She knew exactly what she was going to do both in the shop and her little home above. This larger room would be the place any potential clients saw first and she intended to make it both sumptuous and elegant, the decor screaming luxury. Comfortable chairs and small tables, with one wall holding racks of clothes for the women to browse through, and perhaps one or two dressmaker’s dummies modelling particularly beautiful creations. And she wasn’t going to cram the window full of clothes like so many shops did; maybe just one costume and hat on display with a pair of shoes and a handbag.

The room beyond would be the fitting room and she intended to steal some of this space to have a small cloakroom built with a toilet and washbasin and mirrored walls. She could see it quite clearly in her mind’s eye. The annexe she intended to convert into her workshop but that might have to wait until the business got going. She had kept a portion of her savings back for the work she needed to do and she intended to do as much as she could herself, but money would still be tight. She would make her creations upstairs until the work on the annexe could be done. The important thing was to get the shop and fitting room ready before she added to the frocks and costumes she had been working on for the last months. She had a number ready to sell but not enough to open the shop as a viable business.

The refurbishment of her living quarters would have to wait too. The small flat was dark and shabby and smelled strongly of cabbage, but a good scrub from top to bottom with plenty of disinfectant and bleach would sort that. The old lady’s son had removed all his mother’s furniture and belongings and the flat was empty, although he had left the curtains at the windows, so she wanted to get cleaning immediately. She’d arranged for a bed to be delivered at the end of the week, along with a table and chairs she’d seen in a second-hand shop and that would do for now. A kettle and a few pots and pans and items of crockery for the tiny kitchen would suffice; there was a small gas stove installed in there and the sink had a tap with the luxury of running water, another convenience which the son had had carried out at the same time as the bathroom had been installed. This had thrilled Ruby as much as the indoor toilet; no more mornings melting the ice on the tap in the yard in the depths of the northern winters.