“Bunty dear, do try to be a little more diplomatic in the way you put things,” Lady Hawse-Gorzley said.

“I don’t see why you make such a fuss,” Bunty said, tossing her head. “It’s not as if there are any of the riffraff present, is it? And I think it’s jolly unfair that they don’t allow girls to compete. I was rather good at cross-country running at school.”

“Come and offer advice then, Bunty,” Darcy put an arm around her, then looked back at me. “Are you coming too? We’ll need a cheering section.”

“I thought I might spend some time with my mother and grandfather, if everyone is occupied elsewhere,” I said.

“Splendid idea, Georgiana,” Lady Hawse-Gorzley said. “You’ve hardly had a chance to enjoy your own relatives. Those staying here are planning to play bridge this morning. Mrs. Sechrest can’t survive more than two days without a bridge game, can you, Sandra?” Mrs. Sechrest smiled prettily.

“I’m going with the guys,” Junior Wexler said, breaking away from his mother. “It’s boring seeing old things.”

“And I think I’ll come and join the cheering section,” Cherie Wexler said, her eyes on Darcy. “It might be fun. Are you coming, Ethel?”

“I’d rather sit in a warm motor than stand in the freezing cold,” Ethel Upthorpe said. “There might even be shops open if we go through a town.”

So I waited until the estate car had set off loaded to the gills with sightseers and the young Adonises had gone to their steeplechase training before I headed down the driveway to my mother’s cottage. My mother and Noel Coward were hard at work—at least, Noel was hard at work. My mother was lounging in peacock blue pajamas, a long ebony cigarette holder in her hand, nodding agreement occasionally as he tossed off another line. So Granddad and I decided to go for a walk before lunch.

“The inspector stopped by earlier this morning,” Granddad said. “It seems that they’ve arrested that Wild Sal person. Caught her going back to that hovel she lives in up on the moor last night. Said she put up a terrible fight, like a wild animal.”

I nodded. For some reason there was a lump in my throat and I couldn’t speak. She had almost certainly saved my life by warning me away from the bog. And I couldn’t help wondering what she had been like before and what it must be like to live apart and have absolutely nobody in the world. Perhaps I identified with her a little.