‘I … I think so.’

With a nod Miss Fox set off down the hallway and as she followed her, Kitty stared about her in wonder. This house was nowhere near as big as Treetops, but it was certainly much, much grander. The walls were lined with expensive wallpaper, and the black and white tiles on the floor had been polished to a mirror-like shine. Nothing like the ones back at home that were always covered in little footprints despite the staff’s best efforts to keep them clean, Kitty thought. Huge oil paintings and mirrors in heavy gilt frames hung on the walls, and an enormous vase of lilies placed on a spindly-legged table scented the air as she brushed past it. Then Miss Fox stopped abruptly and after giving Kitty an encouraging smile she opened a door and stepped into a room that was even more luxuriously furnished than the hallway. However, it wasn’t the furniture that Kitty’s eyes fastened on but the woman reclining on a chaise longue that stood to one side of an imposing marble fireplace.

We are so alike, that could be me in twenty years’ time, Kitty thought. The woman was just short of being plump – rounded was the word that occurred to Kitty – and her hair was almost exactly the same shade as hers, as were her eyes.

Kitty hadn’t quite known how to react but the woman rose immediately and held out a well-manicured hand that was as soft as swansdown. That hand had clearly never done a day’s hard work in the whole of its life and Kitty was a little disappointed. She had expected a cuddle at least.

‘So you are my little Katherine. All grown up now,’ the woman said as she took Kitty’s hand in her own.

‘She likes to be called Kitty,’ Miss Fox informed her and the woman nodded. Her hair hung loose about her shoulders in thick waves, and close up Kitty saw that there were a few grey streaks in it. There were fine lines about her eyes and mouth too, on closer inspection, but even so their likeness to each other was undeniable.

Ruby was dressed in a pink floaty peignoir trimmed with white feathers that wafted about her as she moved, and her feet were clad in dainty jewelled house slippers. The heavy scent of French perfume moved with her like a cloud, and Kitty noticed that her lips were painted red, showing off her straight white teeth to perfection, and there was rouge on her cheeks. But she had no more time to study her because her mother was drawing her towards the chaise longue to sit beside her. Kitty couldn’t help but compare her to Sunday, who was always rushing about doing something. And the house was completely different to the homely Treetops too. Kitty felt almost afraid of disturbing the silken cushions here.

‘It must have been a shock when Foxy came for you as she did?’ Then, smiling, Ruby apologised. ‘Sorry, Foxy is my pet name for Miss Fox.’