My Lord Deceived (23 page)

He stood
perfectly still and watched the men pass by on their way back down
to the beach. He had no idea where they had just put the bodies,
and glanced up at the path that led to the top of the cliff. They
hadn’t gone far, so the bodies must have been left somewhere for
burial later. Did they intend to bury them in the churchyard, or
one of the field’s nearby? He had a duty to investigate, and took
advantage of the path being empty to begin his search for bodies
and cargo.

If he had
glanced back at the small alleyway that led from Kat’s house, he
would have seen a strong gust of wind blow the hat clean off one
smuggler’s head as they came out of the sheltered protection of the
houses, and the long mane of the woman he loved fly in wild abandon
in the stiff sea breeze.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The following
morning Kat stared up at the ceiling and considered the events of
last night. They now had a fresh bolt of cloth and several boxes of
tea, sugar and two kegs of finest French brandy. But there were
also two bodies that who now required burial.

They weren’t
the first men to die while they tried to bring the cargo ashore. It
was another reason why Kat and her family had to quit smuggling. It
was too dangerous and, with the winter on the way, and Billy
desperate to join in the fray, it was impossible to continue.

Kat was weary
beyond belief; weary with the need to lie, all of the subterfuge
and nights without sleep. She was definitely not made for a life of
crime and couldn’t wait for the day when she could become a normal
citizen again.

Unfortunately,
she also knew that most of the villagers would never quit. Not
until the war with the French was won, or lost, and the boats
stopped delivering the goods. She wasn’t sure if it was the
challenge the villagers liked rather than the money it earned them
but still, she was vastly relieved that the decision had been made
now that she and her family would take no further part.

She had yet to
tell Harry of course, and knew that he would at first object, but
she was determined that her part in the operation was now at an
end. She had kept their payments up to date and they had earned
enough over the past few years to ensure that they could purchase
their own small-holding. It was enough for Kat. She would look
forward to the day when she could help her mother establish their
little farm, and could spend the rest of her days growing fruit and
vegetables while doing nothing more than helping out at market.

The thought of
not seeing Jonathan again filled her with dread, but she knew that
to remain would only bring her more pain. At some point, the true
nature of his responsibilities would become apparent and, if it
wasn’t a wife, then at some point Jonathan would take a wife;
someone who was far beyond what Kat could ever be. She couldn’t be
around to watch. It would leave her too heartbroken. Although she
refused to call it love, she held a deep affection for Jonathan
that was deeper than she knew was wise. She was very aware that she
wouldn’t entirely settle to a normal life again until she was far
away from him.

Later that
morning, she made her way down to the harbour side to the
Shipwright Inn with renewed purpose. The tavern should be open by
now and she needed to speak to Harry. She nodded to several sailors
who sat on the harbour wall, mending their nets but she made no
attempt to stop to chat. The need to tell Harry of their decision
to leave the smuggling operation was so strong that little would be
able to stop her from imparting the news.

She paused just
inside the doorway to give her eyes time to adjust to the gloom
within the main tap room. Apart from Mr Butler, who sat in his
usual seat beside the empty fireplace, the tavern was empty.

“Harry? Where
is everyone?” Harry stared at her as though he wanted to speak but
didn’t utter a word. Cold dread settled over her and she read in
his eyes that something was terribly wrong.

“Good morning,
Kat. What brings you here?” Kat turned toward the all too familiar
face of Harrison, and felt dread settle in her stomach. She thought
of the bolt of cloth that propped up the wall in her sitting room,
and the two kegs of brandy she hadn’t bothered to hide last night
and felt sick.

“I am looking
for Billy,” Kat replied weakly, and studied Harry carefully. “Do
you need me to work tonight?” She tried to keep her voice
conversational but just couldn’t do it. It came out as a monotone
mumble instead that made her mentally wince.

