As Maggie did as she was told, the woman lined a pie dish with pastry and added the bottled apples, and the blackberries they had picked in the orchard that morning, sprinkled some precious sugar on top, then added the lid and popped it in the hot oven. Removing her apron, Foxy picked up Ruby’s snack and muttered, ‘Wish me luck. I’m not at all sure how madam is going to take this latest blow.’

As usual, Ruby was reclining listlessly on the chaise longue in the drawing room. Placing the plate and tumbler on a table beside her, Miss Fox told her quietly, ‘I think you ought to know … you’re going to be a grandmother.’

‘What!’ Ruby sat bolt upright in her chair, her face a mask of horror. ‘You mean Kitty is with child?’

‘Well, who else could it be?’ Miss Fox said peevishly.

Ruby glowered as she strummed her fingers on the arm of the chaise longue. And then she shocked Miss Fox when she snarled, ‘She will have to get rid of it! There’s a woman I know of round the corner in Fulham who will do it for five pounds.’ She knew this because she herself had visited her on more than one occasion, but she couldn’t reveal that.

Miss Fox’s chest swelled with rage. ‘Get rid of it?’ she spat. ‘But this is a baby we’re talking about – your own flesh and blood. And what about the risk to Kitty? I’ve read about what’s happened to some of the poor girls who go to backstreet abortionists. She’s your daughter, don’t you care?’

Ruby waved her hand airily. ‘It’s worth the risk. Think of the scandal if she tries to keep it, Foxy. Once the war is over she can return to her singing career, but not with a baby hanging around her neck. The public would shun her and say that she was a fallen woman.’

‘Even if she’d consider it, it’s too late now,’ the other woman said tersely. ‘She’s too far gone.’

‘So?’ Ruby’s eyes flashed. ‘It just means the procedure will be slightly more unpleasant, that’s all. Send the girl to me immediately and I’ll tell her where to go.’

Miss Fox stared at her incredulously. She had always known that Ruby was selfish and self-centred, but she had never dreamed that even she would sink to such depths.

‘I’ll do no such thing,’ she ground out. ‘Kitty will have this baby so you’d better get used to the idea.’

‘Then she and Maggie will have to leave,’ Ruby said heartlessly. ‘Neither of them are any good to me if they’re not bringing money in.’

‘You would turn your own daughter out onto the street?’ Miss Fox shook her head. ‘I’ve never said this before but I’m ashamed of you.’ And with that she turned and quietly left the room. She hadn’t expected Ruby to be pleased at the news, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that the woman would be so callous.