Tom threw his script down and slumped back in his place. He looked exhausted and there were dark, damp patches under the arms and across the back of his tracksuit.

There were only seven days to go before the opening of As You Like It. Half-finished bits and pieces of the Forest of Arden set gave the stage a cluttered, makeshift air. The cast sat dispiritedly in the stalls or lounged in the wings, waiting to work through a scene for the umpteenth time. Tom Hart had proved a hard taskmaster, but he was driving his uneven bunch of students into a performance that was beginning to look impressive.

Chloe watched dispassionately as the actors regrouped themselves for the opening scene.

Oliver shook himself, the disenchanted air vanished, and he was Orlando again.

‘As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns …’

Tom leaned back, intent, not missing a single syllable or gesture. Once or twice he scribbled a brief note, but his concentration never wavered.

Intimidatingly professional, Chloe thought. He’ll make a good job of this, whatever’s going on backstage to wreck it.

There was no doubt, with his mixture of asperity and cajolement, that Tom was getting the best possible performance out of Oliver. Onstage his bored cynicism dropped away and Oliver almost magically became the fresh, idealistic lover. He was best of all in the scenes with Pansy as Rosalind. The tension between them was tangible and it gave the lovers a vivid dimension that Chloe had never seen in the play before.

And Pansy herself was remarkable. The wistfulness in her ‘O, how full of briers is this working-day world’ brought the tears to Chloe’s eyes, even in the prosaic clutter of the half-built set and the anxious, fractious atmosphere of the late rehearsal.

An unspoken truce had reigned at Follies House since the day of Pansy’s party. Pansy and Chloe skirted carefully around each other, and Stephen was never mentioned. Pansy absorbed herself in rehearsals and her spare time was spent with Oliver, just as it had been since the autumn. She was as evasively quick to joke as ever, and as difficult to pin down, but she treated him affectionately and he seemed happy enough with that. Chloe knew that Pansy had seen nothing of Stephen. And Chloe and Stephen went on just as before, meeting each other whenever they could. Cautiously Chloe made no mention of Pansy, and worked hard at being as witty and beguiling for Stephen as she knew how.