It was a far cry from researching Thomas Hardy – which was what Emma had gone to Dorset to do – to looking after the three young Hart Children while their mother was in hospital. Nevertheless, Emma found it all much more fun than she had expected apart from the disapproving presence of the children’s uncle Ross. He had been described to her as ‘a mail chauvinist of the worse sort’ – and Emma had no reason to quarrel with that description! But, apart from that, what was the mystery surrounding this seemingly happy little family, and what was their connection with the shadowy figure of Leon Daumaury?