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choice, which was noted by the Scribe of Scribes. The Scribe of Scribes had a casting vote in the event of a tie but otherwise did not vote.

      The Scribe of Scribes, monitored by the Inspectors of the Count, drew up a List of Ten that was written backwards, with the tenth last name at the top, and the winner at the bottom. He then read out the names and the votes in this sequence, while everyone busily copied down what he was saying.

      The name of the winner was then written down onto the Roll of Honour with the date of the year next to it by the Scribe of Scribes, still closely monitored by the Inspectors of the Count to check that even at the very last minute he wasn’t cheating, and then the evening was done. The members of the Club of Appreciation went their various ways: some for a drink and a gentle game of billiards, others returned home, while others went and partied with prostitutes. The excitement was over for another year.

      This was the event on which Berg, as a member of the Club of Appreciation, had now to make his report to The Gang. He read out the ten names, starting with the tenth beauty of New Landern for that year (Miss Odilia Fabel). The third-last name was Lady Arabella Montlait, four times a past winner, and still a strong competitor despite her advanced age of twenty seven; the second-last name was Lady Isabel Grangeshield, which made everyone look at Isabel with a sympathy she affected not to notice, because of course if she was the second-last name that meant that she had not won, and then with a dramatic pause, during which time everyone’s mind was racing trying to figure out who the winner could possibly be, Berg read out the name of the most beautiful woman in New Landern of 1544: Miss Angela Ashton. The unexpected result made everyone gasp and then declare that they had known it all along.

      ‘I knew it!’ declared Sophie, who had never mentioned this before. ‘She was kept out of sight by Hudson, Nieves and Zavanna but Foxley has taken her everywhere with him and she has been widely seen in his company over the past year. Yes, it is that exposure to the public eye which has brought her this success, I think.’

      ‘I said to Arnold just the other day, do you think it might be Miss Ashton this year and he said quite possibly,’ Kora added. (Arnold was her sweetheart.) She also had never mentioned this before.

      Samantha revealed for the first time her own foresight in this matter, ‘Miss Ashton was so widely observed at the Mudfield Stakes that I thought then she might win this year, and I even asked Lane if he would vote for her and he said he might.’ (Lane was her brother.)

      ‘The fickleness of men!’ Uliana proclaimed as if she had never before suspected such a thing. ‘How could they? Isabel, it seems your time has already come and gone.’

      Isabel had won the title of the most beautiful woman in New Landern for the past three years in a row, and had been a runner-up (to Arabella Montlait) in her first year of competition. Uliana was feeling spiteful — with her square, almost mannish face, a snub nose and a wide mouth with thick lips, she had never made it onto the List of Ten and never would.

      ‘Who is Miss Ashton?’ Isabel asked, as if she had forgotten.

      Berg looked at her smiling, not fooled for a moment. ‘She is an actress who steps out onto the stage of the Emperor Theatre.’

      ‘Ah, an actress!’ Isabel observed disdainfully. ‘Yes, no doubt she can instruct the Club of Appreciation to cackle like geese better than they do already, if indeed they do need instruction in this matter. I am sure they are already perfect geese.’

      ‘Oooh, it’s very hard, Izzy,’ Penny consoled her. ‘But everyone’s talking about Miss Ashton these days. All the men go to the theatre just to ogle her.’

      ‘Men are simple creatures, are they not, Berg?’ Uliana asked Berg.

      ‘I assure you I voted for you, Isabel,’ Berg said.

      ‘And who else did?’ Isabel asked as if she really had very little interest in this matter but was only being polite.

      Berg cast his mind back and started mentioning names.

      ‘You have not mentioned Brecky,’ Isabel pointed out after he had finished.

      ‘Brecky voted for Miss Ashton,’ Berg told her, as if apologetic to be the one to bring her such bad news but looking at her sideways as if eager to see how she took it.

      Isabel slapped the table. ‘The lowness of that man! He proposes to me and then does not even vote for me.’

      ‘Izzy, you cast him aside like a dirty hat,’ Penelope pointed out. ‘He’s hardly going to vote for you now.’

      ‘That is not the point,’ Isabel said firmly. ‘Clearly his proposal did not come from the deepest least wayward impulses of his heart as he claimed. He was a charlatan and a fraud and I trust that no-one now will challenge the correctness of my decision when I told him that he was not a gentleman. A charlatan and a fraud cannot be a gentleman,’ Isabel continued, warming to her theme. ‘A gentleman will do what is right no matter what his personal feelings may be on the matter. Lord Breckenridge has failed to surmount the wound to his pride and voted against me out of a petty vindictiveness and spite that show the lowness of his character, the meanness of his mind and the shallowness of his morals. There is nothing to be said in his defence.’

      ‘Miss Ashton won by twenty eight votes,’ Sophie pointed out. ‘If she had been less Brecky’s vote, which had gone to you, the margin would still be twenty-six votes.’

      ‘Which are not yet the number of your rejected suitors,’ Uliana pointed out in her turn. ‘You have been beaten fair and square, Isabel. You may well wish to take your own advice about surmounting the wound to your pride.’

      ‘There is no wound to my pride,’ Isabel declared. ‘But I must confess a curiosity about this Miss Ashton. I propose that we attend a performance at the Emperor Theatre to see this Miss Ashton on the stage.’

      ‘Oh, she’s such a wonderful actress,’ Penny enthused. ‘They are performing The Lady in Peril at the moment. It is an interesting and curious play but everyone goes there just to see Miss Ashton.’

      ‘And so shall we,’ Isabel proclaimed. So Isabel made arrangements to take out a box but when the time came only Penny and Sophie could come with her, as the others were all unable to make it on the evening in question, and so it was that Isabel set out on Friday, 20 May 1544 A.F. to attend a performance of The Lady in Peril starring Miss Angela Ashton at the Emperor Theatre.

      EIGHT

      A Question is Asked of Mr Taggart Longman

       by Miss Angela Ashton

      11 AM, Monday 9 May 1544 A.F.

      The death of a king does not pass unnoticed, and the crowds of thousands upon thousands who had brought New Landern to an unexpected standstill for Jolly’s funeral had passed by underneath Angela’s flying carriage as she went to the Emperor Theatre to attend rehearsals for The Kingdom of Happiness, which was the play that would follow her current play The Lady in Peril. The respectable half of New Landern had been baffled by the mass attendance of the other half for the funeral of this previously unknown person, and they had turned to The New Landern Recorder the next day to find out what was going on, where they had read that the funeral had been for “Mr Frank Jollison, the noted philanthropist”. Angela, who no longer had a sense of humour, had read this description impassively; Nicholas had read this nonsense and rolled his eyes and shook his head, wondering to himself, “How do they invent this stuff?” and had then finally laughed out loud, drawing Ben down on his neck, who wanted to know, “What was so funny?” Nicholas had to dissemble on the spot, although Ben had not looked convinced by his performance.

      So Jolly was dead; Angela looked down on the crowds thronging the streets of New Landern and knew this straight away without needing to be told in so many words. Rehearsals that afternoon were cancelled; people stood around in the theatre talking in hushed voices, and Angela was not unaware that certain looks were being directed at her, though no-one would say anything directly. The next day was covered with a veneer of normality, as if everyone Angela met were acting from the memory of being themselves, but the next day people were

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