The rope binding his hands suddenly broke. He dropped it, praying Jack would tramp over it without noticing. Then he kept his hands clasped together around the knife hilt, hiding the blade inside his sleeve. He must continue to appear bound until he could assess the situation.
The tunnel was already opening into the largest of the sandstone caverns. They entered to find a blond stick of a man barking orders to a half-dozen others who scurried to and fro, repackaging tobacco for transport to Stockwell and stowing anker tubs in hidden nooks. The well-remembered sight swamped him in a wave of nostalgia. This was what he’d come from, like it or not.
“Crouch,” Jack called out as they entered, “I’ve got a surprise for you!”
The blond man turned, and Daniel halted, slack-jawed to see the familiar features. Bloody hell.
Ten years had roughed Crouch up almost beyond recognition. The gray threading his blond hair was to be expected, since he must be past fifty now, but it was more than aging that had changed him. There was a stoop to his shoulders, and his skin seemed dried to his bones. The once-burly man looked as if any stiff wind might carry him off. Jack hadn’t lied about the man’s health, to be sure.
Crouch—his
uncle
, for God’s sake—looked as if he danced just this side of the grave. The thought staggered him. Despite all Crouch had done and was attempting to do, Daniel hated seeing him so ill.
The man had his good side, after all. He could’ve left Daniel in the workhouse to rot, but he hadn’t.
Crouch squinted through the murky darkness as he made his slow way to where they stood in the tunnel entrance. When he got close enough to see Daniel, he froze. “What in the divil—Is that Danny Boy?”
“Aye, it’s him, all right,” Jack said, laying his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “He’s come to pay us a visit, he has.”
“Hello, Jolly Roger,” Daniel said blandly. “Been a long time, hasn’t it?”
For a second, Crouch looked pleased to see him. Then anger clouded his features, directed at Jack. “Have you lost yer mind? You brought him
here
?”
“He didn’t give me much choice,” Jack retorted. “He was snooping around Sussex for the girl. Wallace’s gang stumbled across him and sent me word. You were at sea, so I did what I thought best. I sort of…took him prisoner.”
“You bloody arse—don’t you know that Knighton can’t be far behind? They wasn’t supposed to know we was tied up in this!”
“Danny already knew,” Jack protested. “He found out on his own.”
“Your man Pryce wasn’t careful enough covering his tracks,” Daniel said smoothly.
Crouch swore under his breath. Then he seemed to notice Helena. “And who’s this, pray tell?”
“His missus,” Jack answered.
A dry laugh rattled from Crouch. “So you’ve got a missus now, have you, Danny? Let me see her.”
Daniel tensed as Jack prodded her forward, but dared do no more than grit his teeth as Crouch ran his gaze over Helena. To his surprise, Crouch gave her a sketchy bow. “You’re Danny’s wife, eh?”
“Yes,” she lied with a proud tilt of her chin.
“Then you got your hands full. He’s a rascal, that one is.”
Daniel snorted. The pot calling the kettle black. “What do you intend to do with us?” he demanded.
“Don’t have much choice, I s’pose,” Crouch said. “I’ll have to take you with me.”
That startled Daniel. “Where are you going?”
“The Isle of Wight. As soon as Knighton returns to England, he’ll receive instructions from my man in London to go directly there. We’re leaving for it shortly. When Knighton arrives on the island, he’ll meet my man as we watch to make sure he’s alone. He’ll be able to see the girl from my ship, and this’ll keep him from sneaking men in to try and take me. As soon as the money is there, we’ll give him the girl.”
Crouch sighed. “Of course, now that you’re in it, he might think to come this direction first. But we won’t be here, and when he don’t find us, he’ll go where he be
longs. I’ll make sure he knows that the girl’s life is forfeit if he don’t.”
Daniel’s gut clenched and he saw Helena stiffen at his side. “So you’d stoop to murder.”
“Danny!” Crouch protested. “Damnation, boy, I thought you knew me better than that. I won’t lay a finger on her. But Knighton don’t know that. He thinks I’m the divil. It don’t matter what he thinks, long as he leaves that ransom the way he’s s’posed to. Because once I’ve got my money, I’m off for France.”
