‘Are you coming?’ she asked, meeting Julia’s eyes in the mirror.

*

Julia had been watching them as she discreetly reapplied her make-up, using a plethora of tubes and brushes and powders. She felt sorry for Alice; could sense that things were not unfolding in the way that Alice had hoped.

Julia had come to le Bal to people-watch; to be invited to join some le Bal runaways was beyond her wildest dreams. These were exactly the sort of people who wouldn’t give her a second glance at school; who didn’t register her, with her lowly teacher parent and acned skin. Imagine, when she told Jennifer, and word leaked to the cool set. And yet she couldn’t, could she? She was so different to them all. What did she know about being a debutante or having a movie-star father? But she felt connected to them all the same. She didn’t believe in fate, she believed in science, and yet even to her it seemed particularly serendipitous that it had been her who had found Nina Laurent; it’s not every day you meet a movie star’s daughter in the bathroom of Le Crillon, is it? And there was something captivating about Nina Laurent. There was a restlessness to her that Julia recognised. Besides, isn’t this partly why she’d come to France? For so long, she had felt like she was waiting for her life to start and now here it was, slowly spinning into action. She was at le Bal, with two debs and a cavalier. Why not? Why not join them? Julia was tired. Tired of always having to weigh things up, tired of being a bystander and not a participant. She had this growing sense that it was time to live. If not now, then when?

‘I do know a bar we could try…’ she said.

*

While the others hid from sight, Julia convinced the short man with the reedy voice at the front desk to give her a key to Nina’s room. It was her no-nonsense tone and utter unflappability that compelled the concierge to hand it over. ‘I’m Nina Laurent’s personal assistant,’ she repeated imperiously, Economist slapped on the counter, ‘and it’s imperative I get that key.’

A short time later, Alice, Julia and Teddy gazed around Nina’s room in amazement. Even by Le Crillon standards, this was really something. In the distance the Eiffel Tower shone gold against a cobalt-blue sky. Nina scrambled around grabbing things and went into the white-marbled bathroom to get changed.

‘If we’re doing this,’ Teddy said nervously, ‘we need to do it quickly. Won’t your father come to look for you? Your mother definitely will.’ He shuddered in Alice’s direction.

*

Teddy shed his waistcoat, jacket and tie as Alice removed the sash securing her dress so the lace flared loosely. ‘Could I borrow this?’ she called to Nina, lifting a denim jacket from where Nina had slung it over an armchair earlier. Much better, she thought, holding out the capacious skirt in pinched fingers as she twisted and turned before Nina’s full-length mirror. Julia took in the room and her new acquaintances’ clothes and once again had a rush of feeling that she was out of her depth. She was dressed for work in a pharmacy, not an exciting night out with three le Bal escapees in Paris. As if reading her mind, Alice came over. ‘Look, undo that button, oh and that one too, and—’ To Julia’s alarm, Alice lifted her hair up, away from her face, pulling it into a high pony as she weighed up her new look. Julia’s thick blonde hair was a barrier between her and the rest of the world. She had never worn it up.