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Her mind was elsewhere It was stuck in the darkness between the lights of Three Pines and the stars

Odile placed the CD in the machine and slipped the headphones on

She’d waited for thisanxiety as the ore on Not that she didn’t enjoy her everyday life In fact, she was amazed by how lucky she was That Gilles should turn to her when his e soured still ah school Had finally found the courage to invite him to the Sadie Hawkins dance, only to be turned down But he hadn’t been cruel Soirls like Odile But not Gilles He’d always been kind Always smiled and said bonjour in the hallways, even when his friends could see

Odile had adored him then and she adored hied for this ht Gilles went to bed early and she went into theirroom in St-Rémy

She could hear the first notes of the first song and felt her shoulders sag, letting go of the tension She could also feel her vigilance slip The need to watch every word, every action She closed her eyes and took a ulp air The bottle was half eic happened The transformation

After a fewacross a flower-festooned stage In Oslo It was Oslo, wasn’t it? Didn’t uished audience, in tie and tails and evening goas on its feet Applauding No Weeping

Odile stopped part way to acknowledge their cries She placed her hand on her breast and curtsied slightly in a gesture of i was presenting her with the silk sash Tears in his eyes too

‘It gives ny, to present you with the Nobel Prize for Poetry’

But tonight the wild applause didn’t move her, didn’t wash over her and protect her from the suspicion she’d been found out for the pathetic little thing she knew herself to be Fro to fit into a world where everyone knew the code, except her

But Odile knew one thing no one else did Her little secret All those people at the séance had been afraid of evil spirits, but she knew the monster was frony kneho it was

Hazel seemed distracted when Madeleine arrived back

‘Couldn’t sleep,’ said Hazel, pouring the home’

Madeleine stirred her tea and nodded Hazel was always a little nervous when Sophie was co home It disrupted the quietude of their lives Not that Sophie was a party ani else Some tension that suddenly appeared in their comfortable home

‘I took poor Mrs Bellows a dinner’