Then, as he stared at the piece of paper he held in his hand, the Viscount groaned,
“So she is dead!”
There was a stark silence for a moment.
And then Freddy blurted out,
“I don’t believe it!”
“What do you mean you don’t believe it?”
“It is too pat and too obvious a solution to your problem.”
“What problem?” the Viscount enquired.
Freddy had risen and was standing with his back to the fireplace as he went on,
“Jemima overhears Niobe saying that she loves you and she believes that you love her. She disappears and she knows that the only way you can be free of her is by her death. So she dies or at least she is determined that we shall think she has!”
“Are you telling me that this letter is a lie?” the Viscount enquired.
Freddy held it out to him.
“Look at it. What do you think i
