‘What I mean is this… there’s an old saying which warns, “Be sure, your sins will find you out”. There’s another… “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord”.’

‘You’re talking in riddles, Tilly,’ chided Molly. ‘What are you getting at?’

‘Well, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you something now that I’ve never told anybody… not for a long time anyway.’ She had lowered her voice to a whisper, glancing behind her towards the door, as though fearful of being overheard.

‘Go on.’ Molly was intrigued. She knew that Tilly Watson liked a ‘drop of the old gin’. She knew that Ada Loughton had been the one to come round to Tilly’s house with the dreadful news concerning Emma Tanner’s son. She also knew that whenever Ada Loughton paid a visit to her old friend, like as not there was a bottle of gin tucked discreetly under her shawl. The result being that, some hours later, Ada Loughton would waddle away down Dock Street, swaying from side to side and singing out like an old sailor. As for Tilly, the gin always loosened her tongue, like it had now.

‘What’s on your mind?’ insisted Molly.

‘You promise it won’t go no further, if I tell you?’ demanded Tilly, casting an anxious look about.

‘Promise,’ Molly reassured her, ‘and who would I tell anyway, Tilly?’

‘You might tell the bargee, Mick. After all, he has been calling on you a lot of late… and the two of you seem to be getting real chummy-like.’ She fell forward, throwing her arms about and loudly cackling. When Molly glanced towards the door, Tilly noticed. At once, she fell silent, pressing a bony finger to her lips and afterwards whispering, ‘Sorry, young ’un… I forgot the lasses were asleep.’ When Molly nodded her head and said nothing, she went on in hushed and secretive tones, ‘You know how Emma Tanner… Emma Grady as she was then… was convicted of having a hand in her husband’s murder?’

‘Yes. I’ve heard it said,’ agreed Molly. It only confirmed what she already believed – that Emma Tanner had the bad blood of Justice Crowther running through her veins.

‘You know that much, Molly girl,’ chuckled Tilly softly, ‘but there’s something you don’t know. I was there… I SAW IT ALL!’ She revelled in the way Molly’s big eyes opened wide with astonishment. ‘And my old man with me… Lord rest his soul!’ She quickly made the sign of the cross on herself. ‘We saw the buggers struggling atop the stairs… Emma, her husband, Gregory Denton… and that old nanny of Emma’s, Mrs Manfred, the one they hanged.’

‘You saw them murder him?’ A thin, cold shiver ran down Molly’s spine. For some inexplicable reason, she felt so afraid that it was almost as though she herself might have been there. Now she also made a hasty sign of the cross on herself.