Vincent rolled over and I cuddled up against him. Stupid to keep that card, when he was so good to me. To think, half-caste me, in the arms of a viscount. And next week he was taking me out, right into the countryside, in the daytime too. That meant something, that he was happy to be seen with me. I pressed my lips to his forehead and he opened his eyes.

‘I didn’t mean to wake you, I’m sorry.’

We lay side by side and I felt his fingers burrow into my hair. I knew my curls fascinated him. He liked to twirl them round his fingers. It made me self-conscious, thinking that he’d never seen hair like mine so close before, but things had been too shaky between us tonight for me to turn away.

‘I shouldn’t have been short with you earlier,’ he said.

I waited for him to explain exactly why my suggestion we go east had upset him, but he didn’t and it wasn’t the time to push. Instead, I closed my eyes and focused on enjoying his caresses. I’d been foolish to let the African disturb me. I didn’t need saving, not when I had my act and Vincent besides. I tried to picture the meadow that Vincent had described, imagined us together there. There’d be no trips to 41 Charles II Street for me.

VI

Rehearsal

Crillick’s return meant extra rehearsals. When I woke up the next morning there was a note telling me that my day off was cancelled and I had to be at the theatre by ten o’clock. Vincent didn’t care about Barky’s schedule, though. By the time I arrived it was five and twenty past eleven, but even though Barky complained I let it wash over me. Crillick was back, it was true, but Vincent had called me his Princess and promised to take me out; surely that was worth being late for just this once.