Mary patted her hand. ‘You’re a good girl, Daisy. Follow your heart.’

It was early evening by the time Daisy arrived at Mrs Wood’s lodging house. Aggie answered the door and her plain face broke into a smile when she saw Daisy.

‘It’s good to see you, miss. I thought you wasn’t coming back.’

‘I told Miss Cole that I was only going to be two days.’

‘It were that Gladys, miss. She told her ma that you’d gone for good, but Miss Cole insisted that you was coming back.’ She held her hand out to take Daisy’s small valise. ‘I’ll carry it upstairs for you. I’m afraid you’re too late for supper. It were terrible anyway. The lady lodgers are in the parlour.’

Aggie headed for the staircase and bounded up it like a gazelle, narrowly avoiding a collision with the two dancers as they thundered downstairs, their capes flying and their high-pitched laughter echoing round the entrance hall.

‘We’re late, as usual.’ The girl with the red hair brushed past Daisy, leaving a waft of cheap scent in her wake.

‘Good evening.’ Daisy stepped out of the way.

‘Is it, love?’ The younger of the two rolled her eyes. ‘We sleep all day and come out when it’s dark. We’re like them creepy things what fly around and get tangled in your hair.’

‘Bats.’ The redhead propelled her friend towards the front door.

‘I ain’t bats, Flossie. Don’t say such things.’

‘I never said you was, you stupid cow, Ethel. Bats fly around at night – don’t you know nothing? Anyway, we’ll have more problems than a few flying creatures if we mess up our routine like we did at rehearsal.’ She reached out to open the front door and shoved a grumbling Ethel out into the gathering gloom.

Slightly breathless after this whirlwind encounter, Daisy took off her cape and hung it on the hall stand before heading to the parlour, where she found the cat, Rex, ensconced on the sofa like an eastern potentate with his harem consigned to less comfortable seats. Minnie and Ivy shared a chair and the two older ladies sat at the tea table in the window, playing cards.

Ivy looked up and smiled. ‘So you’ve come back.’

‘Are the children all right?’ Minnie asked anxiously.

‘They seems to have settled in well, and they have two of the kindest people I know taking care of them.’ Daisy glanced hopefully at the space beside Rex, but he was staring at her with a hostile look in his yellow eyes, and it was obvious that none of the others had dared to challenge his supremacy. She was about to pull up a chair when the door opened and Flora peered into the room.

‘Oh, there you are, Daisy. I wasn’t sure if you’d returned. There’s a handsome fellow at the door who says he’s your brother?’

‘Toby! Did you ask him in?’

Flora shrugged. ‘It would be more than my life’s worth, darling. You know the rules.’