Their conversation was stopped from going any further though when Kitty emerged from the bathroom.

‘Right, I’d best get on,’ Foxy announced. ‘Shall I ask Cook to prepare you something to eat?’

‘No, thank you.’ Kitty smiled at her, looking very young without her stage make-up and with her hair flowing about her shoulders like a dark silken cloak. ‘I’m not really hungry at the moment.’

Miss Fox twitched her nose disapprovingly and swept from the room to check on Ruby. The latter would probably be in a rare old state as well this morning if the amount of wine she had put away the night before was anything to go by.

It was early in the afternoon when Kitty arrived at Richard’s house to find him waiting for her.

‘Ah!’ He took her hand and drew her into the studio with a broad smile on his face. ‘I have something quite exciting to tell you.’

She blinked, wondering what it could be as he settled her on the chaise longue and sat down beside her. ‘A contact of mine wants to meet you. He is the editor of a very well-known fashion magazine in Paris and he hopes to be able to get some of your lingerie shots into next month’s issue.’

‘Really?’ Kitty perked up.

‘Yes. There’s just one thing. He would like to be here when we’re doing the shots. Would you mind that?’

Kitty looked perplexed. ‘You mean he would see me actually modelling the underwear?’

‘Why, of course he would. But what you have to remember is there will be thousands of people seeing you in it if he decides to use your shots, so where’s the problem?’

‘I suppose if you put it like that …’ Kitty didn’t like this idea at all but she was afraid of upsetting Richard again. Only the day before, she had arrived early once more – to find him locked away in the studio with the same girl who had been there before and she was feeling rather jealous. He had that closed look on his face as well. It often appeared now when she didn’t do as he asked her and she was terrified of losing him.

Suddenly he was all smiles again. ‘That’s my girl,’ he encouraged. ‘I knew I could count on you not to let me down. But of course, if you do have serious reservations there are other models who would jump at the chance. I know Miss Hawkins would for a—’

‘Oh no,’ Kitty interrupted him quickly as a picture of Melissa Hawkins’s china-blue eyes floated into her head. ‘I’ll do it – but when is the man coming?’

‘This afternoon, as it happens.’ He twisted a curl that lay across her shoulder around his finger sensuously and her heart began to hammer at his nearness. He always had this effect on her and she had an idea that he knew it.