“What about me and my wife?”
Crouch averted his gaze. “Do as you’re told, and all will be well.”
A far too evasive answer for Daniel’s satisfaction. Go out to sea, where anybody could be thrown overboard without an ounce of suspicion? Hope that his uncle wouldn’t turn on him, the way he’d turned on Daniel’s parents?
Daniel wasn’t taking that chance. He didn’t trust Crouch that much, and certainly not with Helena’s and Juliet’s lives. Crouch could just as easily take the money, dispense with them, and be off to France as not. Then he’d never be taken, and he was bound to know it.
No, Daniel would have to make his move before they boarded ship. Now if only there weren’t so many bloody free traders milling about…
Crouch suddenly glanced across the cavern and smiled. “And here is Pryce with the girl, right on time for departure.”
Daniel looked up to see a young man coming out of a nearby tunnel, one of the others leading into the main cavern. Better dressed than the other men and carrying himself like a bloody lord, Pryce halted suddenly to scan the cavern. He kept Juliet behind him, but Daniel glimpsed enough to see that she was well.
Pryce’s eyes narrowed on Daniel and Helena. Then he turned to whisper to Juliet, who’d just caught sight of them, too. To Daniel’s surprise, Juliet didn’t cry out to her sister, which was what he’d feared. Instead, she drew nearer to Pryce, her gaze darting anxiously from Crouch to Jack.
Pryce thrust her farther behind him, but approached no nearer. “I see you have visitors, Jolly Roger.”
Crouch scowled at Pryce. “It’s Knighton’s man of affairs, Danny Brennan. He and his wife tracked you down, you fool. You were careless.”
“Apparently so,” Pryce said mildly, his gaze flicking to Helena. “His wife, is it?”
“Aye,” Crouch answered. “It seems Danny made the mistake of bringing her along.”
Daniel held his breath, waiting for Pryce to set Crouch straight, to explain that he had not one but two Knighton relations in his power.
But Pryce merely shifted his gaze to Daniel. “That was a mistake indeed, Mr. Brennan. You ought to know better than to carry your…er…wife with you into a den of smugglers.”
Helena’s sharp intake of breath said she was as surprised as Daniel to find Pryce concealing her identity.
“I thought it was an elopement,” Daniel retorted, “or you can be sure I would have left her behind.” What was Pryce up to? And why did he continue to stand back, keeping Juliet thrust behind him with one hand while the other remained shoved inside the pocket of his greatcoat?
“Does this mean that Knighton knows you’re involved?” Pryce asked Crouch.
“Probably,” Crouch retorted. “That’s why I’ll have to change the plan a bit, take Danny Boy and his wife with me, too. And you’ll have to stay here.”
Pryce stiffened. “Why? To serve as target practice for Knighton once he descends on Hastings with the soldiers?”
“I don’t think he’d be that stupid with the girl’s safety at stake, but I can’t be sure. So I need you to make it clear that he won’t get the girl unless he pays the ransom.”
“No,” Pryce said calmly.
Crouch drew his emaciated frame up taut like a bow string. “What d’you mean, ‘no’?”
“I mean, she isn’t going anywhere without me.”
“You’ll do as you’re told,” Crouch growled.
Pryce’s black eyes snapped. “I’ve kept my part of the bargain, Crouch. I brought her here without attracting attention. You, however, haven’t kept yours. So I’m not letting her out of my sight until you do. I’ll be happy to stay here to greet Knighton, but not until after you’ve given me what you promised.”
Good, a little dissension in the ranks can’t hurt,
Daniel thought. “Knighton will pay you better than Crouch ever could,” he called out to Pryce, hoping to stir it up further. “If you’ll get the girl out of here safely, there’ll be a hefty reward in it for you.”
From beside him, Crouch croaked out a laugh. “Nice try, Danny, but Pryce don’t want money. What he wants, only I can give him.”
Crouch nodded to Jack, who moved toward Pryce.
