That shiver was back, at the base of Rosalind’s spine. Because hadn’t they all been acting, for all these years?

She and Hugh, acting like they weren’t in love. Isobel acting like her best friend, then stealing her fiancé. Even poor Letty, acting as if she hadn’t loved her cousin, hadn’t given up her baby.

And this weekend! Hordes of people pretending that it was the 1930s again, that murder was a game, that the past was a better place than the present.

Aldermere was nothing but an act. Dahlia Lively might be the most real thing in it, and she was entirely fictional.

Or she had been, until now.

‘Clementine was going to meet you and tell you everything. That’s what she promised me when we spoke at the stables. And then … I wanted her to get away from Aldermere, fast.’

‘Did she agree to go?’ Caro asked.

‘Clementine never agreed to anything she didn’t want to do,’ Libby admitted. ‘That’s why I was worried when she left without telling me – and surprised when I heard that message on Marcus’s phone. If there’d really been a family emergency, I’d have known about it. But I hadn’t expected her to do as I’d asked, either. I supposed that something must have happened that scared her into taking my advice.’ She flashed a quick grin. ‘Although I should have guessed she’d do it in her own flamboyant style, taking Hugh’s vintage car.’

Cogs were whirring inside Rosalind’s head, pieces clicking together faster than before. ‘Hugh said she called and asked him if she could borrow the car.’

‘I guessed she’d threatened him to get him to agree,’ Libby said.

‘And it was definitely her talking in that voicemail Marcus got? You’re certain.’

‘Absolutely.’

Something didn’t add up. Something to do with phones …

But before Rosalind could grasp the wisp of a thought that was starting to form, Caro plunged on.

‘So Clementine left, and you carried on like normal because you thought she was somewhere safe, and couldn’t call because you didn’t have your phone. Until – and I’m guessing here – you overheard Felicity telling us that she’d seen your cousin heading to the Gate House after she drove away.’

‘Almost right,’ Libby said. ‘I heard you telling Posy, before we sat down for dinner.’

Caro’s cheeks turned a little pinker at that, but she carried on. ‘You headed down there first and lay in wait for us, then whacked me over the head with a – what was it you hit me with, anyway?’