‘It’s just information I need. The show she’s in, it’s called the Odditorium but I don’t know where it is.’ The sort of things I suspected they were now doing to the Leopard Lady, and possibly her child too, were too gruesome even for the London stage. ‘It’ll be somewhere private, unexpected.’

‘And if I find out its location, then what?’

‘We’ll take it from there,’ Lucien said. The first words he’d uttered since we sat down.

‘I don’t know, Zillah,’ Bill said. ‘I’m not in the favours business.’

‘I’m not asking for a favour,’ I said quickly. ‘I can pay.’

I could work out how and with what later.

‘Even so,’ Bill said, returning to the dirt under his nails. I wondered where it had come from.

‘There’s a child involved,’ Lucien said.

Bill glanced at him. He sat forward in his seat, taking him in.

‘A freak too?’

‘We don’t know. We’ve not seen him.’

Bill waved a hand and one of the men came over. I held my breath. Was this the moment we’d be escorted from the pub? No. Instead the man took out a small notebook and a stub of pencil and Bill scratched out the word ‘Odditorium’. He held it up to me to see.

‘That right?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Then meet me tomorrow afternoon at Hussmann’s and I’ll tell you where it is.’

Hussmann’s was Bill’s place. I’d never known the address, but Lucien obviously did because I felt him nod.

‘Four o’clock?’

‘Thereabouts,’ Bill said. He looked over my shoulder and I could tell that we’d been dismissed. Lucien stood and I followed him out of the booth. He took my hand as we walked away but, before I’d gone three steps, Bill called me back.

‘I’m glad you came to me, Zillah.’

‘I didn’t want to.’

Bill laughed and slapped his thigh. ‘You haven’t changed, have you?’

I bit my tongue against all the things I wanted to say to him. After Eustace died, I’d sworn never to consort with the Blackbirds and I hadn’t, not for these five years.

‘I’ll find your Odditorium for you, Zillah,’ Bill said.

After the warmth of the pub the cold felt like a ringing slap. The wine had gone to my head more than I’d thought. I hadn’t noticed in the fuggy atmosphere of the Dog and Duck but, as soon as I stepped out on to the pavement, I felt a little wobbly.

‘Here, take my scarf,’ Lucien said, and gratefully I burrowed into it, breathing in his scent. ‘Tell me where home is and I’ll walk you there.’

‘Lamb’s Conduit Street. I’m staying with Barky for the moment.’

‘The fellow who was concerned about the entry policy?’ Lucien said, his voice a little strained.