“I don’t want you to tell them it was an accident.” Anna pulled herself free of Sam’s grip. She raised her chin, staring him down defiantly. “I’ve told you I did it. I don’t mind admitting why. I want everyone to see what a conniving cow Amelia was and what an utter sleaze Dudley is and always will be.”

Sam was looking shattered, old and exhausted. “What has Dudley got to do with this?” he said.

“It’s all about Dudley in the end,” Anna said bitterly. “It always was about him, selfish, self-centred, stupid, feckless Dudley. No one could resist him, could they? Not Amelia, not Letty Knollys, not even me.” She glanced up for a moment, her blue eyes dull. “To think that in the beginning I thought Dudley was God’s gift. I practically begged for his attention.” She shook her head violently. “I hate him and I hate myself.”

Lizzie remembered the wedding, and how both Letty and Anna had been part of the screaming, giggling pack of girls fawning over Dudley in the pool that afternoon. Anna had been so young then—sixteen—younger than Amelia, her sister, Dudley’s bride. But evidently that hadn’t stopped him. She felt sick.

“I saw Dudley when I was leaving that day Amelia fell,” Anna said. “I was in such a horrible state I didn’t stop to speak to him and I don’t think he saw me. I don’t know what he was doing here but later, when he pretended that he’d been miles away and he didn’t know anything about it, I knew he was lying. I think he’d come to talk to Millie about the divorce and got the wind up when he realized she was dead.”

“And what about Lizzie?” Arthur’s voice was hard. He didn’t look at Lizzie but kept his full attention on Anna. “You hit her. You could have killed her too.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Anna said. “I thought she was going to pull one of her weird mind tricks and tell Johnny what had happened. I just wanted to stop her.” Despite the words, the glance she shot Lizzie was laced with malice. “You kept causing me problems,” she said to her. “I wanted to keep Johnny away from you but he liked you and so did Arthur.” She shook her head. “You’re as bad as Dudley in your own way. I really wish I could have pinned the whole thing on the two of you. I tried, when I gave Johnny a lift to your flat that night in Arthur’s car and he left his phone behind. I planted it in your flat. But it wasn’t enough.”

Lizzie looked at her. Anna met her eyes defiantly but behind the bluster and bravado, Lizzie could see another Anna Robsart, the one who had hidden her grief when her mother had died, whilst her hatred and resentment festered because she thought no one else cared enough, no one had done enough to save her. She saw the Anna who loved Johnny fiercely and had tried to comfort him, and the girl who had never meant to kill her sister but had lost her temper because, as Arthur had once said, she sometimes went way too far.