I focus on his eyes. ‘I’m still going there?’

‘I think it’s for the best, don’t you?’

‘I’m not sure,’ I say and my mind wanders.

‘I won’t force you, but the alternative is to employ a nurse to look after you day and night here, and you’ve already said you don’t want that. I am terribly worried about how all this is going to affect Annabelle.’

I drag my attention back to him. ‘Do you know when Simone will come?’

‘No, but I emphasized the urgency.’

I hope he’ll let me stay until I feel stronger. I don’t say it, but I know he’s read my mind when he speaks.

‘Don’t worry. There’s no rush.’

I look at him with blurry eyes. ‘It was as if a voice told me I had to do it.’

His brow furrows although I am not sure if it is with concern or anger.

‘Precisely why you cannot be left alone and why I cannot be sure some “voice” will not tell you to hurt Annabelle. What might tomorrow bring if you don’t go?’

I avert my gaze. It’s a serious question and the truth of it bites into me, but I wish I had not mentioned the voice. Had I really felt so lost I couldn’t envisage any way back? So lacking in hope, so broken by the past? Or had it been the voice taking its chance? I have yet to accept the voice might be me.

27.

As Belle left the stage at the end of her set she’d been planning to read Simone’s letter again and then have an early night, but when she walked outside for a breath of air she found Edward waiting for her.

‘Walk with me?’ he said and gave her one of his seductive smiles. ‘It’s a wonderful evening. And I have good news.’

She glanced up at the sky, midnight blue and scattered with stars, the air so surprisingly cool after such a blistering day, and she heard the night birds flitting from tree to tree.

‘Of course,’ she said.

‘You look very beautiful tonight. Lovely dress.’

‘Thank you. It’s the second one I’ve had made up in the Chinese quarter.’

He stopped walking and put a hand on her arm to halt her too. ‘Really? It can be dangerous there. Their secret societies cause us no end of problems. The place is riddled with money lenders and even the Chinese themselves dare not report the atrocities.’

‘Gloria said it might be tricky there, but I went with one of the girls.’

‘I avoid the place like the plague. Rather too cut-throat for me.’

‘So, you never go there?’ she asked, recalling how she had seen him there with the red-haired woman who had looked so uncannily familiar.