Miss Minnie and the Brass Pluggit (14 page)

“Which tells us what? We knew they were getting some of their supplies from the ocean side, by boat.” Dusk looked puzzled.

“True. But…and here’s the really strange thing Pierce noticed…
they didn’t have a dock
.”

“What?” Felicia choked out the word around a sip of wine. “That’s impossible.”

Minnie shook her head. “Not really. Pierce has a theory.”

“I do.” He stretched his spine and twisted a little, as if he had some knots to unravel. Minnie wouldn’t have been surprised if he did. They were all starting to feel the tension.

He stood and went to a small cabinet where he pulled a folded paper from a drawer. Coming back to the table, he opened it out and revealed a topographical map of the Isle of Wight.

Everyone leaned in slightly and Pierce moved the wine bottle so it wouldn’t cast shadows in the softening late-afternoon light.

“All right. We are here.” He rested a fingertip on the distinctive promontory that was the Brass Pluggit. And the two small headlands extending either side. “And this is Fotheringay’s place.”

The lines on the map grew a little closer, indicating the dip in the land. The ocean was represented by small blue curly symbols. Waves, Minnie supposed. “The cliffs—they’re this thick band of lines?”

“Yes. Elevation is shown by the distance between them. It’s a standard these days. The closer the lines, the steeper the drop. Each line represents an elevation above sea level in feet.”

“So the cliffs, which drop several hundred feet, show as one solid line?”

Pierce nodded. “Right.” His hand moved. “And that’s important. See here? This is the chine where the Godolphin site is located. A simple valley, fairly good size, certainly wide enough to accommodate an airship or two.”

Dusk leaned in. “No shallow water.”

“No. The coast is pretty much standard here. Cliffs to sea level, some underwater shelving, but very little, then a solid drop off to deeper depths. Larger vessels can get nearer to the coast, but they still can’t tie up to the Brass Pluggit or anywhere else without some kind of pier or dock.”

“So…” Felicia watched Pierce.

“So I’m thinking caves.”

Silence fell for a moment or two and Minnie realized how well tuned they all were to each other. A word like “caves” and three minds were immediately spinning a web of ideas around the suggestion.

“Of course.” Dusk was the first one to connect the puzzle pieces. “There are plenty of caves in the chalk. I didn’t go far enough into their area to see if there were any, and from the land you’d never know.”

“It makes sense.” Felicia nodded. “Use what’s available.”

“If there is one,” Pierce continued, “it would need to be fairly deep. And roomy enough for them to load and unload cargo.”

“It would be the perfect arrangement.” Minnie tossed in her comments—the same ones she’d made earlier that day to Pierce as they’d discussed this very possibility. “Shelter, of course. One run of a tender or whatever, unload the cargo and it would be under cover. They could move it where and when they wanted. It would be protected much better by nature than by anything they could cobble together.”

“And the other thing…” Pierce paused. “The other thing is privacy. Anything could be on or offloaded. Not a single person would be able to see what it was. The only visual access is from the ocean and if someone out there was watching, they’d sure as hell know it.”

“So the girls…” Felicia continued his thought.

“Yes.” Pierce nodded. “Concealed if necessary, perhaps in a crate? Or just beneath some sacking. Simply done. Nobody’d even think twice about a pile of packaging in one corner of a freighter’s tender.”

“Very logical.” Dusk stared out the window. “Effective, simple—I doubt even the workers know what’s going on.”

“I’m damn sure those who are building topside have no clue. They’re locals. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t even know about the caves. If these people unload at night, the carpenters and builders come in the next morning and there’s the wood and whatever else they need. Who are they to ask questions? The stuff might have been delivered overnight. A lot of building material travels after dark so as to keep the jobs running.”

Pierce ran his hand through his hair. “Even if some things didn’t add up, you know what they say. We see what we expect to see.”

Minnie sighed. “We don’t expect to find white slavers or killers next door. So we don’t look for the signs that our neighbors might be breaking the law.”

“Human nature.” Felicia folded her hands and sighed. “Mostly a good thing, but sometimes…”

“Anyway,” said Minnie, “Pierce and I are going to confirm our suspicion.”

“We are?” Pierce looked at her. “How are we going to do that?”

Minnie smiled prettily at him, knowing her next words were likely to create an explosion of rather male wrath. “We’re going to take your launch out tonight for an evening sail.” She smiled again, showing more teeth. “Down to Godolphin’s bay.”

“The hell we are.” Pierce frowned.

“Yes, we are.” She squared her shoulders. “How else are we going to verify our assumptions?”

“No, I meant the hell
we
are. Personally, I think it’s the best idea we have at the moment, but I’m not taking you along.”

“Hah.”

“Don’t snort at me. It’s too risky for you to go along.”

