“I don’t know,” I said. “I think she could just have managed it physically if she ran up the servant’s staircase, but I was a bit out of breath when I went up those stairs. If she’d had to kill her husband in his bath, lift him into a wagon she had previously hidden nearby, drag him the length of a hall and arrange him on a bed, then go back the same way and appear with a mug of cocoa in her hands she would at least be breathing heavily. And she wasn’t. She sounded quite relaxed when she came up the main staircase toward us.”

“Interesting,” Darcy said. “Do you think she might have enlisted someone’s help? She was a cook’s daughter, after all. Might she have been chummy with one of the servants? Actually brought them in for this very purpose?”

“It’s a good point,” I said. “The housekeeper has been with the family for ages—she used to be Jonquil’s nursemaid, I gather, and she doesn’t approve of Rose—getting above her station, you know. I tried to talk to one of the maids. She’s a young local girl. Her brother works in the garden. The footman is another young local lad. I haven’t met anyone else. There could be another gardener or chauffeur or someone. I do know that the staff were replaced not too long ago. The old faithful retainers were all let go.”

“There you are, then. That gives us a good lead to follow. I’ll try and get in touch with a chap I know at Scotland Yard.”

“There is already an inspector from the Yard here,” I said. “His name is Watt.”

“Watt?”

“Precisely. Belinda and I laughed about it.” I sighed. “Oh dear. Poor Belinda. We must do something quickly, Darcy.”

“I’ll do what I can, but obviously I don’t have much time at the moment. I’m a guest at a house party with some pretty interesting people. And if I don’t want to wind up floating in the river like old Harry, I have to tread rather carefully.”

I touched his cheek. “Oh, Darcy. Please be careful.”

“I’m always careful,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. You have enough on your plate.”

“But if these people are smuggling guns . . . Do you think you should go back before you are missed?”

“Before daylight, yes,” he said. “But before I brave the murky ocean I’m not going to waste the chance of being in bed with my wife.”

And after that we didn’t talk for quite a while.

Chapter 29

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20

IN TRURO

Things are finally happening! It’s so wonderful to know that Darcy is close by.