But she needn’t have worried, the evening had been jolly good fun and apart from a few minutes when he’d tried to help Pam and Nancy with their dancing, Jack had barely left her side.

Pam and Nancy were trying to learn the tango from a dance book. Their efforts mostly consisted of standing on one another’s toes and getting cross, while Maggie and Jack tried not to laugh.

‘I wish it were Jim here, instead of you!’ Pam said.

‘Charmed, I’m sure!’

Nancy turned to Jack and sighed. ‘Oh, it’s hopeless. I’ve had to be the man for so long now, I’ll never remember the lady’s part.’

Jack took the hint and tried to lend a hand, although Maggie was sure he was only being polite and it was almost impossible with one arm in a sling. He wasn’t much better than the girls at the tango. ‘I’m more of a foxtrot man,’ he assured them. He’d looked straight at Maggie and added, ‘I’ll show you, one of these days.’

By the end of the evening, she was sure Jack liked her. And now Elsie had just confirmed it. Maggie couldn’t help feeling pleased. She wasn’t imagining it; other people had noticed Jack’s fondness for her, too.

Pam seemed to be considering Elsie’s words and she looked most unimpressed. She pursed her lips. ‘Everyone’s little favourite these days, aren’t you, Maggie?’ she said.

Not that again. There’d already been a few snide remarks about how Maggie was helping Lord Ashford with ‘private correspondence’. The other girls couldn’t understand why Maggie had been singled out and she couldn’t tell them the truth.

After their first German lesson on Monday, Maggie had returned to the banking hall, expecting to slip in without any fuss, sit down at her desk and resume her work, but at least a dozen faces had turned to stare at her. Even Miss Sharp asked, ‘Is everything all right, Miss Corbett?’

‘Perfectly, thank you,’ Maggie said. She sat down at her desk.

Elsie turned to face her. ‘What were you laughing about so much in there? We could all hear you.’

Oh, fiddlesticks! Lord Ashford’s office was near to the Long Gallery but she hadn’t realised how much the sound carried. Had they heard her speaking German? What must they think of her?

‘Yes,’ Nancy said. ‘You were giggling so much we thought he must be tickling you!’

‘Miss Fry, really!’ Miss Sharp said crossly.

Elsie had turned to Maggie, her bottom lip pulled out ‘Our shorthand’s as good as yours,’ she said. ‘He might, at least, let us take it in turns.’

Chapter 30

Before breakfast the next day, Maggie stood at the window of the bedroom she shared with Pam and Nancy.