The Gallows Bride (32 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Peter’s
last sight of Scraggan was of the older man curled up in the corner
of the prisoners’ cart, his wrists and ankles still tightly bound,
the gag preventing any final words.

The
small beady eyes he turned on Peter were defiant and filled with
malice, in spite of his downfall.

Peter
stood and watched the door of the prison cart slam shut seconds
before the sound of a whip pierced the air, causing the horses to
set off on their journey to deliver the prisoners to
Bodmin.

Many of
the villagers within Padstow had left their houses to watch the
smugglers who had blighted their lives for so long being taken
away.

An air
of solemnity fell over the sea port as they watched the steady
procession of prisoners’ carts dragging men away, one after another
after another. All morning, men had been rounded up, pushed into
the carts and taken away.

There
were some cries of distress from wives who had watched their
husbands being dragged from their homes, but most people were
simply glad that they had been caught and were going to face
punishment.

In
reality, a lot of the local fishermen who had been dragged into
Scraggan’s activities were going to be reprimanded and allowed to
return home, on the understanding that they resume their lives as
fishermen. If they were caught committing any crimes in the future,
all their crimes, including smuggling, would be considered when
they were brought to trial. For the majority of men, a second
chance was all they needed to resume their lives of peace and
tranquillity.

The men
the government were after were directly linked to Scraggan. The
information gathered by the Star Elite over the past few months was
enough to ensure convictions resulting in execution for everyone.
Including Scraggan.

While
Peter and Edward had delivered Scraggan to a startled Hugo, Jemima
had remained at the harbour with Eliza and Harriett, for a long
time, watching as the Redcoats went from door to door in groups of
six. Some locals held their doors open, clearly waiting for their
turn to have their house searched; recognising the inevitability of
it and the futility of protesting at being invaded. Some preferred
to wait for the hammering on the door.

Deep
within the houses came cries of distress from the wives of the
smugglers as they watched their husbands being dragged off to gaol.
Children screamed in fear; babies cried in their mothers
arms.

Had she
not hated him already, Jemima would have loathed Scraggan for all
the pain he had caused so many innocent people. In a brief moment
of uncharacteristic spite, she hoped with all her heart that
Scraggan would endure a long and very painful death at the end of
the hangman’s noose.

Feeling
sick at the sights and sounds battering her already dazed senses,
Jemima slowly turned, feeling more weary than she had ever felt
before. Whether it was the sight of the prison cart, or everything
that had happened to her over the past few days, she wasn’t sure;
but she was struggling to believe that it was over. She could
finally have a life without Scraggan.

Immediately, her inner voice asked her if she could really
face life without Peter.

She knew
she couldn’t, but she didn’t know what to do next. She had felt
such immense pain upon hearing his words that she wasn’t sure how
to handle her devastation.

Was she
numb? She wasn’t sure. Were her feelings due to the fact that he
had just confirmed everything she had already considered to be
possible? Probably; but where did that leave her?

The
cries of the babies and the hum of the crowds grated on her already
shattered senses.

“
Let’s go to my house and have a cup of tea,” Harriett
murmured, grabbing Jemima’s elbow with a gentle hand and guiding
her toward the hill road leading to her small cottage. “I
understand from the captain that they have already finished there,
and we are free to return to it.”

Jemima
meekly followed, aware that Eliza had joined them. As she turned
off the path that led around the harbour, she caught sight of Peter
standing on the corner of a side street, deep in conversation with
Hugo. He stopped talking and watched her pass, but made no move to
approach her.

Jemima
wasn’t sure what she would have done if he had come close. She
didn’t know if she wanted to hit him, kiss him, or both. But right
now, she couldn’t speak to him. She didn’t know what to
say.

Instead,
she ducked her head and kept her eyes down while she climbed the
hill to Harriett’s house.

Once
inside the cottage, she lit the fire, while Harriett got the tea
things ready. Eliza fetched a warm blanket, which was wrapped
snugly around an unprotesting Jemima, who sat in front of the
roaring fire, gazing blankly at the flames.

“
Now that Scraggan is on his way to Bodmin, you can stay here
for as long as you need to,” Harriett offered generously. She felt
the fresh sea air, and tinctures she would make up for Jemima would
help her recover from her ordeals.

Eliza
was torn. She wanted to return to Leicestershire with Edward. Not
only to see how Isobel was getting on, and learn for herself
whether the babe had been born yet, but she didn’t want Edward to
leave her. On the other hand, though, she didn’t want to leave
Jemima behind in Padstow, especially while she was behaving so
strangely.

“
Thank you,” Jemima replied quietly, thinking of the dank
mustiness of her own home further down the road. “If we could stay
tonight, that would be wonderful. It is very kind of you,
Harriett.”

“
Phah! Kind?” Harriett shook her head, plonking herself down
on the hard wooden chair opposite Jemima and giving her an almost
stern look. “I’m just as glad as you are to see the back of
Scraggan and his men. At least now I don’t have to spend hours
scrawling notes about the smuggling, not knowing if anyone is going
to bother to read them.”

“
We have all taken risks,” Eliza murmured, thinking of her own
mad flight to Padstow with Edward, Dominic, Sebastian and Peter,
that was so abruptly diverted. “I have done things over the past
few weeks I never considered possible, especially for a lady.” She
shook her head ruefully, thinking over what had happened to her in
such a short length of time. It was remarkable she still had all of
her faculties.

“
Such as?” Harriett’s brows rose in challenge, and she rose to
pour the tea when the pot began to boil.

