‘Then you don’t love me enough.’ His face had tightened, his whole body had stiffened. There was anger in his stance now, and deep frustration. ‘I mean it when I say that if I go now I won’t be back, Ruby. I can’t live like this any more – it’s killing me.’

She closed her eyes for a moment to shut out the sight of him because it was too painful to see the hurt in his face. But she had to do this, for the sake of both of them. Marrying her would ruin him and he’d find himself a social outcast, and she wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of that or seeing their love slowly being tarnished. She gave a shiver and opened her eyes, her voice betraying none of the turmoil inside her when she said softly, ‘I understand that, I really do, and – and I want you to be happy with someone else more—’

‘Don’t say upper-class,’ he ground out grimly.

‘I was going to say someone more suited to you.’

‘That’s the same thing as far as you are concerned, isn’t it?’ When she didn’t answer, he went on. ‘You are the woman who is suited to me. Don’t you understand that yet? No other woman I look at, no other girl, can compare to you. Everything about you is perfect for me and always will be – your face, your voice, your attitude to life, the way you speak your mind, your strength of will, except, of course, when it’s opposed to what I want most in the world.’ He paused. ‘I adore you, every bit of you. Doesn’t that count for anything?’

She felt she was going to cry and was holding on to her composure by a thread. This had to be goodbye because she couldn’t go through it again. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘No, don’t say that because you can’t be or else you would agree to marry me.’

She stared at him, and as she did so a strange thought came into her mind. Edward had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and probably had never been thwarted about a thing in his life before. He was rich and handsome and thought the world was his oyster, as indeed it was. What did he know about life, real life, the life her folk were forced to live just to pay the rent each week and put food on the table? He was angry and upset now, and she supposed he had every right to be, but how much of his desire for her had been prompted by the fact that she had made it clear from the start there could never be anything but friendship between them?