Beag waxed lyrical about the place the whole way and when the trio finally turned into Squid’s Gate Alley, ‘Home to Mrs Hoadswood’s Lodging House, the best in the City’, he was disappointed to find that the house looked no different from its neighbours, all of which were in a similar state of decay. Once inside, however, he was pleasantly surprised. The place smelled fresh and dry, and his hopes were raised even further when he came to the descending stairs and inhaled the aroma that rose to tease his nostrils and make him lick his lips. The stairs led down to a large open kitchen with a grey stone floor and an enormous fireplace on the opposite wall. A long dining table stood solidly in the middle of the room, a bench along its length on either side and a rather more decorative carver chair at each end. A woman stood by the fire, stirring a huge pot of stew. She looked up at their entrance. ‘Evenin’, gentlemen,’ she said. ‘You’re just in time for a late supper.’ She was not pretty, thought Pin, not in the way his mother had been, and was fit to burst out of her stays.
