‘I shan’t believe I’m forgiven until you call me Edward.’

Feeling that the afternoon had got more surreal with every passing minute, Ruby had no option but to say, ‘Edward.’

‘And may I call you Ruby?’

As they were unlikely to ever meet again, Ruby could see no harm in humouring him, besides which she had little other option. ‘Of course.’

During the rest of the journey Ruby discovered that Edward was skilled in the art of light conversation, and also very humorous when he set out to be. Nevertheless, she was immensely relieved when the car drew into Bath Lane Terrace where it immediately drew a great deal of interest from a group of children swinging on a rope they’d secured to the lamp post. Before they had even stopped a crowd of little people had surrounded the Daimler, and as Edward exited the vehicle and walked round the bonnet to open Ruby’s door for her, one cheeky urchin, with his backside hanging out of his ragged trousers, shouted, ‘Hey, mister, got a penny to spare?’

Well, he could certainly have no illusions as to her position in society after this, Ruby thought drily, as she said to Edward, ‘Ignore them.’

He helped her out of the car and once they were standing on the pavement with all the children now clamouring for money, she said stiffly, ‘Thank you very much for bringing me home, Mr Fors— Edward, and I hope you enjoy the dinner tonight.’

‘The dinner will be tedious in the extreme, I’m afraid. I’m sure it’s only to avoid such events that the brigadier devotes so much time to the army, but—’ He broke off abruptly to shout at the snotty-nosed little lad who had first spoken and who had taken it upon himself to try and climb on the bonnet of the car using the mascot to pull himself up.

‘I think you had better leave while you still have a car,’ Ruby suggested, hiding her embarrassment as best she could when the waifs and strays took up a concerted deafening chant of, ‘Mean as muck, no good luck,’ as they retreated a few feet.

‘It was very nice to meet you.’ He smiled, as though unaware that the commotion the children were making had brought out some of their mothers. The women were now adding to the hullabaloo by yelling at their offspring whilst taking a keen interest in the grand vehicle themselves, and not least its owner. That a toff, and a handsome one at that, was chatting to one of Mrs Duffy’s lodgers who he’d clearly picked up one way or another, was a tasty titbit to chew over.