But if the child had any doubts before, they were dispelled in the moment when Justice Crowther laughed in Joe’s face, telling him, ‘I hope for your sake, Watson, that you haven’t brought us here on a wild-goose chase.’

‘You lied to me,’ Joe accused, cradling Tilly’s blood-soaked body, and the tears raining down his face as he glared up at the formidable, smiling features. ‘You promised there’d be no violence.’

‘So I did. And, if you hadn’t had a change of heart like the coward you are, there would have been no need of any violence.’ The smile slithered from his face. In its place came a look of malevolence. ‘On your feet, man,’ he instructed, glancing towards the children. ‘Three of these are the urchins belonging to the woman called Molly, you say? Point them out! Which are the three I’ve come for?’ He raised his cane and made a sweeping gesture over the children’s heads.

‘I’ll tell you nothing more!’ shouted Joe. ‘You lying bastard… you’ve done for my mam… when you promised there’d be no harm come to us!’ Suddenly he was on his feet and launching himself into that mountainous figure. ‘I’ll kill you!’ he yelled, clutching his fingers round the thick, ageing neck with a cry that was terrible to hear.

In the chaos that followed, two of the men leaped forward, and Joe was quickly prised away, eventually silenced by a heavy blow to the head. He slithered to the floor, unconscious, beside the crumpled figure of his mother. ‘Damned fool!’ Caleb Crowther was seething. ‘His sort never learn.’ He might have had Joe run through there and then. But there were more important issues at stake here. What could be more important than Emma Grady’s grandchildren?

The Justice glared at the children and chuckled aloud. When that fool Watson brought him news that a certain person had left her offspring in his mother’s care – a certain person by the name of Molly, and whom he understood the Justice might have a warrant out for – he could not have known what a precious package he was bringing. A package so important that it could even be the means by which Emma Grady herself might be brought to heel!

Advancing on the small, trembling figures, he put on his most pleasant and cajoling voice. ‘Which of you belong to the woman called Molly?’ he asked, bending his face to them. ‘There are three of you, I understand.’ When he was greeted with big, frightened eyes and a stony silence, his manner became harsher. ‘Those three will step forward!’ He waited a moment, enraged when his demands only made them huddle together all the more. Every child was in deep shock at what had taken place. Nothing he could do or say could persuade them to talk, or offer themselves up. Instead their eyes were drawn to the two lifeless figures on the floor, and they visibly trembled.

‘I’m surrounded by dolts!’ he declared, furiously thwacking his cane into the air. ‘Take them all!’ he told the nearest man. ‘If they think to get the better of me… they would do well to remember how others were treated when they thought to do the very same!’ He kept his steely glare on the small, terrified faces, while pointing with his stick to the pitiful figures of Tilly and her eldest. ‘Get to it!’ he snapped at the men, who appeared somewhat reluctant to carry out his orders. ‘Damn and bugger it… you’re being paid well enough, aren’t you? Do as I tell you! Children such as these are no more than thieves and vagabonds in the making! Scum! Ruffians!’