‘Foxy!’ protested Ruby. ‘Let’s have no politics at the dinner table, if you please.’

Ignoring them both, Max kept his eyes trained on Kitty and went on, ‘Because of this I have bookings for you right through to the end of June and still more requests coming in for later in the year. What with your singing and the modelling you’ll be doing for Richard, I think you’re going to be a very busy young lady indeed, my dear. I predict that by the end of this year, everyone in London will know the name Kitty Nightingale.’

Kitty beamed and tossed her head. Ruby was doing her best to look pleased, but deep down she was hurting. Max hadn’t received a single request for her to appear anywhere and it seemed that she was destined to live in her daughter’s shadow from now on. Still, at least it would guarantee her a good income in her retirement, and Kitty was so pliable and naïve that Ruby was sure she would do exactly as she was told, which was one blessing at least. Perhaps it hadn’t been such a bad idea to finally claim her daughter, after all.

Chapter Thirty

In the blink of an eye they were into June and the heat in the city was almost unbearable. Kitty had been rushed off her feet dashing from one music hall to another and hardly knew if she was on her head or her heels as she tried to adjust to the adoration that was now heaped upon her by multiple admirers. Not that she was complaining. After each performance, she would return to her dressing room to find it full of gifts and messages from gentlemen who wished to take her out to dinner.

As it happened she had eyes for no one but Richard, and Maggie wasn’t sure if this was a blessing or a curse. Admittedly she would have worried had Kitty been dilly-dallying all over the place with one admirer after another, but there was something about the photographer that she didn’t like and couldn’t take to. During the time they had spent together, Maggie and Kitty had become close, although they were still like chalk and cheese in both looks and nature, just as they had been as children, back at Treetops. Maggie had become very protective of Kitty, like a hen with her chick, which Miss Fox thought was no bad thing, for Ruby would not take on the role.

Sometimes, Maggie wondered why Ruby had wanted her child back. It certainly wasn’t for any special mother-and-daughter time, for Ruby was very self-centred and selfish and never went out of her routine to make time to spend with Kitty. Despite the fact that Ruby was designated her manager, it was Miss Fox who kept her eye on the girl and checked out the venues at which she was booked to appear.

‘I’ll not have her singing in some den of vice,’ Foxy would declare. ‘She’s naught but a lass, after all!’