‘I don’t know. Because my parents want me to, I suppose. And it’s what everyone does.’

Nina looked horrified. Alice cursed herself; she bet Nina Laurent didn’t set much store in following society’s expectations.

‘Alice!’ Teddy hissed suddenly by the door. ‘What are you doing? Everyone’s looking for you.’ His face wore an angry grimace, until Nina stepped out from behind Alice. Is it possible to hear the sound of a jaw dropping? Alice thought.

‘Hi,’ Nina said, and she felt the moment. The moment where her world slipped and slid. The moment her eyes locked with Teddy’s.

‘This is Nina Laurent,’ Alice said, and Nina wondered why she said it so emphatically, like Teddy was supposed to know who she was. ‘This is Teddy Astor,’ she said, turning to Nina. ‘Your cavalier.’

‘Nina O’Connell,’ Nina corrected, frowning, a ruse to mask her embarrassment because she’d seen the man before her earlier: rushing into a lift, a burst of action and a musky scent that had left her breathless. She was jacked up on hormones and paternal abandonment, she’d thought, and then scribbled it down in the notebook she always carried with her: song lyric ideas. She hadn’t imagined he might be a cavalier, she’d been picturing someone far less handsome, someone old.

Alice looked between the two of them, their attraction unfurling like caramel, and felt instantly panicked.

‘We’re not going,’ she announced to Teddy, her arms folded.

‘What?’ Nina exclaimed as Teddy snapped to attention.

‘What do you mean, you’re not going?’ he asked, working hard to shift his eyes away from Nina. ‘Alice, it’s le Bal. Thousands of girls – hundreds of thousands – would give their right arm to be here right now. You have to go. Imagine if you don’t!’ Alice did imagine it. She imagined walking out right now, head high, a cool girl, like Nina Laurent, or O’Connell, whatever her name was, not one beset by tradition and expectations and uncomfortably fitting dresses. The whole event was so old-fashioned and showy. ‘Your whole family will be out, Alice. Your children won’t be able to debut.’

‘That’s all the more reason not to do it!’ she cried, feeling revolutionary. ‘Tell my mother—’

‘You are joking? There’s no way I’m telling her anything. The count’s already one surplus cavalier with you not there. If you’re both ditching,’ – his eyes found Nina’s again, hesitant but full of expectation – ‘I’m coming with.’

‘No!’ groaned Alice, but she could see how he was looking at Nina. She could already see how this would play out. The two most beautiful people in a room always find each other, don’t they? ‘Why do you always have to…’

‘Always have to what?’

‘Nothing,’ she tutted. She knew she was being childish but all her life it felt like Teddy was always there, commandeering her things: her brothers, her mother and now Nina Laurent. She’d met her first, not Teddy. Oh God, why did she sound like such a child? She was seventeen! Time to grow up, Alice, she seethed to herself silently.