“Oh yeah.” Cleo’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “You thought the security of the barn might have been compromised. Well, it looks as though you were right.” She took a sip of her drink. “Now that I think about it, I’m almost certain I heard the sound of something dropping onto the cobbles when I cannoned into whoever it was earlier. It was a sort of clink, like metal on stone. But everything happened in a rush and I didn’t really register it. Too busy screaming.”

“It looks as though your intruder might have intended to break in,” Lucy said thoughtfully. “But thankfully you scared them off.”

“You’re very calm about it!” Cleo said accusingly. “Hell, Lucy, someone leaves you a bouquet of dead flowers and then they try to break into the barn, but you’re sitting here drinking chocolate?”

“Well, they couldn’t have got in anyway since I’d had the locks changed,” Lucy pointed out, “but I will report it first thing in the morning.” She tightened her grip on the stripy mug and inhaled the rich scent of chocolate. She was nowhere near as calm as she was pretending; the thought of someone trying to get into the house when they were asleep made her feel quite sick and inclined to sit up for the rest of the night with all the lights on.

“Finn thought Persis might have somehow got hold of a key,” she said. “He suspected that she and Charlie might have met up here occasionally. I guess we’re going to have to confront her about that now.”

“Or the police are,” Cleo agreed. “I’m sure that wasn’t Persis tonight, but it might have been her brother. I don’t know—I haven’t met him. Is he six foot two?”

“About that, I suppose,” Lucy said. “Plus he is a smoker. Though why he would want to break in is a bit of a mystery.”

“Yeah,” Cleo agreed. “Despite the bouquet, I can’t imagine either of them would want to kill you. I mean why would they?”

“Thanks for putting that idea into my head,” Lucy said dryly. “I hadn’t thought anyone might want to do me actual bodily harm. Even when I saw the dead flowers it felt like a rather clumsy way of scaring me off rather than anything else.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Cleo said, not sounding quite sure enough to Lucy’s mind.

“Gabriel’s always been pretty hostile about the garden restoration, for some reason,” Lucy said. “So that fits. Plus Hazel mentioned that there was some connection between the Knights Hospitaller and the Catesbys, and the Knights have always been Gabriel’s obsession...” She yawned, rubbing her eyes. “Does any of this add up? I’m so tired I can’t work it out.”

“It does add up if Gabriel was after the book on Robert Catesby,” Cleo said. “That would totally make sense since he and Persis saw you at Chastleton today and might have thought that you’d gone there to pick it up on Finn’s behalf. Gabriel might have waited until he thought you’d gone to bed and then come looking for it. He had the key Persis had got from Charlie—he didn’t know you’d changed the locks. And then I startled him when he was about to sneak in, so he ran away.”