“Oh really? And who is going to steer the boat while you try and see if there are any caves in the cliff? It’ll be dark, you know. Yes, the cliffs are white and a big hole is going to be fairly obvious. But you’ll still need a deckhand.”

Pierce’s green gaze stabbed at her. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Nonsense.” She stared right back. “I can swim like a fish if I have to.”

“What if the water’s choppy?”

“I’ll hold your head if you get seasick.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s not a pleasure cruise, Minnie.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” She leaned in toward him. “There are lives on the line here, Pierce. I’m not asking to join you as you sail the Atlantic single-handed. This is a brief reconnaissance run. Two sets of eyes are better than one. Especially if we have to kill the engine. Don’t want to drift onto the rocks, now, do we?”

Pierce gnawed on his lip, tension and frustration radiating from him in waves.

Minnie barely noticed Felicia and Dusk quietly leaving the room. She was completely focused on Pierce. “There’s one other thing.” Her voice was lower and less demanding.

“What?”

“I couldn’t sit here and wait for you, knowing you were out there doing this alone. Worrying about you would drive me completely insane.”

He looked at her, his shoulders relaxing a little. “Really?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Funny. I thought we were both pretty much insane already.”

She began to laugh and moved from her chair to land roughly on his lap, throwing her arms around him and hugging him as hard as she could. “Yes, we probably are. But it’s a wonderful kind of madness.”

He stroked her face and cupped her chin. “You’re very important to me, Minnie. It didn’t take more than the blink of an eye and there you were. Filling somewhere inside me I didn’t know was empty.”

She let him draw her down to his mouth and welcomed his kiss with a mixture of the tenderness his words had engendered and the passion his touch had ignited.

“Ah, Pierce.” She drew back and licked the taste of him from her lips. “So good. Always so good.”

“So you’ll stay here? Where I know you’re safe?”

“The hell I will.” She kissed him again, letting her tongue pry its way into his mouth, tasting him, testing his resolve and seducing him thoroughly.

He moaned as she wriggled closer, her skirts billowing around them, tangling them together. “Dammit.” He sucked in air. “You’re wearing far too many clothes, Minnie.”

She chuckled. “Don’t worry. I have something much simpler I can slip on when we head out tonight.”

He sighed and leaned his forehead wearily against hers. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

“Serious as can be. You need me for this, Pierce. Felicia obviously can’t go. If you take Dusk, you leave two women alone here. And you and Dusk at night? If anyone sees you both, they’ll ask questions you might not be able to answer. If it’s us, you and me, a man and a woman out on the water beneath the moonlight? Well, I doubt there’d be too many questions asked. More like a few eyebrows raised, but that’s it.”

He was silent for a while, his head tucked beneath her chin, his stillness telling Minnie that he was thinking things through. She dropped a kiss on top of his head and stroked his hair softly, an undemanding caress that spoke volumes. The fact that she was cuddling him like this—well it wasn’t something she’d imagined herself doing.

Her life had become full of surprises and the best ones came from the man in her arms. She offered a brief prayer to the heavens that they’d both come away from this adventure with a whole skin.

Even the merest hint of the possibility of losing Pierce?
Unthinkable
.

Chapter Nine

Pierce wasn’t convinced he’d done the right thing by allowing Minnie along on this trip. But, all things considered, he couldn’t counter her arguments nor could he bluntly tell her she’d be a liability.

Firstly, she
wouldn’t
be a liability since he really did need a second pair of hands. And secondly, he couldn’t tell her that if anything happened to her his life would be over.

He just wasn’t quite ready to accept that she had become such an integral part of his life. He certainly wasn’t ready to announce it or discover how she felt about the entire situation.

No, right at the moment, their focus had to be on the important matters—cave hunting at night.

He rolled his eyes at himself as he slipped into a thin black shirt and tucked it into his black trousers. He didn’t want anything to reveal their presence if possible so he was deliberately dressing to blend with the night.

There was a tap on the door followed by Minnie’s face. “Can I come in?”

“Of course.” He turned, then gasped at her attire.

Black, like his, her shirt was silk, pouring over her breasts like warm liquid. The ends were tucked into black silk—well, they certainly weren’t trousers. His jaw dropped.

“Pantaloons. Silk. I borrowed them from Felicia.” Minnie preened. “I rather like ’em. And they’re certainly comfortable. A bit short, of course, but my boots are long enough to cover the skin in between.”

“I…uh…”

“Well we certainly don’t want to stick out on the water like a sore thumb, do we?” She gazed at him, eyes limpid pools of innocence.

Which, he knew quite well, was complete pretense. “You’re enjoying this far too much and not taking it seriously enough.”

She frowned. “Right on one count but very wrong on the other. Yes, I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying the chance to actively participate in something that might really matter in the overall scheme of things. And you’re dead wrong if you think I’m not taking it seriously.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I’ll never forget that poor woman in that little boat. Never.”

