‘Don’t be daft, you’re lovely. Look, there’s a little café over there. Let me buy you a cuppa and you can tell me all about what’s troubling you.’

Sarah nodded and allowed George to gently lead her towards the café. Once she was seated, he dashed to the toilet and came back with some paper for her to dry her eyes and blow her nose. Then he ordered two cups of tea and a couple of Eccles cakes, and sat himself opposite her, asking, ‘Are you going to tell me what’s wrong? I don’t like to see you upset like this.’ He thought she was probably distressed about her mother’s recent death.

‘I’ve done something terrible …’ Sarah answered quietly as she gazed into her cup of tea.

‘I bet it ain’t as bad as you think,’ George offered with a warm smile, though she didn’t look up to see it. He wanted to reach out across the table and hold her hand, but he guessed she’d probably yank it away.

‘It is, George. I’ve let a friend down. Because of my own selfishness, I’ve let her go off like a lamb to the slaughter … I could have helped, but I turned my back ’cos I thought … well, I don’t know what I thought … but I’ve done it, and now I regret it.’

‘This all sounds like a bit of a riddle to me. Start at the beginning and tell me exactly what happened.’

‘The ring … it’s stolen,’ Sarah said, and lifted her eyes to meet his.

George tried his best not to look astonished, but blurted out, ‘What, you stole it?’

‘No, no, I found it, but I know it’s been stolen and I know who it belongs to.’

‘Sarah, I’m normally a good judge of character, and you seem like an honest person to me. Don’t upset yourself, love, you didn’t ’alf-inch it, you found it. That makes it yours.’

‘But I should return it to its rightful owner, otherwise I’m just as bad as the person who did steal it.’

‘Depends how you look at it. In my book you’ve just been fortunate. Did you go looking for the ring knowing it was stolen and who it belonged to?’

Sarah shook her head. ‘No, I was just down on the banks again and came across it. It wasn’t until after I found it that I bumped into my friend and she told me about the lady she cleans for who has this son who’s been nicking her stuff. He wants my mate blamed for stealing it and for her to get the sack ’cos she turned him down. It was the watch. She told me about the watch. You know it was marked A. S. The lady’s name is Alderton-Steele. Now do you see? This ring must belong to her too.’