“Tell me, Rafa, have you left a girlfriend back in Buenos Aires?” Clementine looked down at her plate, hoping Rafa wasn’t about to declare that he was already married with children.
“No,” he said with a smile. “I am not attached.”
“We’d better not advertise that fact,” said Grey, “or we’ll have all the girls from Dawcomb suddenly wanting to learn how to paint.”
“So long as they fill my rooms, I don’t care,” said Marina.
“Did you take Rafa into Dawcomb?” asked Grey.
“No,” Clementine replied. “Anyway, he already knows Dawcomb.”
“I suggest you give him a tour this afternoon. It’s important he gets his bearings.”
“Oh, really, Dad. What’s so important about bearings?”
“Trust me, darling, a man needs to know where he is.”
Rafa laughed and turned to Clementine. “You owe me a scone with clotted cream,” he said. “You haven’t forgotten, have you?”
Clementine beamed with pleasure that he had remembered. “Devil’s for scones and jam it is then, so you can get your bearings.” She grinned at her father, and Grey felt his heart inflate with gratitude.
After lunch Clementine and Rafa disappeared into Dawcomb. Grey went down to the quay to tinker with his boat, and Marina went back to the stable block. She was surprised at Jake’s behavior at lunch. He had been uncharacteristically aggressive. Did he feel threatened by Rafa? Was he jealous of all the attention the new artist was receiving? After all, no one in the hotel could talk of anything else. He hadn’t been very enthusiastic about having an artist in the first place; perhaps he was put out that the man was obviously going to be a great success. What Jake didn’t realize was that they all depended on Rafa, regardless of whose idea it had been to invite him. This was no time for petty jealousies. This had to work.
Marina was in her kitchen reading the papers when Jake burst in, his face pink with excitement.
“Baffles has struck again!” he declared. Marina stared at him in shock. “The Greville-Joneses were robbed in the early hours of the morning.”
“Good God, are you sure?” It frightened her that the thief was targeting people she knew personally. It brought him closer to her.
“My mole on the police force called me just now. He says they’re trying to contain it so that people don’t get scared.”
“We’ll all be reading about it tomorrow, then.”
“They won’t hear about it from me.”
Marina sighed anxiously. “Poor John and Caroline. It’s just horrendous.” Jake grinned, clearly enjoying the drama. “You shouldn’t look so pleased, Jake. We could be next.”
“I doubt it. It’s not as if we have any goodies to steal.”
“He doesn’t know that.”
“Of course he does. It’s clear he knows the houses very well before he robs them. He goes straight for the loot and leaves everything else untouched.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“John Greville-Jones heard a noise in the hall and crept down with his rifle. Apparently, he keeps it under his bed.”
“He should be careful Caroline doesn’t use it on him.”
Jake chuckled. “I don’t think she’d know how to unlock it.”
“Did he see him?”
“No. He was very quick. In and out like a mouse.”
“What did he take?”
“All the silver from the dining room.”
“Nothing else?”
“My mole says he must have known it was there because he went straight for it. He didn’t bother going into any of the other rooms, and you know the Greville-Joneses have a drawing room full of valuable paintings.”
“Any clues?”
“Just a note saying ‘Thank you.’”
“Really, that’s absurd.”
“Signed Raffles.”
“He’s loving the attention, obviously. Whoever heard of a polite robber? It’s a contradiction in terms.”
“Robbers always like to leave their mark.”
“Poor John and Caroline. I was going to suggest that Rafa take my ladies to paint their folly. Last year Caroline put on a picnic for them, and Harvey sat in the kitchen all afternoon, flirting with their cook.” She sighed. “They might be less keen to invite strangers into their property now.”
Rafa and Clementine sat in Devil’s, staring at a three-tiered silver tray of scones, a big bowl of clotted cream, and a dish of jam. Penny and Tamara, two pretty young waitresses, hovered around the table hoping for the handsome foreigner to toss them another dashing smile.