He bowed his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. And thank you for the apology.” She went to his side and touched his arm. “Understand this, Pierce. I don’t like to conform to the expected. I’m my own woman, with my own needs, wants and life choices. I will not have my actions dictated by anyone or anything, up to and including royalty.” She lifted her chin. “I’m here because I want to be. I shared your bed because I wanted to. I’m going out with you tonight because I want to be by your side, a full partner in this.”

“I’m afraid.” He whispered the words in her ear as he turned to take her in his arms.

“Of what?”

“Of you. Losing you. Having you. Both. You’ve turned my world upside down and I’ve yet to figure out whether that’s a good thing or not.”

She laughed softly. “Dear idiot.” Her arms went around him and she hugged him tight. “Don’t you realize you disintegrated my world the first time you looked at me?”

He blinked and shook his head. “We have to do this. Much as I’d like nothing better than to get you out of those pantaloons, we have to run our little voyage.”

She eased away and nodded. “Yes. Oh, I have a hat too.” She produced a knitted cap.

“Good.” He grabbed a dark jacket and took her arm. “Let’s get this done. I have plans for the rest of the night.”

“Oh goody.”

He slapped her gently on her silk-covered bottom as she walked ahead of him out of the room. “Naughty girl.”

“Yes. Remember that.” She winked at him as they moved together out of the Brass Pluggit and into the soft night air.

Minnie turned toward the beach, but Pierce caught her elbow. “Not that way. This is our path.” He pointed to a worn patch of grass leading to some shrubbery. “Follow me.”

He knew she was confused, since unless one looked very carefully, there wasn’t a path there at all. But he had walked this way many a time and knew exactly where he was going.

Pushing aside a large rhododendron branch, he ushered Minnie past it and through to the other side.

“Well, well.” She squinted around. The moon was rising, but waning, offering not much in the way of illumination, especially when she drew thin clouds modestly over her face. “Where are we headed?”

“Trust me.” He took her hand. “It’s this way.”

They were on the lee side of one of the small headlands and as the ground dipped, Pierce reached for the rope he’d tied there a while ago. It led down a steep path to a set of stairs cut into the side of the cliff. They were sheltered from the ocean, not visible at all to anyone who wasn’t looking for them.

“Easy.” He heard the crunch as Minnie’s feet slid slightly and his grasp tightened. “You all right?”

“Yes. Just a bit unsteady.”

“It’s not much further.”

Pierce was correct. Within three or four steps, they reached flat ground, and he led Minnie along a narrow ledge above the water.

“Where are we going?” She sounded puzzled.

“You’ll see.”

The cliff face rose beside them for a few moments—then disappeared. The ledge widened and turned, and suddenly they were in total darkness.

“Oh.” Minnie gasped. “A cave. A cave of your own.”

He moved slowly to a small box and flipped a switch, illuminating several small lights above them. Minnie gasped again.

“Your own dock. Your own private dock.” She released his hand and walked down the short quay.

There were several stone pillars at intervals down the dock, three of them lashed around with rope and securing boats. The first two were near the front of the cave. The last was shadowed in the darkness at the back, barely visible as a dull black mass lifting and falling with the movement of the water.

Pierce’s launch, the one Dusk and Felicia had used earlier that day, was tied up toward the sea end, and next to it a good-sized rowboat with a furled sail lying from stern to bow. Pierce reached for the rope. “We’ll use this. It’ll take longer, but it’s completely silent. I think it’s better that way.”

Minnie eyed it with caution. “You can row that far?”

“Probably won’t need to. Once we’re out of the lee of the headland, we can raise sail.”

“Ah.” Minnie accepted his hand and stepped into the boat, moving carefully along next to the mast with its canvas wrapping. She touched it. “A patterned blue. Perfect for camouflage.” She seated herself in the stern, resting one arm on the furled sail and grabbing the tiller.

“Yes. Hold tight.” He unfastened the last of the line, and with a push, jumped in, rocking the boat.

They were underway.

Minnie found herself in the odd position of wishing for slightly rougher seas and slightly less moonlight. After they’d cleared the darkness of the cave, she felt like a rather prominent and visible lump on the calm surface of the ocean.

As if reading her mind, Pierce leaned on his oars. “When we get past the headland, the wind will freshen and we’ll raise the sail. It’ll be choppy, but faster.”

She nodded. “Good. I’m feeling that we’re rather vulnerable right now.”

His teeth flashed in a grin. “Don’t worry. Nobody’s going to be looking for us.”

“I hope not.” She moved a little, making sure that the tiller was no lower than it needed to be and angled correctly. Pierce had slipped the mast down into a notch next to his seat, so his rowing abilities were unimpaired.

