‘I told you darling, Bud Martin’s been incommunicado for two days. Even his secretary couldn’t get him, she says he’s on a boat somewhere, that he does this, disappears. But we’ve done everything we can, the filming we did is marvellous, I saw it myself at five o’clock last night as soon as it came out of the lab, and the courier was waiting. Believe me, he’ll see that piece of film and he’ll want you. My LA partners will deal with it from that end, they’ve got instructions to contact Bud Martin later tomorrow. Just relax darling and we’ll talk as soon as I hear.’

Juliet felt her whole body twanging with frustration. ‘I want that film so badly,’ she repeated tightly, wanting to scream at his leisurely tone. But she said only, ‘Call me the minute you hear,’ and put down the receiver. He’s my agent, he makes ten per cent of everything I earn, the least he could do is show a bit of initiative. Why doesn’t he find the fucking boat?

The concerto rose to a crescendo.

She sat up in her big bed, sipped the hot lemon juice to cleanse her system, took the vitamins to strengthen her stamina. And swallowed the oestrogen for – for what? Juliet frowned. For youth perhaps, that’s what they said. She reached out for the magnifying mirror in the drawer beside the bed, put on her spectacles, stared at her face. Sometimes it seemed as if lines appeared overnight. She looked very carefully, very critically, at her eyes and at her mouth and at her skin. No, she still looked good, at least she would when she’d showered and let water run on her face for a while and done some exercises and had a massage. She knew very well that she still looked fantastic, that some actresses would give years of their life for cheekbones like hers, high bones that carved her face, that caught the light in the right way, that looked wonderful both on the stage and in front of a camera. She was lucky: one’s bone structure was luck, after all.

And when other luck had come her way she had seized it with both hands. In an embrace of iron.

As long as Terence Blue isn’t at the reunion. But that’s so unlikely, he’s in Hollywood surely, of course he won’t be there. The only thing in the world I simply could not bear would be to see his face.

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