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parlor, the telephone rang. Pitt answered it.

"It is Emily, for you," he said from the doorway.

Charlotte went into the hall and took the instrument. "Yes?"

"Stephen Garrick is not at home." Emily's voice was strange and a little tinny over the wires. "No one has seen him for several days, and the butler says he could not inform Mr. Jamieson when he would return. Charlotte... it looks as if he has disappeared as well. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know." Charlotte found her hand shaking. "Not yet..."

"But we'll do something, won't we?" Emily said after a second. "It looks serious, doesn't it? I mean... more serious than a valet losing his job?"

"Yes," Charlotte said a little huskily. "Yes, it does."

CHAPTER FOUR

ON THE DAY THAT CHARLOTTE undertook to help Gracie, and thus Tilda, Pitt returned to Narraway's office and found him pacing the floor, five steps and then turn, another five, and back again. He spun around as Pitt opened the door. His face was pinched and tired, his eyes too bright. He stared at Pitt questioningly.

Pitt closed the door behind himself and remained standing. "Ryerson was there," he said bluntly. "He doesn't deny it. He helped her move the body and he didn't attempt to call the police. She hasn't said that, but he will if the police ask him. He'll protect her, at his own cost."

Narraway said nothing, but his body seemed to become even more rigid, as if Pitt's words had layers of meaning deeper than the facts they knew.

"Her story doesn't make sense," Pitt went on, wishing Narraway would answer, say anything at all to make the talking easier. But Narraway seemed to be so charged with emotion that he was unable to exercise his usual incisive leap of intelligence. He was waiting for Pitt to lead.

"If she had no involvement, why would she try to move the body?" Pitt continued. "Why not call the police, as anyone else would?"

Narraway glared at him, his voice cracking when he spoke. "Because she set up the situation. She wanted to be caught. She might even have been the one who called the police. Have you considered that?"

"To incriminate herself?" Pitt said with total disbelief.

Narraway's face was twisted with bitterness. "We haven't come to trial yet. Wait and see what she says then. So far, if Talbot's telling the truth, she hasn't said anything at all. What if she turns around and, with desperate reluctance, admits that Ryerson shot Lovat in a jealous rage?" His voice mimicked savagely the tone he imagined she would use. "She tried to conceal it, because she loves him and felt guilty for having provoked him-she knew he had an uncontrollable temper-but she cannot go on protecting him any longer, and will not hang for him." His look challenged Pitt to prove him wrong.

Pitt was stunned. "What for?" he asked, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, hideous possibilities danced before him, violent, personal, political.

Narraway's stare was withering. "She's Egyptian, Pitt. Cotton comes to mind to begin with. We've got riots in Manchester over prices already. We want them down, Egypt wants them up. Ever since the American Civil War cut off our supply from the South and we've had to rely on Egypt, the balance has been different. European industry is catching up with us and we need the empire not only to buy from but to sell to."

Pitt frowned. "Don't we buy most of Egypt's cotton anyway?"

"Of course we do!" Narraway said impatiently. "But a bargain that leaves one side unhappy serves neither in the end, because it doesn't last. Ryerson is one of the few men who can both see further than a couple of years ahead and negotiate an agreement that will leave both the Egyptian growers and the British weavers feeling as if they have gained something." His face tightened. "Apart from that, there's Egyptian nationalism, and for God's sake we don't want to send the gunboats in again! We've bombarded Alexandria once in the last twenty years." He ignored Pitt's wince. "And there's religious fervor," he went on. "I hardly need to remind you of the uprising in the Sudan?"

Pitt did not reply; everyone remembered the siege of Khartoum and the murder of General Gordon.

"Other than that," Narraway finished, "personal profit, or common or gender hatred. Do you need more?"

"Then we need to learn the truth before it comes to trial," Pitt answered. "But I don't know that it will help."

"You must make