“Doesn’t she just.” Rose snapped out the words. Then she turned to look back before drawing closer to us. “Look, I know it isn’t exactly the kind of weather to go exploring but I wanted to get you away from the house, where we can’t be overheard.” Again she glanced around nervously, before she said. “You’ve sensed it, haven’t you?”

“Sensed what?” Belinda asked.

“The house. The atmosphere. That feeling of danger. Of doom.”

“Oh, come on, Rose,” Belinda said. “I admit the house does feel a trifle gloomy, but . . .”

“I’ve felt it since the moment I moved in,” Rose said. “It’s as if I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for doom to strike.”

“From where? What are you afraid of?” I asked.

Rose’s voice lowered to a whisper. We could hardly hear her over the noise of the stream, spilling over a little waterfall. “Jonquil’s death was not an accident,” she said. “I believe she was pushed.”

“What on earth makes you suspect that?” Belinda said.

Rose leaned until she was only inches away from us. “I went to the spot where she fell. Those cliffs are granite. Solid granite. They don’t crumble like chalk or sandstone. And there were marks on the rock that made me think that someone had chipped some chunks away to give the impression that the cliff had crumbled.”

“But who would do such a thing?” I asked. “Did Jonquil have enemies?”

Rose grabbed at my sleeve. “I think it was Tony. Tony killed her.”

“Why on earth would he do that?”

“Jonquil wasn’t exactly the faithful type. She had lovers, you know. And I think she’d fallen out of love with Tony. She probably found he was a bit boring for her taste. You know how she loved excitement. You’d already moved away, Belinda, but the moment she could drive, her parents bought her a fast sports car and she was a menace on the road. She actually killed a child, you know. She claimed the boy darted out after a ball, and that may have been true, but she always drove so fast she couldn’t have stopped.”

“Where did this happen?” I asked.

“In the village of Rock,” Rose said.

“So if you are right that Jonquil was pushed off a cliff, why don’t you think it was one of the child’s relatives, getting revenge?” I asked. “Why are you so sure it was Tony?”

“This is what I have gleaned from asking people,” Rose said. “I think Jonquil wanted a divorce. If that happened, Tony would lose Trewoma. And all the lovely Trefusis money too.”

Belinda shook her head. “I can’t believe it, Rose. Tony would never do a thing like that, surely?”