“I will never send you away,” she whispered. “I promise with all my heart. But now, Lotti, chérie, I need you to explain. How did you come to be here, alone, with this extraordinary haircut and these strange dirty clothes and your papa’s ring? What has been going on?”

Lotti grinned.

“If I tell, you won’t believe me,” she said. “But first, Moune, there are quite a lot of people I need to introduce you to …”

Hubert Netherbury arrived in Armande as expected, late in the afternoon. Furious to discover that Albert had already left town, he ordered his hotel concierge to fetch him a cab and went straight up to the house on the cliff, still bent on preventing a reunion between Lotti and her grandmother.

Hearing voices from the back of the house, he walked a little farther along the road to peer through the hedge.

In the garden, a party was taking place. On the sofa under the gazebo, he saw Camille St. Rémy, older than when he last saw her at his sister’s funeral but just as formidable, sitting with … Hubert did a double take … Lotti’s tutor from Great Barton.

Both women were looking very serious. Hubert wondered uncomfortably if they were talking about him.

He looked beyond them to the lawn, where a rowdy game of boules was taking place, led by a disheveled but splendid-looking man with an eye patch, and at the heart of the game, dressed disgracefully and with an outrageous new haircut, he saw his niece.

There might be time yet, thought Hubert uncertainly, to get her back. With enough confidence, he could march into the garden and order her away. He was still Lotti’s legal guardian, after all …

From the other side of the hedge, he heard a nasty growl. Looking down, he recognized the horrible little dog he had ordered to be shot at Barton Lacey.

“Shh!” Hubert hissed. “Go! Go away!”

But Federico did not shush, and he did not go away. Instead he began to bark. At the sound, Lotti looked up. Seeing her uncle, she paled. Ben, noticing, came to stand beside her.

“We can thump him if you like,” he whispered. “There’s enough of us.”

But Lotti shook her head. Then, raising her chin, she looked her uncle directly in the eyes.

“That won’t be necessary,” she said with a smile. “I’ve already won.”

EPILOGUE

Ben and Lotti

The party went on late into the evening. Cake and tea gave way to champagne and sandwiches, and now the housekeeper, whose name was Janine, was rifling through the kitchen cupboards with Henri and Clara, looking for something for supper, Frank was asleep on the lawn, and Sam and Moune were playing with the puppies. Lotti and Ben slipped through the hedge with Federico, onto the cliff, where they picked up a path leading through trees to a ledge looking out over the river.