The Gallows Bride (12 page)

“
But there is a lot more work to do. We need a lot more
information about Scraggan’s activities before we can arrest him
and put him before a judge. He has been very careful not to be seen
doing things himself. He has always sent his men out to do his work
for him. But someone has been arranging meetings with the captains
of the ships carrying the cargo, and someone has been setting up
the network of people who smuggle the spies through the country. We
know it is Scraggan, but we just need more information. He will
certainly hang for his crimes; it is just a matter of when.” Hugo
began to pace backward and forward before the fireplace, clearly
lost in the intricacies of the case against Scraggan and his many
criminal activities.

“
We need to get into a position where the insurmountable
evidence we put before a judge will ensure a swift trial, and give
the judge no alternative but to pass the death sentence upon him.
But to do that, we need to find direct evidence of his personal
culpability in the smuggling activities going on in Padstow. We
know that he has been involved ...” Hugo paused, wondering how to
phrase it.

“
But you need to catch him holding the weapon, so to speak, to
be able to arrest him,” Jemima added into the silence, thinking of
her own ordeal. She watched a startled respect enter Hugo’s eyes at
her blunt and accurate analysis of the situation.

Nodding
thoughtfully, Hugo stared at her. “Exactly. By gathering as much
information as we can on his activities, and getting as much
paperwork we can as proof, we can not only bring Scraggan down but
we can prevent what happened in Norfolk from happening again. We
don’t want anyone involved in this relocating and starting again.
Everyone involved has to be brought to trial, and punished, for
playing their part. Unfortunately, that means we have to have a
direct link to Scraggan’s personal involvement in crimes. So far,
we know which of his men were sent to kill, and which of his men
led which smuggling gangs.”

“
But you haven’t got anything on Scraggan himself,” Peter
sighed, wondering what it would take to bring the man
down.

Dominic
quietly left the room, returning a few minutes later with a sheaf
of papers that looked familiar to Jemima.

“
On Jemima’s instructions, Edward gave Eliza these papers.
Apparently, when the ladies left Padstow, they each carried some
documents that were needed together to be of any use. I think you
will find them interesting.” He held out the pale cream parchment,
resuming his seat as Hugo carefully unfolded them and began to
read.

“
Good God!” Hugo stared in shock at Jemima. “You and Eliza
were carrying these?”

Jemima
nodded slowly, knowing the significance of the papers now in the
government’s hands.

“
No wonder Scraggan and Rogan have been so determined to
capture you.” Hugo shook his head, studying the list of names,
dates and places that filled so many gaps in their investigation,
astounded.

Jemima
took the opportunity of the momentary silence within the room to
explain the contents of the papers she and Eliza had spent months
protecting.

“
They list the names of the ships, the dates and times of
arrival, along with codes and contacts.” Jemima didn’t need to look
at the papers to know what was in them. She had committed their
contents to memory a long time ago. “One of the sheet has the
codes, giving exact details of what each shipment entails, along
with cargo lists and buyers. These are details of the French spies
they have smuggled into the country; who the spies are meeting,
where and when, etcetera. You now have all of the details of the
exact cargo Scraggan has been handling, along with his contacts. It
is information on his entire network up to the point we left
Padstow.”

“
Where in the hell did you get all of this?” Hugo demanded. As
he stared down at the sheet of paper, he knew she was telling him
the truth and he was holding nothing less than gold dust in his
hands. Dates and ships he knew from the Star Elite’s own informants
were clearly listed alongside ships he had heard of but never
considered to be involved. The enormity of the information held on
those three sheets of paper was not lost on him, and he now fully
understood why Scraggan was so determined to kill Jemima and
Eliza.

Jemima shifted uncomfortably on her seat, lost for words. She
would have to have her fingernails pulled out before she told
him
that
.

When
silence met his question, Hugo turned to stare at her, clearly
waiting for an answer.

With a
huge sigh, Jemima glanced at Peter, before turning to Hugo with a
shake of her head.

“
I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that.”

Hugo
studied her carefully. “We can protect them.”

Jemima
snorted inelegantly and arched a frosty brow back at him. “Like you
did me?” She didn’t need to turn her head to know that Peter was
watching her, but for the life of her couldn’t meet his gaze
either. She could hold out against Hugo, a veritable stranger, but
knew all Peter had to do was ask, and she would most probably tell
him anything and everything!

“
You are alive, aren’t you?” Hugo challenged, his tone
argumentative.

“
But look what you put her through. If you knew she wasn’t
going to be hanged, why didn’t you just spare us all the bloody
misery and tell us it was a sham?” Peter spat, his own anger rising
at the unnecessary pain and suffering they had all been put
through.

“
Because we didn’t know whether Scraggan had men on the inside
of the gaol providing him with information. We had to make it look
as realistic as possible.”

“
Did Mr Simpson know it was all a ruse?” Dominic asked,
remembering the intent conversation he had interrupted when he had
returned to Simpson’s office.

Hugo
nodded. “Let me explain.” He sighed and took the seat directly
opposite Jemima. He hadn’t let her off the hook just yet, and
wasn’t going to until she had told him what he needed to
know.

“
I think you had better,” Peter’s voice held a note of
warning.

“
We had two men following Jemima and Eliza. One man was
undercover at the inn where Eliza worked.” He ignored Edward’s
gasp, and shot him a pointed look. “Yes, we knew when you left with
her, and although we didn’t know where you were headed, we did have
men on alert in Padstow in case you turned up unannounced so to
speak.”

“
She was nearly killed for God’s sake,” Edward spat, thinking
of the numerous men who had challenged not only himself, but had
almost taken the lives of his brothers and Peter.

