He is also afraid. Solly needs Annie Richmond and the protection she, her brothers and Freddy Moss provide. He cannot afford to lose their business or their security. He allows Ruby to stay in the room above the shop because he cannot bring himself to turn her onto the streets, but he won’t let her work in the shop anymore or even let her inside when there are customers present. And he cannot bring himself to speak with her, let alone sit and eat with her.

In those first few days, she did nothing but lie on her bed, waiting for her face to heal. Solly began to avoid her as best he could, and when she realised this, Ruby started to slip quietly into the kitchen when he was downstairs serving customers or arranging jewellery to make pots of tea and filch small plates of food for herself. She wasn’t hungry anyway. And it hurt to eat.

When she grew stronger and more ravenous, and when her bruises began to disappear, she took to leaving the shop each morning, before Solly was awake, and crossing the river in the grey dawn. She needed air. She needed to walk among people who would not turn their backs or spit or mutter an insult as they jolted her shoulder when they passed on the street. She needed to look at loveliness. So, she walked miles, from dawn until dusk, wearing out the soles of her shoes, gazing up at the Natural History Museum or Westminster Abbey, or out over the Thames, rather than sitting in her small bedroom in Solly’s flat.