She only looked back over her shoulder at Caro once as she raced for the door.

Outside, the ground that had been baked hard that afternoon was now slick with mud. There was no sign of anyone running through the rain on the main driveway up to the house and, given the lights from the windows, Rosalind was almost certain she’d have seen them if there was.

She turned the other way, towards the road, and found Posy racing towards the gates from the back of the house.

‘Where did they go?’ she called to Rosalind. ‘I can’t see them!’

Rosalind shone her torch beam down the road, but there was no sign of anyone out there escaping from Aldermere.

It made no sense. Unless they weren’t running away …

‘The river,’ she said. ‘They must have taken the woods to the river path.’

From there, they could follow the river as it curved around the edges of Aldermere, past the Boat House and the folly, before coming back over the South Lawn and through the gardens. It was dark enough that they could probably make it to the house and in the side door unseen, if they were clever.

And whoever they were chasing, they seemed clever.

‘Caro woke up,’ she told Posy, as they ran for the trees, and the river path. Rosalind knew that Posy would be faster without her, but she didn’t want either of them to be alone in the dark with whoever was out there. ‘She didn’t see who attacked her.’

‘Felicity,’ Posy said, panting. ‘Or Clementine. Felicity was the one who told you about seeing Clementine at the Gate House. Maybe she’s in league with Clementine, and this was a trap all along. But one of them must have hidden out there and waited for us.’

‘Maybe.’ Rosalind couldn’t think through the options right now. Not while her hips ached, and she concentrated on keeping her weight balanced so her bad knee didn’t give way. Not with Caro still bleeding back at the Gate House.

They slid their way down towards the river bank, grateful that she’d brought the torch. It gave them enough light to follow footprints in the mud. Rosalind gritted her teeth and grabbed a tree branch for support as her knee weakened.

God, what was she doing here? What had possessed her to join this strange midnight adventure to the Gate House in the first place? She should have stayed in the library with Hugh, having a nightcap together after everyone had gone to bed. Like they’d done together for years.

‘I think they went this way,’ Posy whispered, nimbly picking her way along the mud and leaf-strewn ground, while Rosalind lumbered behind.