Say yes, ordered the voice in my head. This has gone far enough. Without a phone or a watch, I had no idea of the time, but it certainly wasn’t getting any earlier, and I had to leave at the crack of dawn. Back to The Songbird, back to Sheffield, and back to Stew.

Back to my real life.

I pulled my hand away and nodded.

Slowly, Evan’s arm fell back by his side and his features reset themselves into those of a stranger. ‘Then maybe you’d rather check out the rest of the ball on your own,’ he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. ‘If that’s how you feel.’

‘OK then,’ I said quietly. ‘That’s what I’ll do.’

‘OK then,’ he repeated, and with one last wounded smile, he turned around and walked away.

And then he was gone.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Evan had been right about at least one thing.

Without someone who knew the lie of the land, it was impossible to find your way around the Crystal Ball. Miserable, mad at myself for sending him away, and furious at him for going when I told him to, I searched for a way out, stopping to ask the other guests as I came across them, but no one else seemed to know or care how they were ever going to make their own escape.

‘Because it’s only an escape if you’re trapped,’ I muttered to myself. ‘And you’re only trapped if you want to get out.’

Since losing Evan, I’d found a nail salon, a mini cinema, an ice rink, and a fully functioning tattoo parlour, but I could not find a way out to save my life. I had politely declined an offer to jump the queue at the tattoo parlour, not quite sure I wanted a permanent reminder of this night, but I had accepted a bag of popcorn from the cinema attendant. It was predictably delicious.

Opening an ornate silver door, I found myself in yet another room, even smaller than Ethelinda’s, but what it lacked in square footage, it made up for in absolute ridiculousness. All four walls were covered from floor to ceiling in white roses, and it was packed with glass display cases full of jewels. Rings, necklaces, earrings, watches, and, because why the fuck not, two cases dedicated entirely to tiaras.

‘Anything catch your eye?’ a white gloved assistant asked from behind the closest counter.

‘Yes,’ I replied, forgetting why I’d opened the door in the first place. As someone who still couldn’t walk past a Claire’s Accessories without coming over all funny, it was almost too much for my magpie heart to handle. ‘All of it.’

‘Would you like to try something on,’ he replied. ‘Perhaps something to go with the lady’s gown, maybe a sapphire?’