I shrugged. “I thought she was just being overdramatic at the time. Living cut off from the world she knew in a house like Trewoma can certainly play tricks on the mind. She is suddenly mistress of a big house, with a housekeeper who clearly disapproves of her. She’s lost a baby recently. She is lonely without any friends or family. Personally I tend to believe that Jonquil’s death was a tragic accident and that Tony inviting Rose to sail or ride horses was just trying to get her to embrace her new lifestyle.”

“So you don’t think she killed him?” Belinda asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t see how she could have. Besides, you saw her face when she realized he had been killed. She was shocked and then angry, and I don’t believe she was acting.”

We had reached the entrance to the little dell and the path that ran down to the beach.

“Shall we go down here again?” Belinda said. “It was quite interesting, wasn’t it? And we didn’t have a proper chance to examine the plants once Rose started pouring out her secrets to us.”

“All right,” I said, with a slight hesitation. I was remembering those huge leaves, like giant food trays, looming over us in such a strangely menacing way. But I followed as she started down the narrow path. The little stream had increased in size from last night’s rain and now rushed and tumbled over rocks, overflowing its banks in places. The air smelled damp and heavy, like going through a tropical greenhouse. It felt hard to breathe.

Suddenly I thought I heard a movement behind us, maybe the crack of a twig or the swish of a branch. I touched Belinda’s arm. “Someone is following us,” I whispered.

Belinda turned and stared. We both waited, holding our breaths. I didn’t want to say that I thought it was stupid to come down here in the first place when there was a killer on the loose. I looked around for a weapon—a rock from the streambed? A dead branch?

Then there was a flapping and a pigeon flew out of a bush. Belinda looked at me and we exchanged a relieved smile.

All the same I was glad when we saw the glint of water ahead of us and came down the steps to the little beach. Except there wasn’t much beach to be seen. The tide was now coming in and the water lapped at the cliffs on either side, leaving just a few feet of shingle between us and the steps. We could see the green slopes of the opposite shore, but the cliffs of the little bay cut off the view up or down the estuary. It felt horribly hemmed in and wasn’t a pleasant place to linger.