I laughed aloud, for the revelation filled me with a lightness of spirit. It was so long since I had felt joy but now it bubbled up in me like water from a fountain. I swept the Princess Elizabeth a low curtsey.

“Thank you, Your Highness,” I said. “I am indebted to you. I do believe you have shown me the road ahead.”

It was the first and only time I saw Elizabeth discomfited. Her gaze narrowed on me as though she was afraid that she had somehow given away more than she had intended, and for a brief second I saw that this girl, so well defended, so drilled to carefulness by a lifetime of danger, existed on the knife’s edge of fear the entire time. That was sweet revenge.

“Good day, Your Highness,” I said. “Fare you well.” And I left her in her prison with the money and Robert’s promise of devotion.

It was hot outside. The sun beat down from a relentlessly blue sky. My docile mare had no desire to work and picked her way with agonising slowness along the track toward Throcking, her ears flicking irritably to ward off the flies. Mr Hyde’s grooms took out their frustrations at being obliged to nursemaid me by knocking the heads of the tall-growing dandelions beside our path. I was the only one who was wholly content that afternoon. I rode in a daze, my mind far away as I thought and planned.

To begin with all I had wanted was to be a good wife to Robert, the mother of a growing family, the chatelaine of a home. That would have been sufficient for me—a grand scheme indeed—but it had been denied to me. Since then I had been railing against a fate that had thwarted me and against a husband who had scorned me, palming me off onto one of his servants like some unwanted chattel. That resentment ate away at me; it did no harm to Robert or indeed to the Princess Elizabeth. I was the only one who suffered for it.

It was time to seize my own future. I could see a glimmer of light to guide me on the path ahead. It was time to take back what was mine; my life, my freedom. I dug my heels into the mare’s side and she was so startled that she leaped into a canter, leaving the grooms with their mouths open and far behind.

17

Lizzie: Present Day

It was a strange, suspended existence in police custody. Time ceased to have much meaning and Lizzie quickly lost track of the hours. The world outside the one small interview room seemed an irrelevance. There was no light and dark, no peace, no sleep, nothing but endless questions, about her relationship with Dudley, about Johnny, where he was, when she had last seen him, what had happened between them on the Embankment. Lizzie felt sick and confused and she had seldom been so frightened.