He went home to bed soon after, leaving Madi sitting alone at the table, suddenly wide awake.

She had been thinking, over the last couple of days, about going home herself. Her planned month in Shelling would be over soon, and her agent had emailed, asking when she might be ready to return to work. The rigours of touring still felt a little beyond her, but a small part, close to home, might be okay. A way to ease herself back in gently. It was so easy to get left behind or forgotten altogether in this business. And then there was George. If he had seen her missed call he had not responded to it, and she knew now it was going to be up to her to make the first move as soon as she was back in London.

She pulled her diary from her handbag, realising for the first time that it was April the first. A day for childish jokes and trying to fool people with fake spiders and eggs that bounce when you drop them. She’d had more than her share of silly backstage tricks in her time, but it was not really the right day for a devastating fire. She just hoped that, whatever had happened at the hall tonight, it had been an accident and not something to do with one of the kids playing some silly prank.

Where once her diary would have been filled with meetings, rehearsal and performance dates, the pages were ominously blank. In fact, looking back to the start of the year, the only things she had written in were her hospital appointments, and the start and end dates for her visit to Shelling.

She would talk to Prue in the morning and find out if she had any plans to go back to London in the next few days. If not, then she could see no reason to stay here any longer. All she had done since she’d arrived was lead the local teenagers into a project that was now totally dead in the water, set the rumours going about herself and a married man, and get herself involved in running over and almost killing a much-loved cat. This village would be a darn sight better off without her in it, that was for sure. And now that Prue was back in Shelling, it really didn’t feel right to keep her out of her own cottage. No, they might as well officially swap back sooner than expected.

‘I still can’t believe it.’ Faith stood outside the burnt-out hall, now cordoned off by a line of tape. ‘This old hall’s been here as long as I have. And it’s been at the heart of things ever since. The W.I., the Brownies, the library … Oh, no. The library! All the books will have been lost. Oh, Madi, it’s just too awful. And your wonderful show as well. I was so looking forward to that.’

‘Yes, it’s a great shame.’