The man turned with a scowl as Amber looked towards Daisy in dismay. ‘But the poor chap was down on his luck,’ she said with concern. She always tried to spare a little for Trampy Ned back at home.

Daisy snorted. ‘Now look ’ere, you’ll ’ave to ’arden up if you’re to be ’ere fer any length o’ time. This city is crawlin’ wi’ people like ’im an’ most of ’em will spend anyfin’ yer give ’em on drink or drugs. The place is rife wiv pickpockets an’ all, so just make sure you allus keep your ’and on your bag. I should ’ave warned you before. They’re so good at what they do you don’t even know they’ve robbed you till you come to get your purse.’

When Amber looked shocked, Daisy chuckled. ‘Don’t be fooled by the posh shops.’ She shook her head. ‘London is a den o’ vice. There’s more prostitutes ’ere than anywhere, I reckon, an’ if you were to come out of an evenin’ you’d see ’em all standin’ on street corners toutin’ for business.’

‘Really?’ Amber looked around nervously but Daisy was quite calm.

‘Don’t worry, you’re quite safe wiv me,’ she reassured her. ‘An’ you ain’t likely to be out much on your own at night, are you? So you’ll be fine. I was just tellin’ you, that’s all.’

They did a detour on the way back so that Amber could get a glimpse of the River Thames and once again she was disappointed. On the pictures she had seen of it the water had been blue but in reality she saw that it was a sludgy brown colour with a lot of rubbish floating on it.

‘You wouldn’t fancy fallin’ in that, would you?’ Daisy grinned, then said, ‘Tell me all about Whitby.’

‘There’s nothing much to tell really,’ Amber told her. ‘Most of the people who live there are fishermen, includin’ me dad an’ two o’ me brothers. The other two work on the railways.’

‘Oh, an’ you didn’t get to answer me question – is there a boyfriend back there waitin’ for you an’ how long ’ave you worked for the Temples? I must admit I was surprised when I first saw you, most o’ their nannies were much older.’

‘In answer to your first question, no, I don’t ’ave a boyfriend,’ Amber said a little tetchily. ‘An’ in actual fact I didn’t get this job till a couple o’ days before we all set off to come ’ere.’

‘So what did you do before that?’