She could, of course, just go back to the Hall and tell Edith and George Stellion what had happened. The police would be called and she’d be arrested. That was certain. She’d lost her job at the Hall the moment she’d left with the loot. But the Stellions were important people in that part of Lancashire and maybe they had influence with the police. Perhaps they might even hush the whole matter up with regard to James by blaming her and having her locked up while he would be spared prison. As Diana had said, You are not one of us. Or they might know someone clever to represent James, who could persuade a jury in a court of law that Gina was solely responsible for selling the stolen items. After all, she was the one who’d gone to several pawnbrokers with various items over many months, and she’d even kept a record of the stories she’d made up. It didn’t look good, she knew.

‘We’ve been wondering – if you’ve nowt else planned and no one to go to – if you’d like to help us out here for a bit, Diana,’ said Mary, when Gina, the only guest in the hotel, had eaten her breakfast of mushrooms on toast. ‘We’ve got three visitors coming to stay with us this weekend, and we sometimes get others turning up during the week.’

The hotel was a bit off the main route to attract passing visitors, Gina thought, but Mary and Ruth must know their own business.

‘Thank you, I think I’d like that,’ said Gina. ‘It’s quieter in St Annes than Blackpool, and it might suit me better, me not knowing the place. What would you want me to do?’

‘Well, there are the vegetables to peel, and the tables to set and the rooms to clean and tidy,’ said Mary. ‘Could you manage that?’

‘I reckon I can,’ said Gina, ‘though I don’t know much about cooking.’

‘We do the cooking,’ smiled Ruth, a shorter, younger version of her sister. ‘The hotel is for vegetarians and we have our own favourite recipes.’

‘Vegetarians?’ said Gina, racking her brains. ‘Folk that eat only vegetables?’

‘That don’t eat meat or fish,’ corrected Mary.

‘Heck. Are there many? I mean, it’s a bit of a small market to run a hotel on, isn’t it?’ asked Gina.

‘We are in the vanguard, I admit,’ said Ruth. ‘But folk do seek us out and I can proudly say we even have a few who come to try it and are converted.’

Gina laughed. ‘You make it sound like a religion.’

‘Oh, no.’ The sisters looked shocked.

‘Although it is about respecting all the creatures of the earth, sea and sky,’ Mary added.

‘Crikey …’ said Gina faintly. ‘Well, I reckon I can do veg and tidying, and I’m grateful you asked me.’