But she could see quite clearly through the windows of the flat above hers. A woman sat there, perched at the end of the double bed. She was talking on the phone. She looked very demure and not at all the Fifty Shades type. Theresa started to think that she might have a rather overdeveloped imagination, making dramas out of nothing.

Naturally Theresa couldn’t hear the woman’s conversation. But it got her to wondering whether the male voice she thought she had heard might simply have been her mind going wild. Why would a resident of the hotel open the window on a cold night and call out her name? Or might it just have been a coincidence? Someone calling for his wife or girlfriend. Theresa was hardly the most unusual of names.

‘ . . . wouldn’t you, Mum?’

Theresa realised that her daughter had been talking and that she had not been listening. ‘I’m sorry, darling. I was just admiring the view.’

‘If we all stay for the rest of half-term, you’d take the kids off for a treat, wouldn’t you?’

Theresa nodded eagerly, though at the moment she had no idea of a treat big enough to divert a love-struck teenager’s mind from her thwarted romantic plans.

‘They could come down to my flat, and I’ll have a cooking afternoon with them all.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I’m late. Would you all like to come down to the restaurant for dinner tonight?’

‘No treats for runaways, I’m afraid.’ Imogen grimaced at Theresa. ‘We’ll both stay in the room and when Frances and the other two come back, they can go out and get us some sandwiches.’

‘But, Mum . . .’

‘No buts, miss. You’re grounded.’

‘Ah well.’ Theresa shrugged. ‘You know where to find me.’

Eighteen

EIGHTEEN

‘I’m very sorry about yesterday. I really don’t know what to say, I . . .’ Eggy had come into the make-up wagon expressly to apologise to Sally. ‘But, well . . . It’s much more complicated than you can possibly imagine . . .’

Actually, Sally could very well imagine.

The shoot today was taking place in a fancy house up in the hills behind Nice. After a very cold early start, by eight o’clock the weather was warm and sunny. The doors and windows of the make-up wagon had all been flung open. They sat side by side, talking to each other’s reflections in the long, illuminated mirror.

As all of her scenes today were with Eggy, Sally had to accept his apology on behalf of his wife. Sally certainly could easily imagine that Phoo couldn’t cope with seeing Sally back in the saddle.