My father was watching a race on the box. He had money on Penny Turns Up Again. I walked up to him.

‘Daddy,’ I called.

He glanced up impatiently. ‘Hello, princess!’

‘Daddy, I’ve remembered some of my past.’

‘Come in then,’ he said reluctantly. He did not switch off the TV, but muted it to indicate he did not expect me to stay long.

I sat down on the armchair next to him, smoothed my skirt over my legs and looked him in the eye. ‘I remembered the day Mummy died.’

He stared at me uncomfortably. Poor Daddy. He had a horror of emotional scenes. Was there any point in telling him? Yes. Mummy deserved that. Everything else had been taken away from her.

He cleared his throat. ‘What did you remember, ducky?’

‘I woke up in the night because I had a bad dream and I went to Mummy’s room. I opened the door and Ivana was there. She was suffocating Mummy with a pillow.’

My father’s eyes bulged with incredulity. ‘Poppycock!’ he blurted out. ‘Poppycock!’ he said again. His face became red with anger. ‘It’s that half-wit American hypnotist who has put these nonsensical ideas into your head.’

‘Dr. Kane didn’t do any such thing,’ I said calmly.

He looked at me with disappointment. ‘You do Ivana a great injustice. How could you even dream of spouting such lies about her after she has treated you as if you were her own.’

‘She wanted Mummy out of the way so she could marry you.’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t believe that you could even think such a thing. What are you saying? Think about it. Ivana took excellent care of your mother. Your mother was genuinely fond of her.’

‘Ivana was wearing a green dress with a yellow belt and the big round buttons on her dress were made of the same material as her dress.’

My father’s mouth dropped open. We stared at each other. The tongue can conceal the truth but never the eyes. In those seconds the unguarded truth leapt up from the depths of his soul and shone momentarily in his eyes, and it was all over. He was caught as surely as a fish on a hook.

He dropped his eyes. ‘I can’t do without her, ducky. She takes care of everything…the house…the estate…our schedule…. I couldn’t do without her.’

I nodded. ‘I knew you’d say that, but I had to tell you, for Mummy’s sake.’

He nodded, still looking at the ground.

‘I’d better push off then.’ I stood up and began to walk to the door.

‘Princess?’

I turned around. His shoulders were slumped. He looked crushed. I pitied him then.

‘You won’t be unkind, will you?’

‘Of course not.’

‘You won’t tell anyone?’

‘Who’d believe me, Daddy? The mad stepdaughter. They would simply call it false memory. It was why she sent me to Dr. Kane in the first place. She knew I was beginning to remember things and this way all my memories could be discredited.’ I smiled. ‘You’ve underestimated Mummy’s nurse, Daddy. She’s managed us all perfectly.’

He gapped at me. I had never seen my father look so agonized or lost. He shook his head as if to reject what I was saying.

‘She picked Dr. Kane precisely because she knew he was disgraced and she found out that he had a drinking problem. If he failed she could say it was because he was a drunk, if he was successful she could claim the process was faulty.’

My father shifted, his eyes pleading. ‘You will understand that this is all very difficult for me. Your mother is gone and I…um…am very fond of Poppe—her.’

In the end my father could always be relied on to retreat into self-interest. Above all else, what was good for William Elliot Swanson.

‘I understand perfectly,’ I said and went to walk away again.

‘Wait.’

I turned once more.

‘I’m issuing a new Letters Patent stating that the eldest daughter may inherit both the title and the estate.’

I smiled sadly. ‘I don’t want it. Give it to Jacobi. Make his mother happy.’

He stood up and put his hand out in an awkward pleading gesture. ‘Don’t break this family up. That’s all I beg of you.’

I began to walk.

My father cried out urgently. ‘Please, Vivi.’

And I turned around and stared. He was out of his chair. A solitary tear was rolling down his cheek. I had never seen him cry before. I knew that single tear betraying his terrible pain had cost him his pride. Perhaps he had a great and pure love for her, after all.

‘I won’t harm you, Daddy. I love you,’ I said softly and walked out of Marlborough Hall. When I reached the car I turned and looked up at the second floor bedroom. Ivana was watching me. In the gloom of the window she looked pale and insubstantial as a ghost. We stared at each other for a few moments. She did not wave and neither did I.

We both knew the truth. She had planned and schemed and lied and stolen and murdered, but there was no need to punish her. Her real tragedy was being stuck in a loveless marriage. Being married to a man so far inferior in intellect to her that he bored her stiff each day from the moment he opened his eyes in the morning.

I had seen it in her eyes many times—the desire for men other than my father—but she controlled it with an iron will. She had chosen the splendor of a public life and the envy of her friends without the true and lasting joy of inner satisfaction, but she deeply resented having to make that choice.

The weak morning sun was shining down on Marlborough Hall. It always looked its best on a sunny day. I turned away and got into my car and drove away without looking back. I would miss my conservatory, but otherwise there was nothing I would wish I had not left behind.

Soon it would be spring. And then summer.