‘Who’s singing my refrain?’ Caro wafted back into the room, all red lipstick and knowing eyes, and descended on the group. ‘I did so love saying that line. In fact, when we were filming it, I’d purposely stand in the wrong place, or block the camera or something, just so I could say it again!’

Posy was almost certain she’d done nothing of the sort – not on the first episode of a new series with a new director, when she’d had no proven track record or reason for them not to fire her. She wouldn’t have risked it.

But it fitted the mythos Caro had built around the character. Dahlia would have done that, perhaps, so in Caro’s narrative, so had she. The two had become so intertwined over the years, Posy wasn’t sure the actress knew the difference anymore.

With Caro standing firmly in her spotlight, no one seemed very interested in Posy anymore. She was about to slink off towards the stairs, when the sound of a silver fork against glass rang through the ballroom. Everyone fell silent to look at Marcus, standing on a straining chair at the front of the room.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, Dahlia Lively fans all. I’m afraid I must announce that a murder has been committed.’

Chapter Seven

‘What fun!’ Dahlia clapped her hands together with glee, ignoring Johnnie’s disapproving stare. ‘A game of murder! My favourite!’

Dahlia Lively in A Rather Lively Murder

By Lettice Davenport, 1932

‘Not a real murder, of course,’ Marcus announced from his perch atop the antique-looking chair, to relieved laughter. ‘But a game of murder, much like in A Rather Lively Murder. The object of today’s exercise is to solve the murder and apprehend the murderer before the clock on the stable yard outside chimes five this afternoon – which gives you three hours to do your best.’

A murmur of excitement went up amongst the assembled company. The chair wobbling a little beneath him as he gesticulated, Marcus continued to explain.

‘Like all good murder mysteries, ours will start with the discovery of a body, in this case in the stables.’

‘Ah, of course. Just like in The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,’ Caro explained to all the people who were now looking at her, not Marcus. ‘That’s the one where Dahlia acquires her motorcycle – with sidecar, of course.’

‘Did I hear that you have the original from the show now?’ Ashok asked eagerly. ‘I would love to ride on that!’

Marcus cleared his throat, and most of the room turned towards him, although Posy could see Caro and Ashok still whispering like kids at the back of the class. Or, like kids did on TV shows, anyway. Educated alone in trailers on film sets, Posy had never actually seen a classroom past primary school.