"One wonders whether the authors actually bothered to enquire about the rumours they were printing before they went to press, or whether they knew they were distributing rubbish and therefore labelled it 'gossip', as if that were some excuse." Viola pressed her lips together as she scooped jam from the pot and slathered it fiercely on her scone, as if it were some columnist and her jam knife were a cudgel.
She lifted the offending, or at least offended against, pastry to her mouth, but before taking a bite, she looked at Galatea. "Where do you think they get their information? Do they not even bother to look into the wildest of reports, or simply print them as received? Pirates? Really?"