‘There will be a trial. We hope. Your actors will be pestered by the press. Quite possibly the Harcourt-Smith case will be revived and young William cornered by the tabloids and awful interpretations put on his reactions. He and his mother will be hunted remorselessly.

‘This may happen whatever we do,’ said Peregrine unhappily.

‘Certainly. But to nothing like the same extent if you don’t do this play.’

‘No. No, nothing like.’ Peregrine got up and walked to the door.

‘I’ll speak to them,’ he said. ‘Along those lines. Good night, Alleyn.’

‘Good night, my dear chap.’

CHAPTER 7
The Junior Element

It was a quarter past three when Peregrine let himself into his house and gave himself a very stiff whisky and a sandwich and then crept upstairs to bed.

‘Hullo,’ said Emily. ‘You needn’t creep about, I waked when you opened the front door.’

He turned on his bedside lamp.

‘What’s happened?’ she said when she saw his face.

‘Didn’t Cip tell you?’

‘Only that there’d been an accident. He said, privately, that Robin didn’t understand. Not properly and he wasn’t sure that he did.’

‘Is Robin upset?’

‘You know what he’s like.’

‘Has he gone silent?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’d better tell you,’ said Peregrine. And did.

‘Oh, Perry,’ she whispered. ‘How awful!’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘What will you do? Go on?’

‘I think not. It’s not decided. Alleyn pointed out what would happen.’

‘Not the same Mr Alleyn?’ she exclaimed.

‘Yes. The very same. He was in front last night. He’s a Chief Superintendent now. Very grand.’

‘Nice?’

‘Yes. There’s nobody arrested or anything like that. Shall I take a look at the boys?’

‘They were both asleep an hour ago. Have a look.’

Peregrine crept along the landing and opened their doors. Steady regular breathing in each room.

He came back to his wife and got into bed.

‘Sound asleep,’ he said.

‘Good.’

‘God, I’m tired,’ he said. He kissed her and fell asleep.

Maggie Mannering with Nanny was driven home in her hired car. She was in a state of bewilderment. She had heard the cast go by on their way for the second curtain call, the usual storm of applause and the rest of the company’s movement forward for the second curtain when everyone except herself and Macbeth went on. She heard Gaston cry out: ‘No! For God’s sake, no!’ and Bob Masters’s ‘Hold it! Hold everything.’ There had been a sudden silence while someone held the curtain back and he went out and then came his voice: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, I regret to tell you there has been an accident…’