"I accuse you, Mrs Prunella, of hiding the goods yourself!"
The reverend's wife gasps, whilst her sister drops her hand of cards across the table.
"You wish to dismiss Miss Thistle, as you did your last maid, and have devised this theft as a scheme," you continue. "I will not be party to any false hanging."
"You dare come into my house and slander me when we are in our time of need! Out! Out with you!" cries Mrs Prunella. You gather your overcoat from the hook by the door and leave straight away.
Miss Featherbrook follows you out of the house. "That wasn't quite what I had in mind, Mr Pike. But I admire your conscionable stance. Please, take this for your trouble."
She passes you a crown piece. "Now let us be away from here. I do not like my sister's company when she is in one of these moods."
With Emily Thistle caught trying to hide money, you suspect the Prunellas might have her arrested for the theft. Miss Featherbrook accompanies you on your way back to the West End. "Some people just don't want to hear the truth," she says, looking out of the carriage window at the road that winds its way from the gardens and fine homes of Bermondsey to the bridge over into the greater city beyond. "Still, we can only do what we can!"
1. "I would have liked to have seen someone hang. There would have been some money in it!"
2. "Well, no harm done."
3. "Let us return to the Grey Swan and see the bottom of some glasses!"