“He’s seventeen years old, Dudley,” Lizzie said furiously, “and his sister’s just died. Couldn’t you have been a bit more sensitive?”

Dudley shrugged. “They should lock him into the loony bin,” he said. “Best place for him. He’s such an emo kid, totally out of it. He’s always been like that, ever since I’ve known him, always talking weird stuff and appearing and disappearing like a ghost. I remember once at Oakhangar he and Amelia were playing some trick where he vanished like it was magic. So childish but they thought it was funny. She was as bad as he was.” He caught Lizzie’s eye and spread his hands wide in a gesture of innocence. “What are you looking at me like that for? If they section him, he’ll get help there, won’t he?”

Lizzie shook her head and turned away. She felt so tired; tired of Dudley’s volatility and self-obsession, tired in an odd way that she had stuck by him because she had known all along that he could be shallow but she had hoped he was better than this. She had believed he was. This self-pity had to be a reaction to grief.

“Dudley,” she said. “Go home. Go to sleep. This isn’t you talking. You need to calm down, give yourself time to grieve—”

“I’m not sitting at home on my own,” Dudley said. “It’s the pits. Come out with me, Lizzie.” With the mercurial suddenness of which he was capable Dudley was smiling, exuding charm again. He leaped up to grab her hands and pulled her towards the door. “Let’s go to a club, somewhere private, quiet. Hell, I could do with drowning my sorrows.” He looked hopeful, boyish.

Lizzie hung back. “Duds, is that really a good idea? Amelia only died two days ago. Like it or not you’re under police investigation. You can’t—” She stopped, seeing the frown descend on his brow again. “People would find out,” she said, “even if we went somewhere quiet. And if I came with you there would be even more talk.”

“Like I give a shit,” Dudley said. He tugged on her hands again. He’d stopped smiling. “They’re going to have to get used to it, aren’t they? We can be together now.”

It took Lizzie a moment to realise what he meant and when she did, she felt as though she had stepped off a cliff edge into the dark.

“What? No!” She freed herself from Dudley’s grip, taking such a hurried step back that she almost tripped over the table leg. “We’re friends, Dudley, nothing more! I mean—” Shock and panic raced through her. “We’ve been friends forever and it’s great but I don’t want...” She gulped. “Surely you knew, I mean, I thought you felt the same...” She stopped. Dudley was wearing what she privately thought of as his winsome look, the one that told interviewers and fans that he knew he was irresistible but he was going to pretend to be modest about it.