Jack picked up the rutter, wiped it clean and stuffed it back into his pack. Then turning to the bloody-nosed Porter, he snatched his purse out of the vagabond’s hand. ‘I’ll have that back too,’ he said. And, with that, Jack led his friends out of the alley.

Porter, left fuming in the mud, flicked the blood from his broken nose. He drew a dagger and growled, ‘Get up, you lot. Quick, shake yourselves! After them!’ And the gang gave chase.

Jack, Akiko and Yori dashed through the gateway and back through the warren of alleys and side streets, before bursting out into Cheapside market.

‘We’ll lose them in the crowd,’ said Jack.

But their Japanese attire meant they didn’t exactly blend in and Porter and his gang were soon upon them.

‘No one makes a fool out of me!’ snarled Porter, slashing at Jack with his dagger.

Hemmed in by the glut of shoppers, Jack barely managed to evade the rusty blade. He unsheathed his katana in one swift movement. The gleam of steel caught people’s attention and the crowd scattered in panic. Porter, glancing at his own dagger and comparing its undersized blade with Jack’s, hesitated – but the lad with the nail-studded stick didn’t. He swung his weapon viciously at Yori, who dived aside at the very last second. The stick smashed into a fruit stall behind. As apples, oranges and lemons splattered everywhere, the girl thrust at Akiko with her butcher’s knife, while the bear-man lumbered in, fists flailing.

A bell started ringing urgently across the market and several men in wide-brimmed hats carrying pikes rushed to contain the violence.

‘City constables!’ yelled the girl, splitting from the scene like a scalded cat. The lad fled too. But Porter wasn’t so quick. He was seized by two constables. Another pair tried to contain the bear-man with their pikes, giving Jack, Akiko and Yori the chance to slip away into the crowd. As they pushed through the throng, Jack spotted the iron-tipped pikes of more constables heading in their direction but, keeping low, he steered his friends away. Eventually they came to the corner of Bread Street and stopped to catch their breath under a lavishly painted wooden sign of a woman with a fish’s tail.

‘In here!’ cried Jack, and they dived inside the Mermaid Inn.

4: Giving the Lie

Jack pressed himself against the wood-panelled wall, alongside Yori and Akiko, and peered out of the leaded window. Outside the inn, the marketplace was in a commotion, as constables barged through the crowd searching for their quarry. A washerwoman in an apron pointed in the tavern’s direction and Jack’s breath caught in his throat. There was nowhere left to run.

‘Why don’t we give ourselves up?’ suggested Yori. ‘After all, we were attacked first.’