Madison was so sleepy the next morning I had to practically drag her out of bed. At least she hadn’t wet the bed this time, but I was careful to make no reference to it – this was the advice from the nanny forums I’d looked at on the living-room computer, which David had said I could use. Best not to make a fuss, and maybe they’d stop on their own.

‘Come on, Madison, time for school!’

Sulky, she rubbed at her eyes while I took clothes from her drawers, seeking out anything she had that was remotely age-appropriate.

‘I don’t want to go to school,’ she mumbled.

‘Why not? You love school, with all your friends.’

‘I don’t have any friends.’ It was so sad to hear a five-year-old say that, and I tried to think why. Was it her odd behaviour, or all the lessons she’d missed for auditions, or maybe her strange pageant clothes and the fact that she liked to wear the make-up of a fifty-year-old woman? Did she wet herself at school as well? Miss Oliver would have told me, wouldn’t she?

I tried to change the subject. I know now I should have listened, asked her what she meant, taught her how to be more popular, but I was still immature myself and it embarrassed me. Loneliness carried its own smell and it repelled me. I was afraid of it.

‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ I said. ‘Now, put your socks on, I have to get your brother up.’

Carson had also slept through the night again and didn’t want to wake up, so I was feeling well rested that morning and therefore more cheerful than usual. Maybe I’d cracked it, both Madison and Carson sleeping well, and I could actually get some time to myself. Go to the beach, maybe, given I’d never actually seen it. Do something about breaking into acting – take a class, even, like Abby did.

Downstairs there was no sign of either parent, but Abby’s blender from her morning smoothie sat unwashed by the sink. I’d leave it for Marietta, since it wasn’t my job to clean up. If Abby didn’t like it, she could check the terms of her contract with the agency. I was confident, finally, that they wouldn’t want me to leave, no matter what I did. They needed me, like David kept saying.