He shifted slightly in his seat, trying to get comfortable. Not that the chair itself was uncomfortable; everything on the Mauretania and her sister ship, the Lusitania, had been made with their passengers in mind. The grand staircases were on the fifteenth-century Italian model; public rooms were treated either in the Italian or French Renaissance styles and the dining rooms were panelled in straw-coloured oak in the style of Francis I, each having a dome in cream and gold. The state rooms, the first-class lounges and even the lavatories were beautiful, and the smoking room had a fire basket and firedogs that had been reproduced from originals at the Palazzo Varesi, according to Godfrey who took a keen interest in such things. Edward had travelled on her before and had great respect for the speed with which the Mauretania cut through the Atlantic, the roughest and hardest of seas, especially in the winter months like now. The great ship could steam hard into a head sea and lift her bow sixty feet before dipping and burying it as she cleaved through the water, thrusting it to either side, but he wasn’t looking forward to what could be a choppy crossing. Though he had coped fairly well with seasickness in the past when he had been fit and well, he was neither now.

His musing brought his mind back to Ruby again, and the conversation he’d had with his sister about the girl he loved. Clarissa had told him that she knew Ruby cared for him – hadn’t Ruby herself told him that, and the reasons why she felt any permanent relationship between them was impossible?

‘It was all about you being so wealthy and moving in top circles and the lifestyle you had,’ Clarissa had said earnestly. ‘But that’s changed now. In fact, she is wealthier than you. The chasm between you has gone, along with your fortune, and you can meet as equals in Ruby’s eyes. It’s as if the way has been cleared at last. Don’t you see?’

He had stared at her as though she was mad. ‘Clarissa, my sweet, you’ve been reading too many romantic novels,’ he’d said with a smile, hoping to deflect her from further conversation. ‘As you said yourself, Ruby is making a huge success of her business and what could I offer her? Any relationship between us is more impossible than it has ever been.’

‘No, no, it’s not, Edward.’

‘It is, and with all respect to your sisterly affection, I don’t wish to discuss this.’

‘It’s your pride, isn’t it? Do you mean to tell me that you would let your pride stop you being with the one woman you love?’