She swallowed back the sob that rose in her throat, too terrified even to cry.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

She woke up in darkness to the clatter and chink of the milk cart in the street.

‘Happy New Year!’ someone called out, and for a brief moment Anna felt nothing, until the blackness of what had happened engulfed her all over again.

She had been too terrified to go to sleep at first. She had lain there rigid, staring at nothing, her mind blank with horror. It hadn’t happened, she tried to tell herself. It was nothing more than a terrible dream. But all the while the burning pain between her legs consumed her. She longed to get up and wash herself, but Edward’s arm was flung possessively over her body, pinning her to the bed. Anna scarcely dared to breathe in case she woke him and he wanted to have his way with her again.

Somehow, finally, she must have fallen into a fitful sleep, because when she woke up the bed beside her was empty.

Still Anna lay for a while, too terrified to move. She didn’t want to stay there, but she didn’t want to get up either, because that would mean facing Edward and what had happened.

She looked to one side. The tattered remains of her nightdress had gone, and so had the letters.

Then she heard trays clattering in the kitchen below the bedroom, and Edward’s voice.

‘“I’m Burlington Bertie, I rise at ten-thirty, and saunter along like a toff …”’

He was singing. At first she could hardly believe it, but there he was, actually whistling a merry tune as he went about his work.

Anna cautiously got out of bed. The burning throb between her legs had subsided, but she still felt sticky and sore, and when she went to wash herself she found a pattern of bruises at the tops of her thighs where Edward had forced them apart.

Her stomach lurched, and the next moment Anna was violently sick.

She bent over the basin, her head resting on the cold porcelain, the bitter taste of bile filling her mouth and throat. She wanted to stay there forever, never have to go out and face the world.

But then she looked up at her wan reflection in the mirror, and slowly but surely her good sense began to reassert itself. Why should she be the one to hide herself away? She had done nothing wrong. If anyone should be ashamed, it was Edward.

Besides, this was her home, her bakery. She belonged here.

‘“I’m Bert, Bert, I haven’t a shirt, but my people are well off, you know …”’

His voice drifted up from downstairs, rising over the clatter of tins.

Anna scrubbed her face, washing away all traces of tears. If she was going to show her face to the world, she would make sure it was a brave one.

But her nerve almost failed her as she went downstairs and headed for the kitchen. As she approached, she could hear Edward and Charlie laughing together like old friends.