“Them policemen who came to the house,” he said. “They weren’t looking for me, were they? I didn’t mean no harm.”

“No, they weren’t looking for you,” Belinda said. “Why, what have you done?”

“I didn’t mean no harm by it, did I? It was there. No one wanted it.” He looked warily around. “She said she’d have the police on me and they’d lock me up,” he said, sounding close to tears. “But I never said nothing, I promise. I told her I wouldn’t and I didn’t. Even though I saw what I saw. . . . But when those policemen came today, I thought . . .”

“There’s been a death at the house,” Belinda said. “Nothing to do with you.”

“A death? Accidental, you mean? Not another . . .”

“Another murder?” I asked.

He shot me a look of pure panic. “I didn’t say nothing.” And he turned and blundered back into the bushes, leaving us alone.

“That was strange,” Belinda said. “I wonder what he knows. He was really frightened, wasn’t he? I wonder why someone threatened to call the police on him in the first place.”

“Do you think he saw Tony push Jonquil?” Belinda asked. “He said he saw what he saw. He’s skulking around the grounds all the time.”

“But he said ‘her,’ not ‘him,’ didn’t he?”

“You know how it is in Cornwall,” Belinda said. “They get their pronouns muddled up all the time. And inanimate objects are given a sex too.”

“All the same . . .” My brain was examining various possibilities. It was more likely that he had seen Jonquil with one of her lovers. Didn’t someone mention something about docking a boat and Jonquil going down to join him for the night? Seeing them would have shocked an old countryman like him. And Jonquil might have threatened him if he told Tony.

We returned to the house to find that tea had been laid out in the gallery. There was no sign of the policemen nor of Rose. The fresh air had given both of us the appetite we had lacked all day and I noticed that Belinda set upon the watercress sandwiches and slices of plum cake as readily as I did. The time was approaching when one would normally go up to change for dinner.

“What do you think we should do?” I asked Belinda. “I am certainly not going to wear Jonquil’s evening dress tonight. If Rose is not coming down, why don’t we ask Mrs. Mannering if we can just have a simple supper instead of a formal meal?”

“Oh yes. Good idea,” Belinda said. She walked toward the bellpull, and was reaching up when a voice from the doorway said, “May I assist you young ladies with something?”

And Mrs. Mannering stood there, impassive as ever.