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not kept you fed and entertained?"
    Anne stood up, looking for her own mantle. "I have thought this over, and I've decided you will have to investigate Uncle Edgar's death alone. I refuse to associate with your nephew."
    "Sit down, Anne," Nellwyn said sternly. "You have not heard me out."
    Anne frowned. Then she obeyed.
    "Lady Kingaim has suffered a second fall," Nellwyn explained, looking her age in the candlelight. "She has been confined to a wheelchair. If this tragedy is not unfortunate enough, my solicitor has just discovered that Edgar withdrew a major part of his wealth from their Lombard Street bank before his death."
    "Blackmail, do you think?" Patrick asked.
    Nellwyn sank down into her chair. "I have no idea, but we cannot allow her to die destitute, can we?"
    "Indeed, we cannot," he said heartily, rubbing his big hands together. "When do we leave?"
    "Anne?" Nellwyn said, cocking her head. "Are you in agreement with me? Could you live with yourself knowing you had done nothing to right a possible injustice against an invalid, if not a crime?"
    "Verra well phrased, Auntie Nellwyn," Patrick said. "Of course our Anne is in agreement. How could anyone refuse to help a defenseless widow?"
    Anne glared at him. "I can speak for myself, thank you, Patrick. Nellwyn, you know you can depend on me, but I simply have no wish to return to the Highlands, or to stay at Balgeldie House with him."
    "He is a part of the plan," Nellwyn said, unperturbed.
    "What plan am I a part of?" Patrick asked, eager to be on his aunt's side if it meant staying with Anne.
    "The plan to unmask Edgar's murderer while we pretend to host the annual shooting party," Nellwyn explained. "Anne and David held a yearly ball and house party at harvest end for their neighbors and friends. In the past two years, Anne has been gracious enough to continue the tradition in absentia."
    "I was in mourning," Anne said. "I knew David would have wanted the tradition to go on. He loved the Burning of the Water best when everyone went fishing at midnight on the loch."
    "Which was precisely when the murderer struck last year," Nellwyn said.
    Anne rubbed the gooseflesh that rose on her forearms. "We don't even know there is a murderer, do we?"
    "The doctor's report of autopsy claims Edgar died of a heart seizure," Nellwyn admitted. "But that does not explain the rumors that have circulated in the village ever since."
    Patrick laid his head back on the sofa. "Such as?"
    "Such as Edgar never appeared at the ball before he went fishing." Nellwyn paused for effect. "Such as one of the gillies in attendance swore he saw a body being dragged by two people into a boat a few hours earlier. Of course, later he admitted it could have been a group of drunken guests in high spirits."
    Anne sighed. "I don't know that that signifies anything of a suspicious nature. David had to drag me into our boat once."
    "Were you drunk?" Patrick asked curiously.
    "Indeed, I was not. I was pregnant. The rocking motion of the boat made me sick to my stomach, and I could not bear the smell of fish."
    "I guarantee that Edgar was not pregnant," Nellwyn said. "And what of his missing money? It may not seem a large sum to you or me, but it is to a helpless invalid, and the man was a known spendthrift."
    "I say we leave immediately to investigate," Patrick said. "We cannot solve anything on a sofa."
    Nellwyn nodded. "I have already reserved our passage on a pleasure steamer."
    "Let us not act in haste," Anne said. "In the first place, why should we assume the murderer will be waiting conveniently for us to catch him? Has he killed again?"
    "Who knows?" Nellwyn said.
    Anne frowned. "What if he has fled the country?"
    "What if he is deciding to make you his next victim at this very moment?" Nellwyn countered.
    "Me?" Anne said, turning pale. "Why me?"
    Patrick raised his head. "I shall take care of you, Anne, should the need arise. Don't worry. That is precisely what I'm here for."
    "Quite possibly there is not