I wondered again whether Rose had possibly happened upon Tony going into Belinda’s room earlier when she was supposed to be making cocoa. But she couldn’t have. I’d been in the corridor and no one else was around.

“If it wasn’t you, then who could it be?” Rose said, her face now bright red with anger.

“I wish I knew,” Belinda replied.

“It could have been an outsider,” I said. “Belinda’s window was open when she had closed it earlier. Perhaps someone climbed in and killed Tony.”

“Who happened to be lying naked on another woman’s bed?” Rose spat out the words. “Oh, come on, Georgiana. Face facts. Look, I don’t know your friend the way you do, but perhaps she’s one of those women who lure men to their beds and then get a kick out of killing them. All I know is that my husband is dead and I don’t know what will happen to me or to Trewoma.”

“It wasn’t long ago that you told us you were afraid he was going to kill you,” I said quietly. “How do we know you didn’t decide to kill him first?”

“Well, that’s stupid, isn’t it?” Rose said. “I was at the other end of the house, downstairs in the kitchen, trying to get the blasted stove to light. If you want to check, ask the kitchen maid about the mess I left when the milk boiled over. I made a half-hearted attempt to clean it up, but then I thought why bother? I’m mistress of this house, aren’t I?” And she gave a bitter little laugh. “Mistress of this house.” She stopped talking as Mrs. Mannering came in.

“Oh, Mrs. Summers. There you are. The inspector would like a word with you when you’ve had breakfast.”

Rose sighed. “I don’t feel like eating anything. I’ll take a cup of coffee and go through to him now.”

“You must eat,” Mrs. Mannering said. “You need to keep your strength up at a time like this.” She went over to Rose and put a hand on her arm. “We’ll get through this somehow. I’m here. I’ll take care of you now.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Mannering,” Rose said.

What remarkable transformations happen after a death, I thought. Rose had talked of her husband wanting to kill her and now was playing the grieving and vengeful wife and Mrs. Mannering had clearly shown her disgust for having to take orders from a lower-class girl and now was mothering her.

Rose and Mrs. Mannering went off. We went into the morning room to read the newspapers. As yet there was no news of Tony’s murder. At least that was one small blessing. I supposed news took a long time to travel up from Cornwall.

The morning passed and we saw no one.