With a determined look, Yori re-cast the bones, the knuckles clattering across the floorboards of the little attic bedroom up in the Bunch of Grapes Inn. They’d chosen the establishment in Limehouse as a safe hide-out, since the innkeeper asked no questions – and with his reputation as a former prize-fighter preceding him, no one dared ask anything about the guests upstairs either. It had taken them three days in the coach to reach London, only stopping along the way to pick up their belongings in Stratford, and to rest and water the horses from time to time. They’d barely slept during the whole gruelling journey, too shaken about as the coach rattled along, its wooden frame in constant danger of being broken to pieces by the rough highway. Holed up in the Bunch of Grapes Inn, they’d spent the first two days simply eating, sleeping and recovering their strengths. Now Jack was becoming restless, tired of being cooped up in the cramped little room. His friends and Jess, however, seemed to be faring far better.

Tossing a bone into the air, Yori clapped and tried to seize three knuckles in one swipe.

‘Oops, bad luck!’ Jess giggled as Yori fumbled the bones. She gathered the pieces and took her turn. ‘Let me show you how it’s done.’

Yori watched eagerly as the bones rattled across the boards and Jess began catching them with practised ease. Jack smiled to himself at seeing his sister’s growing friendship with Yori and in particular her enjoyment at playing knucklebones again. He was reminded of all the happy times they’d shared in their father’s cottage, those memories so much brighter and more hopeful than the reality they now faced. Fugitives, not only from the law but from Sir Henry’s wrath. Jack gazed despondently out of the tiny attic window at the murky and unending skyline of London. How England had changed in seven years! His home was no longer recognizable to him. In fact, as a foreign samurai, he no longer felt England was his home any more.

‘So Kazuki followed us halfway round the world to kill you and regain his honour?’ said Akiko, amazed. She sat cross-legged upon the bed, whittling a slender branch from a yew tree to make a new bow.

Jack nodded. ‘Sensei Yamada once told me, revenge is self-defeating. It will eat away at you until there is nothing left. I guess there was nothing left of Kazuki apart from revenge.’

Akiko put down her half-finished bow. ‘Do you think he’s still alive?’

Jack sat down next to her and shrugged. ‘I doubt it. The wound was pretty deep. Besides, Sir Henry said he’d exterminated another rat. I’m guessing he shot Kazuki as well as the kunoichi – and it was probably for the best. It would have put Kazuki out of his misery.’