Murder Most Royal

‘Don’t tell me it was “S-i-n-c-e—”

‘Yes it was,’ she said crossly, tapping a nail on the leather-topped desk in front of her.

‘Have I taught you nothing about the British upper classes? Think “Chumley”.’

‘Is it “Saint” Something?’

‘Exactly. S-t C-y-r.’ He spelled it out for her. ‘It’s the family name of Baron Mundy. They’re based at Ladybridge Hall. It’s a lovely place with a moat, not very large, about a forty-minute drive from you. The Mundys are ancient Norfolk aristocracy. They were first ennobled by King John in the thirteenth century,’ he went on.

Of course, Sir Simon, the amateur historian, would know. ‘He was the king who famously lost the Crown Jewels in the Wash. Why?’

‘Why what?’ Rozie asked. She was still thinking about the Crown Jewels, lost at sea, a bit like the hand with the signet ring.

‘Why d’you need to know?’

‘Nothing to worry about,’ she said firmly. It was true: the recent discovery was hardly the Private Office’s business.

Now she had the name right, the police could take care of it.

‘Nothing is ever nothing to worry about,’ Sir Simon countered, unhelpfully. Rozie couldn’t hear the clinking glasses in the background anymore. He had gone somewhere quiet to concentrate. She reluctantly explained about the hand and the ring.

‘Oh, Lord,’ he said. ‘How grotesque.’ He was silent for a minute, contemplating the news. ‘Was it literally just the hand? No sign of any other body parts?’

‘Be very careful, Rozie.

’ He was suddenly deadly serious. ‘Keep the Boss out of it, whatever it takes.’

‘Absolutely,’ she agreed, crossing her fingers. Rozie knew that keeping the Boss out of anything the Boss wanted to be into was very unlikely, regardless of what she did or didn’t do. Sir Simon didn’t know Her Majesty in quite the way she did. ‘She mentioned that the victim was a baron’s grandson.’

‘Not this baron,’ Sir Simon said. ‘Distant cousin, I think.

However, we should probably call Ladybridge Hall; let Lord Mundy know.’

‘Why?’ Rozie asked. ‘If he’s a distant cousin?’

‘He’s a friend of the Boss. And family’s family. He won’t want to hear this on the news and then find out the identification came from someone at Sandringham and we didn’t tell him first.’

After a brief call to her contact at the Norfolk constabulary HQ to update them on the identity, Rozie called Ladybridge Hall.