‘Don’t look so worried, there’s nothing amiss, my dear,’ Mr Pembroke assured her as he beckoned her into the room. ‘In fact, I have some very nice news for you. As your designs have been selling so well, one of our best clients, Mrs Lavender-Hughes, has asked me to commission you to design a ring for her. She’s very wealthy indeed so money is no object. She would like a diamond ring, a cluster consisting of different cuts. Do you think you could manage that?’

‘I, er . . . yes, of course. I’ll try,’ Ruby said, delighted.

‘Then when we get home, I shall sort a selection of diamonds out of the safe for you to study,’ Hermione told her. It would be the first time that Ruby had been trusted to work with diamonds, the most expensive of all the stones, and she felt honoured.

She almost skipped up to her room that night but she knew deep down that the happy feeling wasn’t purely down to the commission. It was partly due to Bill too, for suddenly she couldn’t look at him without getting butterflies in her tummy and if the way he had been watching her that evening was anything to go by, she suspected and hoped that he might feel the same about her.

‘Betty . . . what does it feel like when you fall in love?’ she asked innocently as they prepared for bed.

Betty laughed. ‘This question wouldn’t ’ave anythin’ to do wi’ young Bill, would it?’ When Ruby quickly looked away her question was answered. ‘To be honest I probably ain’t the right one to ask,’ she confessed. ‘I’m more the love ’em an’ leave ’em type meself and I don’t reckon I’ve ever been in love.’

Ruby clambered into bed feeling utterly confused. After what her adopted father had done to her, she had thought she would never want anything to do with a man again, yet she wondered if with Bill it might be different. He was kind and good and when she was with him, she felt happy. Was that love? she wondered. And she was still wondering when she fell asleep.

*

For Ruby the following day was magical. She attended church with Mr Pembroke and Hermione in the morning, and once they were home, she helped with the prepar-ations for dinner. Hermione had said again that she would like Ruby to dine with her and the two Mr Pembrokes, but Ruby politely told her that while she was very grateful for the invite she really would prefer to eat with the staff in the kitchen. But first was the ritual of the present-opening and she and the Pembrokes assembled in the drawing room.