“Not Jane, though. She was too much for even Mrs. Wilmore to deal with. Fought the mistresses, fought the proctors, refused to sit still and be educated. They striped her black and blue with the switch, locked her up, tried whatever they could think of, but they couldn’t break her.

“So Mrs. Wilmore found this farmer named Ganhide. He was a big brute of a man, ugly as a pig, and he agreed to take Jane as his fourth wife. Nobody asked too hard what happened to the first three. They were just glad to be rid of her. She tried to tear his eyes out when they brought her to him, but he just laughed.

“And then . . .” Andy paused and leaned forward slightly, eyes sparkling. “I was at the Prison when Jane came back. Nobody had ever come back before. She walked right in, bold as brass, and told the girls they weren’t going to be married off to anybody anymore.”

“Nobody tried to stop her?” Marcus said.

Andy paused, then gave an awkward shrug. “They tried, but most of the girls were with her by then, and they weren’t going to stand for it. We followed her out of the Prison and all the way to the city.”

“And that’s how the Leatherbacks got started?” Marcus said.

“More or less.” Andy’s face clouded. “Things were . . . bad, for a while. Jane was always trying her best to keep everyone going, and some of the older girls started helping her. We moved into the Docks, and we fought the thieves and the pimps and the tax farmers and anyone else who got in the way. And that,” she said, taking a deep breath, “is why I know my way around a brawl.”

Saints and martyrs. Marcus wondered if Ihernglass knew all this. It was widely agreed that he and Jane were lovers. If nothing else, it explains where he found so many women ready to pick up muskets. With an upbringing like that, it’s no wonder they’re abnormal.

“Well,” Marcus said, “that’s quite a story. I always wondered why they called her Mad Jane.”

“You’d be a little mad, too, if you went through what she did,” Andy said. “Sometimes you have to be crazy to fight back.”

“Mmm,” Marcus said noncommittally. He wasn’t certain it was a good idea to encourage hero worship of a murderer, but Andy was clearly not open to discussion in that direction. Glancing around for a distraction, he was relieved to see a bearded man in a blue uniform hurrying across the square in their direction. “Ah. I think we may finally be in luck.”

“I’ll make myself scarce, then,” Andy said. “But give a yell if you need me.”