Fraud (Episode 26 - The Further Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid))

Continued from Episode 25 - Stroll

The story so far:  Gwladys and Aefelthrith have started a new life, running a pawn shop, formerly owned by 'Anty Marj', who they managed to convince they were distantly related to.  'Anty Marj', after some typical twists and turns, was persuaded to sell by receiving Aefelthrith's precious ring and went away a happy woman.  Meanwhile, Gwladys engaged a young urchin, 'Arry, to help clear the back garden of weeds, as a means of giving him a bit of income to support his poorly mother and avoid him either going down the pit or up the chimney, much to Aefelthrith's displeasure. Unfortunately, his digging produced a skull, about which  Gwladys swore him to secrecy and quiickly buried the evidence, which gave them a breathing space, until Sergeant Argent of the Watch appeared in the shop.  Fortunately, he was not pursuing his enquiries but was, to her extreme shock and horror, pursuing Aefelthrith, romantically.  Meanwhile, 'Arry revealed that his Mam said the place had always been a shop BUT Anty Marj had originally had a partner, thought to be her sister, whose name was Sarah, who had disappeared.  Coincidentally, Sarah was the name that Gwladys had told Anty Marj was the name of their shared relative.  With this news, Gwladys tried  to persuade Aefelthrith to go out with Sergeant Argent so that they could find out more, to which she eventually agreed but only with the proviso that Gwladys should serve as chaperone.  On their 'date', Sergeant Argent regaled Aefelthrith with tales of the town, much to Gwladys's frustration but he knew nothing about the history of the shop, then Constable John confirmed that there had been a 'Sarah' but that she had disappeared.  Eager to show off his skills of detection, Sergeant Argent insisted on mounting an investigation.  The following day, the Sergeant and his Constable began their search of the premises and were only diverted from digging up the garden by some quick thinking on the part of Aefelthrith.  Meanwhile, Gwladys was surprised to find a rather familiar, and flamboyant, 'sea captain' in the shop, just at the same time that Aefelthrith was dealing with a street urchin with a message for the 'sossij', which turned out to be the Sergeant.  The message revealed that the Watch were needed to apprehend ' a fraud, a trickster and a mountebank', so it was perhaps just as well the the 'Captain' had made himself scarce!  Aefelthrith and Gwladys fell out about the 'Captain' and the torch that Aefelthrith obviously still held for him.  Would he come back, that evening?  When a beggar turned up at the back door, it turned out he had. 'John Thomas' explained that things had not gone well for him, since they left.  Dolly had run off with the Squire's son, the pub had shut as it wasn't commercially viable and their son was now being raised by Dolly's parents, leaving 'John Thomas' to try his hand at fraud again, albeit on his own this time.  And then, just as he was telling them all of this, there came a knock at the door.  It turned out to be the Watch, acting on a tip-off that a beggar had been seen going into the building.  As Gwladys tried to stall them, Aefelthrith tried to get 'John Thomas' to leave but, on discovering he had nowhere to go, smuggled him up to the loft just as the Watch made their entrance.  Gwladys managed to restrict their search to downstairs, by sheer force of character, but she was dumbstruck to learn that Aefelthrith had offered to shelter 'John Thomas' in their loft!  As Aefelthrith was only going to spend her time sulking at Gwladys's reaction, Gwladys decided to train her on valuing items, which was going as well as you might expect, until, out of the blue, Dolly showed up, trying to pawn a jet necklace.  It soon became apparent that her version of events was somewhat different to that of 'John Thomas', who seemed to have run away from the loft when he heard Dolly's voice.  Gwladys, much to Aefelthrith's annoyance, decides to offer Dolly and her child a room.  Aefelthrith could not believe that 'John Thomas' had abandoned Dolly and his son and was even more annoyed when Sergeant Argent turned up and asked her and Dolly to go out for a walk.  Whilst Gwladys was trying to amuse young Henry, the baby, she was surprised to hear a voice yelling "YER'VE CHEATED ME!":

 

Gwladys stared at the apparition, which was, unmistakably, ‘Anty Marj’.  Baby Henry took immediate exception to the intrusion and bawled at the top of his voice.

“NOW look what yer’ve done!” Gwladys growled.

“Is ‘e your’n?” Anty Marj asked.

“Give over! At my age?” Gwladys shook her head.

“Any road, like I said, yer’ve cheated me” Anty Marj returned to her main theme.

“How’ve I done that, then?” Gwladys had managed to find an allegedly silver rattle on one of the shelves and Henry was giving it a go.

“Yer know fine well how!” Anty Marj folded her arms, “That jewel of your’n, it weren’t worth nothing like what yer said”

“I don’t reckon I ever put a figure on what it were worth” Gwladys bobbed and weaved to avoid becoming part of Henry’s attempts at percussion.

“Yer gave it me in exchange for this shop” Anty Marj pointed out.

“Yep”

“So, that’s what yer thought the jewel was worth, right?” Anty Marj looked triumphant.

“I dunno” Gwladys shrugged, “I dunno what the shop’s worth, do I?”

“Are yer not gonna give me a straight answer?” Anty Marj fumed.

“I thought I ‘ad”

“Right!” Anty Marj marched back to the shop doorway and reached out into the street “Come ‘ere yer little beggar!”  A moment later, the struggling figure of Constable John was dragged into the shop.

