What she had to do was easier that way. Not that she would have considered doing such a thing had he left her any other choice, but he had not. He had forced her into it. In the full glare of the lights around the mirror, she sat at her make-up table and considered her face with professional detachment. It was good for a few years yet. Perhaps ... very few. After that, a few more years, leaning heavily on the soft focus technique – the modern equivalent of the old-fashioned method of filming through a gauze veil. She remembered once hearing someone remark about an ageing star. ‘Shooting her through a veil? They’re shooting that broad through linoleum, these days.’ She had laughed at the time. It didn’t seem so funny any more. A lot of things had changed in the past year or so. Five years ago, it had seemed ideal. A wealthy marriage, a devoted husband – there were worse fates than being an old man’s darling.
