“Well, there’s him.” Sophie nodded to Jamie. “He eats enough for three, but he only actually uses one chair, although it should probably be the big one.”

“Are you coming, Jamie?” said Lulu.

“I don’t know,” said Jamie. “Am I?” he asked Sophie.

Lulu looked at her sister and shook her head.

“Is this how you invite him?” she said. “Your manners are terrible, Soph, you should take a course in etiquette from Miranda Fentiman. Jamie, since it seems to be the family tradition this year for us all to invite people on behalf of each other, would you like to join us for Thanksgiving a week from Thursday?”

“I think that would be okay,” said Jamie. He had not learned how to pretend to hesitate before accepting dinner invitations, either.

Hughie Brown was a wirily built man in his mid-thirties, with a shock of black hair, rakish eyebrows, and an expression of amusement.

“I liked your St. Luke’s reel,” he told Sophie when she visited him in his office high above Wardour Street.

“Thank you,” said Sophie. “I thought Colin and I had a good connection. He’s very nice to work with, actually.”

“So I hear,” said Hughie. “And I thought that you looked very nice in the nurse’s uniform.”

Sophie blinked in surprise. She was casually aware that she had a nice figure; however, this was the first time that she had had it complimented so directly in a professional context, and she was by no means sure that she welcomed it. But Miranda Fentiman, it seemed, was able to be a popular girl and a serious actress at the same time. Miranda Fentiman, in fact, was a quite successful serious actress. It was time, Sophie thought, that she grew up a little.

“Thank you,” she said. “I really liked doing St. Luke’s. I was hoping to be asked back, but it didn’t happen.”

“The Fentiman Factor.” Hughie nodded. “She’s a problem, that one. Hard-faced number to play a social worker, I always think. But then there’s a reason Tim decided to put her in baggy sweaters instead of a nurse’s kit.”

Sophie was not usually unkind; but this was Miranda Fentiman, after all.

“Shouldn’t that be two reasons?” she asked demurely.

He laughed, then looked at her with increased interest.

“I think we can do better for you than St. Luke’s, can’t we?” he said. “Are you up for meeting people? Going out and putting your face around a few parties and so on?”

“Absolutely,” said Sophie. “That sounds like fun.”

“It helps if people know you,” said Hughie. “Let’s face it, there are dozens of pretty young actresses walking through a director’s door every time he opens it—no matter how talented you are, it’s hard to get yourself noticed. If you’re not just pretty blond Sophie Atwater but pretty blond Sophie Atwater who made that witty comment at the party last week, that might just make all the difference. Now, let’s think.” He frowned at her thoughtfully. “Do you know Johnny Genovese?” he said after a moment.