Queen of Hearts (Royal Spyness Mysteries) by Rhys Bowen

on the starboard side, Jones,” the captain said.
    “Do you want to speak to their occupants right away, sir?”
    The captain shook his head. “No, I think not. If our search doesn’t turn up anyone in the sea tonight and nobody is reported missing by morning then we’ll have to take the next step, but at this moment I don’t want to alarm the passengers unnecessarily. Brooks should be reporting back from the lifeboat any minute. Personally I think it highly unlikely that we’ll find anything. Looking for a needle in a haystack would be an easy task compared to this.”
    I had been feeling sick and scared ever since the incident, but now I was conscious of another feeling. Somebody was watching me. I felt a tingle go up my spine as I turned around, trying to see if there was anyone else on the bridge with us, but I saw nobody.
    “I think you’d better go to bed, Lady Georgiana.” The captain patted my hand. “Thank you for your quick action, but there’s nothing more you can do tonight. In the morning you’ll have to make an official statement.”
    I got to my feet, a little shakily.
    “Johnson, escort Lady Georgiana back to her cabin,” the captain said, “and have her show you exactly where she was standing and what she saw.”
    A young seaman took my arm. “This way, my lady,” he said and led me from the bridge.
    As I went I heard an officer say, “What do you think, sir? Any connection?”
    “Could well be,” I heard another voice say softly—a smooth, deep voice that spoke in little more than a whisper. “If she says she saw something, then she did.”
    “So we should check the princess’s suite right away?”
    “Absolutely.”
    I turned back to look but the door closed as I was halfway down the steps and I heard no more. The princess’s suite? I remembered that Princess Promila had not shown up at dinner. Surely they didn’t suspect that she had met with foul play?
    The young seaman led me out onto the A deck promenade and I pointed out exactly where I had been standing and what I had seen. Then he escorted me to my cabin. There was no sign of Queenie, which wasn’t surprising as she hardly ever managed to stay awake for my late nights and had been moaning like Banquo’s ghost every time she had put in an appearance. I managed to get out of the cat suit and took off the black nose and whiskers before I got into bed and pulled the covers over me. What a strange night, I thought. How awful if someone had fallen overboard by accident after a little too much to drink. But then why had there been no signs of a struggle if someone had fallen into the water? Why no shouts for help? Had someone decided to commit suicide and thus decided not to struggle as they sank into the waves? It didn’t seem likely. And what if I’d only seen something completely harmless, like someone throwing an unwanted object out of the window? But what object could be that large? And what could have floated out like long human hair on the water?
    The alcohol in those cocktails and the subsequent brandy was starting to make the room swing around. I closed my eyes and wished that sleep would come. I was just drifting off when I heard a tiny noise—the click of a latch being turned, or a key being turned in a lock. Someone was coming into my room. I was instantly awake and alert. Surely I’d locked my door, hadn’t I? And only the steward had a passkey. A sliver of light showed as the door opened inch by inch, then a dark shape was silhouetted against the light. A tall man, dressed in dark clothing, was coming into my room.
    In an instant I was on my feet, looking around for some sort of weapon. How annoying that everything was bolted down on a ship. There was no vase, no bedside lamp, no jug on a washstand. All I could think of was the fruit knife in the bowl of fruit on the table and that would be hardly sufficient to ward off a determined intruder. Nevertheless I reached for it and felt the coldness of the