Others approached the stage, tugged at her clothes to see if the patches covered her whole body. She clung to the thin straps of her shift as it was pulled down her shoulders. Vincent was not among them, thank God. But he didn’t do anything to stop it. I shifted from foot to foot, not sure what I could do to help but knowing I must try something. I took one step forward before a single thought halted my progress. What if they tried to pull me onstage too? My legs gave out from under me and I slumped back into the alcove.

‘Now, now, ladies and gentlemen. Any damage you cause will have to be paid for,’ Crillick said, but he was clearly enjoying the reaction he’d aroused in his audience.

‘Why is she like that?’ ‘How old is she?’ ‘Can she speak?’ The questions came thick and fast. Three men stood over the table of instruments, consulting one another about which to try first. Next to me, the woman in grey rose, the only other person not caught up in the excitement. Her face grim, she began to pick her way determinedly through the rows of chairs to the stage. The set of her shoulders told me she was not getting closer just to gawp; she was going to put a stop to it. I willed her on. Could she intervene where I had failed?

When Crillick saw her approach, he hurried to reclaim the crowd’s attention. ‘You have not seen the best of my Leopard Lady yet.’

He motioned Henrietta and the others to return to their seats. Then he turned to the Leopard Lady and barked a command at her. She hesitated and he manhandled her to the edge of the stage. Again, her eyes darted round and I tried to catch her eye, in case a friendly face might make her feel safer. In the moment, it was all I had the strength for.

‘Go on,’ Crillick urged.

The Leopard Lady opened her mouth and out of it came the purest sound I ever heard. It wasn’t singing but a moan that set the hairs on the back of my neck to standing. It was a cry. In that sound I recognised her pain, writ plain as if I’d read it in one of the leather-bound books that surrounded us. Or maybe it was clear because it was my pain too. I’d wanted to help her but when the moment came I was petrified as she was. All my bravery, all my smarts, had counted for nothing in the face of the terror that I might be called to the stage to stand alongside her.