“I’m afraid I’m a hopeless dancer.”

“Pity,” Simon said. “You’ve got the right color hair for the part.”

“So are you creating a musical comedy?” I asked.

“It’s going to be darker than that, darling—a combination folk opera, Shakespearean drama and musical revue, all rolled into one.”

“Quite an innovation,” Adrian said. “The boy’s brilliant, of course. Ceddy snapped him up when he saw his last play being performed in Edinburgh.”

“And he’s promised to put on the extravaganza at his new festival, if Simon can finish it in time,” Jules said.

“What festival is this?”

“Haven’t you heard?” they twittered at me excitedly, making me think how apt it was of someone to have dubbed them the Starlings.

“Ceddy’s planning to have an outdoor amphitheater built down below the cascades,” Simon said. “He wants to hold a festival here, like Glyndebourne. He wants Kingsdowne to become the mecca for the arts.”

“Goodness,” I said. “How ambitious.”

“Oh yes. Cedric wants his name to go down in history. The Medici of mid-Kent,” Adrian said.

The other two boys glanced around nervously. “You shouldn’t say things like that, Adrian. You’ll get us all slung out on our ear,” Simon said.

“Fiddlesticks,” Adrian said. “Ceddy adores me, and you know it. I can do no wrong in his eyes.”

“This week,” Julian said. “Ceddy is notoriously fickle, as you very well know.”

“Absolutely not. He must adore me for myself because I admit my painting is not up to Picasso standards.”

“If he adores anyone, it’s Marcel,” Julian said coldly.

“Who is Marcel?” I dared to ask.

“His valet. French; terribly dark and brooding and Continental,” Adrian said, rolling his eyes. “What is not to adore about him. Every time he speaks with that French accent I absolutely melt into a puddle.”

“Enough dallying,” Simon said. “Come on, people. Back to work or this play will never finish. And, Lady Georgiana, darling, couldn’t you please be Ginger Rogers—pretty please? How can I choreograph a duet with one person, and Adrian has two left feet.”

“Very well. I’ll try, but I can’t promise dancing prowess.”

“Isn’t she duckie?” Adrian asked, and they all agreed I was.

So for the next hour I was dragged and swung around the ballroom by an enthusiastic Julian. Actually it was a lot of fun until Cedric’s bulky form loomed in the doorway.

“What is going on? What are you doing in my ballroom?” he demanded like a schoolmaster who has discovered pupils misbehaving.

“Working on the play, Cedric,” Simon said. “We’ve almost mastered the dream sequence with the Welsh miner.”

“What’s she doing here?” He glared at me.

“She’s standing in for Ginger Rogers,” Simon said. “And doing a splendid job.”

“Well, stop that now. I need you now to come and look at the site with me,” Cedric said. “I’ve just been down there, and I’m afraid I was right. Those cottages will have to go.”

“But they are so picturesque, Ceddy. You can’t just knock them down,” Simon said.