I smiled self-consciously and followed her up the stairs. I adored their bedroom. I hadn’t been in it since Edie and I met and I realised how much I’d missed it. The bed was huge, and set with a multitude of tasselled cushions and a gold stitched bedspread. There was a large rug at the foot of the bed, which was soft and white, and resembled a circle of freshly fallen snow. There was a dressing table in the corner. I noticed that where there was usually a mirror, it was gone, leaving only a faint shadow outline of where it had hung.

‘Why don’t you sit down?’ Eleanor gestured to the stool in front of the dressing table. ‘I’ve got time to put a little make-up on you. We could take the heavy black stuff off your eyes and do something that will bring out your natural eye colour. Would you like that?’

She wiped my eyelids with cotton wool soaked with cream that smelt of roses. ‘You look better already,’ Eleanor said. ‘That heavy black doesn’t suit anybody. You need colour.’

‘What are you doing?’

We both turned to see Edie at the door. She stood with her arms crossed and a surly frown plastered over her face.

Eleanor smiled at me and rubbed a blusher brush into a compact. ‘Getting ready for the party, darling.’ She glanced at her daughter. ‘I could do yours, too, if you’d like.’

‘I’ve done it.’ Her tone made me wince.

Edie was wearing a black dress and black cardigan, heavy fishnet tights with a hole above one knee, her DM boots, and about ten silver necklaces in differing lengths. Her eyes were encased in huge black sweeps, the corners reaching almost to her hairline. Her lips were black, too, and she wore a foundation that was at least one or two shades lighter than normal. Her hair was slicked back on one side with gel as if the wind had blown and it had been frozen mid-gust.

‘Yes, so I see,’ Eleanor said. ‘You’ve made yourself up to look like you’re dead.’

Edie huffed and turned around. Moments later her bedroom door slammed.

‘Don’t worry about her.’ Eleanor smiled. ‘She doesn’t like our friends, but she’ll be fine once the party gets going.’ Then she picked up her blue eyeliner. As she applied the eye make-up I breathed her in. I knew the thick, sweet smell. Poison, by Dior. I’d sprayed it on my wrists many times before.

After she finished, she smiled again. ‘You look beautiful. And I was right, the blue really picks out your eyes.’ She stood. ‘Now let me find that top for you. You’ll be far too hot in that woollen thing.’