Revenge of the Barbary Ghost (2 page)

Anne’s only thought was to escape and she ran quite a way, but turned back toward the cliff as the smoke cleared, and saw that the Mussulman, or Mohammedan, as she had also heard them named, was gone. But to where? Curiosity, her fatal flaw, would not allow her to just return to the house without knowing all. She crept back and looked over the cliff edge; the beach below was deserted! The remaining revenue men on the other side of the cut—preventative men was what Anne surmised they
must
be, and fortunately they had not seen her—stood as still as she and stared, agape. Then they again clambered down to the beach, with shouts and angry howls of disbelief.

Anne, grateful for the moonlight, hastened through the long grass away from the cliff, down the slope, back toward the protected garden of Pamela and Marcus St. James’s house. What had she just witnessed? Smugglers, to be sure, but who or what was the Mussulman—a ghost? an apparition?—and where had the smugglers gone after his fantastical performance?

She had been bored with the frivolous parade of life in Cornwall, and was wishing for something more interesting to help her forget Lord Tony Darkefell. As so seldom happens in life, it seemed that her wish had been granted. She entered the gate at the bottom of Cliff House’s garden, and, with Irusan dashing beside her, bustled to the terrace, then in the door and up the servants’ stairs to her third-floor suite.

“Where were you, milady?” Mary, Anne’s maid, ghostly in her plain shift and nightcap, cried, rushing to her as she entered the bedchamber. “I was that turned aboot with fright! I haird weird noises, popping and clattering, thought to ask you what it was, and found you gone.”

“Mary,” Anne said, grasping her harried maid by the upper arms. “I have seen the most monstrous thing!” Pacing in the narrow confines of her room, a small white-papered chamber with slanted ceilings, she described the scene, her suspicion of smugglers, and the appearance of the Mussulman specter. She stopped and stared, sketching the scene in the air with her hands. “He rose from beyond the cliff like … like nothing I have ever seen. And he floated! I’m going to Pamela to see if she has ever seen the specter.”

Her maid shuddered. “Oh, milady,” she said, keeping her voice down, for her son, Wee Robbie, was asleep in the attached dressing room, where Mary and her boy had a cot. “I dinna wish to know more. If it’s smugglers, they’re a desperate lot of cutthroats, and the less said, the better.”

“You’ve been with me long enough to have heard the tales at Harecross Hall,” Anne said of her home near the Kentish shore, and rumors of smugglers along the coast of the channel. “Smugglers I will avoid speaking of, but I
do
wish to know more about the
specter
. What can it be? I’d go back out now to look, but it disappeared, and won’t be back this night, I’ve no doubt. I wish to explore the cliff edge tomorrow, though.”

“But ye won’t go out again tonight, will you? Promise me?”

“No, Mary. I’m just going down the hall to speak with Pamela, and then I’ll return to my bed like the proper spinster I’m supposed to be.”

The maid gazed at her for a long moment and then said, “Perhaps Miss St. James knows all about the smugglers’ use of the beach below.”

“Pamela would
never
countenance those brutes using her beach! No, as a tenant in this house she has a right to know what I’ve seen. I’m going to tell her.”

“Aye, but perhaps you’re just carryin’ water to the well.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

After two weeks at Cliff House, she knew her way along the dark and narrow halls. The house had all the appearance of airiness and roominess from the outside, but inside it was a warren of ill-conceived dimness and antiquated notions of lighting. It was a very old house, and many times in the last weeks Anne had heard strange sounds emanating from downstairs, only to find, when she went to investigate, that the noises had stopped. She’d heard creaking from above, too, in the attic, but the house was not particularly well kept and Anne thought it was likely what her maid called wee beasties. Mary feared that the house was haunted, but Anne thought it was just poorly ventilated and draughty, and probably overrun with mice.

Pamela’s room was not far, though further than Anne would have thought practical. Why had Pam not put her in the suite next to hers? It certainly would have been easier for the maid, Lynn, who came in daily to make up fires, haul ashes, clean slops and change linens. Anne tapped on her friend’s door. “Pamela, are you awake?” She entered, to find her dark-haired, blue-eyed friend sitting up with a candle and reading a novel.

“What is it?” Pam said.

