She sighed deeply, and her tears fell on Ruby’s hand, clasped between her own. ‘I can remember the day you ran away from home seeking fame and fortune, and I told you I’d washed my hands of you. But I couldn’t keep it up, could I? I soon came back with my tail between my legs, but you were a star by then and all I could be to you was a servant. I even became Miss Phyllis Fox for you. It wouldn’t have done for all your fancy friends and admirers to know where you came from – a rented room in Tooting with no man about the place – would it? I know how unhappy you are now that your looks are fading and you’re ill, so I’m doing this for the pair of us. At last we can be mother and daughter again, without you being ashamed of me and your beginnings.’

Lifting the bottle of wine, she poured another glass and added the remaining contents of the small bottle. Raising it to her lips, she took a long swallow. Ruby’s breath was coming in little shallow gasps now, so Miss Fox quickly drained her own glass and climbing up to lie beside her, she wrapped her arms protectively about her daughter.

‘Sleep tight, my darling girl, and please forgive me, God,’ she whispered as the poison began to work. For a time, there was nothing to be heard but the sound of their breathing … then shortly after, there was nothing but silence.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Kitty sat as if she had been turned to stone all the way back on the train clutching Tallulah on her lap as she tried to imagine what sort of a homecoming she might receive. She had been so cruel to Sunday and Tom when they had come all the way to visit her, and she was no longer the same innocent girl she had been when she left Treetops. Would they ever be able to forgive her?

She also had very mixed feelings about leaving Ruby and Miss Fox. She’d been so thrilled when her mother had sent for her, but her dreams had come crashing down when she realised that Ruby only valued her for the earning power that she might possess. Still, she consoled herself, at least I got to meet her so I won’t have to spend the rest of my life wondering what she was like.

Maggie seemed to pick up on her fears, for she squeezed Kitty’s hand reassuringly. ‘It’ll be all right,’ she promised, and Kitty prayed that she was right.

Sunday and Tom were waiting on the platform for them when they steamed into Nuneaton and Kitty’s fears vanished the second she stepped from the train to be hugged by Sunday, who was crying unashamedly.

‘Oh, my darling girls,’ she sobbed as she tried to cuddle both Kitty and Maggie at the same time. ‘Welcome home.’ The letters from Kitty had explained how Maggie had come back into her life, much to the joy of all at Treetops. Everyone had worried about Maggie since her disappearance some years ago.