‘Yes, but not for Alice Dunning. She’ll be in Holloway. Won’t be tried yet, but she’ll end up back there – it’s hardly worth the expense of bringing in the magistrate. Caught red-handed with half of the Coty counter, from what I’ve heard.’

‘What’s she like, can you recall her?’

‘Alice? Well, she was no film star, that’s for sure. Quite a plain-looking woman. Broken nose, I think. Hard as nails, too, like all of them.’ He picks up the coat slung over the back of his chair. ‘I should go. I’ll see you later.’

‘I suppose they would have to be hard as nails, if they’re criminals,’ Harriet says to Jimmy. ‘But fancy choosing to break the law for the sake of some frippery from a perfume counter.’ She watches Michael, speaking with one of the other men on the way out. ‘To end up in prison for some talcum powder.’

‘Not everyone can afford the prices in Debenham and Freebody, even if they might like the fripperies,’ Jimmy says, lowering his teacup. ‘Besides, she wouldn’t have kept any of it for herself. She would have sold the goods on. That’s how they work.’

‘They don’t keep what they steal, the Forty Thieves?’

‘No.’ He takes a large mouthful of tea, draining the cup and shakes his head as he replaces it on the saucer. ‘Goods go to a fence who sells them on at a more affordable price and Alice takes a cut. It’s money she wants, not talcum powder. She’s probably not going hungry – the Forty Thieves look after their own better than a trade union would – but she’ll need to pay her rent and she might like a new hat occasionally.’

‘You sound as though you sympathise.’

‘Not with the law-breaking. But I can understand hardship well enough.’

She can understand, too. She has read Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo and attended political meetings. She has listened to Ralph talking about how best to lift the poor from poverty. Jimmy, though, speaks about it in a way that is quite different. Passionate. Almost aggressive. Her father’s words of caution against associating with ‘hotheads’ spring to mind. She can certainly remember his anxiety about Mrs Pankhurst and the ever-present danger of ‘Reds’ from Russia.

‘Are you a Bolshevik, Jimmy?’

‘No,’ he laughs. ‘Certainly not. I’m just a reporter. I try to look under the surface of what other people see rather than jump to easy conclusions.’ He picks up his notebook. ‘Thanks for the tea.’

She takes the tray out to the washroom and tries to shake her irritation at Jimmy’s condescending manner as she washes up.

Alice Dunning steals because she needs the money. The same might be true of Ruby Wilder. Did she risk prison simply to pay her rent – or even to have money for food – like Alice?