"You?" she choked. "You've got it? But - but how did you know it existed? Where did you find it?"
He smiled. "I took it out of a drawer in a certain tallboy. Didn't you guess?"
She shook her head hopelessly. "I thought Collins had it. I never thought of you. Did you know where it was?"
"No, but I followed you up from the hall when you first went to find it. When you were scared off by Collins, I went to investigate the drawer. Dawson's half of the will was in it. It confirmed all my suspicions."
"Where were you?" she demanded. "I never saw you! It seems unbelievable. I made sure Collins had got back to the tallboy before I could reach it!"
"I was behind the long curtains in the archway. When you and Collins came along the corridor together I beat a strategic retreat into the nearest bedroom. Very simple."
She blinked at him. "Was it? But how could you have known who I was? Lady Matthews hadn't set eyes on me, so it couldn't have been she who told you."
He was interested at that. "Aunt Marion? Do you mean to tell me she knows?" She nodded. "In fact, you confided in her rather than in me."
She found herself oddly anxious to refute this accusation. "No, indeed I didn't! She knew as soon as she saw me. She only told me today when I when I asked her to send you to see me. I'm very like my father, you know. She recognised me."
"Did she?" Amberley gave a chuckle. "Very acute, is Aunt Marion. My suspicions were aroused by a certain portrait hanging on the corridor at the manor. A most striking resemblance. But all this isn't telling me what I want to know: what have you done with your half?"