I wasn’t going to get into this again. Now I’d explained everything to Barky about the Leopard Lady and what Crillick had put her and her little boy through, not to mention the other captives, the only bit he had trouble believing was Vincent’s part in it. I sometimes wondered whose side he was on.

As Barky drained his second cup of tea, there was a knock at the front door. I leapt up.

‘Do you think it’s him?’

There had been other visitors in the past few days – a delivery man, a neighbour in need of milk – and I always made myself scarce. But something told me that this was Lucien. It had to be.

‘You want to hope so,’ Barky said. ‘I’ll go down and answer it myself and if I bring someone up you stay in my bedroom until I tell you it’s safe to come out.’

I waited impatiently. At last, I heard two sets of footsteps climbing the stairs to Barky’s rooms. It must be Lucien with him – Barky wouldn’t risk letting in a stranger who might betray me. I smoothed down my hair; there was no looking glass so I could do nothing about the bags that had formed beneath my eyes from the sleepless nights spent worrying. Barky had urged me to wash and change this morning. How I regretted ignoring him now, but my navy dirndl skirt and cream blouse would have to be good enough.

‘Someone to see you, Zillah,’ Barky called out to me as he came in.

I stepped out of his bedroom and down the passage but the smile on my lips died as I entered the kitchen for it was not Lucien with him at all, but Vincent.

It was strange to see Vincent in Barky’s tiny kitchen. His head almost brushed the ceiling and he hovered unsure of whether to sit or stand.

‘May I get you something, milord?’ Barky said.

‘Thank you, but I won’t stay.’ He turned to me. ‘I came to warn you, Zillah, is all. Crillick is looking for you.’

‘I know that,’ I said ungraciously. ‘I hope you haven’t led him here.’

Vincent looked shocked and I remembered that I’d cheeked him very rarely when we were together. I hadn’t known then about his family’s slave-trading history, nor that he allowed Crillick to use his father’s warehouse and not bothered to enquire what for. I still wasn’t sure if I believed he hadn’t known the Leopard Lady had been kept there. He’d known more about the Odditorium than he’d admitted, after all.

‘He’s not discovered Zillah’s here?’ Barky said.