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service.”
    “Or to dress appropriately,” I added. “That would matter to her.”
    “I hadn’t considered that possibility. Nevertheless, Morton was in a Wiltshire regiment that was depleted, and it was combined with ours. It could have caused friction between the two men.”
    “But Julia told me he was in the Royal Engineers.”
    “Sabrina could have lied to her. Wasn’t he an actor, and not a very good one at that? Attached to a third-rate touring company that barely stayed one step ahead of the bailiffs? I shouldn’t put it past him to tell his wife what she wanted to hear.”
    “My mother told me once that he reminded her of the snake charmers in India, luring unsuspecting girls out of their homes the way the snake charmer lured the cobra out of its basket.”
    “Depend upon your mother to make an apt comparison.”
    “What am I to do now?”
    “Nothing. Let me explore several avenues, and see what I can discover. London has sent for me, and I’m on my way there now. Give me a few days to attend to that, and I’ll be back in touch.” We had nearly reached the house in our walk. “I wouldn’t make too much of this yet, Bess,” he warned me. “But Morton might not have passed up a chance to rid himself of his brother-in-law.”
    “I’m torn,” I admitted. “I’d rather not have to tell Julia that her husband was murdered.”
    “Remember that you’re the only other person to have seen that body,” Simon reminded me. “Take care. At this stage, I’m damned glad you aren’t in France.”
    I sighed. “There’s that. All right. Be safe, Simon, whatever it is that London wants. Is my father summoned as well?”
    “I won’t know until I get there.”
    And he was gone, in a hurry to reach London because he had already taken precious time to come and speak to me.
    I watched his motorcar out of sight, then turned to find the Yank standing in the doorway behind me.
    “The family friend Mr. Brandon, I presume? Why isn’t he at the Front?”
    “It’s a long story,” I said. “And not for your ears.”
    He followed me inside. “Sorry, I was more than a little jealous. You don’t hang on my every word the way you hang on his.”
    I turned. “Did you just arrive with news of my family?”
    “I did not. I misjudged the visit. Why do I seem always to be apologizing to you?”
    “Because you tend not to look before you leap,” I retorted, and left him standing there.
    On my next free afternoon, I once more asked Dr. Gaines to allow me to borrow his motorcar.
    He didn’t quiz me on my skills as a driver—apparently he’d received a good report from Captain Barclay—but again he insisted that I take an escort with me.
    And once more it was the American Captain waiting for me at the door when I came down from changing into a fresh uniform.
    “Where to this time?”
    I glanced over my shoulder, but no one was within hearing. “We’re going to see one of the wonders of Britain. Cheddar Gorge. It’s a deep natural ravine slashed through stone. Amazing, really. I’ll drive the length of it and show you. But first there’s someone I’d like very much to visit.”
    “Another widow of an officer in your father’s old regiment?” There was an undercurrent of suspicion in his voice, as if I found that to be a handy excuse for my assignations.
    “The family of a man I served with just before I was taken ill. He’s dead.” I had to smile to myself at the thought of the Captain feeling jealous of Private Wilson.
    But he only nodded as we set off down the drive, as if time would tell.
    As the crow flew, Cheddar Gorge was not all that far from Longleigh House, but the crow didn’t always fly the way the road makers went. It was a twisting, turning route that led us to where we were going.
    The Gorge is some three miles long, narrow at some points, wider at others, with towering limestone ramparts on either side. Quite a spectacular drive, really, through a place where it was said early cave