“An American?” Louisa said, one had going instinctively to the locket around her throat, the gift Harold had given before he had been sent off to that awful war. She tried to keep her voice calm and even, and she could hardly refuse the young lady a room due to what had happened in the past between their two countries. After all, young Miss Brohm could hardly have been more than a small girl.
“You’ll require a room for your maid as well? The curfew is at ten and I lock the doors then and don’t open them till the morning. I’d prefer it if you didn’t take young men upstairs, I don’t run that sort of establishment and any courting should really take place here in the parlour. I am afraid I rent mostly to servicemen and respectable professionals. Currently there are two captains and a banker rooming here.” She smiled. “If you took the rooms you’d be the only women here apart from me and my maid.”