‘She’ll be fine,’ Johnny assured him. ‘But keep a sharp eye out tonight, Caleb. The boys who did this might come looking for us. Bar the door and don’t let anyone in unless you know them.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said the old doorman, picking up a stout cudgel he had concealed behind the door curtain. ‘They won’t get past Caleb Braithwaite in a hurry.’
‘Thanks, my friend,’ said Johnny.
He then knelt and picked me up. I was so shocked and exhausted by my adventure that I no longer cared what became of me: I just wanted to curl up, fall asleep and forget all about it. But Johnny had other ideas. There were matters he had to attend to first. He sat me in a chair by his fireside and put a kettle on the fire to boil. Tearing up some clean strips of linen, he set about tending to my wound.
‘I’m sorry about that, Catkin. I should have acted faster,’ he said, shaking his head over the cut.
‘You’re sorry!’ I said in surprise. ‘You’ve nothing to be sorry about. It was all my fault: I should never have fallen for their trap.’
‘They set a trap, did they?’ Johnny probed gently as he staunched the wound.
I nodded.
Johnny pressed my hand comfortingly. ‘I really must know what they said to you. I must know what they know about the diamond.’
So he was in on Mr Sheridan’s secret too! It occurred to me then that he might even have been put here to help defend it. I looked up at him to see if I could read the truth in his face. His eyes were no longer cold: they had returned to their old friendly expression, and yet tonight I thought I could sense a new shadow in their depths as if he was particularly sad about something.
‘And I need to know why you were with those blackguards in the first place, Cat.’ He turned to take the boiling kettle from the grate and poured some of the contents into a china bowl. ‘It wasn’t you who told them about the diamond, was it?’ he asked levelly as he put several teaspoons of salt into the steaming water.
‘No!’ I protested. ‘I never said nothing about the diamond . . . except to Pedro.’
‘To Pedro?’ Johnny asked, his voice careful as if he was walking on thin ice.
‘But it wasn’t him, neither!’ I added. At least, I hoped he hadn’t told them. ‘Ouch!’ Johnny had just dabbed my cut with the salted water.
‘Billy Boil told me one of his gang had seen me at the stage door. It must have been the night Mr Marchmont came.’
‘Who is Billy Boil?’ Johnny looked puzzled.
I smiled weakly. ‘I mean Billy Shepherd. I’m afraid I gave him that nickname: we aren’t the best of friends, as you saw. He was the one with the razor . . . the one you threatened with the pistols.’
‘Oh those,’ said Johnny contemptuously, taking the pistols from his belt and throwing them on to the camp bed still cocked. I ducked, half expecting them to explode. ‘I didn’t have time to load them. If I had, I would have ended that interview much sooner, believe me. No, I was curious as to why you were running off into the night and I took it into my head to follow you.’
‘The messenger told me Pedro had been hurt.’
‘Ah. Now I see.’
I suddenly realised why Johnny had taken the risk of following me into St Giles. It hadn’t been out of gallantry as I had assumed.
‘You didn’t trust me, did you? You thought I was going to betray you.’
He tied off the bandage around my arm and sat back on his haunches.
‘I must admit it did cross my mind. I was going to run for it if I saw you going to the magistrate to tip them off about the new cartoon. Whatever my motive, I am heartily thankful I did follow you. I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn’t been on hand.’
‘I’d be dead and my hair a wig in Pollard’s window. I think you can be quite certain of that,’ I said with a small laugh that turned into a shudder.
Johnny pressed my fingers again. ‘That would have been a very sad loss to Drury Lane. So, tell me, what did they know about the diamond?’
‘Not much,’ I said with a shrug. ‘Just that it’s hidden in the theatre. They thought I could fetch it for them.’
He bit his lip and looked away from me to the fire. Bright flames danced on the coals, casting an orange glow over his handsome features. I was beginning to love seeing that face about the theatre. He was the only one who called me Catkin in that affectionate way of his, the only one who took the trouble to tell me things.
‘I think it’s become too dangerous to have the diamond here,’ he said. ‘I’ll have to tell Sheridan it’s got to move.’
‘Move where?’ I asked eagerly.
‘Come now, Cat. You don’t really want to know that, do you?’ he laughed. ‘Look what danger a little bit of knowledge got you into tonight.’
‘It was my ignorance, not what I knew, that landed me in trouble,’ I countered.
‘So you would’ve handed the diamond over to them, would you, if you’d known where it was?’ he asked with a strange smile.
‘No, of course not. I’d’ve thought of something before it reached that point.’
‘I doubt that. Shepherd does not look the type to allow little girls to trick him out of a great prize. But in any case, you need not worry. I meant that the diamond should be put far out of anyone’s reach. Sent to America, for example.’
‘America! So far?’ I exclaimed. ‘What do they want with diamonds in America? I thought there was nothing but Indians and rebels in America.’
‘That about sums it up,’ said Johnny with a laugh. ‘Come now, to bed with you.’
He helped me to my feet.
‘Thank you, Johnny,’ I said quietly. I had to say it before I left.
‘For what?’
‘For saving my life.’
He bent down and kissed the top of my head like a father or brother might do. Receiving this tender gesture, I felt an acute sense of loss. I had survived by not thinking too much about what I couldn’t have, but tonight I suddenly missed having my own family more than ever. Being with Johnny made me realise what I might have known.