I hadn’t yet been inside Barky’s bedroom. It was small and square with little furniture. Just a round side table and a wardrobe in addition to the bed. I took off my dress, and folded it. My boots proved a little harder and I was forced to pull them off with both hands. Down to my shift, I lay back on the bed and drew the covers up to my chin. There was a rectangular patch on the wall where the chintzy wallpaper was brighter. A picture must have hung there until recently. Maybe it was a portrait of Barky’s lover, but what would she have looked like? The idea made me giggle. In the morning I’ll ask him, I told myself, knowing that by then I would have forgotten all about it.

Even though I was tired, I forced myself to keep my eyes open, trying to think through all that had happened. Silly to fight sleep. I should welcome it. It would make tomorrow come all the quicker. The prospect of sitting down face to face with Bill was unnerving, but I’d just have to make sure that any fear I felt didn’t show. My goal was to learn exactly where the Leopard Lady was being held. If he could tell me that, it would be a good day.

XXVI

Hussmann’s Coffee House

Hussmann’s was tucked away down a blind alley off Oxford Circus. Lucien had given me the directions I needed last night. Even so, I’d got a little lost on my way over from Tuesday rehearsals and the sun had already begun to dip when I arrived a touch after four o’clock. From the outside it was hard to tell what kind of shop it was, for the windows were clouded with steam. But as soon as I opened the door and the bitter smell of coffee wafted out, there could be no mistaking it. Inside, there was a long wooden table with two benches, enough to seat twenty men. About half the spots were taken, but the customers weren’t spread out; they were clustered in the middle listening closely while one man read from a newspaper. I thought I recognised a couple of Black Bill’s henchmen from the Dog and Duck, but it wasn’t only Blackbirds, or even Blacks, here. Some of the men looked like costermongers, others clerks, but I guessed they all worked for Bill in one way or another. Two looked up at my entrance, surprised to see a woman on her own, but none questioned me. Hussmann’s wasn’t the sort of place you went into unless you had business with its owner. They must have realised I was there by Bill’s invitation. I took a seat and within moments a boy appeared with a dish of coffee. I scrabbled in my pocket for some change and clinked two ha’pennies into his hand.