'An why should yer? I'd done nofing wrong.' Liz pops up behind Valentine, hands on hips.

"Well now, Aubrey, she doesn't look the sort to fiddle with the law... but I dare say you are more knowledgeable in that area than I am." Oriel downed his scotch idly, keeping an eye on Valentine and Liz.

Turning to Valentine, he says, "Excuse me good sir! Who might you be to make such accusations?"

"Eh! Who moight I be?" The Knave jeered. "Oi moight be a jackaknape, moight be a warper, may'ap a bar'bry ape, moight be a bloo'y lord." He grinned. "Moight be a fishmonger's son."

Without another word he leant down close to Aubrey. Palms flat on the table. Eyes hard and dangerous. "But wot oi ain't is a man wot sends a girl ain't done no 'arm to a place 'fested wiv evil of orl sorts. Youse the sorry sot wot did." With that, hands were tight on Aubrey's collar. They jerked him up and out of the booth, and with a few almost dancing steps they were near the back door. He shouldered it open.

Aubrey stumbled backwards through the door as he was shoved though it. His reflexes dulled by the alcohol he had consumed and the suddenness of the man's attack, he let himself be tossed about.

His boots skidded on the damp cobbles, as he fell to his hands and knees. He looked up, squinting at the man who was advancing on him. For a moment, he thought about going for his revolver...then glumly realized that the young scribe still had it in her possession.

He settled for a glare at the man. "I'm afraid you have me all wrong, sir." Then he launched himself at the man, slamming him against the outside wall of the pub with his shoulder.

Oriel leapt to his feet in shocked anger. "Now see here, you bloody mongrel, what right do you have to--" he might have put together a powerfully scathing tirade if the two combatants had not slammed through the door of the pub and disappeared outside before he could get it properly started. He jumped at the sound of something heavy being thrown bodily against the wall.

"Hey!" Oriel cried, and hurried after them, still holding his glass of scotch. The excitement was so great that he forgot to bring his tophat with him, leaving it neglected on the table.

Valentine grunted roughly as his back met the wall. his hands grabbed for purchase on the other man--the filth, and his knee came up hard. He might have felt a right prick for fighting so mean had this man not been...well. What he was. The voice from the door distracted him for a moment. It was long enough to get him a fish in the gut that made him cough and gasp for breath. He shoved.

Aubrey tumbled back, landing hard on the cobble path. He struggled to his feet, barely managing to stand before a fist smashed into his face and sent him down again.

He reached out, managing to grab hold of the man's leg, and yanked hard. The thump the brute made when he fell was very satisfying, though it didn't nearly make up for the huge welt Aubrey knew he would have in the morning from that punch.

Assuming he managed to live until the morning.

Liz scrabbles after them, screaming 'Don't 'it 'him, Jack, don't 'it 'im, the cunt's a rozzer!' Seeing Aubrey pull Valentine to the ground, she leaps onto the policeman's back, ripping at handfuls of his hair and cursing shrilly.

"My God!" Oriel gasped, stopping halfway through the doorway and staring open-mouthed at the rabble in the street. How viciously uncivilized! And Aubrey caught in the middle of it, poor man--what was he to do? Frantically Oriel looked about for something, anything that could be used to break up the cat-fight.

A light of inspiration broke upon him and he gulped the rest of his scotch, taking the empty glass in hand and aiming carefully at Valentine's head. With a cry of "OI! OVER HERE," he let fly.

The glass sparkled as it soared through the air, whizzing past Valentine--for a hopeful moment, Oriel thought it might hit Liz, but then it dropped and struck Aubrey instead--directly in the face, no less. Oriel clapped a hand to his mouth.

Aubrey dropped like a marionette with its strings cut, blood spurting from his nose. Liz was sent tumbling as he fell flat on his back, his eyes still open but unfocused and glassy.

He coughed bloodily, then blinked twice. "Oriel," he managed thickly, after a few breaths. "You're not helping."

'HA! Everyone hates yer, yer pig!' Liz manages to swivel on her hip in the dirt and give him a good hard kick in the neck with the mended heel of her boot.

Jack passed a hand through his tangled hair as he pushed himseld up sitting. He breathed heavy, holding his belly. He'd thought to lay on a bit, but he just stared as injuries he hadn't afflicted battered the man. Liz was giving him a hell of a time! He felt awfully proud. Even the man's own mate had done more harm than good.

Giving a half-hearted little kick, Valentine couldn't help laughing scornfully as he got stiffly to his feet and took Aubrey's collar hard in his hands.

"D'ye see? D'ye see? This is wot yer get. Send a girl off t'that whore killer wivout a care wot loike you did. Loses ya yer luck." he spat derisively into the dirt.

Aubrey staggers to one foot, his knee grinding into the cobbles. His fingers clamp tightly on the wrist of the hand clutching his collar. He spits a bloody gobbet onto the ground, then peers up at his antagonist through one nearly-swollen-shut eye.

"I told you, I didn't send her to any killer." His other hand lashes out, directly at Valentine's gut.

Helpful girl that she is, Liz gets up and kicks him hard in the small of the back, hoping to give his kidneys something to think about. The question of whether she was sent to meet a killer is sort of beside the point now - she's all right and that's what matters to her, but she's angry on Jack's behalf and the bastard is still fighting back. That means she's in for the duration.

Oriel remained immobile for several moments, long enough for his mind to go over all the ramifications hitting Aubrey in the face with a scotch glass might have in store for their friendship. It was accidental, yes, but somehow Aubrey didn't seem in the right mood for forgiveness.

Oriel could do little else but stare in horror at the pounding the Police Inspector was taking.