The kernel of the story, as it so often was, was love. This love was between executioner and condemned, between the axe and the neck it was told to fall upon. The neck it only scraped.
Alice is running toward Pendle, chased. A Fallen London gentleman is spending his holiday at the Iron Republic. Used to the madness of the Neath and friendly knife-and-candle game, what is gentleman lost in the rather dull County is supposed to do? But only what any citizen of the Neath would do in such a situation, add their own touch of personal Neath normality to the situation.
Just where does Mr. Veils think he's going so late at night! We worry, you know.
A short introductory tale in a storylet for Fallen London.