Now Gregory Quarks father had been Alexander Quark,the Industrialist,who'd
built up the Quark family fortunes by establishing various woolen mills using a modified
Newcombe steam engine back in 1690.
Everyone knew of the accident at one of the Quark mill decades ago when
a Newcombe boiler ,untested and untried,had exploded,leading to the immediate deaths of
18 mill workers and the maiming and mutilation of dozens of others.
Shortly after that horrific industrial disaster,a masked figure on a black horse had
appearing at the doorstep of the victims and relatives involved in the Quark Disaster,and dropped off
small purses of money to aid the victims.
Everyone knew it had been young Gregory Quark in disguise,relieving a guilty conscience.
For you see the new improved and lethal Newcombe boiler is one he'd designed and supervised the construction of.
He'd taken over the Quark empire after his fathers death,and though he himself
no longer was suspected of riding about in the dead of night on a black racehorse,other
folk had surfaced to carry on the little acts of mercy to employees of his factories.
So when Philly,Dorothea and her other children had come begging at Quarks manor house door,they
already suspected that Quark played both ends of the fiddle,a hard nosed though eccentric mill owner
by day and a financier of local charity and goodwill by night.
So when Quark had gone off to retruieve the costumes,Philly had a secret mission of her own.
It had been a drain on her to project the dragon,and as soon as Quark was out of sight she'd absorbed the projection back into herself.Then she'd looked for evidence,and found it fairly quickly.
Quark had left the Accounts book for the Quark Mills under a discarbed bath robe,and a flip of the last few pages confirmed what folk already suspected.Quark was hiring local actors to ride about and drop off
monies through a third party,the Crewe Trust.
And it appeared he'd even paid "protection money" to unsavoury highwaymen such
as Ben Bolt and Julius Lightfoot to cease and desist whenever they were in the area.
Philly also quickly noted the sums spent repairing the ruined castle Quarks manor sat on top of.
Since the old castle still looked ruined,from the outside,she wondered
just what repairs and modifications had been made to Flodden Castle.
She suspected Quark was about to tell her before the night was through...