‘I’ve been thinking, it’s past time I got a place of my own,’ Vincent continued in the face of my silence. ‘You could live there with me. What do you say?’

Not too long ago I would have given my right arm for an offer like that; now all I could bring myself to say was, ‘Maybe.’

Vincent turned me round to face him.

‘You’re angry with me, Zillah. I shouldn’t have reprimanded you earlier. Talk to me, won’t you?’

I didn’t know if I was right to say what I knew but I couldn’t be in his presence any longer without confronting him.

‘I want to know why we had to come here instead of going east? Why you couldn’t bear the thought of going anywhere near the docks?’

‘Don’t you like it here? I know we haven’t seen the deer yet, but we’re sure to spot some soon. It’s their mating season, you know. If we’re lucky, we’ll see them rutting.’

I turned away from him, pulling up tufts of grass. I had imagined us sitting together in rolling fields but never that I could feel towards Vincent the way I did now. At last he said, ‘You know, don’t you?’

I was laid back on the blanket, my eyes fixed on the murky grey sky. Vincent sat by my feet, his head bowed. I knew he was building up to an explanation, so I waited, and sure enough he soon began.

‘The warehouse is my father’s, Zillah. I’ve never been there and we no longer have interests in the West Indies. I want you to believe that.’

‘But you did?’

‘Everyone did. There is nothing unique in that, Zillah. When the time came, we gave our interests up.’

‘When your slaves were taken away, you mean.’

Vincent blew out the air in his cheeks.

‘My father owned an estate in Guyana, another in Barbados. He had nine altogether and to work them he had one thousand two hundred and fifteen slaves. When the Act was passed, it was ruled he was owed £69,760 for setting the slaves free. There’s not one member of the landed gentry that has not received a payout; a large proportion of the middle classes too.’

I lay very still, trying to figure the vast sums that he described. It was an extraordinary amount. This was what Crillick must have meant when he talked in the billiard room of compensation, but this was more money than even he had reckoned on.

‘You could buy …’ I started but my voice trailed away. What couldn’t he buy with that amount?

Vincent gave a bitter laugh.

‘A railway, ten railways, mansions in every county and yet they say human life is priceless.’

Not if you were working class it wasn’t. Round by St Giles, life was cheaper than chips.