‘Amy’s death does feel like an accident,’ Lizzie said, ‘because surely even the most dimwitted of murderers would realise that for Amy to die at all would be a disaster for Robert Dudley’s reputation, and from what little I’ve read about him I’d say that Robert Dudley was many things but not a fool.’
‘You’re talking with the benefit of hindsight, Elizabeth,’ Avery pointed out. ‘We know now that Amy’s death forever ruined Robert Dudley’s chances of marrying the Queen but that might not have been apparent to him at the time. He was dazzled by ambition and drunk on the life he was living. Nothing and no one was going to get in the way of him achieving all that he wanted. He lived in a bubble far removed from reality, I think, and that sort of existence warps your reality.’
‘Just like being a celebrity,’ Lizzie agreed, with a grimace. ‘What happened after Amy’s death?’
‘She was buried at St Mary’s Church in Oxford,’ Avery said. ‘It was a lavish funeral but Robert Dudley didn’t attend.’
‘That looks bad,’ Lizzie said.
‘It wasn’t unusual in the Tudor period,’ Avery said, ‘and perhaps it was fortuitous because when the vicar gave his sermon, he referred to Amy being “so pitifully murdered” which he then tried to pass off as a slip of the tongue.’
‘Oh God,’ Lizzie said, ‘how awkward.’
‘Amy’s tomb is long gone,’ Avery said. Her blue eyes were distant. ‘It was dismantled in the late eighteenth century leaving only a plaque in the choir to commemorate her death.’
‘It feels as though they were trying to tidy her away,’ Lizzie said, ‘as though it had never happened.’
‘Certainly, I think Robert Dudley wished he could forget about it,’ Avery said drily. ‘It haunted him for ever after. When Amy’s half-brother John Appleyard expressed concerns that her death had never been properly explained and that he was sure it was murder he was imprisoned and questioned by the Privy Council. He very quickly changed his mind.’
‘That sounds like intimidation,’ Lizzie said. A thought occurred to her. ‘What did Arthur Robsart have to say about Amy’s death?’ she asked.
‘He never expressed any doubt over the legitimacy of the inquest’s findings,’ Avery said, ‘so one can only assume that he believed that it was an accident. Whether Arthur liked his brother-in-law or not was a different matter, I imagine, but Arthur Robsart always was,’ she paused, ‘discreet.’
‘So Johnny was the one who stirred up trouble then as now,’ Lizzie said thoughtfully. ‘The parallels seem endless.’
‘But the pattern is always different,’ Avery said. ‘Each time it happens it changes.’
Despite the warmth of the early autumn sun, Lizzie shivered. ‘You mentioned before that there was a repeating pattern. Have other people died?’
‘Three times, to my knowledge, Elizabeth dear,’ Avery said. ‘There was an Amyas Latimer who was a clerk in holy orders in Oxford in the seventeenth century. The details are vague because it was a delicate case under the civil and ecclesiastical laws of the time but it seems he was involved in a love triangle with two of his fellow scholars – both male. He died in a fall down the tower stair in the Church of St Mary by Amy’s tomb. It was ruled to be an accident but there were questions raised of both suicide and murder. It was quite a scandal at the time despite the attempts of the authorities to hush it up.’
‘How horrible,’ Lizzie said. ‘And the other ones?’
‘Well, there was Amethyst Green,’ Avery said. ‘That was the case that first caught my attention because it happened at Oakhangar when I was a child. She was the scullery maid; she fell from the roof of the Hall. My family spun the story to look like a sad tale of a servant who had got herself into trouble and committed suicide in a fit of despair, but even as a child I guessed it was probably a lot more complicated than that. There were hints of a love triangle with two of my uncles.’ She pulled a face. ‘It’s impossible to be sure what really happened, though, when the testimony at the time was heavily influenced by what people were paid – or persuaded – to say.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Lizzie said fiercely. ‘The injustice of it is awful, Amy and all the others whose voices weren’t heard because the rich and powerful were able to silence them.’
‘They even tried to silence Amy’s ghost,’ Avery agreed. ‘There are