She let herself drift, relaxing with the rhythmic sound of the oars and the soft hushing whisper as they dipped in and out of the water. The cliffs were impressive, viewed from this angle, even in the darkness.

It seemed as if the chalk attracted what meager light there was and glowed, admiring its reflection in the waters lapping around its feet. Minnie saw a tiny inlet, with a narrow strip of white sand. It would be completely inaccessible to anyone without a boat. No caves or paths up the cliff. Just a private piece of paradise.

The boat moved more steadily and she realized they were about to leave the shelter of the headlands. A couple more strokes and they emerged into a stronger wind, strong enough to make Minnie shiver through her light silk clothing.

She forgot the cold as she watched Pierce carefully ship his oars and then raise the mast. Gripping the side of the boat, she found herself observing his nautical skill. In near darkness, in a moving boat, he was able to silently lift it, slip it into its receptacle, unfurl the sail and the small boom and set both to the right angle.

Then he moved back and sat beside her, adjusting the tiller so that it dropped down completely, ready to steer them as he willed.

“Well, I’m impressed, Captain.” She grinned as they picked up speed.

“Many years of being a small boat fanatic.” He tugged on a line and the sail billowed happily. “We’ll be there in no time with this breeze.”

She narrowed her eyes and pointed at the horizon. “Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that nobody out
there
is looking over
here
.”

The freighter was a dark smudge against the night sky, with few lights visible except those required by maritime law.

“Not many people are interested in sailing here at night. You have to be very familiar with the coastline. Which eliminates most of the visiting sailors and fishermen who fancy a bit of night sport.”

“What would they fish for at night?”

“That’s the other thing. Not much. There are some places where darkness yields good catches, but this isn’t one of them. So few, if any, fishermen are likely to be around.” He settled himself more comfortably. “I think we’ll have the sea pretty much to ourselves.”

They slipped along, propelled by the wind and a sail, an elemental sort of trip that appealed to Minnie’s impressionistic soul. She had no fear of the water, since she could swim like a porpoise. And she had little fear of anything else since she was sitting next to a man who had her complete confidence.

Plus, if he sank the boat, she’d tease him about it for many years. And she guessed he knew it.

“We’re near.” His voice was a whisper. “As quiet as you can now, Minnie. Sound carries over water.”

She nodded. Sound did carry, so the less conversation the better. She stayed silent and as still as possible while Pierce steered them into the darkness. As soon as they neared the Godolphin inlet, he lowered the sail and the boat slowed. Cautiously letting the current take them along the coastline, neither was surprised to see a large cave opening up right next to the inlet.

It would have been quite invisible from land and Minnie realized she might even have missed it from the ocean, since the cliffs themselves were quite irregular in this area. Shadows that might or might not have been cave openings dappled the chalk. But they were looking for it, close enough to see it—even close enough to hear the different sound of the ocean as it smacked into a quay and echoed around the inside of a cave.

She touched Pierce’s arm and pointed. He nodded and turned the tiller, clearly hoping the current was enough to take them toward the opening.

There was no light inside, nothing to indicate that anyone was about. And that made sense, thought Minnie. Why put guards around a place that nobody knows exists?

Slowly, as if the wind and the water were both on their side, their little craft slid toward the cave and finally entered. Out of the wind, there was no chop and Pierce needed to man the oars once more.

Quickly and as quietly as possible, he positioned them into the rowlocks and urged the boat farther into the darkness. It was a much larger cave than his, with a considerable expanse of water near the high quay. Steps had been created from the water to the land, allowing for boats of different heights to dock comfortably.

Minnie stared around, trying to make sense of the shapes and the half shadows. Nothing moved and there were no sounds except those of the ocean itself and the gentle abrasion of oars against metal.

Silently they floated through the silvery darkness, then Pierce slowed their progress and began to turn them. He glanced at Minnie and pointed back the way they’d come.

She nodded, frowning as he came perilously close to a large crate. She could make out the “G” in Godolphin, but the rest was blurred by wind, water and probably time.

The boat tipped as Pierce leaned out, reaching beneath the crate where it sat on a pallet. His hand slipped under the wood and he moved, almost as if he was pushing a pin into the bottom of the crate.

Then he slid back and began to row them out of the cave.

She held her breath as they emerged, and once again he unfurled the sail. This time it was a little harder, the wind requiring they tack their way along the coastline. Harder to do in the dark and with greater risk of exposure.

She felt the tension in his arms and shoulders as he sat next to her in silence, watching the water, the sail and responding to minute changes in both. But as if their mission was finding favor with a higher power, clouds slipped continuously over the waning moon, obscuring the faint light and—she hoped—rendering their tiny sail all but invisible.

“Breathe.” His whispered word made her smile as she realized she was indeed holding her breath.