“Yes, please
Kat, and no, I haven’t seen Billy.” It was the calmness in Harry’s
face that eased her fears and Kat nodded. She glanced at Harrison
as dispassionately as she could manage and turned away. “If you see
him can you send him home please? We have to pick up some more
vegetables from the supplier but I cannot find him anywhere.”

“Will do,”

Kat hurried out
of the door, a fierce scowl on her face. She tried not to run up
the hill toward home and muttered ‘
Excise’
to anyone and
everyone she passed. As she walked toward home she was aware of the
flurry of movement in her wake was people hurried to pass the word
on. By the time she broke through her kitchen door, her breath came
in short pants. She glared at her mother who was in the process of
starting to separate the cargo.

“Hide it,” Kat
ordered as she tried to quell her panic. “Quickly.”

“What?”

“Excise,” Kat
snapped. She grabbed the bolt of cloth and battled tears as she
glanced around the sitting room. “Where is Billy?”

“He has gone
for another riding lesson with Jonathan,” Agnes stammered and
stared at Kat nonplussed.

“
What?”

“I said it was
alright for him to go.”

Kat stared at
the bolt of cloth for a moment and frantically tried to think.
Billy was the only one who could clamber up the narrow space in the
chimney, but Kat was taller. With the grace of God, she may just be
able to get into the cramped space and store the bolts out of the
way.

She threw her
mother a dour look, took a deep breath and shoved her head up the
chimney. It was dark and a horribly small space. She had no idea
how Billy did it, but she wriggled her way upward until she was
wedged as far as she could go. She had to stand on her tip-toes,
and could just about reach the narrow space they used as a storage
space. Unfortunately, because she was wider than Billy, it was
impossible to haul up the bolt of cloth as well so she had to
wriggle back down again, reach for the roll and then shove it up
the chimney before her. It took far more time than they had spare,
and was a very dirty task but, eventually, she managed to secure
both rolls in the cramped confines and wedge them in with two
stones they kept beside the fireplace.

Once she was
back in the sitting room, she hurriedly helped her mother stash the
rest of the goods in the usual places and was just about to run
upstairs to change when loud thumps on the door heralded the
arrival of Harrison and his men. She exchanged a horrified glance
with her mother.

“What do we
do?” Agnes demanded, and wrung her hands indecisively.

“Answer the
door,” Kat snapped. She dropped to her knees before the fire and
quickly threw soot around her before she began to scrape out the
still hot embers, and tried not to burn her fingers. It was the
only thing she could think of.

She made no
attempt to get up or move when Harrison stalked arrogantly into the
house. She wiped a tickle of soot off her cheek with the back of
her hand and continued to empty the grate.

“Heavens, Kat,
anyone would think you are training to be a chimney sweep.”

Kat merely
threw him a dirty look and continued to scrape the grate out. She
dropped the ash into the bucket beside her and eyed the soot cloud
that billowed out. It covered everything, including Harrison, with
a thin film of muck.

Although she
continued to scrape out the fireplace, she was acutely aware that
the Excise men had begun to rummage their way through the house,
and fervently prayed that they wouldn’t find the goods she had
hastily stashed. They hadn’t had the time to use the usual places
they hid the cargo and, because of Harrison’s impromptu visit to
the market the other day, still had packages of goods stashed in
there anyway. Their situation was about as precarious as it had
ever been before and she didn’t know what to do about it.

She made no
attempt to control the ash cloud as she threw the bucket of soot
over the manure pile, and turned away with a small sense of
satisfaction when the Excise men began to cough. It wasn’t enough
to put them off their duties though and she returned to the
fireplace to scrub while they finished their search. At least if
they were caught and carted off to jail, the fire place was going
to be clean, she thought morosely. She refused to look at her
mother who stood uselessly beside the door. She was just like Billy
when the Excise men arrived. Although she didn’t cry when they had
gone, she was still barely able to function. Thankfully Kat took
after her father, and was able to at least attempt to continue with
some semblance of normality. She wanted to scold her mother to act
naturally and would have done if one of the Excise men hadn’t
appeared in the doorway. She glanced dismissively at him instead
and turned back to cleaning the grate.

