“It was only silly, I think, because it happened in the Club – because it made a scandal,” Carina said. “But you managed to get it all hushed up, didn’t you? How much did you pay, I wonder, to keep your name out of the newspapers, Sir Percy?”

She threw up her head as she said,

“‘Sir Hugo Claverly had lost large sums of money to a friend,’ was all they said. A friend – !”

Carina put a wealth of contempt into her voice.

“Now, look here, my dear,” Sir Percy said briskly, “your father is dead and nothing we can say can bring him back. I am sorry about it and if I had known who you were I should not have come up here tonight.”

“No, of course you would not,” Carina interrupted, “because that would have made you uncomfortable. And you did not want to feel uncomfortable, did you, Sir Percy, when you were intent on seducing a poor, frightened, little Governess – who had no one to turn to and no one to help her?”

Carina paused.

“You thought that she would be so pleased with your intentions, didn’t you? You never really thought she would resist you. And when you sent up your bottle of champagne and took away the key, you were quite sure that it was going to be a very enjoyable evening as far as you were concerned.”

“I am sorry, I made a mistake,” Sir Percy said. “Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”

He turned as if to leave, but Carina said quickly,

“Oh no, Sir Percy. You cannot get away from it as easily as that. I am not the frightened little Governess you were stalking, as you thought, so successfully. I am Carina Claverly, daughter of the man who tried to kill you and failed. But I am going to succeed.”

Carina raised the pistol as she spoke and aimed at a spot just below his heart. She remembered from somewhere in the back of her mind that she had been told that one must always aim lower than the target.

“For God’s sake, girl, stop!”

The words died in his throat, for Carina pulled the trigger.

There was a tremendous explosion that seemed to echo round and round the room.

For a moment Sir Percy appeared to stare at her, his eyes protruding and his mouth dropping open in astonishment.

And very slowly he crumpled up and fell sprawling to the floor.

Chapter 10

He was dead!

Carina sat staring ahead of her, not at the figure lying on the ground, but rather looking inwards into her heart and the past.

She felt now as if all feeling and all emotion had gone from her and that she was nothing but a statue made of marble.

Vaguely she realised that someone had entered the nursery and a high-pitched scream told her that it was a woman.