‘Hang on, let’s just think,’ said Sarah, tapping her pen on her cheek. ‘If they came it would really help the festival?’

Fenella nodded. ‘Bloody right! We might get coverage on Radio 1, as well as all the local stations. It’d be mega. We didn’t even ask any bands that big, because they’re always booked up years ahead. Ironstone just happen to have a gap for some reason. Publicity-wise, it would be fantastic.’

‘Well,’ said Sarah, after chewing her pen for a few thought-filled moments. ‘It won’t do them any harm to do something for us. Tell them we can’t guarantee that they’ll get to meet the great man but we’ll do our best. After all, it’s what we’ve been saying to everyone else and they haven’t smelt a rat.’

‘They will expect the great man to appear,’ said Laura, when Fenella had gone away to tell this whopping lie.

‘I don’t care,’ said Sarah. ‘Sometimes one just has to be a bit unscrupulous. Other people often are.’

‘Quite right!’ said Laura, with a very attractive but very unscrupulous-where-women-were-concerned person in her mind.

‘So let’s get these place cards done.’

‘What shall I do with this one?’ asked Laura a little later, holding a card with Dermot’s name on.

‘Put it on the side with the other possible no-shows,’ said Sarah. ‘A couple of people said they might not be able make it.’

Laura was on duty in the hall. Everyone was due to arrive any minute now. She had the house phone, a list of directions from several local landmarks and a note of which author was to stay where.

The first people to arrive were a couple of women’s fiction writers who were very jolly. They’d travelled together, got lost several times and not minded. They’d had lunch at the local pub and were in positive mood.

‘I’m Anne,’ said one, ‘and this is Veronica. To be honest, people who write books like we do don’t often get asked to festivals,’ she went on. ‘And to get to stay in this lovely house,’ she added, looking round at the hall, newly decorated with some very pretty trompe l’œil morning glories that were concealing something or other that Fenella was worried about. ‘That makes it really special.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Veronica. ‘I love that fake pillar. Getting it to look like real marble is not easy.’

Laura laughed, grateful that the party included two such good-hearted people. ‘It is a lovely house, and Fenella and Rupert are such good hosts,’ said Laura. ‘Fenella will be here in a minute to show you to your rooms.’ She smiled at both women. ‘I’ve always been a fan of your books.’