And actually, Liza couldn’t blame her. If she was innocent, then this was fucking awful. If she was guilty it was awful and scary because chances were, she was definitely going to jail after this was all over. “Okay,” she said in her most conciliatory tone—and given how many arguments she and Hanna had got into over the last year or so, her conciliatory tone had got pretty fucking good. “That’s fair. You’re right that I lost sight of the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing. And I shouldn’t have treated you like a killer.”

The door opened a crack, and Liza betrayed her own not-treating-Vivien-like-a-killer plans by immediately stepping aside in case a gun came out. The crack widened a little, and Viven Ackroyd’s face appeared in the gap. “That’s very kind of you,” she said with about as much sincerity as could be expected from a woman you’d both accused of killing her husband and then told that you were right to accuse her of killing her husband. “Will there be anything else?”

The part of Liza that thought investigating a murder seemed like a much better idea than sitting around wondering if you’d get killed before or after your marriage collapsed was really, really tempted to try and find an excuse to get inside the room. But the part of her that thought acting on it would only accelerate the collapse of her marriage decided not to. “No,” she said. “It’s okay. I …” Then a tiny voice in the back of her head said, “You know what, fuck it.” “Actually, is there something going on with you and Lady Tabith—?”

The door slammed in her face.

“Do we take that as a no,” asked Hanna, “or a definite yes?”

Either way, they had to take it as a “go away.” So they slunk back to their room, having entirely failed to make things better with a woman neither of them was entirely certain they wanted to make things better with.

Back in their room, Liza crawled into bed, and Hanna crawled in beside her and wrapped her up in her arms. “I really am proud of you, you know.”

Liza gave a tiny, mirthless laugh. “For pretending I’m not playing detective when I’m clearly playing detective?”

“For actually making a pretty good job of it.” She brushed Liza’s braids to one side and kissed her neck. “And for everything else. I know I don’t always—haven’t always.”

Liza let her hands come to rest over Hanna’s, her thumbs running gently over Hanna’s thumbs. “It’s okay, I haven’t always either.”

“You’re amazing,” she breathed. “You have always been amazing.”

“You’re amazing too.” Liza rolled over, bringing her forehead close to Hanna’s. “And I’m sorry if I haven’t always made you feel it.”