Madi let her talk. It was certainly something she seemed good at. Village gossip was not high on Madi’s list of interests, but it did help to know a little about the place and the people in it, now that she was living here. Who to make friends with, who to avoid. She felt almost sorry for Donny, with nothing to do except ring the bells, and pretty badly at that. And for his parents, struggling to keep a business afloat in the back of beyond. It couldn’t be easy trying to keep yourself entertained or to make any sort of living in a quiet little place like Shelling. She hadn’t seen the whole village yet, except on a map, but she was fairly sure she’d be able to walk the entire outskirts in no more than ten minutes. She doubted there were more than fifty houses, fifty families, at most. Stay long enough and she would probably know them all by name, just as they all no doubt did. It wasn’t surprising they knew each other’s personal business too. It must be hard to keep secrets when you lived so closely with your neighbours. But then, she lived just as closely with her own neighbours back at Belle Vue Court and could honestly say she knew very little about any of them. Nor did she particularly want to. She smiled to herself at the irony. How different London was to this tiny country community where even a strange car passing through would probably be noticed and commented upon. She wondered what they made of her, what the rumour mill was saying about her and her reasons for turning up out of the blue like that.

‘So, Madi,’ Faith said, changing the subject abruptly. ‘What is it that you do?’

‘Do?’

‘For a job, I mean. Unless you’re retired, of course, but you don’t look old enough.’

God, the woman was blunt. ‘Thank you. I’m sixty-two so I am pretty much old enough, I suppose, technically, but I’m not in the sort of industry that has a retirement age as such. We tend to go on until we drop.’

‘Oh? Which industry is that then? Because you look like a teacher to me. Maybe a headmistress. Am I close?’

Madi laughed. ‘What is this? Twenty questions? Animal, vegetable or mineral?’

Faith looked confused for a moment. ‘I’m sorry, am I being overly inquisitive?’

‘Not at all,’ Madi lied. ‘But, no, I’m not a teacher, head or otherwise. I’m an actress.’

‘Oh.’ Faith’s arms began to flap wildly, and her voice shot up an octave. ‘Oh! How exciting. Have you been in anything? Well, of course you have. Silly me. What I mean is … well, have you been in anything I might have seen? Heard of? You know, anything famous?’

‘Is Shakespeare famous enough for you?’

Faith giggled. ‘Well, I might not know a lot about the theatre but even I’ve heard of him! Do tell me everything …’

‘Everything?’ The two women reached the turning that led up to the church and the vets’ but walked on past it and headed towards the shops. Madi did her best to suppress a grin. ‘About Shakespeare?’