Anne climbed up on the end of the bed, sweeping the poofed skirts of her
robe à la polonaise
aside, and tucked her feet underneath her. She said, “Pam, the most amazing thing. Did you not hear fireworks a short time ago?”

“Fireworks? What are you talking about?” Pam asked, her pretty face wrinkled in a puzzled frown, laying her book facedown on the covers.

Anne repeated her story, with the appropriate interjections from her friend.

When she was done, Pam leaned forward, her dark eyes sparkling, and said, “You’ve just seen the Barbary Ghost!”

“I beg your pardon?”

“My dear, you’ve been here almost two weeks. Have you not noticed the small inn down the road a ways? We pass it every time we walk to St. Wyllow.”

“I’ve seen the inn, but why do you speak of it?”

“Anne, it’s called the Barbary Ghost.”

Not wishing to admit that her normal perspicacity was lacking these days, so wrapped up were her thoughts and efforts in supposedly forgetting a certain dark-eyed marquess from Yorkshire, she merely said, “Tell me about the Barbary Ghost!”

Pam settled back against her pillow. “Cornwall, being a peninsular arm thrust out into the sea, was thought by some to be particularly vulnerable, and many years ago a Barbary ship entered these waters. The Barbary pirates are notorious slavers, my dear, and have a wicked taste for northern ladies to take off to their pasha’s harems, where the pale-skinned girls become highly prized concubines.”

“I have heard of Barbary pirates, my dear, and their ransom demands.”

“Yes, well, the captives who do not bring ransom money are kept in harems and subjected to the most shocking treatment! Anyway, this particular pirate ship anchored near St. Wyllow, and it is said that a landing party ended up right on the beach below this house!”

“Really?” Anne said, clasping her hands together. “When did this happen?”

“I don’t know the exact date,” Pam said, waving one hand in the air in a dismissive gesture. “Trust you, my practical friend, to wish for a time schedule. It was years ago … perhaps as much as an hundred. Anyway, one particular Barbary pirate came ashore in search of a certain girl, one whom he had seen from afar, and with whom he had fallen in love.”

“Seen from afar?” Anne cocked her head to one side. “How was that possible for a man on a sailing ship to see all the way to this house? Or do you mean she walked on the shore, or the bluff?” Her practicality would not stand such a piece of nonsense.

“Shush, Anne, dear,” Pam admonished, with a humorous glint in her lovely eyes. She closed her book and tossed it aside. “You’ll take all the whimsy out of this with your pragmatism. So this Barbary pirate landed ashore with his terrible crew, but while the others plundered and robbed and pillaged—”

“All the usual piratical occupations, of course,” Anne drily interjected.

“Exactly. He, this particular Barbary pirate—”

“Let us call him George for short,” Anne said.

Pam laughed. “All right, George, then. George climbs up the cliff and finds—”

“Arabella,” Anne said. “Why not? Give the imaginary maiden a fitting name.”

“Right. Arabella, the fairest maid in St. Wyllow!” Pam said, dramatically, clasping her hands to her bosom. “Legend has it that she lived in this very house, maybe even in your room, or mine. Imagine! So, George kidnaps Arabella and carries her off to the ship, and the successful pirates leave and begin to sail back to the Mediterranean.”

“But,” Anne added, with a quizzical lift to her brow. “There must be a ‘but,’ my dear, or there would be no further story, for if there is a Barbary Ghost, there must be a dead Barbary pirate somewhere, and I sadly conclude that the ghost is of our darling, romantic George.”

“How clever you are!” Pamela exclaimed. “True. Arabella was dreadfully sad, and George couldn’t bear to see her wasting away day after day, pining for her home and family as they sailed south.”

“A pirate with a conscience,” Anne said, a satirical edge to her voice. “How novel.”

“Yes, well, he couldn’t bear it, and he knew when he returned to the pasha, his overlord, that Arabella would become his master’s concubine. He wouldn’t even be able to keep the girl he loved! So, he escaped with his darling Arabella, on a ship heading north. Thus, he returned her to her family, in this very house.”

“But?”

“Of course, another ‘but’!
But
… Arabella’s angry father and brothers turned out in force and slew George before Arabella could say that she owed her life to the gentle Barbary pirate.”

“And ever after he haunts your cove?”

“You have it!” Pam cried, with a delighted laugh. “And you have seen this fellow?”

