I gasped, loud enough to catch his attention. He turned to me. “Rest easy, Amy,” he said, with a tired smile, “for Robert is quite well.”

He had assumed, unsurprisingly, that my concern had been for my husband. I caught his sleeve. “Your grace—”

He was anxious to be gone like all men are when they have resolved upon war, but he turned back to me courteously enough. “You mentioned Sawston?” I said.

“Yes,” the Duke said. “The Princess had taken refuge at Sawston Hall but she was long gone when Robert arrived.” His expression hardened slightly. “It seems Huddleston got her away to safety.” I saw something change in his eyes as he remembered my connection to the place. There was pity in them now. “I have no news of your family,” he said quietly. “I am sorry.” Then: “Robert ransacked the hall and burned it to the ground.”

I do not know how long I stood there staring at him, then I ran from the room, regardless of all those watching eyes, and just managed to stumble into the privy before I was sick with the little that was left in my stomach.

11

Lizzie: Present Day

“What were you thinking?” Bill froze the frame on the picture of Lizzie supporting Dudley out of the nightclub, stumbling into a taxi together like a couple of drunks. “Talk me through it,” he added, his tone deceptively soft. “Talk me through your thought processes here so that I can understand why it was a good idea for you and Dudley to be seen out in the early hours going home together from a club two days after his wife had died?”

Lizzie didn’t say anything. She hated it when Bill was in one of his viciously sarcastic moods. It didn’t happen often; usually Bill was too aware of her value to him to let rip at her but she had seen the way he treated other people and had cringed. Today, though, she was his target and Kat wasn’t helping her at all, her face turned away from Lizzie as she scrolled through her phone messages, making the point that Lizzie had let them both down.

“Well?” Bill snapped. He had summoned her to his office that afternoon rather than come to her. Her career was definitely on the slide.

“Dudley was upset,” she said expressionlessly. “He rang me in tears and I went to fetch him home. He’s all over the place at the moment and needs a friend. Besides, I wanted to ask him something urgently—”

Bill interrupted her before she had a chance to finish. “You know what the news sites are saying?” He waved a hand towards the screen again. “That you comforted him with a night of torrid passion.” He glared at her. “For fuck’s sake, Lizzie—”

“He slept on the sofa,” Lizzie said. “Not that it’s your business—”

“It is my business,” Bill corrected her, “because I look after your business, Lizzie. You won’t be surprised to hear that Life Changers have cancelled today’s event and dropped you from their campaign. You don’t fit the sort of image they want to project anymore. And I had a couple of other charity events lined up for you but they’ve fallen through as well.”