Just then Lucy emerged from behind a bush, smiling and holding a handful of red berries out to her mother. "Look at the pretty berries I found, Mummy!"

Olivia panicked immediately. "Oh no, love, those are poisonous! Did you already eat one?"

Lucy nodded.

"Then we must go to hospital straight away!" She snatched her daughter up and hurried to the car with her as James, Mary and I also prepared to leave, having no other choice.

We returned to James' apartment to find that there was a message from Rose on the answering machine. I called her back right away.

"I didn't leave it in the message because I wanted to tell you in person," she told me. "I'm pregnant!"

"Wow, that's great!" I exclaimed. "When are you due?"

"August. Dimitri and I are thrilled!"

"So am I! It'll be great to have a niece or nephew, and guess what? James' niece Laura is pregnant too!"

"James has a niece old enough to be pregnant?" She sounded skeptical.

"His Dad was married three times. He has a half brother who's almost thirty years older than him."

Rose and I talked for about thirty minutes, and when I got off the telephone, James and Mary were gone. I saw that James had left a note for me.

Lily,

Mary and I have been called to an emergency meeting of the orchestra. We shall return within a couple of hours, hopefully. There's plenty of food in both the cupboard and the fridge if you get hungry. Please help yourself to whatever you want.

James

xx

I wondered why he hadn't signed the note 'love, James' but had added the kiss symbols at the bottom. Maybe he's just shy, I thought.

Curiosity led me to explore the apartment more closely, but I didn't really find anything of interest. I glanced at the closed door of James' bedroom several times, knowing that I really shouldn't snoop in there, until finally I just couldn't stand it anymore and went into the bedroom.

It was neat as a pin, just like my own was. Photographs, mostly of family members, covered the top of the dresser. Unsure of what I was looking for, I opened the top dresser drawer to see several unopened packages of condoms. Suddenly feeling very guilty, I slammed the drawer shut and was headed back to my own bedroom when I heard the telephone ringing again.

"Hi, Lily. It's Emily," said the voice on the other end of the line. "Is James there?"

"He and Mary were called away to an emergency meeting of the orchestra," I replied. "Can I take a message?"

"Oh, no, that's all right. I just had a quick question for him, but it can wait until I see him again. Have you enjoyed yourself today?"

"It's been fun. We went to Harrod's this morning, and then to visit Olivia and Lucy after lunch."

"Oh, so you've met them now! That's great! How did your visit go?"

"Lucy got into some poisonous berries and Olivia had to rush her to the hospital."

"Oh dear, the poor thing! I love her just like a granddaughter, you know. I'll be absolutely devastated if anything happens to her! And poor Olivia! I know this must be simply horrid for her, especially considering what happened to her when she was just a little girl herself."

"What happened?" I was dying to know.

"Oh dear, I suppose I've said too much." She sounded fretful. "But I suppose there's no going back now. If I tell you, will you swear not to say a word to James or Mary?"

"I swear."

"Very well, then. When Olivia was a little girl, not too long after her father and I got together, she took a bite from a poisoned cookie and went into convulsions and almost died, but the cookie wasn't meant for her. It was meant for James and Mary."

I gasped, shocked. "But why would anyone have wanted to kill James and Mary?"

Emily sighed. "Helena was furious when she found out that my father had remarried and had more children after my mother's death. She learned from a magazine article that James and Mary loved marzipan, so she made marzipan cookies and laced them with poison and gave them to Laura and Lavinia to give to James and Mary when they visited them. Olivia was naughty and stole one of the cookies. She hid in the garden to eat it, and that was where we found her, having convulsions. If we hadn't called the ambulance right when we did..."

I couldn't believe my ears. I could see Helena being jealous and wanting to get rid of a romantic rival, but to want to kill innocent children was just too much to believe! I shuddered, glad that the madwoman was now securely locked up.

"Please, Lily, not a word of this to James or Mary!" Emily continued. "I don't think they could handle knowing that Helena had actually tried to kill them when they were small."

"Oh, I won't!" I promised her. Just then I heard James unlocking the door and entering the apartment. How would I keep this shocking new information from him?