I am sorry to say that I am leaving your employment. I have been offered a good job by Mrs. Hanford. She has always wanted an English maid and she offered me a lot of money to leave you. Since we haven’t been getting along too well lately and you keep telling me off I thought I’d take my chances with her. Sorry to leave you in the lurch but you know how to take care of yourself quite well.

Yours faithfully,

Queenie Hepplewhite (your former maid)

I just stood there staring. I couldn’t believe it. Queenie—hopeless little Queenie had landed herself a plum job. And I couldn’t believe the sense of loss I felt. I knew I should have been relieved to be rid of her. Now I could find myself a proper lady’s maid—one who wouldn’t fall asleep on my bed, or iron holes in my evening gowns. But I found instead I was blinking back tears.

“Queenie’s gone,” I said to my mother, who was sprawled on the sofa with her script on her knees. “She’s left me. Got a better job.”

“Good luck to whoever’s landed with her,” Mummy said, not looking up. “Don’t worry, darling. Claudette can take care of both of us. She has very little to do here. She won’t mind a bit—will you, Claudette?”

“No, madame,” Claudette said, giving me a look that said the opposite.

“Now leave me in peace. I must work,” Mummy said.

I felt too upset to go to bed. I wandered the grounds. Suddenly I heard a man’s voice saying, “There she is at last.” And a hand reached out from the bushes and grabbed me.

Chapter 14

AT THE BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1934

I was about to scream when a male voice said, “Georgie, old bean. Steady on, it’s me. Algie.”

His face came into focus in the light of the torches that lined the pool.

“Algie? What on earth are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought you were supposed to be working on a ranch.”

“Well, old thing, you see it’s like this. Tubby’s newspaper wanted him to come out to Hollywood on some kind of secret mission thingy so I thought I might join him. Keep him company, you know. Dashed lonely for a chap in a foreign country like this. We’ve become rather good pals. And I knew you’d be here, what with your mother making a picture, don’t you know. I thought you might be able to pull a few strings to get me a job on a film.”

“Get you a job on a film? What on earth could you do on a film, Algie?”