‘There’s nothing in the world that you can’t buy here in London,’ said Jack proudly, shouldering his now-heavy pack. ‘Right, time for a bath and a hearty meal.’ He looked up and down the street for their lodgings.

A girl in a plain brown smock, her straw-blonde hair left loose and long, was leaning beside a water fountain in the centre of the market, watching them curiously. ‘You lost?’ she asked.

‘Do you know where the Mermaid Inn is?’ said Jack.

The girl offered a bright smile. ‘Follow me!’

As they trailed along behind, Akiko touched Jack’s arm. ‘Londoners are certainly friendly folk.’

‘I’m glad you think so,’ replied Jack, comforted by both her words and her touch. ‘I was worried those dockhands had put you off England for good.’

‘Not at all,’ said Akiko, smiling. ‘As Sensei Yamada might say, one rotten apple doesn’t spoil the whole tree.’

The girl led them across the road and into the backstreets, and the crowds thinned out as they left the market behind. Checking they were still following, she beckoned them on through a gateway. Then, as she ducked into a dank and dirty alley, Jack questioned, ‘Are you sure this is the right way?’

‘Absolutely!’ rasped a deep and unsavoury voice from the shadows.

3: Vagabond

Out of a dark doorway stepped a man with glinting mud-brown eyes, a raggedy beard and a black-toothed grin. He wore a battered feathered hat, cocked at an angle, and he had a large hole in his right ear, burnt straight through the gristle – the mark of a vagabond.

‘My sparrow ’ere,’ he said, nodding at the girl whose sweet smile had now soured to a sharp look of cunning, ‘she says you’re lost.’

Jack glanced over his shoulder, but the gateway behind had been filled with the bear-like bulk of a man who was all straggly hair and rippling muscle. ‘Looks like we are now,’ Jack replied, realizing their way out was blocked.

A gaunt, rat-faced lad scurried out of a side alley. ‘First time in London?’ he enquired, nonchalantly swinging a heavy spiked stick.

They were surrounded.

‘As it happens, yes,’ Yori replied genially, then bowed low, ‘and it’s an honour to meet such noble folk as yourselves.’

His polite gesture took the vagabond and his gang off guard. They stared in astonishment at the little monk, before the vagabond snorted a laugh. ‘Noble? I ain’t been called that before!’

‘Nah,’ agreed the girl, smirking, ‘but you have been called a no–’

The vagabond shot her a fierce look. ‘Shut it!’

The girl shrugged. ‘Just saying. These travellers look very noble to me.’ And, reaching out, she fingered the soft silk of Akiko’s kimono. ‘These are some fine glad rags. Wouldn’t mind trying them on myself. Let’s swap!’