“Sorry about this” He said, miserably, to Gwladys, “only, she came down the lock-up and dragged me ‘ere”

“Right, do yer job!” Anty Marj commanded, pointing at Gwladys.

“I am doin’ me job!” Constable John whined.

“I mean, get ‘er arrested”

“Arrested?” Constable John took a step back and looked alarmed, “What d’yer want ‘er arrested for?”

“Fraud!” Anty Marj said, with some satisfaction.

“FRAUD?” Constable John shook his head, furiously, “Oh no, not fraud.  I don’t get paid enough for ‘avin’ owt to do with ‘fraud’.  Knockin’ off thieves and vagabonds, yes, but not fraud, never.  It’s me gaffer yer want fer that” He concluded, with some satisfaction.

“Yer not gonna nick ‘er?” Anty Marj glared at him.

“Nope!”

“Yer a disgrace to yer uniform” Anty Marj yelled, setting Henry off again.

“I’ve only got an’ elmet an’ a beastplate, there ain’t enough there to be a disgrace, to” Constable John pointed out, reasonably.

“What would yer Sergeant say, eh?” Anty Marj asked, with her hands on her hips.

“LEAVE THIS WITH ME, CONSTABLE” A voice boomed out, Constable John looked at Gwladys in wonder;

“Cor, that were good!  ‘Ow did yer do that?”

“It was me, Constable” Sergeant Argent, standing in the shop doorway, explained.

“Oh bugg…Sorry, Sarge” Constable John turned around in surprise.

“…unt!” Sergeant Argent corrected.

“Sorry, Sarg…unt” Constable John ripped off a scrappy salute, “Yer ‘ave to remember as ‘ow ‘e’s an ‘unt’” He explained to Gwladys and Anty Marj.

“Werl, summat like that” Gwladys chuckled.

“I heard raised voices as I was dropping the two young ladies off, so I thought I would investigate”

“Oh, right, if Dolly’s back, she can ‘ave ‘im back an’ all” Gwladys made to go back through the curtaining.

“YEW STAY RIGHT THERE!” Anty Marj shrieked, causing both Sergeant Argent and Constable John to jump.

“What erm, what appears to be the problem ma’am?”  Sergeant Argent asked, in an attempt to take control of the situation.

“I’ve just been tellin’ ‘im” Anty Marj jerked her thumb, dismissively, at the Constable, “as ‘ow this woman ‘ere as defrauded me”

“She said I was a ‘disgrace to me uniform’” Constable John grumbled.

“Oh no, I’m not having that!” The Sergeant said, firmly.

“See!” Constable John grinned and stuck his tongue out at Anty Marj.

“No, I won’t have that” The Sergeant went on, shaking his head, “he is not a disgrace to his uniform, although his uniform might well be a disgrace to him” The Sergeant inspected his subordinate and flicked an errant bit of food from his breastplate, “No, this man, if he’s a disgrace to anything, is a disgrace to the human race!”

“See, toldjer!” Constable John looked pleased, until he thought about it some more, “’Ere, ‘ang on…!”

“Can we get back to this complaint of yours, madam?” Sergeant Argent brushed aside his complaining Constable.

“It’s ‘er, she’s rooked me an’ no mistake!”  Anty Marj pointed at Gwladys.

“And quite how has she done that, madam?”

“Werl, you were ‘ere when ‘er and ‘er oppo bought this place off of me, weren’t yer?”

“In a manner of speaking, madam, yes.  As I recall, you were making accusations against them on that occasion too, but then discovered that you were, in fact, in receipt of a jewelled ring, which you had accepted in full payment for these premises and the business therein”

“Eh?  Well erm, yeah” Anty Marj nodded, trying to make sense of all of that.

“So, where does this alleged fraud of yours occur?”

“Werl, it’s that ring innit?”

“Is it?” Sergeant Argent looked at her in bemusement.

“Yeah, it wanner worth nowt like what she said it were”

“Is that so?  I confess I was not aware that she had placed a value on the item, at all”

“She gave it me fer the shop” Anty Marj explained, as if talking to a small child.

“And you accepted it on that basis, am I correct?”

“Werl, yeah” Anty Marj nodded, slowly.

“So, you must have believed it was worth that much, if not more?” Sergeant Argent raised an eyebrow.

“As I remember, Marj, yer insisted on ‘avin’ a written Bill of Sale sayin’ as ‘ow the ring was in full and final payment for the business and everythin’, on account of yer not wantin’ anyone comin’ back an’ saying the ring were worth MORE than that” Gwladys grinned.

“That is a pertinent point” Sergeant Argent nodded.

“Wotcher sayin’?”  Anty Marj scowled.

“I am saying, madam, that I am not able to see any evidence of fraud” Sergeant Argent shrugged, “You accepted an item in full payment for your business, apparently on the basis of your belief that the ring was at least worth that much.  And, in your particular case, your belief would be much more knowledgeable, given your profession, isn’t that so?”

Anty Marj glared at him, stamped her foot and marched toward the shop door.

“This ain’t over, not by a long chalk it ain’t!” She yelled, over her shoulder, at Gwladys.

You can find the previous adventures of Gwladys and Aefelthrith in both Kindle and paperback formats at The Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid (link is external)