Dad has built a house on the estate. I haven’t seen it yet, of course, but it sounds very grand. The best bit of news is, he wants me to go and work with him. He’ll make me a partner in the business and teach me all about it, with the idea that eventually I shall inherit it. And he wants you to come and join us. He has never married again, so you would be the lady of the house and never have to make a hat again, unless you wanted to. And so that you can come, I am enclosing a memorandum of a draft paid to the White Star company to pay for your fare. Not steerage, May. First class!

You must come! This is a wonderful country where no one cares who your parents were or where you grew up. No one worries about the fact that Dad is an ex-convict. It’s what he is now that matters. You can have a new life here, in the sunshine, away from gloomy old Liverpool. And there are plenty of young men out here looking for a wife. You’ll be able to take your pick.

Get a passage on the first ship, or maybe wait until you can come on the Royal Standard. You’ll be much more comfortable on her. Let us know as soon as you can when to expect you.

Your loving brother,
Gus

May read the letter twice and found that her hands were shaking. All night she had wrestled with the problem of how to respond to James’s proposal. She had no doubt that he was sincere when he said that he loved her and that her revelations about her upbringing had made no difference to his feelings; but at the same time a thought nagged at her. He wanted her to lie about her childhood.

He said it was because it would upset his mother and might affect his career; but did that not mean that in fact he was ashamed of her? He had fallen in love with the girl he thought she was. How long would it be before he had to admit that that girl did not exist? She knew that if she agreed to his proposal she would live in constant fear that one day, by some slip of her own or some casual remark from someone else, the illusion would be destroyed and he would realise that marrying her had been a mistake. Common sense told her that such a life would be insupportable.