Then we were outside and Mummy rushed off to the hairdresser, who left some poor client, half rolled in curlers, to his assistant while he ushered my mother to the best chair. I came out again, wondering what to do for the next hour. I knew I could have asked Mummy for money but I was like my grandfather in such matters. The money came from Max and I was too proud to ask for it.

So I wandered down Bond Street , half looking in shop windows, imagining what it would be like to go in and say, “I’d like to look at that emerald necklace,” when I was grabbed from behind.

Chapter 2

ON BOND STREET

Before I could cry out or do anything sensible, I was spun around and a voice gasped in my ear, “Darling, it is you! How absolutely divine.”

And there was my best friend, Belinda Warburton-Stoke, looking even more lovely and glamorous than the last time I had seen her. She was wearing a black, tailored, two-piece suit with scarlet-leather trim and a little scarlet hat with a provocative veil. Her dark hair was cut in a chic bob and her mouth was a gash of bright-red lipstick. The whole thing screamed Paris.

“And shopping in Bond Street, no less,” she said. “Things must be on the up and up for you.”

“I wish they were.” I kissed the cheek she had extended to me. “But it’s lovely to see you too, Belinda. I’ve missed you. Where have you been? I called at your mews cottage a couple of times but it was all shut up and deserted.”

“Paris, darling. Where else?”

“Another French marquis?” She had been smitten by a dashing marquis when we had been in France together the previous year.

“Not at all. I’ve been working for Chanel, if you’d really like to know. Remember, she did say that my designs showed promise, so I thought I’d go and learn at the feet of the master—or in Coco’s case, the mistress.” And she grinned at her double meaning.

“So are you home just for a visit?”

A slight spasm of annoyance passed over her face. “I’m afraid we’ve parted ways, Chanel and I. A certain Frenchman started to show interest in me, the way they do.” (They did, for Belinda.) “He was rather attractive so I didn’t exactly repulse his advances. How was I to know he was one of Coco’s lovers? It turns out she doesn’t like to share. So I was given the boot. Here I am, back in London and dying to start my own clothing line.”

“How exciting,” I said.

She looked around. “Do you absolutely have to shop or can we go for a coffee? I’d love to chat but these high heels are killing me.”

“It will have to be somewhere nearby. I’m with my mother, and she’s getting her hair done around the corner.”