The children arrived back at their hotel to find Jacinta in a much improved state of mind. She told Alice-Miranda and Millie that her mother had been to visit but, as promised, she kept the details of Ambrosia’s mysterious new job to herself.

As they tucked into the pizzas Monsieur Crabbe had ordered for their dinner, the children told Jacinta all about the service and the odd-looking attendees.

‘And Sloane was amazing,’ Millie said and smiled at Jacinta, who’d been allowed back downstairs for dinner. She didn’t tell Miss Grimm she’d already had a very delicious croque monsieur earlier.

‘Yeah, I was awesome,’ Sloane agreed.

‘Really?’ Jacinta asked sulkily. To add insult to her throbbing injury she couldn’t believe she’d lost her only solo part in the performance as well as her chance to compete in the upcoming gymnastics championships too.

‘She did sing beautifully,’ Alice-Miranda confirmed. ‘But I’m sure she would rather that you’d been there.’

‘Not really,’ Sloane said.

‘Sloane!’ Millie berated. ‘Did you hear what you just said? Seriously, you weren’t glad that Jacinta hurt herself, were you?’

‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ said Sloane. She’d realised she was fast painting herself into a corner. ‘I just meant that it was fun and I really loved it. And I would never have got the chance. Don’t be mad . . .’

‘I’m not mad, Sloane,’ Jacinta said. ‘But you’d better have been awesome.’

‘I was okay,’ Sloane replied. ‘Not as good as you, though – was I, Alice-Miranda?’

‘You were great, Sloane. And Jacinta would have been great if she’d been there,’ Alice-Miranda agreed.

‘Are you two all right?’ Millie looked at the girls, who were munching on their pizza slices.

Jacinta and Sloane looked up.

‘Huh?’

‘Well, usually you’d be fighting by now,’ Millie explained.

‘I don’t fight with people who have broken toes,’ Sloane said, deadpan. ‘It wouldn’t be fair.’

Alice-Miranda giggled. Millie did too. Jacinta and Sloane just stared at each other.

‘What? Can’t we be grown-up sometimes?’ Jacinta nudged Sloane who nudged her right back.

‘You can be grown-up all the time, if it means you stop fighting,’ Millie agreed.

After the chatter had eased, Miss Grimm and Professor Winterbottom outlined the schedule for the following day.

The LaBelle show would start at 11 am but they would need to leave the hotel by nine to walk to the Place Vendôme and have some morning tea before the performance. Mr Lipp and Mr Trout were hoping for another quick rehearsal too, now that all of the seating and decorations would be in place.

‘The adults are going to have a short break for some tea and coffee,’ the professor said. ‘You can either stay down here and chat or go out to the courtyard. We are fortunate to have the whole place to ourselves and I think you can be trusted to do the right thing for half an hour or so.’ The professor glared at Figgy and Rufus as he made the last remark.

Sloane looked around at her friends. ‘What do you want to do?’

‘Let’s go to the courtyard,’ Lucas suggested. ‘Do you feel like some fresh air, Jacinta?’

The girl nodded and Lucas helped her outside, where Monsieur Crabbe was watering the geraniums and Lulu was lazing on the path.

‘Bonjour,’ the man greeted the children. ‘Madame Crabbe tells me your performance was spectacular.’

Sep grinned and said, ‘It was fun.’

Jacinta and Lucas sat down on one of the benches closest to the street, while Alice-Miranda and Millie leaned down to give Lulu a scratch. Sep was standing nearby and Sloane was admiring her fingernails and feeling very clever for finding a pale shade of pink nail polish that the headmistress had not yet spotted.

‘Monsieur Crabbe, do you know the family that lives across the road in the townhouse with the black door?’ Sep asked.

The man rubbed his chin. ‘I have seen a man come and go many times. He is small and pointy and wears a beret.’

‘Have you ever seen a woman there?’

‘A woman? No,’ he replied.

‘Have you ever seen a boy there?’ Sep asked. ‘He looks a bit older than us, probably fourteen or fifteen.’

Monsieur Crabbe shook his head. ‘No, never. But there are a lot of vans coming in the day and night, especially this week.’

Sep frowned and went to the gates. Alice-Miranda followed him. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

‘I went to find Fabien when we got back this afternoon but the woman answered and when I asked for him she just shook her head. But I saw him myself! He was inside, but he made it clear that he didn’t want me to tell her anything more.’

‘That does sound strange,’ said Alice-Miranda. She peered up at the windows, looking for signs of life.

‘Yeah, I suppose sometimes families are weird,’ Sep said. ‘Just look at mine.’ He began to fish around in his pocket.

‘What are you looking for?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

‘This.’ He handed her the button he’d found on the step outside the house with the black door.

Alice-Miranda studied it. ‘I think it’s a G and an F together,’ she said. ‘It’s very pretty. There’s an amazing Italian designer called Giovanni Fernando. Perhaps it’s from one of his designs?’ She went to hand it back to Sep.

‘No, you can keep it,’ he said. ‘I don’t have much use for designer buttons.’

They went back to gazing across the street.

Alice-Miranda wondered what was going on with Fabien. It was all so very odd.