‘We may never know how many such acts of mercy she has committed without acknowledgement or reward.’

‘As I say, Mary is a good woman. If she hadn’t been in the house to look after Mrs Eddlestone, I doubt Eleanor would have held on as long as she did.’

‘We are so sorry for your dreadful loss,’ Sarah said. ‘But can I ask one more question? You said earlier that Eleanor was too young to understand. Understand what?’

His countenance took on a look of profound regret.