The main lobby of the theater was grand, all crimson velvet and gold leaf. My dress couldn't have been further from the décor, standing out like a shining pale leaf, not that I'd known or planned it. Yet again I was surrounded by a milling crowd of the over-dressed and noble, though this time my nerves were nowhere in sight. I was too on edge for that.

A young man in a red velvet jacket greeted us before we made it very far.

"Lord Brindle awaits you," he said, bowing ...