‘Will you be staying for lunch? Mrs Bassett would find it helpful to know.’

‘Tell Ma Bassett I wouldn’t miss her lunch for anything.’

Gina smiled. ‘I’ll tell Mrs Bassett.’

She went out with the rest of the clean towels, which she took back to the airing cupboard now they’d served their purpose.

Whoo, that was close.

That afternoon, when it was quiet, Gina added the money she’d stolen from James’s case to her stash stolen from Mrs Thwaite, who’d stolen it from Mrs Stellion. It passed through her mind to wonder where James had got the money from, and if that, too, had been stolen, but apart from his secretiveness she had no real reason to think so. And anyway, he was the Stellions’ beloved son – why would he be a thief?

‘Do you never stop petting that little dog, Gina?’

‘His name’s Coco, as you know, James, and he’s your mother’s little darling – unless that’s you,’ laughed Gina. ‘It’s my job to take him for walks, make sure he’s all nice and clean, and restore him to your mother so they can have a little nap together in the sitting room of an afternoon.’

‘Lucky old Coco. Would Coco mind, d’you think, if I came for a walk with you?’

‘I’ll ask him,’ said Gina, seriously. She bent down, lifted one of Coco’s long silky ears and pretended to whisper. ‘He says he’ll have to show you his best tricks, though.’

‘Can’t wait,’ James replied drily.

‘We’ll do that first, then,’ said Gina, and led Coco on his lead, and James, from the front of the house round to the outbuildings to show off the dog’s high-jumping trick, then had him begging for a dog biscuit.

James was amused. ‘I’m not surprised Mum dotes on the little fellow.’

‘Now he’s used up some spare energy we can have a nice quiet walk,’ said Gina, and set off for the big lawn at the back.

It was three days since the village fête and the grass was showing signs of recovering from the tents and visitors.

‘I’m surprised to find you still here,’ said Gina. ‘Don’t you have business in London?’

‘I do indeed,’ said James, ‘but I’ve had a few things to see to up here, too, though a lot of my business can be arranged with a telephone call or two to the right people.’

‘Yes, I do that, too,’ Gina said. ‘Ordering stuff in from the shops for your mother.’

James laughed loudly at that, which Gina thought rather rude. She felt foolish.

‘Anyway, I may be going back very soon.’

Gina nodded. She’d expected as much. ‘Where do you live in London?’ she asked.

‘Oh, I’ve a place in Pimlico,’ he said. Then, seeing she looked blank: ‘South of the Houses of Parliament.’