“
The Star Elite is a relatively small group of men. We do have
a few others working for us, but the main group is not that big. It
is what makes us so good at what we do, but it also does stretch us
occasionally. We know your background, Edward, and believed that,
if anyone could keep her alive, you could.”

“
What about Jemima?” Peter asked, wondering if they had
planned to just abandon her to her fate.

“
We knew she was at more risk. Her father had informed us that
she helped with the papers and knew as much as he did. So we pooled
the few resources we didn’t have undercover and made our own
arrangements to thwart Scraggan’s plans officially.”

Peter
felt somewhat mollified as he understood that Hugo and his men
really did have the ladies’ survival as one of their
goals.

“
We know she was set up when one of our men heard about her
being arrested for murdering the mayor. It didn’t take much for us
to make enough enquiries to surmise what had happened. We know she
didn’t do anything, and Scraggan had set her up, along with the
others in the group who were found nearby.”

“
Who were they?” Jemima asked, thinking of the morose group of
downtrodden men with whom she had shared the condemned
cell.

“
They had been working for Scraggan at some point, either
collecting information or taking part in criminal activities.” At
Jemima’s look of shock, Hugo sighed knowing he wouldn’t get away
with only half an explanation.

“
They had taken part in a few thefts that had resulted in
people dying. Two of them had murdered associates of Scraggan
several months back. We knew they were guilty but just couldn’t get
to them. Apparently they had done something Scraggan wasn’t pleased
about, and had been thrown out of the smuggling ring. They were
sent to Derby, ostensibly to find you, but once there found
themselves set up by Rogan, under Scraggan’s orders. Each one of
the men you were arrested with was guilty of serious crimes,
Jemima, and would have gone to the gallows anyway, which is why we
made no attempt to save them.”

Although
Jemima nodded slowly, she would never understand why anyone had to
be put to death in such a gruesome fashion for any crimes they had
committed.

“
Rogan had quite a large amount of money with him, and was
able to buy people to do a lot of the dirty work for him, gathering
information etc., so the victim wouldn’t suspect he was close by.
When you were in gaol, we couldn’t take the risk that Rogan had
bought one of the gaolers to provide him with information about
your activities.”

“
He wanted confirmation she was in the condemned cell, and
going to be hanged,” Peter added, shaking his head and reaching out
to hold Jemima’s hand.

“
So, although we knew Jemima wasn’t going to be hanged, we had
to go through the motions, as it were. We couldn’t risk that anyone
would tell Rogan it was all a lie. We do know that Scraggan is
being informed that you were publicly hanged, and will consider he
has won.”

Dominic
frowned and sat forward in his chair, thinking over the events of
the night carefully.

“
So how did you know we were going to turn up?” He demanded,
remembering Hugo’s watchful presence in the corner of Simpson’s
office.

“
We didn’t,” Hugo replied ruefully. “We had to think on our
feet. As soon as Jemima was placed in the condemned cell, I brought
Mr Simpson up to date about Scraggan and his threat to Jemima and
her sister. He was fully aware that he would be in serious trouble
if he allowed Jemima to be hanged. The court papers have been
destroyed, and all entries into the records removed. There is no
trace of Jemima having been tried and found guilty of anything now,
I assure you,” Hugo added, hoping it would buy him some
reward.

“
On the morning of the executions, you were in the corridor
beside me, waiting with me, and you never said a word,” Jemima
accused, reluctantly allowing her memories of that dreadful morning
to come forth. Gratefully, she clasped the hand Peter held out to
her, accepting his reassuring presence beside her.

“
We had to wait until the right moment,” Hugo replied,
shuffling uncomfortably under the collective glare of the group.
“As I have said, the men with you were all guilty of serious crimes
that would have sent them to the gallows anyway. We couldn’t allow
them to go free, and risk them returning to Scraggan because they
had nowhere else to go.”

“
You made me wait until last,” Jemima frowned, thinking of the
way he made her go to the back of the group, thinking at the time
that it was because she would draw the most attention.

“
Because we had to wait until the men had been hanged. I had
Jamie outside of the door under strict instructions not to let you
out of the building. He had already spoken to the hangman who
himself was under strict instructions not to hang any woman unless
he was given a nod by Jamie.”

“
But you hanged a woman,” Edward announced, thinking back to
that gruesome morning with a shudder. “I watched her being dragged
to the gallows.”

“
That was another prisoner from Leicester gaol who had been
tried and found guilty of murdering her four children. She was
condemned, and due to be hanged the following week at Leicester. We
just brought her execution forward.”

At
Jemima’s look of horror, Hugo turned sympathetic eyes toward her.
“I’m sorry, Jemima, I didn’t mean to upset you, but this woman had
murdered children. Her husband and family had denounced all
association to her. She really had nobody who was bothered when she
was hanged, and there certainly wasn’t anyone prepared to attend
the hanging to hang on her legs and ease her way.”

“
She murdered children?” Jemima gasped, feeling her initial
sympathy for the woman begin to wane.

At
Hugo’s nod, she slowly shook her head, wondering at the cruelty of
humanity.

“
Then she deserved to die,” Peter muttered, pressing a kiss to
the back of Jemima’s hand. Despite everything she had been through,
she still had the capacity to feel compassion toward her fellow
beings, and that touched him deeply. She truly was a remarkable
woman.

“
She was chosen because she was condemned but she also looked
like Jemima,” Hugo added, thinking of the slightly smaller woman
who replaced her.

“
You gave me something to knock me out,” Jemima murmured,
thinking of the strange smell moments before she blacked
out.