It took far
longer than it usually did. While she cleaned and re-set the fire
she couldn’t help but wonder why the Excise men had chosen to go
from the pub straight to Kat’s house. It was as though they had
been given specific information on who was involved in the
smuggling last night. She hated to think that someone she knew, and
trusted, had betrayed her but that was looked increasingly
likely.

Her thoughts
immediately turned to Jonathan and she scowled at her mother.

“Why did you
let Billy have another riding lesson? You know it will do no good
and only fill his head with nonsense. We cannot afford a riding
horse, you know that.” She couldn’t keep the censure out of her
voice and watched her mother snap her attention back to Kat’s
chastisement.

“I didn’t see
anything wrong with it. I know we cannot afford a horse but you
never know if he will have the opportunity to ride when he is an
adult. It is another skill that he may need in life.”

“It won’t do
much good if he is a fisherman.” She ignored the Excise man’s
snicker and continued to stare pointedly at her mother. “It would
help if you didn’t encourage him.”

“It won’t
hurt,” Agnes replied dismissively and began to sweep at the soot on
the floor. “There is no harm in it so you leave the boy be. At
least it gets him out of the house for a while and away from all of
the fruit and vegetables.”

Eventually the
Excise men left empty handed again. This time Harrison didn’t speak
and appeared almost angry as he slammed out of the front door.
Agnes slid the bolts home on both the front and back doors and
turned toward her daughter. They both turned at the low rumble that
came from the chimney and watched as one of the stones Kat had used
suddenly landed with a heavy plop into the grate.

The rumble of
soot was the only warning they had before one of the bolts of cloth
followed it down and scattered a fine layer of dust over the
sitting room and its occupants.

“Tell me about
the smuggling, Billy,” Jonathan urged. He walked alongside Billy
and looked up at the young boy’s face. The carefree joy he had seen
on his narrow features moments earlier had been swiftly replace
with a wary blandness that warned Jonathan that getting information
out of him was not going to be easy.

“What
smuggling?”

“Come on now,
you and I both know that it is going on.” Jonathan fought to keep
the impatience out of his voice. “Tell me who is involved and you
can have Percy.”

Billy’s eyes
bugged at that and he stared at him with a mixture of hope and
horror on his young face. “I can’t keep Percy,” he whispered
dejectedly several moments later. “We can’t afford to look after
him.”

“He can stay
here and you can come and visit but you get exclusive use of him if
you tell me what I need to know.”

“Why do you
need to know, I mean you are not going to be here very long,” Billy
sighed.

“Now who told
you that?”

“Everyone in
the village says so. You hardly stay around for more than a few
weeks at a time and then are gone for months. Everyone says you are
unreliable and have no interest in the village.” Billy watched
anger appear on Jonathan’s face for a moment and wondered if the
man was going to order him to get off and go home.

Instead
Jonathan sighed, and wondered if Kat thought the same and that was
why she seemed determined to keep her distance from him.

“Does Kat think
the same?”

“I don’t know,”
Billy replied vaguely. Jonathan knew that the boy did know but was
trying to protect his sister.

“I like Kat,
Billy, a lot. You need to know that. I would like her to spend a
bit more time here but to do that I need your help.”

“Why would you
want her to stay here? Do you want her as a servant?”

Jonathan
smothered a laugh that was tinged with horror. The divide between
the families was larger than he had thought and he briefly wondered
if it was insurmountable and he had spent the most of his life
wishing for something that could never happen. “No. I most
definitely do not want your sister as a servant.”

Several moments
of stilted silence settled between them until Jonathan decided that
a change of subject was needed.

“Have you seen
anything of Brian Meldrew lately? He hasn’t started to pester Kat
again, has he?”