Dancing Demimonde they are billed. The chipping paint on the side of the carriage is a testament to the longevity of their act, though one couldn't tell by seeing them. The Broken Dolls are a ragtag troupe of dance hall girls. While possessed of sensual charms, they are wan and tired and a lamentable sight. With torn stockings, garish makeup, and a generous supply of cigarillos and gin, their greasepaint and strong perfumes are a pathetic façade. They are like a muddy fence that has been covered in whitewash rather than cleaned.

Only one or two of the girls speak English, and one of them is actually from Drakesheath. Sukie is the first to introduce herself to me, though she seems loath to admit that she once called this village her home. Sukie's most salient characteristic is her left arm, which ends tragically at the elbow.

My left hand twitches at this ghastly sight. I shudder, causing my arterial gears to click and flutter. If only the girls here knew that I am probably the most broken of the dolls.

Chloë and Giselle waste no time in getting me out of my cold, soaked maid clothes and into their immodest trappings. In a cloud of tobacco smoke I am made up, complete with a mole painted on my cheek and a grossly feathered hat upon my piled plaits. I glance at my reedy figure in the looking glass and hardly recognise myself. I daresay I'm something worth looking at for more than a little while. I smile at my bawdy fetch in the glass and turn round to see what I look like from behind.

Then, suddenly, quite without thought, I find myself picking up a hairbrush from a marble table top and handing it to Sukie. At the very same moment she turns to take it, while regarding me with great alarm.

"Strewth! How's it you knew...?" I let the brush fall into Sukie's hand and withdraw my own before she recognises the ring. I slip the silver band from my finger and covertly tuck it into my corset. Retreating to behind a changing screen, I knowingly trace the scar between my my left elbow and forearm. Sukie must have been a maid from the manor...one who narrowly escaped with her life.