Ruby stands next to a table of stockings, observing. It is the woman she saw – the one outside Enderby’s jewellery shop. She has a keen eye for recognising people, and it certainly appears to be the same woman. It is the outfit she remembers most, though. She watches, fascinated, as the elegant creature, wrapped in a honey-coloured coat and wearing a brown hat, runs her fingers over a very pretty nightgown. She’ll look lovely in that, too.

Ruby watches her talking to the assistant on the lingerie counter. The confident way in which she carries herself – like she knows her place, her worth in the world. Everything about her speaks of wealth and good taste. Her skin is plump and healthy, and her cheeks naturally flush pink as she blushes at something. She moves with an easy grace, tilting her head a little as she speaks.

Ruby tilts her own head, attempting to replicate the line of the woman’s swanlike neck.

Her belly is full again, but her face, she knows, is still pale and drawn. It will take more than a pot of tea and plate of bacon and eggs to put colour back into her cheeks. And she really needs a wash and a change of clothes. Everything feels grubby. She lifts a hand and examines her fingernails, grimacing at the thin crescents of dirt under each one. Even the perfume she dabbed on herself at the Guerlain counter cannot erase the grime. But at least she smells good. Mitsouko. A new perfume. It is already her favourite smell in the whole world.

The honey-coloured woman laughs softly, a clean hand against her chest, and turns to gaze across the rest of the floor. Ruby leans back, her shoulders touching one of the store’s wide, white-washed pillars, and catches a glimpse of a pearl necklace around a bare throat. The pearls are lustrous, she can see even from a distance – the sort of string a real lady is given for her twenty-first birthday or as a present from her mother. Ruby knows how these matters work. Solly has taught her, and she’s read about it in the newspapers. She is meant to see them, admire them. That’s why they are being worn without a scarf to cover them.

The woman reaches into her handbag for her purse and Ruby sees the ring glittering on her left hand. That’s a large diamond. She squints, trying to get a better view. Marquise cut, so it makes her finger look slender, surrounded by smaller diamonds. How many? Twelve, perhaps?

Lucky girl. She’s marrying a man with money to burn. Money to buy something so perfect as that diamond. Ruby looks down at the ring she’s wearing – the one she’s borrowed from Solly’s shop without his knowledge. It is slightly too large and slips down her finger to the knuckle.