I said, “That’s purple eye shadow, isn’t it?”

She said, “Yeah. Looks good, though, doesn’t it?”

She really likes Seth. She says he is a laugh.

Flossie said, “Miss Lullabelle, that boy is an ANIMAL, an ANIMAL I tell you!!! He is mean, moody, and magnificent!!!”

Seth?

Magnificent?

Seth?

Vaisey said, “Are you seeing him then? A Hinchcliff?”

Flossie said, “I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes. See how he shapes up.”

And she went off humming. Thank goodness no one had mentioned Cain.

Vaisey said, “Is Cain still missing?”

I looked down at my shoes and grunted.

Vaisey was going on.

“Maybe we should, you know, look for him? Or maybe the boys, you know Jack and so on, well, they could keep an eye out for him, when they do their cross-country hopping.”

Jo came running in like a demented retriever. Almost barking.

“Guess what? I had to go to Gudrun’s office for a phone call. She said it was my dad. And when I answered it my dad said, ‘Give us a snog’ down the phone.”

And Jo started jumping up and down.

We looked at each other. I know my dad was a Labradad but even he seemed normal in comparison to this.

Vaisey said, “Perhaps your dad didn’t say ‘snog,’ maybe he was saying, you know …”

Jo said, “No, no, he was PRETENDING to be my dad.”

I said, “Why would he pretend to be your dad, when he was your dad?”

Jo trod on my foot.

“So that he could talk to me!!! So he could tell me something!!! PHIL. He pretended to be my dad!”

We all looked at her.

She punched me on my arm.

“Ask me what he wanted to tell me. Go on.”

I opened my mouth to say something and Jo said, “Shut up, shut up talking. He wanted to tell me that he has been chucked out of school again and is on his way back to Wooolllllllffffffe. Yarrroooo!!!! And he says even if he is manacled to the walls, he’ll get to see me. Hurrah!!!”

It turns out that Phil dug his tunnel underneath the rugby pitch, but he made it so shallow that during a rugby match it collapsed and some of the older boys fell into it. And the rugby pitch has to be returfed. At enormous cost to the school … so he’s been sent back to Woolfe as punishment!

We all hugged each other.

At least three of the Tree Sisters are happy. That just leaves me. Alone on the ship of life. Paddling around in the shallows.

With no boyfriend. Only dark secrets I can never share.

We had a late rehearsal and as we came out of the studio, Sidone got back from London. She was wearing a long black veil. Monty was wearing a black top hat.

I said, “I don’t think this looks good, do you?”

Sidone said to us, “Sometimes even I cannot conjure magic and miracles, girls. I regret to tell you, I have been unable to persuade anyone to back Dother Hall. So therefore, everything depends on the magic of theater. Let us throw ourselves on the loving tenderness of our community. We go to The Blind Pig, girls, to give our all!”