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fire; so by all means adopt it.’
    At lunch that day with kind but slightly cynical amusement de Richleau listened while Richard, with somewhat forced gaiety, put forward his plan for Marie Lou, Fleur and himself to tour central Italy, then invited Truss to join them.
    Truss accepted with alacrity, but Fleur remained silent for a moment, her full mouth taking on a sulky line. Then she said, ‘If you all want to go and stare at a hundred and ten Madonnas suckling an overweight infant, by all means do. But Grandpa Greyeyes invited us for a month and I’m staying here.’

5

It Could Have Been Murder
    At Fleur’s unequivocal declaration one of those silences that can be felt descended on those round the table. Marie Lou had long since given up the unequal struggle of arguing with her daughter and Richard, equally aware of the futility of endeavouring to persuade her to change her mind, forbore to comment. She was their only child, and for her he had the great fondness of a naturally affectionate man, but at times she drove him to a frenzy. With difficulty he suppressed an angry retort and concentrated viciously on the contents of his plate. And there, with the old Duke having difficulty in suppressing mild mirth at their discomfiture, the matter was dropped.
    That evening Truss again managed to get Fleur on her own for a few minutes, and he said, ‘Look, honey. I appreciate your not rating Italian Masters all that interesting, but how about us? Surely you must be feeling pretty good again by now, and I’m just aching to do this and that with you again. How about tonight?’
    She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Truss. Really, I am not in the mood. And, after all, you have no reason to complain even if we never do again. In fact you owe me quite a lot. I’ve initiated you into what are called the “mysteries of sex”, and next time you feel like going to bed with a girl you’ll be able to put up a good performance.’
    â€˜Do you… d’you mean,’ he gasped, ‘that you don’t mean to let me again, ever?’
    â€˜I didn’t say that,’ she hedged. ‘And we had great fun while it lasted, but … Well, at the moment my mind is on other things.’
    â€˜It’s on Douglas,’ he snapped, seizing her by the shoulders. ‘That’s the truth, isn’t it? You’ve fallen for that slick Douglas. Oh God, Fleur! How could you! Surely you wouldn’t——’
    â€˜Of course not!’ She broke away and glared at him angrily. ‘But he’s got a brain ten times the size of yours. And since you insist on the truth, you’ve become an unwanted third as far as going about with us is concerned. I want to find out much more about him; things he wouldn’t tell me in front of you. Tomorrow I thought we’d hire a boat and go sailing. If you’ve any gratitude for what I’ve given you, you’ll make some excuse to stay in the town and let us go off on our own.’
    â€˜Very well,’ he said dully. ‘If that’s the way you want it. The sooner you’ve gotten over swapping life-stories with that so-and-so, the better I’ll be pleased.’ By mutual consent they turned and walked back in silence to join the others.
    Next morning Fleur carried out her plan. With the best grace Truss could muster he said he wanted to have another look round the Museum, and the other two put off in a small boat into the blue bay. For a couple of hours he strolled listlessly about the galleries, regarding with unseeing eyes primitive stone carvings of lions and human torsos, broken pottery and beautiful Byzantine mosaics, while brooding about Fleur and wondering moodily whether the absorbed interest she showed in Douglas could really be explained in any other way than that she had fallen for him.
    Admittedly they had said that the time of their return must be governed by wind and tide, but as it was