Seeing how disgruntled Ivy was, Holly let the subject drop but she couldn’t help wondering if perhaps Jeremy and Ivy were drifting apart. That would surely explain Ivy’s sudden mood swings.

Ivy didn’t see Jeremy again until early the following week and she was none too pleased about it.

‘So exactly when are you plannin’ on takin’ me to meet your family?’ she queried. ‘You keep saying you will but every time I mention it you always come up with some excuse.’

‘There’s nothing I’d like more than for them to meet you,’ he told her silkily as he traced his finger tenderly down her cheek and Ivy felt herself melting. Just one glance at his handsome face and she was like putty in his hands and he knew it. ‘But I daren’t take time off from my new job just yet. Look what I bought with my wages.’ He stared down at his new suit and smart shoes and Ivy had to admit he did look very grand.

‘Well, now you’ve got some money again you can perhaps take me out somewhere nice instead of to your poky little room all the time,’ she said churlishly. She wasn’t going to forgive him that easily. In actual fact, the first time he had taken her to his lodgings she had been appalled and rather shocked. After all, Jeremy came from a very well-to-do family so she would never have imagined him living in such a hovel. He rented two rooms in a large terraced house in Whitechapel and to say they left a lot to be desired would have been putting it mildly, as she’d told him.

‘Ah, but there’s a reason for it,’ he’d told her. ‘I am a journalist after all and these lower class areas tend to be where I get most of my stories from. Whitechapel is full of thieves and villains, what better place is there for me to be? But only for now, of course. I don’t intend to stay here for long, I assure you.’

And Ivy believed him, just as she believed everything he told her.

‘I tell you what,’ he said with the smile that could always melt her heart. ‘We’ll go to the picture house. I don’t know what’s showing but there’s bound to be something on we fancy. What do you say?’

Ivy immediately perked up and linking her arm with his she followed him through the streets adoringly. He had told her that he was planning to buy a motor car soon and then they would travel in style.

They had reached the door of the theatre when Jeremy reached into his pocket and softly swore under his breath.

‘I don’t believe it,’ he muttered grimly. ‘I’ve only gone and left my wallet in the pocket of my old suit … you couldn’t lend me a few bob, could you, sweetheart?’

Ivy’s face fell. ‘B-but you haven’t given me back what you borrowed last week … or the week before,’ she pointed out. ‘And I’ve had to pay my share of the rent and the bills this week so I’m a bit short.’