‘Me darling?’ she asks. Somebody knocks on his door, an assistant from production, but when they poke their head in Duke shoos them away with the wave of a hand and a scowl. ‘Well, a little. I had just a little-tiny-little-drop to get me through the morning after Roger left.’

‘Roger left.’ Duke doesn’t say it as a question.

‘Couldn’t hack it I suppose,’ his mother says. ‘Scared him off, just like all the others.’

Duke starts to sweat. His breathing is all shallow and strange. He knew it wouldn’t last. He tries to remember what the websites say. It’s a disease. It isn’t her fault. He doesn’t realise he’s actually muttering it out loud until his mother says, ‘Are you talking to me?’

‘Mum,’ he says. ‘Do you have a sponsor? You need to call them. You don’t want to do this to yourself. Can you call Auntie Patricia?’

‘That cow,’ his mother retorts, which Duke takes to mean she cannot.

There’s another knock on the door.

‘I said I’m busy!’ Duke yells, and he hates himself immediately, because only arseholes yell at juniors on set. It’s unbecoming. He adds, in a lighter voice, ‘Just two minutes, please.’

There’s silence at the other end of the line.

‘Mum?’

Still nothing.

‘Mum!’

The line goes dead.

32

Evie

Evie doesn’t have anything official to do on set that day, save being available if any of the actors decide they want character help, which seems unlikely on account of the fact that they haven’t so far, and they all know their characters better than her now anyway. That’s why, when she gets back to her hotel room after breakfast and Magda is stepping out of the shower, there’s nowhere to hide when Magda says: ‘I feel like I’m losing my authority by announcing this in a dressing gown, but I’m staging an intervention. We need to talk.’

Evie looks at her friend. Magda wasn’t here when Evie came down after her fight with Duke last night and hadn’t returned by the time Evie, who had tossed and turned all night, left for a very early morning walk. She looks tired. There’s a tiny bit of mascara still clinging to the side of her eye, and her skin is pink from the heat of the water.

‘Are you all right?’ Evie asks, kicking off her shoes to lie on the bed. Seems like neither of them slept much last night. Thoughts of Duke kept her staring at the ceiling. Why did he disappear like that? It’s so freaking odd.

‘I think I know a … thing,’ Magda says, slowly. She sets her mouth in a firm line and then blows air into her cheeks so they inflate.

Evie frowns. ‘Your ability to communicate clearly is top-notch. I understood every word of what you just said,’ she says, sarcastically.