Edward nodded, keeping his eyes on the road ahead now they’d left the confines of the estate. It was dappled with late-evening sunshine and as the folding roof of the Daimler was fixed open Ruby had taken the precaution of removing her straw bonnet and placing it on her lap where it couldn’t fly off.

‘As I’m not the heir or even the spare,’ Edward went on, ‘I came to the conclusion early on that I was in the fortunate position of being able to choose what I wanted to do with my life. My two brothers are heavily involved with my father’s estate and the farm we have. Cuthbert is being groomed to take over at some point and Leonard will manage the farm for him and so on. Anyway, my maternal grandmother, bless her, left me a sizeable inheritance when she passed on. She was a grand old lady in every sense of the word. My brothers and Clarissa were frightened to death of her but I never was and I think she liked that. I decided that the business world was beckoning and I entered in with gusto. After a somewhat tricky start I discovered I was actually rather adept at what my father likes to call “wheeling and dealing”.’

This last was said with a tinge of bitterness, and Ruby felt that Clarissa’s brother didn’t see eye to eye with his father regarding his work. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye but the handsome profile revealed nothing.

‘And you?’ he went on. ‘Clarissa said you are on holiday this week? With whom are you staying, Miss Morgan?’

She suddenly realized that Edward had no idea of who she was or her station in life, and why would he? He had only met her minutes ago, after all. The clothes she was wearing were not those of the average working-class girl, and Clarissa had been unable to hide her surprise when she’d confided that she had made them herself from pictures she had seen of the latest fashions. Neither was her northern brogue as pronounced as it once had been; the elocution lessons had seen to that. Not that she was ashamed of her roots in the least, but if she was going to open her own high-class dress shop in the future she knew she had to speak properly with the right enunciation and delivery.

She looked straight ahead as she said quietly, ‘I’m not staying with anyone, Mr Forsythe. I rent a room in the town and at present I have a week’s holiday from my job as an assistant laundress at the workhouse.’

The car swerved slightly but other than that he showed no reaction. ‘You rent a room? You have no family?’

‘I have family in Sunderland but I moved from there to Newcastle two years ago.’

‘That was very brave of you.’