trouble was that Kat had known her for ever, since she had been a baby. Kat, her mother’s best friend, had stepped in when a car crash had claimed Annie Kingdom at a shockingly young age. She’d taken Lizzie under her wing, attempting to soften the haphazard and destructive parenting methods of Lizzie’s father. She’d been in Lizzie’s life ever since. There could be no secrets from Kat.
She shook Kat’s hand off. She wasn’t going to show her that it mattered.
‘I still don’t see that it’s Dudley’s fault even if Amelia did kill herself,’ she argued. ‘They hadn’t been close for years. They never saw each other; it was as though they were already separated really and Amelia must have known that Duds would want a divorce sooner or later.’
‘Amelia’s friends are queuing up to say how unhappy she was.’ Bill was scrolling through his Twitter feed now. ‘Jeez, this is bad. They’re saying she killed herself because Dudley spent all his time with you.’
‘It’s nothing to do with me,’ Lizzie said, through her teeth. ‘And do they know it’s suicide? It might just be an accident.’
‘Or murder,’ Kat said. ‘One of the gossip sites is insinuating Dudley might have arranged it.’ Her head was bent; long dark hair falling forward to hide her expression. Lizzie thought she sounded excited. ‘They say he wanted to save on the settlement so he bumped her off.’
Lizzie felt a clutch of fear. ‘They’re saying Dudley killed her? That’s just…’ She raised her hands in despair. ‘Please stop this, Kat. It’s stupid and you’re scaring me now.’
Neither Bill nor Kat paid her the slightest notice. They were both too engrossed in the breaking news.
‘Didn’t they have a pre-nup agreement?’ Bill was saying. ‘Christ! Doesn’t everyone have one these days?’
‘They married so young.’ Kat looked up from her phone. ‘Don’t you remember, Bill? It was very romantic. Love at first sight. Amelia was only about seventeen and Dudley not much more. They married at Oakhangar and there were thrones and a crystal horse-drawn carriage, and they released rare butterflies—’
‘Which all died because they couldn’t cope with the British climate,’ Lizzie interrupted. ‘The RSPCA threatened to prosecute Dudley for cruelty.’ The scar in her palm itched sharply. She clenched her fingers over it. She hadn’t thought about Dudley and Amelia’s wedding for years. It hadn’t been a favourite memory.
Bill made a huffing sound, ‘Cruelty, huh? That seems like a metaphor for the whole marriage.’ He shook his head. ‘Whether it’s murder or suicide, this is a godawful mess.’
‘Hello?’ Lizzie waved a hand. ‘Excuse me? Why can’t it just be a simple accident? Horrible, I know—’ she winced, ‘but it doesn’t have to be either sinister or Dudley’s fault.’
‘Quite right, babes,’ Kat said in the sort of absent-minded voice that Lizzie knew meant she was paying no attention at all. ‘Although the BBC is saying that the police are investigating.’
‘Good,’ Lizzie said. ‘Perhaps that will shut everyone up.’ She sat forward. ‘I’d like my phone back now please, Bill, and I’d also like to be taken to London. I don’t know where we’re going but I need to be back for rehearsals for Stars of the Dance next week.’
‘I think that would be a bad idea,’ Bill said slowly. ‘You’ll come in for a lot of flak, especially as Dudley’s taking part too. Perhaps you should lie low for a week or so.’
Lizzie sat up straighter. ‘What? Why?’
‘Dudley’s dropped out of Stars of the Dance,’ Kat interrupted. ‘His people are making an announcement in fifteen minutes.’ She looked at Lizzie. ‘Do you think you should say something too?’
‘No!’ Lizzie said, before she could finish. ‘No way! This is absolutely nothing to do with me!’
‘I agree,’ Bill said. ‘With any luck they’ll pull this week’s show anyway as a mark of respect since it’s only two days away. A couple of the other contestants were Amelia’s friends, weren’t they?’ He didn’t wait for Lizzie to respond. ‘But then it’s back to business. We don’t want it to look like it was in any way Lizzie’s fault no matter what social media is saying.’
‘Lulu Styles is giving a live interview on AListed,’ Kat reported. ‘She says that Amelia was depressed because she thought she could never compete with Lizzie.’ Kat turned up the volume and the tinny sound of Lulu’s voice echoed around the car: ‘Amelia said Lizzie Kingdom already had it all but she wanted Dudley as well.’
Lizzie shuddered to hear the naked excitement in the interviewer’s voice: