I wouldn’t make any decisions yet, but it was something that I’d have to think about. I drained my glass and shook hands with Elvira. She was proving a great ally, but now it was time to head back to Holborn and sleep. I’d need a good night’s rest to be ready for all that was to come.

XXVIII

Barky’s Revelation

The moon was up and Berkeley Square was quiet, with only the wind blowing through the trees. The soft whistling sound it made soothed me. I should have been quicker to work out where the Odditorium was, and the Leopard Lady and her child had suffered more because I hadn’t, but now I had a plan. By this time tomorrow night, you’ll be free.

I started the walk back to Holborn, but I’d only taken two steps from Elvira’s house when I heard my name called. I turned in surprise to see Lucien walking towards me.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘You were so distressed after meeting that man at Hussmann’s, I thought I would wait for you.’

‘But that was almost two hours ago. You’ve been standing out here all this time?’

‘I didn’t want to interrupt when you were making your plans.’

‘Forgive me. I was rude earlier. I know you only wanted to help.’

He fell into step beside me and we walked along in silence for a moment.

‘Last night we spoke of Sierra Leone,’ Lucien said.

Only yesterday but it seemed as though so much had happened since then.

‘I want you to come out there with me.’

That brought me up sharp. I’d suspected Lucien might go, wondered if it was why he’d held himself back from me, but to accompany him? That hadn’t crossed my mind until Elvira brought it home to me that, after I had rescued the Leopard Lady, staying in London would be out of the question. What had they said at Exeter Hall: No place so fit and proper? Could I really go there with him?

I turned around. Lucien had stopped a little way behind me and I walked back towards him so he didn’t have to raise his voice. He breathed heavily from trying to keep pace with me. It was the first time I’d seen him less than in control. I liked him better for it.

‘I’m asking you to marry me, Zillah. I wish for the two of us to build a life together in our ancestral homeland.’

A proposal? Lucien was proposing to me?

‘You want me to go to Sierra Leone with you?’

‘To Freetown, Zillah. I will be honest with you. It is something I have been thinking of for some time, but when I accepted my feelings for you, I knew that was where our future lay.’