"Lady Valerie Woodchester, to be exact. All I know about her is that she picked all my most expensive things and didn't miss once."
"Did either of them tell you how the fire started?"
She shook her head.
"They didn't know. It's an old house, but it had modern automatic fire alarms. All they could tell me was that the alarms went off and everyone came tumbling out of bed. There seems to have been a good deal of confusion. Lady Sangore put the whole thing down to the Communists — but then if she drops a stitch when she's knitting, she puts it down to the Communists. Valerie Woodchester was very peeved because the young Guardsman insisted on rescuing her without giving her time to put on a dressing gown. That's all I got out of her."
"Did you talk to anyone else?"
"Well, that man you were talking to—"
"Luker?"
"Yes. He said he thought it must have been a short circuit in the lighting system. But I couldn't pay much attention while you were in there. You know. I was too busy worrying about whether you were enjoying yourself."
The Saint chuckled absently.
"It was a bit dull at times," he said.