Once outside the confines of the estate she drove for some miles before stopping the car and letting the overwhelming sorrow have its way. It was nearly half an hour before she started the engine again and she was all cried out. She had lost him, totally and for ever, and the finality of it had caused something to die inside her. From this day forth, whatever happened and however well she did in life, she would never look at the world in the same way again. A light had gone out – that was the only way she could describe the way she felt to herself – and with its going everything would always be that little bit darker.

Chapter Twenty-Six

‘Oh, you shouldn’t have.’ Polly gazed entranced at the silver locket in its little velvet box. ‘And I haven’t got you anything yet. Not that I expected a present for Christmas,’ she added hastily. ‘What I mean is—’

‘I know what you meant and I like to give you nice things, that’s all.’ Daniel Bell smiled at Ruby’s seamstress. Since he had been released from prison a short while ago, he’d made it his business to find out all he could about the woman who had put him in there, the upshot of this being that Polly had come across his path. Sweet, malleable Polly who had been putty in his hands from day one. He had told her that he had recently left the army after getting badly injured and losing his eye in the unrest between Arabs and Jews in Palestine in the summer, painting a picture of bravery and loyalty to king and country that had thrilled her romantic heart. He was settling back into civilian life as best he could, he’d confided, but he still found it difficult to adjust, and for that reason he would prefer to keep their relationship secret for the moment. He found it so easy to talk to her and be with her, he’d said gently, but it wasn’t like that with other folk, and so if she could just be patient and give him time . . .

Polly had been flattered and smitten in equal measure, and had found – like many innocent young girls before her – Daniel’s charm impossible to resist. He had been careful to remain in the role he had created at all times, asking nothing of her but a goodnight kiss, showering her with little gifts, acting to perfection the part of the damaged hero who had found love for the first time in his life. Gradually he’d established what Ruby’s routine was, her comings and goings, the fact that she lived in the flat above the shop alone with no man to protect her.