I picked up my pace, but he only called out again. Couldn’t be anything to do with the theatre. I was well away from it now. No, it was probably a bobby wanting to feel powerful. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been stopped for just going about my business in an area where I was one of few that looked like me. I stopped and waited for the man to catch up to me, knowing there was little point in making a scene. His hand on my shoulder was heavy but as I turned to face him it wasn’t the police officer I’d expected but an earnest-looking man in a suit. Just a do-gooder. I could have cried with relief. Sure enough, he pressed a handbill on me.

‘There’s a lecture at Exeter Hall the Tuesday after next, miss, the first of October. It’s something you might be interested in. I do hope you’ll consider it.’

It wasn’t often someone called me ‘miss’. Certainly not a gentleman like this one. I looked down at the handbill. The black letters swirled and righted themselves. BLACK POOR the headline read. I thrust the piece of paper back at him.

‘I’m not interested.’

He looked at me askance, as if I couldn’t know my own mind.

‘It’s about Sierra Leone, miss, on the Grain Coast of Africa.’

I didn’t care what it was about. The title proved it was not for me. This man with his sad eyes thought I was one of the Black Poor, did he? If only he knew the truth.

‘Let me call over one of my colleagues. Perhaps he can tell you a little more about it,’ the Do-Gooder said.

He looked over his shoulder and it was then that I saw Lucien Winters. He was talking to a Black man in beggar’s clothes and with no shoes on. Thankfully he hadn’t noticed me.

‘I’ve got to go,’ I said.

I didn’t want to see Lucien right now. Not when I was feeling so jangled. I wondered how long he’d been in the area. He must’ve been giving out handbills when he saw the posters advertising Amazonia’s performance. I started to walk away and the Do-Gooder kept pace with me for a couple of strides.

‘You’re sure you can’t stop for a moment? There is a lady you could speak to instead if you could wait just one minute. There are plans for a settlement and support will be given. At least keep hold of the information, won’t you?’