Lizzie was taken aback. “No, I didn’t know that,” she admitted. “Dudley never mentioned it.”

“Well,” Arthur said, “I don’t suppose he would. Amelia was always portrayed as the clinging one, wasn’t she, living off Dudley’s money and success. It was far from the truth.”

Lizzie felt a judder of remorse. That was exactly how she had viewed Amelia. She’d made assumptions because Dudley was so brash and full of his own importance. Suddenly she didn’t feel as confident that Dudley had no motive. She’d viewed any involvement on his part in Amelia’s death as fantasy, but if he was going to inherit a fortune from her that didn’t look good at all. She could see why the police would be suspicious.

“Inheritance is a minefield, isn’t it?” she said with feeling. “Didn’t you mind being cut out of the will? And what about Anna and Johnny?”

Arthur laughed. “I’m not big into inherited wealth, to be honest. I wanted to make my own way. I talked about it with Dad. He left Anna and Johnny a trust fund each for school and university fees but we felt Millie was the vulnerable one who might need it one day.”

“Because of Dudley,” Lizzie said bluntly.

Arthur didn’t deny it. “We all thought the marriage wouldn’t last long,” he said. “They were very young, Dudley has a short attention span, and Millie never really found anything she was good at. Dad gave her the money to buy Oakhangar Hall and left her his investments to give her an income. It’s all Johnny’s now,” he added. “He was the sole beneficiary of Millie’s will. She rewrote it to cut Dudley out when he asked for a divorce. He gets nothing.”

“Whoa,” Lizzie said. “Does Dudley know that?”

“He’ll know now,” Arthur said drily.

“And Johnny?” Lizzie asked. “Not that he’d care. I imagine he’d return it all in a heartbeat if he could have Amelia back.”

Arthur gave her a curious look. “Did Johnny tell you that last night?”

“Yes,” Lizzie said. “He said he’d do anything to have Amelia back again.” She sighed. “OK, well I get that you don’t like Dudley and that you might even believe he would want to get rid of Amelia somehow but do you seriously believe that I would be capable of murdering her, never mind harming Johnny?”

Arthur’s mouth twisted. “I don’t think you would murder someone; not unless they threatened you or something or someone for whom you cared deeply.” He paused. “But you might cover up a crime for someone you loved, or even connive in it. I don’t know. I don’t know you well enough to say.”

Lizzie was startled to realise that she felt angry. She wanted Arthur to think better of her than that and it annoyed her that it mattered so much to her. Arthur, she realised with a pang, was trying to ignore any intuitive link between them and rely on logic, which was completely understandable but hurt her more than she cared to analyse.