‘There was one job he was up for, out Kensington way. One of those four-storey houses with the steps leading up to them; it belonged to a judge. He told me it was a “meal ticket” job, because we’d be dining out on it for years. His mum didn’t want him to go. She’d never wanted him to fall in with Bill but that was how most people eat in St Giles. You either work for Bill direct or one of his people. Not many are able to get away.’

But you have, Zillah. You’ve got away. At least I hoped I had. Please God tonight wouldn’t mean I was sucked back in.

All this time Lucien had been walking with his head down. He was listening closely; I could tell he’d made up his mind to hear me out. I wondered what he was thinking. In my head telling him about Eustace would show him how important he was becoming to me, but he might not see it that way.

‘He went out on the job and something went wrong. It’s never been clear exactly what, but there was a knifing and the judge died. It wasn’t Eustace, I know it wasn’t, but he was the one they came for.’

How could I ever forget that day when they all turned up, ten constables and just Mrs Bradley and me in the house? They found the knife after two minutes but they still turned the house upside down, just because they could. I’d never seen it before. They sat with us, wouldn’t let us leave the kitchen, and when Eustace came in, they took him. No chance to warn him or even to say goodbye.

‘You think Bill planted the knife?’

‘That or he fingered Eustace as the one who done it. There were some whispers for a while but they died down quick enough. No one wanted to cross Bill, you see, not for small fry like Eustace. Either way, it was Eustace that swung for it.’

‘And what of his mother?’

‘Mrs Bradley died a little later.’

There was no money for a doctor, of course, but everyone in the Rookery knew it’d been of a broken heart. I was the one that found her and it was then and there that I’d vowed to get out of St Giles for good, whatever it took.

‘Thank you for telling me, Zillah,’ Lucien said.

‘I wanted to.’