"I've checked with the other fisher lasses no one has seen her..." Ben began. And then the thought popped into his head, just like that. Kate and Lottie Blacke. He tended to forget about Kate, since she wasn't part of their community and he had only thought of Lottie in the context of their shouting match this morning. "Actually..." he started reluctantly. "There is one address I haven't checked..."

"Right then, sir. Ye check and if she's not there, come back and I'll inform our officers."

Ben gave the constable a brief nod. "Right, thank you, ser." And he was on his way.

Ye might of checked there first... Bert thought privately. But people didn't always think in crisis.

About an hour later, Ben stepped back into the police station, followed by a silent shadow of a girl. She looked pale and her red eyes were directed towards the floor. They stepped up to the desk.

Albert was thinking on his tea when the pair approached the desk. Oxtail soup would be tasty... I wonder what sort of cook that Mrs O'Connor is?

"Hallo again, sir. Did you find your daughter at that address?" he asked, not seeing the girl.

"Aye ser, so ye can take her from t' book. I'm sorry fer wasting police time."

"Very good, sir." Bert took a pen and wrote 'found' and the date in the remarks column next to the previous description of the wayward. He and his comrades didn't often get to do that and the relative emptiness of that column showed. "Ye shouldn't be sayin' sorry, sir it should be yer child."

Ben turned to his daughter. "Well there ye have it. Ye heard t' man!" he said severely.

The girl blushed and cast an anxious, hasty look at the policeman before casting her gaze down again. "I'm very sorry fer wastin' yer time, ser. 'T was awfully wicked of me to cause ye and me father trouble."

"Mind ye not do it again, young Miss. Ye should obey yer parents, Else you'll end up in 'ere in the jail cells." Radical women often started out young being similarly disobedient and willful.