‘Of course,’ she said with a beaming smile. ‘That’s absolutely fine. Don’t give it a second’s thought.’ Evelyn wasn’t an actress for nothing.

Brenda, happy with her response, thanked her profusely and then left her on her own at the kitchen table. Well, thought Evelyn, she was going to have to get the part now. She was down to the last few coins in her purse and all out of options. If some money didn’t come in, and quickly, then she might have to admit defeat and go back home to Southwold.

Actually, no, Evelyn corrected herself. Things would have to get a whole lot worse than this for her to contemplate going back. Southwold had never felt like home, even when she lived there. The youngest of three children and by far the most flamboyant, Evelyn had been born to strict Presbyterian parents who had actively disapproved of her life choices. They had both died young, however, leaving Evelyn’s elder sister Joan occupying the family home; the home that the three of them had inherited in equal parts but that Joan had commandeered. It ought to be an option for Evelyn to demand her share of the funds, but to do so would be to admit to her sister that she needed the money, and that was something Evelyn couldn’t bring herself to do. Her inheritance would come to her eventually. At least this way Joan had somewhere to live, and Evelyn could enjoy the warm glow that came from having done something nice for her sister, despite everything horrible Joan had done to her.

Joan was a spinster, which was of little surprise given her terse and truculent personality traits. She professed that her single status was by choice, but Evelyn suspected her sister was deeply bitter about her failure to find a husband and so felt able to make allowances for Joan’s general unpleasantness. Their brother, Peter, weak-chinned and lily-livered, had found himself an equally feeble wife and together they had created a neat ‘one of each’ family, which seemed to work well for them but which was Evelyn’s definition of hell. Peter, however, was also unlikely to stand up to Joan on the question of their inheritance, and so the status quo rolled on year on year.

Sometimes Evelyn almost felt sorry for her sister, but it never lasted for long. Joan had picked up the mantle of disapproval of Evelyn from where their parents had let it fall and, if anything, was even more vociferous in her objections to Evelyn’s lifestyle than they had been. On the list of things about Evelyn of which Joan did not approve were: living in London; living in a flat share; being an actress; being single at thirty (the irony of this one seemed to pass her by); and failing to stay in Suffolk to be near their parents and thus leaving the responsibility for them and their home to her. And this was why Evelyn would have to be destitute or desperate or, more likely, both before she would even consider going back home.