‘Why is that?’ Ruby asked, selecting another sugar candy from the large box at the side of her.

‘Well, for a start, half of the young men are flooding into the recruitment offices, and without them it’s doubtful their young ladies will want to visit the music halls alone.’

Ruby licked her lips. She couldn’t see what all the fuss was about or why Britain had volunteered to enter the war in the first place. Why should something that was happening hundreds of miles away affect them? But then Ruby had never been very politically minded.

‘Will you have to go?’ she asked then.

Max shook his head. ‘Not immediately. They’ll be looking for younger men to start off with and I’m well into middle age now.’

‘There you are then,’ Ruby replied smugly. ‘They’re saying it will all be over by Christmas, aren’t they?’ Privately, she wasn’t too concerned about Kitty’s singing career taking a dive. The girl was earning far more now entertaining Richard’s wealthy friends, although she couldn’t tell Max that, of course, and Kitty had no idea how much money was changing hands either. Ruby was raking it in, thanks to her beautiful daughter, and Kitty was now so besotted with Richard that Ruby was sure she would have jumped off Tower Bridge had he told her to.

Max stared at her thoughtfully for a moment. He could have told her that he thought everyone’s life would probably change because of the war. If there was an invasion, no one would be safe and it seemed certain that shortages of food and clothes would occur. But he didn’t bother. He had finally realised that Ruby’s whole world centred around Ruby – and sometimes now he wondered how he had ever thought her attractive. There had been a time when he would have walked through fire for her. She had been one of the best-loved music-hall singers in London, but then her looks had begun to fade and she had blamed him for the decline in her career. His thoughts were interrupted then when the door suddenly burst open and Kitty’s puppy came gambolling into the room.

‘Ugh! Get that disgusting creature out of here before it wees all over my carpet,’ Ruby cried. She well and truly hated the dog, and she and Kitty had exchanged more than a few harsh words when Ruby had ordered that Tallulah should live outside.

‘She most certainly will not,’ Kitty had said indignantly, standing up to her mother for the first time since her arrival. ‘She will sleep in my room with me and that’s an end to it! Otherwise I shall have to look for somewhere else for us to live where we can stay together.’

Ruby had instantly backed down. She couldn’t afford for Kitty to leave now; the girl was paying for her to carry on drinking, eating expensive chocolates and treating herself to anything she fancied.

Max laughed as Tallulah rolled onto her back for a nice old belly-rub and seconds later Kitty pounded into the room and came to a skidding halt when she saw her pet.