Julietta was silent for a moment, then said: ‘I don’t think one can ever love “too much”. But perhaps you might find other women to bed, Jane, as well as me. Summon a few “beauties” to your house and see what happens. There is no shame in it. Then you and I will love more calmly.’

Jane looked into Julietta’s liquid brown eyes. She asked her if, in all the long while she had been recovering from Ross’s attack, Julietta had returned to her ‘beauties’ and Julietta replied straight away, ‘I did not, Jane. I made a bargain with God. I promised that if he would spare you, I would renounce my beauties for ever. I would love you and Ashton, but no one else. We’ve both changed. Your love has changed me. The future can be calm.’

‘And yet you’re suggesting that I make love with other women?’

‘Only if you wish it. I believe I will always be your “bride”, but perhaps a few “bridesmaids” would amuse you and give you pleasure. Might that not be so?’

‘I will think about it,’ said Jane. ‘I will think carefully about everything.’

One afternoon, Julietta, who was now pregnant with another child, brought Marco round to Tite Street for tea. Emulating Clorinda, Jane had instructed that jam tarts and sugar buns be made for him and when he had eaten his fill of these, he wandered into Emmeline’s studio and came back to Jane and Julietta, carrying the golem.

He sat down beside Jane, cradling the little manikin as he might have cradled a tiny baby, kissing its ugly head from time to time. After a while, he turned to Jane and asked, ‘What does it do?’

‘Well,’ said Jane, ‘you ask me what it does and I think I know the answer to that: it comforts people.’

‘How does it comfort people?’

‘Well,’ said Jane, ‘remember how you swam in the magic water of the Baths? The water made you feel happy, didn’t it? And I think there is something of the same kind of magic in the golem. Why do you not lay your face against it and see if a feeling of happiness doesn’t come into you?’

Marco did as Jane instructed. She and Julietta watched as his soft pink cheeks pressed themselves against the rough clay and his dark curls brushed the top of the manikin’s head.

‘I’m not feeling happy yet,’ said Marco.

‘Ah,’ said Jane, ‘but you must be patient, Marco. Happiness is sometimes slow to arrive.’

‘Why do you not close your eyes,’ suggested Julietta. ‘And perhaps imagine that the golem is talking to you …’

They waited. Julietta took Jane’s hand, as though they were expecting something important to arrive. Jane held Julietta close and the silence of the afternoon was suddenly broken by the sound of a drenching rain falling against the windows of the drawing room. Then Marco said, ‘that’s very peculiar, Jane. I had a pain in my arm from when I fell off Trebuchet, but now the pain has vanished away.’