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to.’
    â€˜Something to kick when you get angry, you mean.’
    â€˜That too.’ His hand darted out and stroked my hair before I had time to duck. ‘Looks better now it’s grown again. You’re turnin’ out all right after all.’
    â€˜Shame the same can’t be said for you,’ I said quickly, batting his hand away.
    He gave me a superior smile. ‘Well, I don’t need looks, do I? Not when I’ve got power. But you, what else ’ave you got to fall back on now they’re closin’ the theatre?’
    â€˜Brains, Billy, brains, as you once told me. Keep the cushion; I’m taking no place at yours or anyone’s fireside any time soon.’
    The butler appeared at the door to show me out. I paused on the threshold.
    â€˜Oh, and Billy?’
    He was locking the door to his strongroom again. ‘Yeah, cherub?’
    â€˜I’d sack the elocution teacher if I were you. It’s pissing in the wind to think you can learn to speak properly.’
    With that, I made a fast exit and showed myself out on to the street.
    I set off in a mad dash across town to prevent Syd and Pedro bringing the rest of the Butcher’s Boys to my rescue. Having started the day with a relatively creditable appearance, I was ending it in a crumpled mess, stained with raspberry and besmirched with dust. But the deepest soil on me was the feeling I had carried away from Billy’s white room – that wouldn’t wash off. He had an unhealthy obsession about me. I had the impression that getting me as part of his kingdom had come to represent the final proof that he had conquered the world. While I still existed, rude and irreverent, he would always feel his lowly origins dragging him down. If I failed to fulfil my part of the bargain, as seemed all too likely, I would havebeen proved as fallible as all his other minions, someone he could control. To him I’d be part of his menagerie of tame bullies and thieves.
    â€˜Never,’ I swore to myself as I turned into the alley leading to the back of the shop. ‘I’ll leave London before I let that happen to me. Exile must be better than being enslaved to Billy.’
    â€˜Bloody ’ell, Cat, you ’ad us that worried!’ shouted Syd as I burst into the yard.
    Pedro threw aside the cudgel he had been holding and gave me a hug. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked. ‘He didn’t harm you?’
    â€˜No. It was like I told you – he just wanted to swap insults.’
    The boys relaxed their warlike stances. Syd grinned. ‘I bet you gave ’im what for, eh, Cat?’
    â€˜Yeah, I think I came out on top.’ For now, at any rate.
    I proceeded to entertain them with an edited version of my call on Billy, leaving out all reference to our deal. They were highly amused to hear about his attempts to pass himself off as a gentleman.
    â€˜I don’t know who ’e thinks ’e’s foolin’,’ marvelled Nick, Syd’s second-in-command. ‘Billy’s as refined as horse-dung.’
    Jo the Card bowed before me and produced a posy of flowers from up his sleeve. ‘To our Cat, Insulter Extraordinaire to the Prince of Darkness.’
    I smiled, though this felt too near the knuckle to be truly funny. ‘Thanks, Jo, but I’ll relinquish the position to anyone who wants it. It’s not my idea of fun to spend the day with the Boil.’
    â€˜I’ll take it over,’ growled Syd. ‘And before ’e ’as a chance to open ’is gob, I’ll shove ’is teeth down the back of ’is throat.’
    â€˜Well, you’d be doing him a favour – it’s either you or the tooth-puller from what I saw. Gilded dung, that’s what he is. Rotten to the core.’
    â€˜Right then,’ said Syd, pushing up his sleeves. ‘As there’s no call now to rescue Cat, I think we all deserve a pint. Let’s go to the Jolly