He was so utterly thrown he simply stopped speaking, and even as he stopped, the old woman was gone. So that Terence stood there, his mouth open, staring in amazement at an empty doorway.

He was a little drunk, certainly, but he had that immense charm and he was infinitely experienced at impromtu public speaking. He recovered, found his thread, brought his few words to a hasty conclusion.

Smiling his famous smile, he pushed his way through the people, constrained by colleagues wanting to say hello, not seeing the woman in the purple dress looking puzzled, not seeing the white face of Juliet Lyall; pushing past faster and faster smiling still, to get to the door. But there was nobody there along the dark corridor, nobody at all. He ran down the flights of stairs two at a time, stumbling and running down and down to the front door.

There was no old lady in the bright, sunny street; nobody.

‘Terence my dear fellow, you’re not leaving? You can’t leave, you are our star turn.’

Terence Blue turned back from the sunshine, blinking into the dark foyer and into his mind came the words that had haunted him for over thirty years.

He doesn’t know the meaning of love.

He looked like a man who had seen a ghost.

*

Molly McKenzie and Juliet Lyall inadvertently left the reunion together, early, Juliet to go to her matinée of The Seagull, Molly to meet her lover.

‘You look good, Molly,’ said Juliet quickly as they came down the old winding stairs. ‘I like that green dress. How are you? Haven’t seen you for ages. You’re in a soap opera aren’t you? That must be fun.’ She felt so disoriented after talking to Nicky Abbott, then seeing Terence rush out of the Music Room, that she hardly knew what she was saying.

‘I loved The Seagull,’ said Molly not answering her directly. ‘I was there on the first night.’ They both blinked in surprise as they came through the dark foyer and out into the bright afternoon sunshine. Someone tooted, someone leaving, or arriving. They both waved, rather short-sightedly.

‘Did you see Nicky Abbott?’ said Molly. ‘I didn’t recognise her, not at first, she was so – so old I suppose I was thinking, though she was younger than any of us, of course. It was just such a... shock after all these years. And there seemed to be something wrong with her shoulder. But I heard her voice and knew it was her; I’ve never forgotten her voice.’

‘Was she there? Really?’ said Juliet. ‘I didn’t notice.’ And in her mind, over and over, Why was she there? Why was Nicky Abbott there?

They walked along the pavement and the afternoon shimmered.