“George? Well, I did see something in the guise of a Barbary pirate, certainly, though it looked fearfully solid for a specter, and put on a fireworks spectacular, too! He appeared rather ferocious.” Her smiled died and her eyes widened as she leaned forward and clasped her friend’s folded hands. “But more importantly, Pam, my dear, you have smugglers!” she said, in much the same way one might say, “You have mice.”

“Oh?” Pam’s expression blanked, and the color fled from her cheek.

“Yes, smugglers, below, on your beach. What shall we do?”

“Do? Good heavens, Anne, what do you expect?” Pamela said, in a trembling voice. “That I should march out there and arrest them? I’m going to do what every good Cornwall resident does at this time of night, if they suspect smugglers are abroad; I am going to turn my face to the wall and sleep.” She tossed the book to the floor, blew out her candle and snuggled under her covers. “Good night, my dear,” she said, in the sudden darkness. “Go to bed, and don’t venture forth at night.”

***

Earlier that same day …

Anthony, Marquess of Darkefell, was in Bath accompanied by his secretary, Mr. Osei Boatin. Mr. Boatin’s lineage was exotic. A Fante prince from the interior of an African nation, he was captured by a warring Ashanti tribe and sold to an English slaver, and shipped toward Jamaica. But he became gravely ill, as did many others in the crowded, filthy hold of the slave ship. Ordered to dispose of the sickly humans as if they were spoiled cargo, in an effort to cut losses, the crew began throwing those closest to death overboard into the frigid Atlantic waters. Osei was rescued from certain death at the hands of his captors by the marquess himself, who was on another ship in the convoy; Darkefell and his twin brother, Lord Julius Bestwick, leaped into the ocean and rescued Osei and as many others as they could manage before the cold or drowning defeated them.

Mr. Boatin was grateful to his employer, but the feeling went beyond mere gratitude to a selfless devotion. He had been given another chance at life, and
not
a life as a slave, but as a free man. He swiftly learned English, both spoken and written, and gained an education mostly due to his own perseverance, intelligence and determination, then became the marquess’s secretary. Lord Darkefell trusted Osei to depths seldom seen in such a dependent relationship. The African, though logic and reason were no mystery to him, had also shown a valuable ability to understand the English with whom he worked in a more penetrating fashion than his employer, and so Darkefell relied upon him, deferring to him on occasion when logic failed and human insight was needed. It was a relationship unique in many ways, but no more exceptional than were the two men.

The marquess and his secretary entered the vestibule of the Bath residence of the dowager Viscountess Everingham and handed his visiting card to the elderly butler. Truffle, the butler, bowed and bore the card before him on a silver tray, slowly ascending the steps and treading creakily down a hall.

As he disappeared, Osei said to his employer, “Do you wish me to accompany you, my lord?”

“Into the lion’s den, you mean? Or should I say, the lioness’s den? No. Stay here and see if you can ingratiate yourself with any of the staff. If I am unlucky in finding out where Anne has gone, perhaps you will have more luck.”

“If they’ll speak to me. Some of the serving class seem to fear that the color of my skin indicates an inability to speak English or comport myself as a gentleman ought.”

“You will find Bath more cosmopolitan, Osei, more like London than Yorkshire.”

Truffle, above, had finally entered an overly warm sitting room, crossed the carpeted floor and handed the card to the viscountess, who owned the Bath townhouse.

She squinted at it, her rheumy blue eyes small within folds of weary flesh. “I can’t make this out. Barbara,” she said to her middle-aged daughter, who sat on a sofa near the window with a book on her lap, though the page had not been turned for an hour. “Can you make out who this is?”

Truffle bore it on a tray across the room to the other woman. Lady Harecross took it and read it. “My goodness; Mother, do you know the Marquess of Darkefell?”

“Darkefell?” the viscountess said, her wavery voice thin and crabby. “No. Should I?”

“I don’t know him either. But I do know
of
him. My goodness. Truffle,” she said. “Show the marquess up.” She stood and smoothed her silk chemise dress, straightening the pink silk bow at the waist and hoping she looked as slim as she once did. “Mother,” she said, her tone stern, “do behave, please. At least until we find out what the marquess wishes. My goodness, but this is vastly more entertaining than discussing the evils of the chambermaid and cook’s kitchen mutiny.”