Putting one pistol under his arm again, the man took the missive from him. It was the moment that Peter had been hoping for and he reacted quickly. While the assassin was momentarily distracted, he grabbed one of the bottles of wine and smashed it against the back of his head, causing the bottle to shatter and send wine and shards of glass everywhere. It also made the man drop the pistol under his arm and pull the trigger on the other one, firing into the sofa before releasing the weapon from his powerless fingers. Denley was aghast and shrunk back but Peter knew that the assassin was not finished yet. The man had been stunned but was still able to stagger. Ignoring the broken glass, Peter caught hold of him and flung him against a wall, taking all the breath out of him. Before the assassin could even begin to fight back, Peter felled him with an uppercut. He picked up the pistol that was still loaded and stood over him.

‘I owe you an apology, Mr Denley,’ he said.

‘No apology is needed. You just saved my life.’

‘After accusing you of something you didn’t do, I made a terrible mess of your carpet and ruined a bottle of your best wine.’

‘I’ll gladly give you a crate of that vintage, Mr Skillen.’

‘All that I crave is the chance to retrieve that bullet from your sofa. It’s an unusual memento,’ said Peter, ‘but – along with the reward money for capturing the assassin – it’s one that I’ll treasure.’

Paul, meanwhile, was back at the shooting gallery, regaling his friends with the story of how he’d arrested the man who’d been Scattergood’s assistant and exposed their fraudulent plan. Charlotte was delighted, Huckvale was amused and Ackford shook with laughter.

‘That’s wonderful news, Paul,’ he said. ‘Yeomans and Hale will have red faces for weeks.’

‘They weren’t the only dupes, Gully,’ said Paul. ‘The chief magistrate was also fooled. We have to take our hats off to Harry Scattergood. He made all three of them look stupid.’

‘But he makes his living as a thief,’ Huckvale pointed out. ‘Why did he turn himself into a gentleman?’

‘He thought there’d be more profit in it, Jem.’

‘Wait a moment,’ said Charlotte, thinking of the consequences of the deception. ‘Harry might have claimed the reward but this friend of his, Kinnaird, would have finished up at the gallows.’

‘They would have worked out how to avoid that fate,’ said Paul. ‘We all know that Harry is a master at escaping. He’ll have devised a way to whisk Kinnaird out of Newgate long before his appointment with the hangman. That’s the beauty of this situation. The Runners may have the satisfaction of locking up the two of them but how long will they stay behind bars?’