‘He will.’

‘I’ll cover your back as best I can but—’

‘I’m not asking you to do that.’

‘You of all people know what he’s like, Kate. He’s already withholding more from the management committee. I don’t think he actually trusts any of us.’ Rose stared out at the gathering darkness. ‘I was trying to find a way to tell you this, but he’s attempting to block Lena’s sister and her new adoptive parents coming here.’

‘He can’t.’ Lena was the nanny Kate had recruited to put the bug on the super-yacht in Istanbul and she’d taken her death hard. Saving her sister from the dismal life that awaited her in Belgrade was the last promise she’d made to the girl before her murder.

‘He can. I cleared the finance with the management committee before Alan left. I’d sent the authorization to Erna in Belgrade and the wheels were being set in motion. I was going to tell you just before they arrived, in case you wanted to form a welcoming committee, but this morning Ian put a block on it.’

‘Why?’

‘His ostensible reason is a budget shortfall and he doesn’t want to have to ask Number Ten for a subvention. But the real reason is that he thinks it was your “mess” and he doesn’t see why he should pay to clean it up when there are so many other financial pressures.’ Rose stood. ‘Look, I’ll suggest a meeting between the three of us and Sir Alan. Ian will find it more difficult to refuse if we act as a concerted bloc.’ She kissed her niece’s head tenderly. ‘I’m sure you know what you’re doing, but please be careful.’ She fastened her raincoat and disappeared into the gloom.

Kate was very far from certain that she did know what she was doing and she had a keen sense that Rose, of all people, understood that.

She steeled herself and approached the lion’s den.

Lucy was in one of her increasingly rare moments of lucidity. ‘That woman is a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted bitch.’

Kate sighed. ‘Which woman?’

‘Rose, of course. Who else could I possibly mean?’

Oh, boy, the list is long, Kate thought. ‘You mean your sister-in-law and my aunt,’ she said. ‘The one person who’s helped keep me sane this past year. Brilliant.’

Lucy leant forward. ‘Can’t you see what she’s doing?’

‘You mean showing a degree of forbearance, selflessness and love?’

‘She’s trying to replace me.’

And doing a bloody good job of it, Kate thought. ‘She’s always been fond of us all. She’s never forgotten the promise she made after Dad died. So she’s—’

‘She wants me out of the way so she can finally claim you exclusively as the daughter she never had.’

And it would be the least she bloody deserves. ‘I’m going to have to ask you to stop this now.’

‘I never liked her. Was it my fault she and that stupid millionaire husband couldn’t have children? She always wanted to get her claws into you—’