Bertie merely shrugged, striking a match against the sole of her boot to light her pipe.
‘But you can see how we might think that,’ said Tommy. ‘Considering you didn’t give us so much as a goodbye.’
‘You didn’t evenwarnus,’ said Miss Fairchild, putting her brush down. ‘You just … disappeared.’
‘And your name was on the marquee,’ said Mrs Green, her wide, brown eyes blinking sadly. ‘We had to cancel the show that night, and Patience was so upset. Wasn’t she, Mr Green?’
‘Most upset,’ he murmured, flicking the page of his book,The Steam Man of the Prairies.
‘And we dint get paid,’ said Stanley. ‘Remember that?’
‘Andthenshows started being only half full,’ said Tommy. ‘Because they’d bought tickets to see the Memory Binder, and where was she?’
Ava could feel her breath catch in her throat. She had barely been here five minutes, and already she felt as though she had been backed into the same corner she’d spent years living in – although at least then she’d only had Miss Lillian hounding her. Now it was all of them.
‘London, I heard,’ said Miss Fairchild, plucking up her powder brush and passing it slowly across her high, fine cheekbones. ‘Drawing all the crowds away from us.’
‘That’s not true,’ Ava said, though her mouth was becoming dry. ‘I was in Edinburgh.’
‘Doing what?’ asked Tommy. ‘Starting off on your own?’
‘No,’ said Ava. ‘No, I was—’
Hiding, came Oliver’s voice.Just like Pa.Hiding from the world.
‘We’ve seen your pictures around town,’ Miss Fairchild said. ‘We know you’re starting up your act again.’
‘Even though you cost us a night’s pay.’
‘More than that, probably.’
Ava shook her head. ‘The posters weren’tmyidea.’
‘Oh? Whose were they then?’
‘Oliver,’ she said. ‘They were Oliver’s idea. He was trying – he thought it would be good—’
Patience started barking furiously then, and the door swung open.
Miss Lillian’s caneclackedinto the room, her long black dress rustling against the floor. She came to stand directly beside Ava, giving her the same curious look that one might give a hitherto-undiscovered sea-creature.
‘Miss Adams,’ she said, eyelashes fluttering. ‘You’re early.’
‘Bertie brought me in,’ said Ava. ‘I was just saying hello to everyone again.’
‘I can see that,’ said Lillian, turning her glittering smile to the rest of the room. ‘You know, where I come from we have a saying. The man who digs the pit often falls in it himself. And this, Miss Adams? This looks like your pit.’
Ava swallowed, looking between the faces of those she’d once called her friends. Tommy was focused quite intently on picking something from his nails. Mr and Mrs Green had their eyes firmly on Patience, watching her clean her pinkish belly. Even Stanley would rather stare at the bare concrete floor than look at her.
But Miss Fairchild.
Miss Fairchild held her gaze, and there was a drumbeat sitting beneath her glare, something dark and rumbling.
‘But let us focus,’ said Lillian, thudding her cane against the ground to capture everyone’s attention. ‘Ava is here to help Miss Fairchild with her act.’
Miss Fairchild looked as though she’d been struck across the cheek. ‘I don’tneedher help.’
‘I do not agree,’ said Lillian, pulling out one of the chairs and lowering herself into it gently. ‘The Royal reopens in December, and if we are going to compete with them – if you are going to walk onto that stage under Adeline’s name – then you will do it justice, or you will not do it at all. Do you understand?’