“
Oh, I’ve ridden bareback, dressed as a man -” she ignored
Harriett’s gasp and stared into the fire. “Been chased by
smugglers, stood in the middle of a swordfight, been chased through
fields in the middle of the night -” her voice was monotone and as
unaffected as if she was reading from a menu, “oh, and worked in a
whorehouse.”

Eliza
jumped when Harriett dropped the teapot with a thud on the table,
and turned to stare at her. She quickly looked at Jemima, who was
staring at her with a look of abject horror on her face, and the
penny dropped.

“
Oh! Not as a whore! Good God, no,” and she couldn’t smother
the smile that threatened. “Although if it weren’t for Edward
appearing in my life, I would have been the star
attraction.”

Sensing
the other women’s curiosity, Eliza recounted what that had happened
to her since her first meeting with Edward.

It was nearly an hour later by the time she lapsed into
exhausted silence. Now she thought about it, even
she
hadn’t realised so
much had happened to her.

“
Isn’t it strange how much you can cope with when you have
to?” Harriett murmured, staring thoughtfully at Jemima. “I mean,
although crises happen to everyone, most of the time you just cope
with it, and move on. Probably more battered than you were before,
hopefully wiser, and most definitely more cynical than you were.
You have to just get on with life really, don’t you?” She didn’t
ask anyone in particular the question, it was more a voicing of
thoughts.

“
If someone had told me a year ago what would happen to me, I
would have laughed in their faces and said it was impossible. Now?
Anything can happen.” Jemima said.

“
As long as you have life, health and happiness, everything
else is a triviality,” Harriett added wisely.

They
were interrupted by a soft knock on the door. Jemima didn’t need to
look to know who it was. Eliza rose to slide back the bolt for them
to enter.

Jemima
was aware of the soft murmur of voices, before silence descended
upon the room. It came as no surprise when Peter sat in the chair
Harriett had vacated.

His
heart lurched at the sight of her. Her glorious hair hung in gentle
curls around her shoulders, still damp from their walk on the cliff
top. The shadows beneath her eyes were darker than ever, giving her
a haunted look.

He ached
to sweep her into his arms and hold her, but she looked as though
she would shatter into a thousand tiny pieces if anyone touched
her. He wondered if the events on the cliffs had proven too much
for her.

“
Tell me something,” Jemima whispered, her voice so thin that
at first he thought he had imagined her request.

“
I lied; you have to know that,” he replied gently,
anticipating her question. The betrayal in her eyes cut him deeply
and he hastened to undo the damage he had done.

“
I adore you. I have from the very first moment I set eyes on
you in the dining room in Devon, my darling. You stole my heart. I
am not usually the kind of man who shows interest in servants; even
one as beautiful as you. But I knew from the first moment I saw you
that you were different. I couldn’t get you out of my mind. You
were like a drug to me. The more I saw you; the more I wanted to
see you, and get to know everything about you. I was glad you came
to me and asked for my help; if only for the opportunity to be able
to spend time with you. It was inevitable that I would fall in love
with you as deeply as I have.
That
is the only reason I came after you.
That
is the reason why I
was so deeply distressed in Derby at the thought of you being in
gaol, let alone being killed. If I didn’t care about you, I
wouldn’t have raced across the country to try to save you from
being executed.”

Jemima
didn’t move, just sat staring at him, that same lost look on her
face.

Peter
eased forward in his seat, leaning toward her until they were face
to face, his nose inches from hers. He captured the delicate oval
of her face between his hands, forcing her to look at him as gently
as possible.

“
I promise you here and now that you may have got rid of
Scraggan, but you haven’t got rid of me. I will remain a part of
your life, whether you like it or not. I will plague your every
footstep, haunt your every dream, and be a part of your every
waking moment. I have spent too many months, spent many hundreds of
pounds, in search of you. My life in Willowbrook has been on hold
while I try to find the woman who captured my heart and took it
with her when she ran from me. Now that I have you, I have no
intention of ever letting you go again,” Peter whispered, trying to
convey the depth of his sincerity.

“
Do you realise just what it was like for me to have to return
your body to Willowbrook?” His voice grew husky with grief that
refused to relinquish its hold on him. “Do you realise what it was
like to stand beside you, knowing I would never see your beautiful
eyes stare at me again? Never see your wonderful lips smile? I
would have been happy to have been struck down and allowed to join
you.”

A sob
escaped her.

Peter
immediately took her into his arms, murmuring soft reassurances to
her over and over in the hope that some, if not all, of his words
were heard and believed.

“
I adore you, Jemima. My life belongs with you,” Peter
whispered feeling old and weary, his voice choked with emotion.
“I’d like to say, let’s go home, but at the moment we have no way
out of here unless it is on foot, and I don’t know about you but I
have had enough of traipsing around the countryside for the time
being. Right now I want a nice warm bed, so I can get some
sleep.”

“
I’ve agreed to stay here with Harriett tonight,” Jemima
murmured, not wanting to offend her friend’s generosity by
expecting Peter to stay too.

“
We have got some rooms at the inn,” he informed her, smiling
gently. “It seems that the villagers are delighted we have rid them
of Scraggan.”

“
Are the Redcoats still in the village?” It was good to think
of something else for a change. Anything to help reduce the strange
numb feeling that she didn’t seem able to shake off.

“
Yes, they have finished their search, and are now camped out
in the harbour, in plain sight of everyone. The officers have gone
round to the women whose husbands were conscripted by Scraggan to
reassure them that their husbands will return soon.”

Jemima
began to cry, remembering the sobs of the children and babies, and
the wailing of the wives who were helpless to stop their husbands,
their only source of income, being dragged away.