‘Evening all!’ The back door burst open and Zoe stood there in full evening dress. ‘Sorry to be dressed inappropriately, but I was due to be going to some ghastly classical concert up at the Villa Rothschild and the young man who was to accompany me tells me he has caught the flu. A likely story! Probably just loathes Smetana and Rips-Yer-Corsets-Off. But then, who doesn’t? Alas, the result equals the old adage: “All dressed up and nowhere to go.”’

She stepped into the kitchen, swishing her train around as she closed the door behind her. ‘So, my darlings, I thought to myself, where is there a nowhere I could go to without being laughed out of court? And natch, the answer is: here. I don’t think I need to ask whether you have any free tables. As the song has it – I don’t believe in miracles.’

While Zoe was talking, Theresa finished decorating the solitary table’s starter plate.

William darted in with the new orders, which he stuck to the board. He handed one to Carol, a delivery this time, to be distributed to a local home.

Then he took in the sight of Zoe.

‘Oh, God. I should have known that Cruella de Vil would turn up tonight.’ He picked up the starter. ‘Come to ogle the rich and famous, dear?’

‘Rich and famous? Dining in La Mosaïque? Have you forgotten to take your anti-psychotics again, sweetie?’

‘Says the Phantom of the Opera.’

‘I’m only asking to whom you refer, William dear, when you say “rich and famous”?’

‘Odile de la Warr.’

‘No! That old rooster! Here in La Mosaïque? You are kidding me. Oh, this is too funny.’ Zoe pushed past Theresa and Carol and peeped into the dining room. ‘Oof! Someone should have told her to hold back on the filler and the fake tan.’

Theresa glanced at Zoe – bursting pout, eyebrows pulled up so high she could not affect anything but a look of constant surprise – and just managed to stop herself saying, ‘Pot/kettle.’

William went back to work, but not before Zoe had linked her arm in his.

‘I’ll have the table beside theirs, please, darling. And I’ll try to blend in.’

‘Blend in?’ squawked William. ‘What do you think this is? Madame Tussauds?’

As she watched Zoe sailing into the dining room in her sparkling evening gown and glittering tiara, Theresa found herself laughing, holding her sides, rocking back and forth.

Zoe’s arrival had somehow punctured the bubble of tension she’d been experiencing for the last few days, and suddenly she was feeling great again.

She turned to share the joke with Carol, but Carol had left.

Perhaps she too had gone into the dining room, pretending to be an ordinary customer.

Theresa roared with laughter.

When it wasn’t tragic, life was really so funny.

She worked on the starter plates for Odile’s table, chortling to herself.