“William didn’t handle Tyler’s little embarrassment nearly as well as I’d hoped he would.” Her fingers twirled a thick band of diamonds around and around her finger. “There was all sorts of talk about cutting him out of his will, but I managed to convince William to give him a second chance.”

Emily pursed her lips to stop herself from smiling at the idea of Tyler not being as much of a Prince Charming as he’d have her believe. She glanced out of the window to see him talking to someone and gesturing madly in the air with his cigarette.

“I thought this trip might be a good way for the two of you to reconnect, as well as having someone to help with whatever tasks Catriona has set.”

Emily felt her fingers tighten around her glass, saw the knuckles begin to turn white. She wanted to point out the obvious: Catriona died. Her parents died. Everyone dies, so why bother dredging up the past when Tyler was only doing this as a way of trying to redeem himself with Daddy dearest?

“You really do look just like her.” Adrianna reached out to stroke Emily’s jaw, but she turned away. “Sorry, I forgot. It’s just…I mean. I really don’t know what to say.”

Emily wished she knew how to reply, that there was something she could say to make her godmother understand.

I’m used to being alone, she thought as she rose from her seat, picked up her suitcase, and left the pub.

Tyler was leant against the wall, scratching at his head, the cigarette still lit, with embers burning too close to his hairline. He was staring at his phone as Emily strode past, so it took him a moment to realize who she was. A moment more before he ran back into the pub to grab his own bag and guitar, to chase her down the pavement and onto the back of a number eleven bus.

He laughed as he looked back to see his mother staring after them. “You know, you really shouldn’t just leave her standing on the street like that.”

Emily flicked her wrist over to look at her watch. Nearly two o’clock. Where did all the time go?

“Do you have any idea what the next clue might be?” Tyler peered out of the window, and Emily followed his eye, watched as all the sights of London trundled past.

“No.”

8

CANARY

Serinus canaria domestica

Peppermint green, with a touch of duck-egg blue, and gold leafing around the windows, on the other side of which an elaborate staging of the Mad Hatter’s tea party could be seen. With gilded plates, sticky buns, and fairies hidden amongst silhouetted trees. Emily remembered pressing her face up against the glass as a child, wishing she could jump inside the make-believe worlds recreated for everyone to see.

Just as her grandmother had done with that very first book, when little Ophelia was taken to Fortnum and Mason for a slice of red velvet cake to celebrate her tenth birthday and told to take a bite, because if she didn’t try, she’d never know how delicious it was. The same cake had been delivered, in real life, year after year up to Norfolk, which they shared with a mug of tea or, as Emily got older, a glass of chilled champagne.