Late that evening, Kitty returned from Richard’s and carelessly tossed a small black velvet box towards Maggie, who had waited up for her.

Maggie sprang the lid of the box and gazed down at a beautiful ring, a sapphire surrounded by sparkling diamonds. ‘Why, this must be worth a small fortune!’ she exclaimed.

Kitty shrugged. ‘Throw it in the drawer with the others,’ she said, her voice dead.

Maggie did as she was told, putting it in amongst the collection of expensive-looking boxes. There were bracelets, rings, necklaces, brooches – so many of them now, and yet she had never seen Kitty wear any of them.

‘One day I’ll take the lot to the pawnbroker and get rid of them,’ Kitty said scornfully. Only she could know what exactly she had had to do to earn these baubles, and she resented them as much as the men who had given them to her.

‘Do you know, the silly old sod I entertained this evening actually offered to make an honest woman of me?’ she snorted as she started to remove the pins from her hair.

Maggie was aware that Kitty had changed lately. She’d become harder somehow. Noticing that her friend was watching her closely, Kitty confided, ‘I don’t think about any of it any more, so what does that make me?’ Then she held her hand up before Maggie could answer. ‘You don’t have to say it – I already know what I am. I’m a whore, or as good as.’

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes dull. ‘Like mother like daughter, eh?’ Then when Maggie looked shocked she went on, ‘Oh, I admit I was very naïve when I came here. I thought my mother had brought me here because she loved me and she finally wanted to be with me. I dreamed we would live happily ever after but I worked out some time ago that she only saw me as a means of making money.’ She laughed, a harsh sound that made the hairs on the back of Maggie’s neck stand on end.

‘She thinks I don’t know that she and Richard get paid for the favours I give to the men,’ Kitty said bitterly. ‘But what can I do about it? At the end of the day, she is my mother and the truth is, I would do anything for Richard. I’m still sure that he’ll marry me one day so until then I’ll just have to keep on doing what I’m doing. In the meantime, I’ve discovered that it isn’t so bad. The men, most of them, treat me well and spoil me – and I suppose I enjoy that side of it.’

Maggie gulped deep in her throat. She wanted to tell Kitty that they should both get right away from there, and yet she knew that she would be wasting her breath. Some things were better left unsaid – and until Kitty had realised that Richard had no intentions of ever marrying her, all Maggie could do was be there for her. She hurried across to undo the buttons on the back of Kitty’s dress, and help her with her hair.