“Nice to see you too, Helen,” Cy replied dryly. “It wasn’t my fault that you had your museum auxiliary meeting when I came to the apartment. Anyway, you’re here now. Come and have a drink and meet everyone.”

She looked at us with disapproval. “You’ve brought a whole slew of people here? How thoughtless. Didn’t it occur to you that I’d want us to spend some time together?”

“You never did before,” Cy said. “Anyway, we need to keep working on the picture we’re shooting. It’s just cast members and a few friends.”

“Well, I’ve brought some friends too,” she said. “I ran into Barbara at the Beverly Hills Hotel and she was delighted to keep me company on the drive. So was dear Charlie. I gather you’d invited him and he was planning to drive up later, but then he decided to hitch a ride with us.”

I watched as Barbara Kindell and Charlie Chaplin emerged from the car.

“Charlie’s okay, but what did you want to bring her for?” Cy hissed. “You know that anything that happens here will be in the New York newspapers tomorrow.”

“Don’t be so stuffy, Cy. She’s an old friend. A good friend. A loyal friend, which is more than I can say for some people.” She reached out for Barbara Kindell and hooked her arm through Barbara’s. Barbara gave us a small triumphant smile. Charlie Chaplin had headed straight for the bar, took a cocktail and then turned toward my mother and me, raising his glass to his lips.

“Ah, the flower of English womanhood,” he said.

He was about to come over to us when he noticed Craig and Darcy. “Don’t tell me I have competition this weekend,” he said. “I’m not exactly worried about my boy Craig, but who are these other fellows?”

“My new stars, Charlie.” Cy Goldman moved across to put an arm around his shoulder. “Juan is a Spanish matador and this guy O’Mara is a true-blue English lord. I’m going to make him the next Fairbanks. And Juan the next Valentino.”

“Good luck.” Charlie looked amused. “So long as neither is a comic. But then they don’t look very comical.”

Cy was looking past him, frowning. “Did you bring someone else, Helen? Is that your new maid?”