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‘You weren’t in a state to hear it,’ Jem pointed out. ‘I locked the door.’
‘Right.’ Nicky massaged the bridge of his nose. ‘Could we set my histrionics aside for the moment and concentrate on discovering who is bent on harming you? And has tried to do so twice, since we must assume this is a sequel to the oil incident, about which we havealsodone nothing yet because of me. I am going to do better by you, I swear.’
‘Start by putting the kettle on,’ Jem suggested.
They were drinking tea when a rapping knock sounded, so familiar that they both said, ‘Aaron.’ Nicky went to answer the door, and Ella and Aaron entered in a blast of fog and chilly air. Jem rose, mumbled greetings were exchanged, and then they all looked at each other.
‘Well,’ Ella said. ‘Is there tea in the pot?’
Jem went to refill the kettle while Aaron and Ella took off coats and hats and scarves, and claimed their sofa of the previous night. Jem thought they sat a fraction closer than before.
They all took a mug of tea. Nicky looked around and said, ‘Is everyone else paralysed by a sense of déjà vu?’
‘I expect someone to burst in complaining about tutorials at any moment,’ Ella offered, and winced, becauseTobyhung in the air unspoken.
‘They probably will,’ Jem tried. ‘Nicky is one ofthosetutors.’
Ella smiled a little at that. ‘Of course he is.’
‘We’d expect nothing less,’ Aaron said. ‘I missed you, all of you. This is the devil’s own reunion, but I’m glad you did it, Jem.’
‘So am I,’ Nicky said. ‘For good or ill, and against all common sense.’
‘He always was obstinate,’ Aaron said. ‘We need to talk about what happened last night, Jem. You were violently attacked, and you said that was the second time. Of course the, uh, the obvious culprit…’
‘It wasn’t Nicky,’ Jem said. ‘The chap who attacked me put his hand over my face and it didn’t feel like Nicky’s. Also, I bit him jolly hard.’
Nicky extended pale, unmarked palms, which allowed Jem a moment to recover from having announced his familiarity with Nicky’s touch. ‘Moreover, it was the second incident,’ Nicky added. ‘Someone poured oil on the stairs outside his second-floor room. Without prejudice, would either of you know anything about that?’
Aaron narrowed his eyes, but said only, ‘It was not us.’
‘You can only assert that it wasn’t you,’ Ella said. ‘It could have been me.’
‘Was it?’
‘No. Is it possible the attacker was a lunatic of the letter-writing type?’
‘You might think anyone lunatic enough to attack me would have had something to say about it,’ Jem said. ‘But he didn’t speak at all. Which raises the question of whether I would have recognised his voice.’
The others exchanged glances. Ella said, ‘Yes, but if it wasn’t Nicky, or Aaron, and Hugo isn’t eveninOxford?—’
‘Yes, he is. He came down two days ago.’
‘What’s he doing here with Balfour’s resignation expected any day?’ Ella demanded.
‘That’s what Nicky said. But he arrived the same day you did, after receiving my letter,’ Jem said. ‘And he was still here yesterday afternoon.’
‘What for?’ Aaron demanded. ‘It can’t be related. Nobody ever suspected him of Toby’s murder and now we know for a fact that he didn’t do it.’
‘But my letter wasn’t an accusation of murder,’ Jem said. ‘What I said was that, before his death, Toby had intended to lay accusations of a serious crime against a fellow student.’
‘So you did,’ Ella said. ‘And that brought Hugo here?’
‘He said he was on his father’s business, but he sought me out twice to talk. He said that I was under sustained nervous strain and needed a long break in the country for my health.’
‘He visited me to make the same observation,’ Nicky said. ‘He seemed extremely keen that I should not think Jem reliable. What are you leading up to?’
Jem took a deep breath. ‘The person who burgled my room stole my notebook while he was at it.’
