That evening, I raced around looking for William. He wasn’t in the folly or the stables, so I found myself out of breath and knocking on the Dower House door in desperation. Bramley opened it.
“I’m afraid His Lordship is in the midst of losing a game of Scrabb?—”
“Petey?” William appeared behind Bramley—naked, as always, except for his red satin boxer shorts. “What’s up?”
“We need your help,” I puffed.
“Anything at all.” He ushered me past Bramley and into the vestibule, his arm looping around my shoulder. “You look like you’ve had a fright. Is everything OK?”
“I’ve been running. I think working with Indira has killed my lung capacity.”
Bunny’s voice echoed through from another room. “Who is it, darling? Is it my future son-in-law?”
“Oh God,” William said. “Look, I apologise in advance?—”
“William, this is urgent,” I pleaded. “I don’t have ti?—”
Bunny Winters appeared in the doorway in a diaphanous blue dress, gently greying hair piled up on top of her head. There were now rather a lot of us in a vestibule no larger than a lift.
“Do you know, William, I don’t think your lover and I have been formally introduced.”
Lover?
Bunny looked at me, and at her son—her face quizzical. William looked at me, and at his mother. I stood there, looking at them both. Bramley was pretending to polish the doorframe. I didn’t have time for this.
I extended a hand. “Lady Buckford, it is a pleasure to meet you. Sorry I can’t stay to chat. I have an emergency, and I need William’s help?—”
She batted that away with her hand. “William tells me he tried to take you up the Long Water last night.”
“Mum!”
“I’m sorry?” I looked at my watch. Indira was going to kill me.
“It’s my fault,” Bunny went on. “I’d been filling his head with stories about what a wonderful lover his father had been?—”
“You had not!” William protested.
“William was hoping to recreate a little of our magic and kiss you, but he chickened out—” She turned to William. “Didn’t you, darling?”
William was as white as a ghost. I wasn’t far off it myself.
“Be patient with him, Peter.” Bunny’s hand found my chin, her arctic-blue eyes staring directly into mine. “William was a late developer, and he’s always swerved life’s more powerful emotions. But he’s also an incurable romantic at heart. He’ll get there in the end.”
And with that, she drifted away, leaving me totally speechless.
“I amsosorry,” William said.
Bramley was still polishing the same bit of doorframe with his cloth. My walkie-talkie squeaked into life, screaming at me in Scottish.
“Forget it. I need your help,” I said, springing back into action. “Ridhi and Armando have been lost in the hedge maze for the last six hours.”
“That’s awful,” William said.
“Depends how you look at it. Assuming Armando isn’t a total dog, we’re having a wedding tomorrow. Indira’s delighted. But we need you to find them and get them out. Plus five other members of the cast. Plus six of the crew. In fact, everyone who tried to rescue them is still in the maze. We’re meant to be filming a ball in an hour, and there’s practically no one left.”
Bunny’s voice echoed through from the other room. “It’s your turn, William. I’ve just playedJAZZIESTon two triple word scores for four hundred and thirty-seven points.”
William’s face set with the grit and determination of a storybook hero. He bowed slightly, as if accepting his mission.
