Akiko and Yori both shook their heads. Pushing back his chair, Jack looked around for the innkeeper and his eye was drawn to a hoary old seaman with a salt-and-pepper beard and skin as wrinkled and weathered as tree bark. He sat propped in one corner, buttressed by a handful of other old mariners cradling tankards of ale. They all huddled close, listening rapt to the seaman.

‘I hear there’s a galleon beached near Hole Haven,’ he was saying in a hushed and husky tone. ‘Rumours of a king’s ransom in cargo! But no one will go near it.’

‘Why ever not?’ asked one of the others.

The man’s close-set eyes narrowed. ‘’Cause it’s a … ghost ship!’

There was a collective gasp and Jack smirked as the old sea-dog continued to wind up his audience with his story. ‘Whole crew murdered and stuffed into the hold. Eyes blank and staring like dead fish. They say the ship’s cursed.’

‘Who says it’s cursed?’ questioned a bearded fellow smoking a pipe.

‘The watchman who first spied the ship,’ the seaman replied, taking a slow and measured sip of his drink. ‘He climbed aboard with a customs officer and a constable. But he was the only one to survive. Except he’s gone mad. Says shadows killed ’em!’

Jack frowned at this description and unwittingly found himself leaning in to listen.

‘Shadows?’ said a red-cheeked drunk with a snort. ‘The fella must be mad!’

‘Must he?’ questioned the seaman, fixing the drunk with a gimlet eye. ‘Been reports all along the Thames Estuary of killer shadows, mysterious murders and dark deeds.’

Jack wondered if the old sea-dog could be talking about the missing Dutch ship, the Salamander. There’d been rumours her crew had seen moving shadows during their voyage, but her captain had dismissed such tales as superstitious nonsense. A shiver ran down Jack’s spine at the thought.

‘’Ello, handsome, why the glum face?’

Jack flinched and spun round. A flame-haired serving girl stood near him. Entranced at the sight of her emerald-green eyes and ruby-red lips, Jack suddenly couldn’t think of anything to say.

‘Best close that mouth before some captain docks a ship in it!’ she said, arching a slim eyebrow.

Suddenly aware he was gaping at her like a goldfish, Jack sat straighter and cleared his throat. ‘Sorry … just thirsty, that’s all.’

The girl sidled closer and bent down, placing her elbow on the table and resting her chin upon her palm. She locked eyes with him and smiled. ‘So what can I get you?’

Just then, Akiko pounced on the serving girl and pinned her down on the table.

‘Akiko! What do you think you’re doing?’ cried Jack in astonishment.

‘Let me go!’ snarled the girl as she writhed in Akiko’s grip. But Akiko forced the girl to open her hand. Three silver coins tumbled out.