I thought that we would go to Fallingford, Daisy’s house – but it was all shut up, as it usually is these days. Instead, we were sent to London, to stay with Daisy’s Uncle Felix and his new wife. We have been told to call the new Mrs Mountfitchet ‘Aunt Lucy’, and most of the time we remember. We shall be perfectly all right on our own!’ cried Daisy. ‘We can explore London properly at last. How exciting!’ Later that day, Martita was having trouble with her Nurse costume, so Annie came into our dressing room and deftly pinned it and sewed it up, talking in a cheerful stream that I caught and lost and caught again. Daisy was reading Enter a Murderer, and I was trying to do the crossword, but mostly doodling in the margins. I had guessed as much,’ said Miss Crompton. ‘Well, well. That was wonderfully tasteless. You clearly have no formal training and a very active imagination, but I commend your enthusiasm.’ Aunt Lucy held up her hand. ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘I’ve had a thought. Let me make a few telephone calls.’

He pointed out the actors who would be playing the Montagues and the Capulets, Paris, the apothecary – and at last he introduced Rose. As he did so, it was as though a bright light had been thrown on her. It was clear that she was the star.We do,’ said Martita, the corners of her mouth quirking up. ‘But it’s dreadful, Simon. It is! Rose has taken the good dressing room and now I’m sharing with these two.’ She would not stay quiet when she disagreed with Inigo’s direction, though, and their discussions usually ended with Rose speaking to Miss Crompton and setting off an argument between her and Inigo. Miss Crompton bristled and glared, Inigo became more and more Old Testament, and Rose pouted and took refuge in Wardrobe with Annie, the dresser, who had become her fast friend. I got a creepy feeling when I found out about it. I wondered what else might be far beneath the Rue’s floor and it made me feel wriggly, just as I do when I stare down into the sea and imagine all the creatures swimming about in it, too far down for me to see. I made a polite noise. Sometimes I forget how much Deepdean protects us from the rest of the world. We had seen a glimpse of what was going on in Europe on the Orient Express last summer, but since then I had not had time to think much about anything besides murder and my family in Hong Kong.

To go on the stage!’ cried Daisy rapturously, all her confusion and suspicion forgotten in a moment. ‘Goodness, how marvellous! Isn’t it marvellous, Hazel?’ Once we were through the stage door and past Jim and his book, and Bridget had waved us off each morning and gone to run her mysterious errands for Uncle Felix and Aunt Lucy, we were swallowed up in the strange world of the Rue. It became all-consuming, and I almost forgot, for the time I was there, that the rest of London existed.As Rose burst into angry sobs once again, it was the stagehand who spoke. ‘It wasn’t my fault,’ he insisted, holding his hands up. ‘Just so long as everyone knows that. I don’t want to get into any trouble for this. Just doing my job. It was her who told me to put the posters up!’ he added, pointing to Martita. What?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows at us all. ‘It’s a joke, right? I mean, it’s not real. No one does that for real!’ But, when we ran into the dressing room, we found Rose perfectly all right, and only bleeding from a long, deep cut on her right heel. Annie rushed to get the medical kit from Wardrobe, dabbed Rose’s foot with brown iodine and wrapped it tightly in soft white gauze. It wasn’t just Inigo who didn’t get on with Rose. Martita and Simon were also cold to her, snubbing her and leaving her out of conversations, and pointedly refusing to run through lines with her offstage. At first, I thought this was rather cruel of them – and rather odd, when Simon was so friendly to everyone else, and even Martita was secretly kind. They were such friends too, that it seemed almost like bullying to refuse to let Rose in. Whatever is it, Rose dear?’ asked Miss Crompton, while Theresa knelt down and began to tidy up efficiently. Martita, behind her, snorted and turned away.