STEPPING Out

After everything she’d been through, she wasn’t going to let jealousy and longing spoil her success

THE STORY SO FAR: Inspired by watching the dancers in Yakov’s Variety Show, Carrie has escaped her strict father and run away to join them. She works hard, though she finds herself distracted by her growing attraction to stoic odd-job man Jack Carter. Just when she thinks things are under control, Carrie spots her father, Reverend Edwin Nash, watching her latest performance and is terrified he’s come to take her home. Next day, she’s hauled before Mr Yakov. Her father’s solicitor has threatened him with kidnap, he says, and she must leave as he cannot afford any trouble. She leaves for the station. But someone is pursuing her...

The day Carrie had taken that undignified tumble at Knedburn Station, convinced her father was following her, had changed everything. Initially, while attempting to brush the dirt from her coat as she struggled to her feet, her emotions had been mixed.

There was relief – that the skyscraper of a man with the angular face and the battered leather briefcase bending over her was not her father after all. Relief, however, that was swiftly replaced by suspicion and fear. What could this complete stranger want with her? And how did her know her name?

‘Please. There’s no need to be afraid, Miss Nash.’ The stranger removed his hat, sweeping it before him in a low bow.

‘Did my father send you?’ she demanded, with far more confidence than she felt. ‘Because you can jolly well tell him from me that it’s no use. I’m not coming home.’

Given that less than 10 minutes earlier she’d come to the conclusion that going home was, in fact, her only option, the words that left her mouth took her by surprise.

‘My dear,’ he declaimed, his rich voice resonating. ‘You can take it from me that our paths have never crossed.’