My mother and I are getting along famously and I’m very much enjoying living in London. It’s so different to Nuneaton and there’s always so much to do, shopping, sightseeing, my feet have barely touched the ground! We have staff here who see to my every need and Mother has bought me some lovely new clothes, all the very latest fashion. My room is very beautiful too, very luxurious.

She paused again then to read what she had written and even to her it sounded shallow in the extreme, but better that than admit what a disappointment her mother had been to her so far. The letter continued for a while longer in the same vein, before she added her address and urged them to write to her when they had time. She then finished it and signed it, With much love, Kitty xxx

All she had to do now was ask Ruby where she might post it, and then hopefully she would hear from them before too long.

It was two days later, in the evening after dinner when Mabel tapped at Kitty’s bedroom door to tell her, ‘The mistress says will you come down to the drawing room, please, miss? There’s someone she would like you to meet.’

‘Oh.’ It was the first time her mother had ever asked to see her in the evening and Kitty wondered who it was she wanted her to meet. ‘Thank you, Mabel. Would you tell her I’ll be down in five minutes?’

As soon as Mabel had gone Kitty laid down the book she had been reading and dashed over to the dressing table, where she snatched up her hairbrush and tidied her hair. She then smoothed the creases as best she could from one of her smart new skirts, and satisfied that she was as tidy as she could make herself for now, she went downstairs.

She tapped tentatively at the drawing-room door and when her mother bade her come in, she entered. The first thing she saw was a very good-looking gentleman reclining on the chaise longue as if he owned the place, blowing smoke rings into the air from a very fat cigar and looking incredibly bored. He was very smartly dressed in a navy-blue pinstriped sack suit and a crisp white shirt, and he had fair hair and a moustache. He looked to be in his mid-thirties and was easily one of the most handsome men Kitty had ever seen, even if she did consider him to be rather old. The second he clapped eyes on Kitty, however, his bored look disappeared and he sat up straighter with a spark of interest flaring in his eyes.

‘So you are Kitty, Ruby’s little niece.’ He stubbed his cigar out in a nearby ashtray and advanced on Kitty with his hand extended. She shook his hand solemnly, embarrassed when he held on to hers for a fraction longer than was necessary, then he walked a full circle all around her, eyeing her critically up and down as she cringed beneath his scrutiny.