Nancy looked back at the closed wardrobe door. You’ll have to get rid of it, you silly girl. Or else risk being found out . . . Her fist closed around her pencil. This was supposed to be the start of a new existence. How could she have risked it all for the merest glimpse of the goings-on in the Grand?

Oh, it’s so unlike home here, Frank. In the Buckingham there are people you mustn’t look in the eye. There are places you mustn’t go and things which, though you see them plainly, you must quickly forget. I don’t know if you could survive it, Frank. I don’t know that I can! We Nettletons might be made of the same flesh and blood as the Flemish princess whose sheets I change, we might breathe the same air as Miss Edgerton, but we’re not the same. In the Buckingham Hotel there are two different worlds. And I must learn to be a town mouse.

 I hope you’ll write soon, Frank. A friendly word would mean the world to me just now. Are you having trouble writing? Remember that Mrs Gable made a promise: if you tell her what you would like to say, she will put it to paper for you. Tell me about how . . .

Nancy heard knuckles rapping at her door and Ruth’s voice called out. ‘Nancy Nettleton! What are you doing in there? We’re supposed to be in the Grand in ten minutes. We’re going down in two minutes. If you’re not . . .’

Nancy snatched up the letter she had been writing, crammed it beneath the pillow, and in a second was at the door. Rosa and Ruth, along with a gaggle of the other girls, were waiting in the hallway, as if daring her to be late.

Put on a brave face, Nancy. None of them know it was you. How could they? None of them was there – because, you sorry girl, none of them would be so reckless. Chambermaids are invisible! Chambermaids know their place! And what sort of a foolish chambermaid would risk her very position with a misadventure like this? Nancy, it’s time to grow up.

Taking a deep breath, Nancy straightened her uniform and forced a smile.

‘Shall we?’ she ventured, and followed them all down the stairs.

*