Nadine Dorries

‘It was the only thing the nuns taught me which I enjoyed,’ said Ruby in response

If there was a name for a male equivalent of a trollop, he would wear it well.’

Ruby had no idea what a trollop was and she thought it best not to ask.

She was burning to ask Mrs McKinnon about the baby clothes hidden in the box in the linen room, but she realized that once she had spoken she could never take those words back. Something also told Ruby that if she asked that particular question, nothing at the castle would ever be the same again. She sensed a danger in being aware of the note and the contents of the box.

Mrs McKinnon said to Ruby, ‘Now, I’m trusting you, as a convent girl and a good Catholic, to understand that conversation you and I have just had, it’s between us two. Not to be repeated.’

Ruby wasn’t like the other servants and not only because she had been educated at the convent with the best reputation in Ireland. She carried a maturity like an invisible shawl wrapped around her and it made her appear so much older than her years

Of course, it’s our secret, although I have to say, I’m rather excited now about the trollop. It will be an education in itself to see how she behaves.’

Mrs McKinnon grinned. ‘Aye, well that’s as may be, just as long as she doesn’t upset Lady FitzDeane.’

Across on the other side of the landing, Lady Isobel sat on the edge of her bed. She took the letter Ruby had collected for her out of her bedside drawer and read it again, then she extracted a handwritten note from the back of the drawer, carefully concealed. The letter was from a private detective agency in Scotland Road, Liverpool, and it confirmed all of her worst fears. She had driven him away with her anger and her grief and she knew in her heart that was exactly what she had wanted to do. It had been her intention all along. She read the name and address. Stella Manning, hairdresser, County Road, Liverpool. She felt a slight pang of guilt. She had pushed him to live another life so far away from the one he had loved at Ballyford.

If the staff were conspiring against her, there was no one left to trust.

t was Sunday and Mrs McKinnon had given Ruby the day off as a reward for writing out the invitations.

‘You won’t get another now, until after we have cleared up from the ball, so make the most of it,’

Even with the bike, Ruby had no idea how to reach Doohoma from the castle. She had memorized the road from the convent to the castle, so she knew enough to know that the convent was in entirely the wrong direction