By seven o’clock the next morning I was ready to leave. St Giles ran on its own time, so many of its inhabitants worked at night and slept through the day, but I clung to the routines of Vincent’s world. Your world too now, Zillah, I reminded myself. I had to think myself deserving of it, or I’d never learn to claim a place there. I’d barely slept, the sound of the rats scuttling beneath the floorboards and the hunger pangs in my stomach too insistent to be ignored. There was no place to wash, no water – hot or cold – and I’d slept in my clothes. In one sense, all I had to do was get up and walk out, but my past had a grip on me that couldn’t be as easily discarded as an old coat that no longer suited me.

It was a relief to get to the theatre. When I sat down at the table in the dressing room I shared with Ellen, I could’ve wept. There was a knock at the door.

‘Come in, Barky,’ I called. But it wasn’t the stage manager that walked in; it was Vincent.

As often as he’d met me at the theatre, Vincent had never been backstage. I saw him take in the props leant up against the walls, and the mess of jars and pots on the dressing table, and felt an urge to shield them from his gaze.

‘So, this is where the Great Amazonia comes into being,’ he said.

He stepped forward to embrace me. He smelt of soap and cigar smoke, but I backed away. His face turned grave. He thought I was angry with him over Richmond, but I was worried that the fleas I’d picked up last night would burrow into his woollen coat and his freshly washed hair.

‘Where have you been? I told you to wait for me at Crillick’s last night.’

‘I … I couldn’t. It’s not the same now he’s back.’

Vincent made an impatient sound.

‘Don’t be silly, Zillah. Come back with me when you’ve finished here tonight. I’ll be watching from the box and we’ll go home together in my carriage.’

I nodded and his tone softened.

‘Good girl. I missed you last night.’

‘You went to see your father?’

A look of confusion flitted across his face. ‘Why would you think that? I was at Al—’ He caught himself. ‘I was at dinner with a friend.’

Clearly, he’d been with Alexander. Had his friend’s sister been there too? But before I could ask any more, Vincent said he must be going. He pressed a swift kiss on my forehead and left me wondering what had happened at dinner that he was so eager not to talk to me about. At least he said he missed you.

A few minutes later, Barky came in.