“Undoubtedly.” He took her hands, and held them comfortingly. “Don't worry, chicken. I don't believe Kenneth did it any more than you do.” He smiled down at her. “Here's one cheering thought for you at least: Mesurier looks like being cleared of all suspicion.”
“Oh, him!” said Antonia. “I'd forgotten about him. He's fed-up with me, by the way. Not that I blame him. I don't think I'll get engaged any more. It doesn't seem to lead anywhere.”
“It will next time,” said Giles. “That I promise you.” He gave her hands a quick squeeze, released them, and ran down the stairs to his car.
Five minutes later he drew up outside a house in a street leading up from the Embankment. It had been converted into two maisonettes, the one on the ground and the first floor having Violet Williams's name on a brass plate beside the door.
He rang the bell, and was presently admitted by a middle-aged woman in a dirty overall. Her method of announcing him was to call out: “Oh, Miss Williams, here's somebody to see you!”
Violet came out of a room at the front of the house. She gave an exclamation of surprise at seeing Giles. “Why, Mr Carrington! I'd no idea! Do come in!”
He followed her into a sitting-room furnished in bleached oak with jade-green curtains and cushions. A table in the bay window had a litter of sketches on it, and the chair, pushed back from it, seemed to indicate that Violet had been working there. Giles said: “I hope I'm not disturbing you. You look as though you were busy.”
“Of course not. Won't you sit down? I apologise for the creature who let you in, by the way! I don't keep a proper maid. She's just a char who comes to clean in the mornings.” She picked up a cigarette-box from a low table by the fireplace, and offered it to him. “Don't think me terribly rude,” she said, smiling, “but what on earth do you want to see me about?”
He struck a match, and held it to the cigarette she had taken from the box. “I'm hoping you will be able to induce Kenneth to behave sensibly,” he answered.
She laughed. “Oh, I'm afraid he's impossible! What has he been up to?”