“My brother went abroad and we heard vague rumours of his excesses and the dissolute life he was leading in Paris, Monte Carlo, India and the East. But we had no idea that he had married a Javanese.”

Lord Lynche paused.

“I have learned since that she was a dancer of some repute. My brother must have ruined her reputation and her career as he ruined so many other people he came in contact with.”

Lord Lynche gave a little sigh as if he regretted the personal relationship between himself and his brother that had gradually become estranged through the years.

Briskly he continued,

“My father fell ill and a month before he died my brother returned home.”

“How frightening for you!” Carina exclaimed.

“It was indeed. He came to The Castle secretly one night. He was very ill, penniless and suffering from a disease that he had caught in the East, which had not only turned his hair white, but had begun to affect his brain. It was a kind of creeping paralysis, for which in the advanced stages the doctors say there is no cure.”

“How ghastly for your mother!” Carina cried.

“It was ghastly for all of us,” Lord Lynche answered, “because we knew that if one whisper got out about Giles’ return to the country, he would be sent for trial and there would be no question what the sentence would be.”

“So you hid him?” Carina prompted.

“My mother was determined,” Lord Lynche went on, “that there should be no stigma on the family name. Besides which, whatever he was like, she still loved her son. She put him into the Priest hole in the Tudor Wing of The Castle. Only three people, besides ourselves, knew that he was there – and that is why I cannot imagine how Percy Rockley discovered his whereabouts.”

Carina almost started to say that Sir Percy’s valet had seen her come through the sliding panel. But she changed her mind and thought that there would be plenty of time later to tell Lord Lynche of her part in this drama.

At the moment she wanted to hear the end of the story and know for the first time the whole truth.

“I think that Rockley must have been suspicious,” Lord Lynche went on ruminatively. “He often talked of Giles and asked where he had died. I have forgotten to tell you that we announced his ‘death’ immediately after he returned to this country. It was put in The Times and my mother received quite a lot of letters of condolence from her friends.”

“Why should Sir Percy have been suspicious?” Carina asked.

“I have no idea,” Lord Lynche replied. “But perhaps he had an idea of blackmail or was just making life uncomfortable. Rockley was always on the lookout for anything that could be turned to his advantage Anyway, my mother had anticipated that there might be people like Percy Rockley in the world.”