She stood there facing them, splendid, magnificent and defiant, and Carina half expected to see a pistol in her hand.

But the Dowager’s hands were empty and her voice was clear and without a quiver as she asked,

“Justin, what are these men doing here?”

“Mama, you should not be out of bed,” Lord Lynche responded.

“Answer my question!” his mother replied. “Who are these men?”

“This is the Chief Constable, Mama. Major Hartley, I don’t think you have met my mother,” Lord Lynche said.

The Chief Constable, obviously a little discomposed at the appearance of the Dowager, bowed awkwardly.

“I do not know him,” Lady Lynche said sharply. “Where is my old friend Colonel Gibb’n?”

“He died a short while ago, Mama, I told you at the time.”

“And so this is his successor?” Lady Lynche said a little scornfully, as if Major Hartley did not come up to her estimation of what a Chief Constable should be.

“Yes, this is his successor,” Lord Lynche replied.

“And what is he doing here, I want to know?” the Dowager asked. “And why has he brought a private army with him? Why?”

“I am afraid, Mama, you will be upset by what I have to tell you,” Lord Lynche replied.

“Upset? Have you told me anything that was not upsetting?” the Dowager asked. “Do you think I am an idiot not to be aware that these men have not come in friendship? What do they expect to find?”

Before Lord Lynche could answer, Major Hartley moved a few steps up the staircase.

“I have brought, Madam, a warrant, which entitles us to search The Castle,” he said. “We have received information that your son, Giles Lynche, is not dead, as you previously announced, but is hiding here.”

“So that is what you have been told?” the Dowager answered. “Some sneaking spy or paid informer has told you a lot of lies and you imagine that you can come here and arrest a Lynche! The impudence of it astounds me. Do you really believe that you can dishonour a name that has been respected in this place for over five centuries?”

“I am sorry, madam, but I must obey my orders,” Major Hartley replied. “And if a man, whoever he may be, is evading the law, he must be brought to justice.”

“Bring him then!” the Dowager retorted. “Try and find him! Try and drag him like a rat from his hole, but you will have your work cut out!”

‘She is magnificent!’ Carina thought, full of compassion at the stand the old lady was making.

But she knew that there was nothing any of them could do to check the inevitable and nothing to prevent Major Hartley and his men from acting on Sir Percy’s information and finding Giles Lynche and taking him away.

Yet the Dowager was fighting for her son, fighting as a tiger fights for its life until the very last breath.