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billy-o. I wondered what time it was. Half past ten, according to the little alarm clock on my chest of drawers. Then the full details of the previous night came back to me. Oh, Lord, that meant that Binky and Fig were in the house and by now they would have discovered that I had nothing to eat in the kitchen. I scrambled into a jumper and skirt and made my way downstairs, almost as shakily as the night before.
    I was about to push open the baize door that led down to the kitchen and servants’ quarters when I heard voices coming from my right. Binky and Fig were apparently in the morning room.
    “It’s all right for you,” I heard Fig’s voice with teeth chattering just a little. “You can go to your club where you’ll be comfortable enough, but what about me? I can’t stay here.”
    “It’s only for two more nights, old thing,” Binky said. “And it is important that you see that doctor, isn’t it?”
    “I suppose so, but being as cold as this isn’t doing me any good. We’ll just have to check into a hotel and never mind the expense. Surely we can still afford Claridge’s for a couple of nights.”
    “You’ll feel better after a spot of breakfast,” Binky said. “It’s about time Georgie woke up, isn’t it?”
    At that point I poked my head around the door. Both Binky and Fig looked haggard and grumpy, sitting wrapped in their fur coats. They also looked rather unkempt without a maid and a valet to dress them.
    The atmosphere as Fig spotted me was frigid in more ways than one, but Binky managed a smile. “Ah, you’re up at last, Georgie. I say, it’s bally freezing in here, isn’t it? I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a fire?”
    “Later, maybe,” I said. “It takes a lot of work to light a fire, you know. A lot of scrabbling in the coal hole. Perhaps you’d care to help me.”
    Fig shuddered as if I’d said a rude word, but Binky went on, “Then maybe you’d be good enough to cook us a spot of breakfast. That will warm us up nicely, won’t it, Fig?”
    “I was just about to make some tea and toast,” I said.
    “How about a couple of eggs?” Binky asked hopefully.
    “No eggs, I’m afraid.”
    “Bacon? Sausage? Kidneys?”
    “Toast,” I said. “One cannot buy food without money, Binky.”
    “But, I mean to say . . . ,” he sputtered. “Dash it all, Georgie, you haven’t actually been reduced to living on tea and toast, have you?”
    “Where do you think the money might have come from, dear brother? I have no job. I have no inheritance. I have no family support. When Fig says she has no money, she means she can no longer afford Fortnum’s jam. I mean I can’t afford any jam. That’s the difference.”
    “Well, I’m blowed,” Binky said. “Then why the deuce don’t you come back and live at Castle Rannoch? At least we have enough to eat up there, don’t we, Fig?”
    “Your wife made it quite clear that I was one mouth too many,” I said. “Besides, I don’t want to be a burden. I want to make my own way in the world. I want a life of my own. It’s just that it’s so horribly hard at the moment.”
    “You should have married Prince Siegfried,” Fig said. “That’s what girls of your station are supposed to do. That is what your royal relatives wanted you to do. Most girls would have given their right arm to become a princess.”
    “Prince Siegfried is a loathsome toad,” I said. “I intend to marry for love.”
    “Ridiculous notion,” Fig snapped. “And if you’re thinking of your Mr. O’Mara, then you can think again.” Fig was now warming to her subject. “I happen to know that he doesn’t have a penny. The family is destitute. Why, they’ve even had to sell the family seat. There’s no way he’s ever going to be able to support a wife—if he ever intends to settle down, that is. So you’re wasting your time in that direction.” When I didn’t answer her she went on, “It’s all about duty, Georgiana. One knows one’s duty and