Richard smiled and thanked him, saying, ‘Actually Kitty doesn’t like to drink too early. I have a nice pot of tea here ready for her instead.’

The cup was already prepared with milk and sugar just the way she liked it. Truthfully, Kitty really didn’t want it but once Richard had poured the tea into it and given it a good stir she dutifully took it and sipped at it. He had gone to the trouble of getting it for her, after all. She thought it tasted rather bitter and while she was drinking it, Richard introduced the men to her. Mr Johnston, she had unfortunately already met, and she thought the other two looked just as unsavoury as he did. Placing the cup down, she went behind the screen to get changed to find an assortment of underwear laid out ready for her on a chair. They were by far the skimpiest garments she had been asked to model so far, but she was feeling mellower by the minute and rather light-headed. Perhaps Maggie had been right when she’d told her she should eat something. But it was too late now, she was here and she supposed she should just get it over with.

After donning a fine silk bodice and matching bloomers that barely covered her modesty, she stepped from behind the screen and took her position in front of a sheet that Richard had draped across one wall of the studio. The men were watching her intently and she felt colour flood into her cheeks as she suddenly wondered what Sunday would have thought, could she have seen her now. Then all of a sudden she felt herself sway … and she crumpled to a heap on the floor.

‘Ah, you’re back with us are you?’

Maggie’s voice seemed to be coming from a long way away and Kitty groggily opened her eyes. She was surprised to find that she was tucked up in her own bed and croaked, ‘What happened?’ Her mouth felt like the bottom of a birdcage and she had a headache again.

‘You fainted, that’s what happened, and it’s no wonder. You’re trying to burn the candle at both ends,’ Maggie scolded. ‘Foxy has gone mad and told Mr Thomas and Mr Fitzherbert that you’re to do absolutely nothing for at least a week.’ She refrained from telling her that Ruby had been absolutely furious about it. Maggie had an idea that Ruby would have worked the poor girl into the ground if she could.

‘But I have bookings,’ Kitty objected weakly.

‘Blow the bookings!’ Maggie retorted. ‘You’re going to do as you’re told for a change. Me and Foxy will see to that, so you just lay back, my lady, and make the best of it.’

Seeing that she didn’t have much choice, Kitty curled up and was soon fast asleep.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Cissie swatted a fly buzzing around her face and mopped her brow as she made her way back to the cottage early one evening in late July. The heat had been almost unbearable all day and she was looking forward to a nice cool bath and a quiet evening with George. She had decided to take the short cut through the small copse that separated her home from Treetops and was enjoying the shade of the trees when a voice made her jump.