Lottie and Ellie’s voices came out in unison, and they leaned forward to find out more.

‘That is still a mystery. All I know for sure is that there was something evil and ambitious in Claude, and Hirana had been unlucky enough for him to let it slip in front of her. I trusted her, and I had to take it seriously, so I confronted my son. For the first time his behaviour had had a serious impact on the palace and its workers.’ She paused to look at Ellie, a grave expression that felt like a warning. ‘This was my first mistake. I told him that his claim to the throne would be in danger if there were any more indiscretions that would hurt the family.’

‘How did he react?’ Lottie asked the question alone this time, Ellie too wrapped up in thought.

‘He left the palace.’ Willemena almost laughed, but it turned into a splutter. ‘He packed a bag, like a child having a tantrum, and moved into one of our properties in the city.’

Stopping abruptly, Willemena gestured to a cup of water on the bedside table before she was racked with another coughing fit. After a few sips she patted her chest, preparing to continue.

‘On the twenty-sixth of July 2000, Hirana arrived back at the palace, heavily pregnant and begging for help.’ She patted her chest again, as if trying to pound the words out. ‘Someone was trying to kill her – and they had already wounded her.’

At her side, Lottie saw Ellie squeeze the bedcovers until she had made angry clumps of balled-up silk.

‘She’d escaped and found her way to us, but the shock and the injury she’d sustained was too much for her. She told us that she wanted the baby to be called Jamie. We promised we would raise him in the palace. It was the very least we could do.’

Rubbing her chest, Ellie’s grandmother took in a long breath that sounded like a rattle, the last of the story still stuck inside her. There was another fit of coughing before she began to speak. As the last of the story finally emerged, Lottie felt the weight of this awful lie that had been kept for so long.

‘You see … upon learning that Hirana was pregnant with his child, Claude – spoiled and obsessed with being king – ordered her death.’

The sick feeling in Lottie’s stomach grew, the acid taste at the back of her mouth becoming unbearable.

Willemena went on. ‘He believed her baby was an indiscretion that would endanger his claim to the throne. And I’d been the one to foster that belief.’

Lottie felt the room spinning, and, like a strange zoetrope, Claude kept flashing across her vision, his face melding with Jamie’s.

‘So you made Jamie a Partizan?’ Ellie’s voice was like a knife, coming down sharp on the image.