‘Are you all ready for your big night tomorrow?’ Max enquired through a blue haze of cigar smoke and Kitty nodded.

‘Yes. I have a class tomorrow morning here, to run through my songs and to practise two new ones.’

Kitty knew she still had a lot of stagecraft to learn, along with extending her repertoire, and her new teacher, Madame Sophie, was well known for bringing singers on. She had taught Ruby too, back in the day.

‘Excellent, that’s the ticket. And I have some more good news for you as well.’

‘Really?’ When Kitty gazed at him quizzically, he chuckled.

‘Richard here has been showing some of the photos he took of you around and there’s been keen interest from a modelling agency.’

Kitty frowned. ‘What sort of a modelling agency?’

‘Why, clothes modelling, of course. You must have seen the models in magazines wearing the latest fashions?’

She nodded. ‘Well, yes … but I thought I was going to be a singer?’

‘You are, my dear,’ he assured her. ‘But there’s no reason why the two careers can’t run side by side. There’s a lot of money to be made from modelling. What do you think of the idea?’

Kitty noticed that Ruby was watching her avidly and she shrugged.

‘It would be me taking the photographs, of course,’ Richard piped up and suddenly the idea was more appealing.

‘Then in that case I don’t see why not,’ she said quickly. It would mean she got to spend a lot more time with him at least. The money would be secondary, although she knew that lessons with Madame Sophie did not come cheap.

‘Good, then go and take your coat off and we’ll talk about it more tomorrow evening after your performance,’ Max told her with a charming smile.

Kitty thanked him, then dashed upstairs to tell Maggie the good news. The girl was already in her room waiting for her but when Kitty told her about the modelling idea, she immediately asked suspiciously: ‘Have they told you how much you’ll be earning?’

Kitty merely giggled as she took her hat off and tossed it onto the bed. Maggie instantly picked it up to put it away.

‘I don’t have to worry about all that,’ she said, ignoring a momentary flicker of disquiet. ‘My aunt is looking after that side of things for me. She is my manager, you see.’

‘Is she now?’

Kitty laughed again as she rang the bell for afternoon tea. She was as dry as a bone after all that shopping even after their stop for refreshment, but things just seemed to be getting better and better.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Later that afternoon, after she had had a short rest, Kitty left her room to find Maggie speaking to Miss Fox on the landing.

‘I think your friend has been very sensible in her choice of clothes,’ Miss Fox said approvingly. ‘But now I really must get on.’

With that she left them, and taking Maggie’s hand Kitty dragged her into her bedroom. She was still stinging slightly about Maggie’s muted response to her possible modelling prospects, but then Maggie was so cautious it was sometimes hard to believe that they were of a similar age. But then Kitty supposed that after what Maggie had been through she was bound to be wary of men, so she made allowances for her.