Chapter 1

“It’ll turn up, Dorothy. Mrs. Maloney must have taken it away with all the rest of the washing. And it’s so incredibly warm and we’re none of us going any further than the pool today. What the hell!”

Dorothy Chambers did not look very reassured by this at first. She had paid a lot for that blouse and it was too bad the way it had disappeared overnight, as well as weird - she always locked her door. It just HAD to be one of the other girls, clowning about. Funny, though, she’d known them all since childhood and silly practical jokes had never been a thing, they had been prone to do. They had always been rather a serious and sober-sided bunch.

She glared at the other three and returned to her toast and marmalade, washing it down with a cup of delicious coffee. The sun shone through the large French windows and warmed her exposed arms, shoulders, chest, ample cleavage and midriff. It felt pretty nice, she had to admit.

Elspeth’s words had been true enough. For most of the day they would none of them be wearing too much, not in this heat. This was the hottest summer any of them could ever remember. And next day the careless housekeeper would be back, perhaps with her missing blouse and if it WAS one of the others - well, plenty of time to play a trick on her - whoever she was!

As Elspeth had predicted, they spent all morning diving into and lazing beside the swimming pool. Harriet and she played tennis for a while and Jenny took herself off and went for a solitary walk across the moors. They were all busy career women by nature, cast out of their jobs by various and simultaneous misfortunes, holidaying at Frances’ recently inherited country home as they took stock of their lives and relaxed together for the first time in years. For the first three days of their stay here, all had gone pretty well as planned.

“I’ll go and catch up with Jenny,” said Frances. “I don’t like to think of her brooding on her own. I think she’s taken misfortune much harder that any of us. She always was the sensitive one. We ‘ve got to be extra nice to her, I feel.”

She went inside the house and came back looking furious.

“OK, you lot, just what the Devil’s going on?”

Dorothy was the first to answer.

“Sorry, Frances; I don’t understand. What’s up?”

“What’s up is that my walking shoes are not where I left them and some creep with a twisted idea of what constitutes a joke has left me with only one set of clothes - those I wore this morning. Very funny, girls! But the joke’s over!”

She did not look a happy hostess at all. She went on, “I’ll go after Jenny in any case, shoes or no shoes. When I get back, I want all my gear returned. I’m not laughing at your stupid childish joke and this is MY house - remember that!”