And that’s when the rapids really began. The Thames became a churning, frothing mass of mud-coloured waves. As the boat plunged into the raging torrent, the bow buried itself in the swell, the skiff broke apart and Jack, Akiko and Yori were tossed overboard.

The frigid shock of submersion knocked the air from Jack’s lungs and he swallowed a bellyful of foul water. A moment later, he came up, spluttering and retching. He caught a brief glimpse of Yori and Akiko floundering in the foaming waters, before he was dragged back under again. The rapids turned him over and over, barrelling him until he touched the bottom, where the cloying silt of the riverbed embraced him …

From the banks near London Bridge, all that could be seen by the curious onlookers was the wreckage of a small skiff drifting seaward, its three passengers having been lost to the murky waters of the Thames.

10: Plague House

The seagulls squawked overhead as three sodden and half-drowned figures crawled from the river on to the marshy bank. They collapsed amid the reeds, gasping and exhausted, and lay in the warm early-autumn sun, slowly drying out.

Yori shook off a clump of water weeds from his shakujō staff and sighed. ‘I suppose the one good thing is that Sir Toby and the others will believe us to be drowned.’

‘We almost were!’ Akiko exclaimed.

‘Well, at least you’ve had your bath now,’ wheezed Jack as he combed a hand through his straggly mess of straw-blond hair.

‘It wasn’t as warm or as clean as I’d hoped, though!’ Akiko sat up and examined her mud-stained kimono in dismay. She untied a bedraggled leather pouch fastened to her obi. ‘Your purse, by the way,’ she said, tossing Jack his bag of coins from the prison before inspecting her bow and quiver carefully for damage.

‘Thanks,’ said Jack. He secured the purse to his belt, then began checking his own weapons. He thought how lucky he was to have left the rutter in his pack at the Mermaid Inn as he’d surely have lost it in the turmoil of their escape. He knew at some point they’d have to recover their belongings from the landlady – if she hadn’t sold them, or the authorities confiscated them yet – but that would have to wait until after the reunion with his sister.

‘Where are we?’ Akiko asked as she looked around at the marshy wasteland.

Jack climbed to the top of the embankment and surveyed a patchwork of boggy fields dotted with flocks of scrawny sheep. ‘We’re on the Isle of Dogs, by my guess –’ he offered his friends an encouraging smile – ‘not far from Limehouse and my home.’

‘Praise be for small blessings,’ said Yori, scrambling up the muddy bank with the help of his staff.

They tramped across the fields, pockets of sheep bustling out of their way and giving them wary looks from a distance.