[Links to parts One, Two, Three, Four]

*

Lara woke up and stretched luxuriously, what a gorgeous deep sleep and entirely dreamless for once. The light in the bedroom was still fairly subdued, as the curtains were closed. Teddy must have gone out, there was a faint clattering sound in the hall, perhaps Philly had already let herself in.

She could hear footsteps and muted voices. A young man came into the room, smartly dressed in a suit and tie. He seemed terribly familiar.

“Mr Clooney is waiting for you in the car,” he said, as if reading from a script.

Oh, of course, she’d almost forgotten, how strange — like forgetting about Christmas Day! Her important lunch date, buried somewhere in the plethora of texts Piers had sent her.

The young man went over to the window and pulled back the curtains before returning to the end of the bed.

The coverlet was no longer there of course — just the heavy silk folds of the strapless burgundy gown with the boned bodice and fishtail skirt, somewhat tricky to manoeuvre, but she eventually found her feet.

“Mr Sokolovsky asked me to give you this,” said the young man in a more assured tone of voice. He handed her a shallow square box. She opened it, inside was a beautiful diadem along with a note.