Crillick was thickset and the box felt even smaller when he entered. I could only get out now if he let me and I felt a prickle of sweat form on my neck. He smiled broad enough to show his teeth. How could I put some distance between us? I shuffled backwards on the desk, then I remembered. The curtains were heavy but they would not stop me falling. It must be a twenty-foot drop at least. A shiver went up my spine and I gripped on to the wood with my fingers.

‘I came in early to rehearse and make sure I was ready for next Wednesday. I wanted to say sorry, too, for missing all my nights this week.’

He gave me a calculating stare. This wasn’t the usual tone of our interactions and, in the narrowing of his eyes, I could tell he was trying to work out what my game was.

‘Not here to ask after Vincent?’

I looked down at the floor and ran my pointed toe back and forth across the carpet to buy myself some time. What exactly was I doing here? Would I have to seduce Crillick to get the information I needed?

‘I’m afraid I can give you no news of him. He’s off to Surrey, that’s all I know. He was packing as I left this morning and I couldn’t say when he is coming back.’

Vincent going home? He hadn’t seemed to be planning it, but then again we hadn’t talked much after the picnic. He was probably going to make up with his father, and get the money after all.

When I looked up, I found myself staring into Crillick’s eyes. He was still trying to work me out, but I could see a glimmer of something else there too. His desire for me made me wary of being alone with him, but I would have to exploit it if I was to get away with being caught in his office.

‘I’m not sorry he’s gone,’ I said.

‘No, you don’t look as though you are.’

He came and perched next to me on the desk and I steeled myself not to shift along to avoid my thigh touching his.

‘You didn’t need to leave Northumberland Avenue. I would have been happy to put you up for a little while longer.’

His hand crept round my shoulders. Don’t flinch, Zillah. Don’t give yourself away. This was a dangerous game I was playing. It may have got me out of the frying pan but there was no mistake I was in the fire now. I looked towards the door and, when Crillick saw my glance, he rose and crossed to close it. I breathed a sigh of relief that he was no longer next to me but then he turned the key in the lock. I was effectively trapped with him.