‘Gloria, stop yelling, or you’ll frighten her even more,’ Ron retorted.

Gloria glared at him, her eyes glinting dangerously, but she held her tongue and her customers fell silent, agog as to what might happen next.

Brendon and Frank closed in with Ron. ‘Go slow and easy, boys,’ he said, grabbing Harvey to make him shut up and sit still. He murmured soft words as he slowly approached Dora, and gently drew Flora back out of his pocket so they could see each other.

Dora sniffed the air suspiciously and Ron held Flora up so they were nose to nose, and while Dora was occupied with greeting her companion, Frank took a firm hold of her scruff and eased her off the shelf.

Ron tucked them both away in the deepest reaches of his coat. Mournfully eyeing the shattered glasses and bottles on the floor and the odorous mess on the shelf, he gave Gloria a hapless smile. ‘To be sure, I’m sorry, Gloria. We’ll clean up and pay for any damage.’

‘Damned right you will,’ she stormed. ‘Do you know how hard it is to get glasses these days? And that were a full bottle of gin – worth a king’s ransom.’

Ron could see Brendon and Frank were doing their best to clean up the mess with a discarded newspaper as Gloria stood there, her expression thunderous. ‘Now, Gloria,’ he placated softly, his eyes gleaming with mischief. ‘You and I both know where that gin came from and that the bottle was half-empty, so don’t be getting ideas of making a profit out of me. To be sure, ’tis sorry I am for the mess, but they were doing no harm until you frightened them.’

‘You’ve got a bleedin’ nerve, Ronan Reilly,’ she rasped, the gleam of humour in her eyes at odds with her furious expression as she folded her arms beneath her magnificently heaving bosom. ‘You come in my pub, let that vermin loose, and then blame me. I don’t know what sort of place Rosie runs, but this is a respectable ’ouse, and I ain’t standing for it. Cough up the money and get out.’

‘But I—’

‘Wallet,’ she snapped, her hand open beneath his nose, her eyes challenging him to argue.

He could hear the muffled giggles running through the watching crowd, and felt their eyes on him as he scrabbled in his trouser pockets, took out what money he had and placed it in a crumpled pile on the bar.

She eyed the grubby ten-bob note and few coppers disdainfully. ‘That ain’t enough.’

‘To be sure, it’s all I have on me at the moment. But I’ve a couple of fine rabbits to make up the rest,’ he said hopefully, digging them out of his coat.

Gloria grimaced and flinched as the dead rabbits were dangled beneath her nose. ‘You owe me, Ron, and I won’t let you forget it.’