She might easily get into trouble if the hotel catered for a certain type of man such as commercial travellers or ne’er-do-wells who would look on a pretty woman alone as ‘fair game’.
“Is this really the first time you have ever been to London?” Robbie asked her tentatively.
“I have been living in France – and I have therefore never had the opportunity before.”
“And your husband is not travelling with you?”
There was a moment’s pause as she looked away from him and then she said,
“My h-husband is – dead.”
“I am so sorry.”
He realised as she spoke that she had stumbled over the word ‘husband’ and it suddenly occurred to him that she did not look in the least like a married woman – nor in fact did she seem old enough to be one.
The carriage was moving on and Robbie knew that soon the
