“I wish to God I knew. I’ve been trying to find out since eleven o’clock last night. I can’t think what to try next; nobody seems to have a list of survivors, nobody seems to know where anyone is. She’s one chance in five of having survived, and if she has she’s bobbing up and down somewhere in a small boat in the middle of the ocean. What the hell am I supposed to do about it, do you imagine?”

“What can you do?”

“She’s got to be here. What’s going to happen to all the ribbon-snipping and champagne and seating arrangements? I’m going out of my mind. Poor bloody woman. If she is dead, do you think anyone would be crazy enough to expect us to postpone the whole show? I hardly know whether I’d be crazy enough to expect it myself. This is the kind of decision I keep clear of, but there’s no one else to make it.”

“Poor Wyndham.”

“Do you think she’ll arrive at the curtain, dripping and ghastly? One in five isn’t hopeless as odds, you know.”

“How old was she?”

“Sixty. Sixty something. Poor bloody woman, she was such a nice old thing, she was so looking forward to meeting Her Grace. What a frightful way to pack it in.”

“I’ve never known anyone who had an accident before.”

“Haven’t you? I have. But this is the first time one has happened to me.”

“I can’t do anything to help you, though, Wyndham.”

“I know you can’t. I just wanted to tell you. I thought you might be interested. Seems to be a perfect example of something or other, if you know what I mean. Me here worrying about a handful of people out of Who’s Who and her floundering away there.”

“How many people know about it?”

“Only the people who knew which plane she was on. The management, Selwyn. None of the company, as far as I know.”

“Couldn’t you just say that she had to postpone her visit?”

“I suppose so. I suppose so. Shall I be seeing you tonight? Are you coming tonight, or are you such a grand wife that you don’t bother to turn up?”

“I’ll be coming. I’m not as grand as all that.”

“Not quite. Would you like me to send you some flowers? A corsage, as they say? I’m sending one to everyone else under the sun, I might as well send you one as well. With a false billet-doux, from your loving uncle? Would you like that?”

“Not at all. It would be highly inappropriate.”