‘It means she has a child. A son. And they have him too.’

Lucien and I sat side by side on his sofa, while I recounted what had happened that night in Crillick’s house. Speaking it out loud made it worse. I was forced to see it anew. I did not mention Vincent – there was no need, he had done nothing – but as I told it again my feelings towards him hardened. He’d acted as though ignoring the problem would make it go away, but here were Lucien and I discussing it now and he was listening to me, really listening, asking how I had felt, how she was. It was a terrible thing to confront, but we didn’t have the privilege of looking away.

‘There is one thing more: Elvira Masterson was there. The woman you said you wanted to introduce me to.’

‘Miss Masterson is a good woman. It does not surprise me that she was there to take this woman’s part. She does what she can and more besides.’

Here was another possible ally. I should have thought of her before, but how would I have reached her?

‘I think that Crillick is keeping the Leopard Lady in a warehouse at West India Docks. Perhaps her child is there too.’

The warehouse was huge. There’d be no need for Crillick to keep them from each other. But I’d been worried when I thought the Leopard Lady was there. How would a child fare in those conditions?

‘I am due to see Miss Masterson tonight. I can speak to her on your behalf, if you wish?’

‘I’d like to speak to her myself, if you’ll introduce us. Where is it you’re due to meet her?’

‘At Exeter Hall. The Sierra Leone lecture I mentioned when you came to my shop last week. It’s planned for tonight.’

‘I’ll be there,’ I said.

‘Can you find out for certain if the woman is being held in the warehouse as you suspect?’

I looked at the carriage clock on Lucien’s mantelpiece. Almost one p.m. Barky was going to be so angry with me.

‘Not in time for tonight. I have to get to work now for a rehearsal, but tomorrow morning I could try and find out, or on Thursday – that is my day off, you remember?’

Lucien frowned when I mentioned my work. I was glad he didn’t raise it with me directly. What could I say to him about it? The affair with the Leopard Lady was bringing home what he had seen in my act, though I still clung to the notion that my performance was different from hers. Why, Zillah? How? But I ignored the voice in my head. Right now, I had to put the Leopard Lady first.