‘Besides, what’s to say she didn’t come back?’ There was something about the confident way Felicity folded her arms across her chest, that told Caro this wasn’t a guess.

‘When did you see her?’ she asked. ‘And where?’

‘When I was in the China Room that afternoon,’ Felicity admitted. ‘I slipped out of the film panel to hide the magnifying glass because I figured the house would be quiet.’

‘She was in the house?’ Rosalind sat up straighter, and cast a surprised look Caro’s way.

Felicity shook her head. ‘No. I saw her out of the window. She was walking towards the Gate House from the river. I figured she must have ditched the car by the woods then headed across the river and hidden out at the Gate House until it was time to sneak up and poison Marcus’s coffee – probably disguised as one of the waitresses. I mean, if he really was murdered.’

‘You had quite a complex plan figured out for not believing he was murdered,’ Rosalind observed.

Felicity shrugged. ‘I like mysteries, and finding solutions to them.’

‘Doesn’t everybody here this weekend?’ Caro leaned forward and looked Felicity in the eye. ‘But I’ll tell you one thing. Dahlia Lively would never try to frame or shame another person for her own entertainment. And I think you know that.’

She watched the red flush up Felicity’s neck to her cheeks before Caro stood and turned for the door, knowing that Rosalind was right behind her.

‘So, what now?’ Rosalind murmured, as they left the room.

‘We need to search the Gate House.’ If Clementine had been there, she’d have left a clue, or something. And Caro was the person to find it. ‘Come on. Let’s find Posy.’

Chapter Twenty-One

‘The important thing to remember, Bess, is that a cornered criminal is a dangerous one,’ Dahlia whispered, as they approached the building, the sense of dread building all around them.

Dahlia Lively in A Lively Take on Life

By Lettice Davenport, 1931

Before they could do more than fill a waiting Posy in on the basics, they had to get through another dinner.

‘If we could all take our seats, please?’ Isobel’s usual bright smile looked a little testy, Caro thought, as she and Rosalind slid back into the room. ‘We have been waiting rather a long time for this meal to start already.’

Caro found herself sitting next to Harry and Heather, who pointedly ignored her and tried to start a conversation with Kit and Libby across the table, which was fine by her. She settled back for some people watching, instead.