Kitty preened then tried to suppress her glee as she noticed Miss Fox looking at her disapprovingly. Max stayed only long enough to arrange another shopping trip for the following day and as soon as he had gone Kitty went up to her room to get dressed while Ruby went back to bed. It was far too early in the day for her to be up and about, she declared, and she needed her beauty sleep.

Kitty was too keyed-up to be bothered with any breakfast so after coming back downstairs she wandered out into the garden as she did most days, and found young Arthur setting a row of spring cabbages in the garden patch.

‘Cook was sayin’ when I went in for me breakfast that you’re a star now,’ he said, staring at her adoringly.

She giggled. ‘Not a star yet, Arthur. But hopefully I’m on my way.’

Arthur looked down and she suspected she saw nits run across the parting in his hair, poor little chap. He was so small and undersized through poor nourishment it was hard to believe that he was almost fifteen years old. She asked him to hold out his hand then gave him the sixpence she found in her pocket. The coin would go a long way towards feeding his family tonight. Even so, the boy had his pride and he told her, ‘Yer don’t have to keep giving me money, miss.’

Kitty shrugged. ‘My aunt gives me a small allowance each week, which I never spend, so why shouldn’t I? I’m sure you can find something to spend it on, eh?’

He nodded solemnly. In actual fact that sixpence would go on basic food such as potatoes and flour to feed his family, but he didn’t admit that. They spent a little more time chatting until Kitty went back inside feeling rather restless. Now that her first performance was over she was experiencing something of an anticlimax. I’ll go for a walk, she decided. She wondered if she could find the way back to the market she had visited with Mabel. It was a fair way to Fulham but she had tried to remember some of the landmarks in various places and she supposed that if she did get lost she could always hop in a cab and get that to bring her home. She doubted she would see Ruby again before early afternoon and she had nothing else to do.

Kitty set off and was soon at the gates of the nearby park, which she visited regularly now. It was the only place where she didn’t feel hemmed in by buildings, and it always reminded her of home. Moving briskly on, she followed her nose and after a couple of false turns she finally saw the market ahead. It was a beautiful day and she strolled amongst the stalls enjoying her freedom.

Eventually she stopped at a cart that was selling lemonade and bought herself a cup. It was as she was enjoying it that she noticed a young woman huddled in the doorway of an empty shop. The girl’s head was bowed so Kitty couldn’t see her face clearly but still there was something about her that seemed familiar … And then suddenly the young woman stood up. Her dress appeared to be of a fine quality although it was creased and grubby. She was very tall for a woman and big-boned, and her light brown hair had come loose from its pins and straggled around her face. And then it hit Kitty like a thunderbolt. She would know those soft grey eyes anywhere, even after all these years. It was Maggie, the girl that the Daweses had taken to live with them while she and Kitty were still small.