I whispered to Vaisey, “The only good thing is if I’ve got a donkey’s head on, no one can see me. Or know who I am. Especially if I do a French accent.”

We were talking about how many pairs of fairy wings we needed and how we could improvise the forest in The Blind Pig, when Dr. Lightowler said, “Of course, because of the … er … financial climate, girls, we must use our ingenuity for props and costumes. This is the time for artistic license.”

Monty was very enthusiastic. He said, “Let’s put our thinking caps on, girls. I have some silk scarves I brought back from India. We could use them. Perhaps for wings. Biffo and I visited India last year and we had matching pantaloons specially made. I would be glad to donate them to the cause!! I’ve not worn them since I was, myself, Titania in a performance in Skegness.”

Jo started a chorus of “For he’s a jolly good fellow, for he’s a jolly good fellow.”

Until Dr. Lightowler shouted, “Quiet!”

Then she dropped her bombshell.

“Thank you, thank you indeed, Mr. de Courcy. And I believe you found something else that you had a marvelous idea about.”

Monty said, “Oh yes, yes indeed … these.”

And he got out of his bag a pair of Mickey Mouse ears and put them on his little fat head.

They looked hilarious. He really did look like a big mouse in a suit.

I said to the girls, “Where is the idiot Mickey Mouse in Shakespeare’s masterpiece?”

As we were laughing, Monty said, “I got them from Disney World when Biffo and Sprogsy and I—”

Dr. Lightowler interrupted, “And this is the magic of theater, girls! As soon as I saw them, I thought, bingo! We may not have a donkey’s head for Bottom, but at least we have some Mickey Mouse ears! I think it will be very funny indeed for Tallulah Casey to play Bottom as a mouse. It will give everyone in The Blind Pig an opportunity to see how very, very funny Tallulah is.” And she laughed and laughed.

The Tree Sisters got hold of a hand each and Flossie patted my head.

Dr. Lightowler swooped back to Dother Hall for a meeting with Sidone for the rest of the day, so at least I had a few hours of peace.

I still feel weak because of the Cain, erm, thingymajig whatsit. Ooh, I can’t even bring myself to think about it, even in the privacy of my own head.

No one must ever, in a million years, find out about Cain.

Never.

Why did he kiss me? He doesn’t even like me.

At least Charlie likes me.

I managed to forget about everything to do with boys for the next hour because Blaise Fox came to do movement with us.

She yelled, “Come on, girls, let’s be donkeys. I want to see your inner donkeys!”

I didn’t know that donkeys wrestled but Flossie’s inner donkey did.