Posy’s heart clenched at the casual way he threw her mistakes in her face. She’d been so scared of him finding out about her slip-up, when he’d orchestrated it all along.

Posy Starling as Dahlia was never going to fly, not for the fans and certainly not for the legion Hollywood nobility she’s offended during her time on the scene …

No. Her nails dug half-moons into her palms as she shoved Uncle Sol’s voice out of her head for the last time.

She’d read enough about the curse to know the truth. People hadn’t hated the original script because it was modern or new. They’d hated it because it was bad. Because Dahlia didn’t sound like Dahlia, and because DI Johnnie ended up solving the mystery.

‘That’s because you were wrong about me. And you were wrong about the fans, too. This film is about more than you and your vision. Everyone else involved cares about this film and we will make it the best we can, with or without you. If you don’t want to be part of it, quit now. But Anton – just because the world isn’t moving as fast as you’d like, doesn’t mean it isn’t moving at all. We can bring Dahlia into the twenty-first century, but not if we trash everything that she was about.’

‘And you know what that is, do you?’ Anton looked unconvinced.

‘I’m learning,’ she said, simply. But what she still didn’t know was whether he was behind everything else that was happening at Aldermere that weekend.

‘Tell me something. Did you give Marcus or Clementine those photos?’ she asked.

‘I didn’t have to.’ Anton’s smile sharpened. ‘It was all Marcus’s idea, you see. I just asked him to make sure you screwed up publicly on the panel earlier, to get the fans bitching about you. But Marcus really doesn’t like the idea of you as Dahlia, you know?’

‘So he arranged the photos,’ Posy whispered.

Anton shrugged. ‘He sorted the photographer. I sorted your ex. I like to think of it as a joint effort. Not that he knew why I was doing it – just that it would get you off the movie.’

He sounded pleased with himself, but Posy wasn’t listening. She was thinking. Hard. Marcus would have had access to her photos and to Caro’s. Was it so much of a stretch to think he could have got Rosalind’s too? And that Clementine could have found them and sent them to the three of them as a warning of what he had planned?

Maybe Marcus found the photos had disappeared, and needed another way to discredit her. One that would definitely get her fired from the film. Like stealing Lettice Davenport’s jewelled loupe.

‘So, what are you going to do now?’ Anton asked. ‘No one will believe you.’