‘Richard took photographs of you in a state of undress while you were powerless to stop him?’ Maggie said, her voice incredulous. ‘Did you willingly undress for him?’

‘Well no,’ Kitty admitted, then seeing the look on Maggie’s face she hurried to defend him. ‘But he only undressed me so that he could take the pictures for his eyes only. I’m not sure how the other men got to see them. They must have visited him when he wasn’t expecting them.’

‘Yes – and I just saw a purple pig fly past the window,’ Maggie snorted before she could stop herself.

Kitty instantly pulled away from her. Even now she couldn’t bear to hear a wrong word about Richard.

Maggie looked at her imploringly. ‘Surely you can see that you’re being blackmailed into doing something you don’t want to do,’ she said. ‘And if Richard loves you so much, how can he bear to let other men paw all over you. It just doesn’t add up!’

‘He doesn’t have any choice, like me,’ Kitty muttered. ‘But one day it will all stop and we’ll be married then.’

‘And has he actually asked you to marry him?’

‘Well, not in so many words – but he’s implied that we’ll always be together,’ Kitty answered in a wobbly voice.

‘Oh, Kitty, this has to stop. It can’t go on.’

‘It has to go on for now.’ Kitty dropped onto the stool in front of her dressing table. ‘Richard has promised me that it won’t be for much longer, and then the men will return the photos and that will be an end to it.’

‘But …’ Maggie hardly dared voice her fears. ‘What happens if you fall with child before then?’

‘That’s what they are for – to prevent that happening.’ Kitty nodded towards the sponges. ‘Ruby gave them to me and told me how to use them.’

‘She what!’ Maggie was appalled. ‘But Ruby is your mother! Surely she should be discouraging you from losing your virginity before marriage?’ Not like me, she thought bitterly. Victor Dawes made sure o’ that.

Kitty smiled sadly. ‘Ruby lives a different life to the ones we led,’ she pointed out. ‘She’s far more daring. Why, Sunday and Tom would have murdered me if they thought I’d even contemplated being intimate with a man before I was married. But Ruby lives for pleasure.’

‘Hmm, well, there must be something we can do to stop this going on,’ Maggie muttered. ‘You’re being used and abused against your will – and it isn’t right.’

‘It’s not so bad as you think.’ Kitty laid a gentle hand on Maggie’s arm. ‘I always have a good drink before I have to do it and that takes the edge off anything. Why, sometimes I can’t even remember it afterwards. I sort of block it from my mind.’

Now Maggie understood the half-empty bottles of wine she had found hidden about the room and she shivered with revulsion.

‘Perhaps we should get right away from here,’ she said. ‘Go where nobody knows us. I’m sure we’d be able to find jobs and somewhere to live, especially now there’s a war on. They reckon women will be having to do men’s jobs while the men are away fighting. Or perhaps we should tell Foxy what’s going on? I know she’s been worried about you for a while and she might be able to stop this.’