J waited in case he would offer anything more; but he moved away and there was nothing for J to do but pick up his other bulkier bag, which had been slung down on the quayside, and trudge up the hill, past the bulging walls of the fort, towards the little town.

He found the first inn by the haunting smell of stale ale. As he paused in the doorway there was a loud baying noise of a big dog and a shrill shout commanding it to be silent. J tapped lightly on the door and stepped in.

It was dark inside, the air was thick with smoke, almost unbreathable for a stranger. J’s eyes stung and he felt his breath catch.

‘Good day,’ a woman said abruptly from the back of the room. J blinked tears from his eyes and saw her better: a woman of about fifty with the leathery skin and hard eyes of a survivor. She wore rough wooden clogs on her feet, a homespun skirt kilted up out of the way, a shirt that had once belonged to a man twice her size and a shawl tied tightly around her shoulders.

‘I’m new-come from London,’ J said. ‘I want a room for the night.’

‘You can’t have one to yourself, you’re not at Whitehall now.’

‘No,’ J said politely. ‘Might I share a room?’

‘You’ll share a bed and like it!’

‘Very well,’ J said. ‘And something to eat? And drink?’

She nodded. ‘Paying in gold? Or tobacco?’

‘Where would I get tobacco?’ J demanded, his irritation finally breaking through. ‘I landed five minutes ago.’

She smiled, as if she were pleased to see him rise to the bait. ‘How would I know?’ she demanded. ‘Maybe you’d had the sense to ask in London how we do things over here. Maybe you’d had the sense to buy some on the quayside, seeing as every planter in the colony was selling there today. Maybe you’re a returning planter coming back to your rich fields. How would I know?’

‘I’m not a planter, and I was not advised to bring tobacco to Virginia,’ J said. ‘But I am hungry and thirsty and weary. I should like a wash too. When will my dinner be ready?’

The woman abandoned her teasing of him abruptly. ‘You can wash under the pump in the yard,’ she said. ‘Don’t drink the water, it’s only a shallow well and it’s foul. You’ll sleep in the attic along with the rest of us. You’ll share a pallet bed with my son, or with whoever next comes through the door. Dinner will be ready as soon as it’s cooked, which will be the quicker if I can get on now.’