Libby blinked, apparently surprised by her appearance, then gave her a tentative smile. ‘Oh, okay. It’s … weird being here, is all.’

‘Yeah.’ Posy surveyed the room around them. Even beyond all the people in 1930s and ’40s dress – not forgetting the guy in slacks and a Christmas jumper – she felt like she had slipped through time.

Posy lowered her voice. ‘I’ll be honest, this place gives me the creeps. That dollhouse in the hallway …’ She shuddered, making Libby chuckle.

‘I don’t mind it so much. But then, I’ve been spending the last few months writing about murders and such somewhere like this, so maybe I’ve just got used to it.’

‘Of course you have.’ Posy cast around for an innocuous way into the questions she really wanted to ask. ‘But you’re a latecomer to the project, like me, right? Had you worked with Anton before? Is that why he brought you in?’

Libby shook her head. ‘No, but my agent had, a few times. And she knows I’m a huge Lettice Davenport fan, so when Anton contacted her looking for a script doctor I guess I was the obvious choice.’

Seemed like everyone involved was a lifelong Dahlia fan, except Posy. ‘What do you love most about her books?’

Head tilted, Libby considered the question. ‘I guess they’ve always been part of my life – my gran gave me one to read when I was about eleven, and I never looked back. Where I grew up, we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, so books and movies were my escape. My way to see the world. I suppose they still are.’ She gave Posy a small, embarrassed smile. ‘Anyway. Being here at Aldermere, where Lettice wrote so many of her books, is incredible to me. I felt like I knew the place before I even stepped foot inside.’

Hadn’t she mentioned something about maps of Aldermere, when they’d arrived. ‘You must know it pretty well from all your research, too. Doesn’t it have a folly somewhere?’

‘Uh, yes, I think so. I’m not quite sure where. Down by the river, maybe?’ Libby scrunched up her face as if trying to remember. ‘It’s not a feature in the script, so I didn’t really spend much time on it.’

The confusion could be an act, but Posy didn’t think so. She ploughed on with her second question.

‘You said on the train that the script is done. Do you think we’ll all have the final version soon?’

Libby shrugged. ‘Anton forwarded it on to the “important stakeholders” a few days ago.’ Anton’s words, Posy guessed, from the way Libby put air quotes around the phrase. ‘I’m not sure who he counts as important, though.’