Pryce whipped out a pistol and aimed it at Jack, and the blood drained from the older man’s face.
Pryce had chosen his position wisely. In the mouth to the tunnel, he had an escape route, for the complicated tunnels would delay pursuit. He could be outside with Juliet before they even got near him.
“Now, Morgan,” Crouch wheedled, “why do you want to go and do something foolish like this?”
“Give me what I want, Crouch,” Pryce merely repeated.
Though Daniel found this discussion more fascinating by the moment, he wasn’t about to let this chance go by. He could already see the other free traders coming in their direction, having finally noticed the little drama taking place on the other end of the cavern. So while everybody was preoccupied with Pryce, he sidled closer to Crouch, the knife firmly in his grip.
Crouch’s ravaged features were mottled with rage. “You blasted fool! You didn’t do your part! You were found out, and now I’ve got to deal with Danny Boy and change all my plans!”
“Nonetheless,” Pryce said calmly, still keeping Juliet behind him and his pistol steadily aimed at Jack, “you have Mr. Brennan and his wife—that gives you something with which to blackmail Knighton. And you’ll have the girl, too, if you do as you promised.” He stepped back into the tunnel. “If you don’t, I’m taking her out of here and you’ll never have her. I’ll make my own negotiations with Knighton.”
Daniel chose that moment to strike, darting behind Crouch to grab him about the waist and thrust the knife against his throat. “Helena, come on!” he barked as he dragged a cursing Crouch back toward the nearest tunnel. Big Antony lunged for Helena, but she brought her cane up into his jaw so hard Daniel heard both the jaw and the cane crack.
As she hastened to Daniel’s side, he muttered, “I’ve got to buy you a bigger cane, love.”
“I’d prefer a pistol,” she retorted as she swept behind him.
“Good idea. Come see what you can find in Crouch’s pockets. He usually carries a pistol when he’s in the caves.”
She quickly did as he bade, finding not one, but two. “An embarrassment of riches, it appears.”
“Very good, lass. You’ll make a fine smuggler’s wife yet.”
“I do my best.” She held them up. “Whom do I shoot?”
Bloody hell, the woman would probably do it, too. “No shooting yet, love. But aim one of them at Pryce.” Daniel met Pryce’s gaze with grim purpose, then called out, “Let Juliet come with me or I’ll have my wife shoot you.”
Pryce laughed. “You wouldn’t do that, and you know it. I feel fairly certain that your ‘wife’ has never shot anything in her life, and the likelihood that she’d risk hitting my captive is very small, I should imagine.”
Damn, but the man was clever. “How about this then? I’ll just slit Crouch’s throat and you’ll never get whatever it is you want from him.”
“Danny, you wouldn’t slit your own—” Jack began.
“Stubble it, Jack. I’ll do as I damned well please.” Now was not the time to let Pryce know that Crouch was Daniel’s uncle.
Yet Pryce still kept hold of Juliet. “If you kill Crouch,” Pryce countered, “you’ll force me to shoot Jack. Then neither you nor I will have anything left to bargain with, and we’ll both have a devil of a time escaping with the women.”
Escaping with the women? Was that his purpose? Or was this just his ploy to get Juliet away so he could “negotiate with Knighton,” as he’d put it?
Crouch’s men inched closer, and Daniel steadied the blade against Crouch’s neck. “Tell them to stay back, Crouch, or I swear I’ll cut you. You know I will, too. I fought you once before, and I’ll do it again.”
Crouch cursed him roundly, but ordered his men back.
“Now give Pryce what he wants,” Daniel barked, “so he’ll let the girl go!”
For a moment, everything froze in the cavern, each man judging the other’s determination, Crouch shaking as Daniel pressed the blade as firmly into the man’s flesh as he dared.
At last Crouch slumped against him. “Damn you, Pryce, you’re a bloody arse. Do with the information what you will. It’s the
Oceana
. July seventeenth.”
Daniel nearly throttled him for that enigmatic remark, but Pryce seemed to be well satisfied. “Are you sure? Because if you’re lying, you know I’ll find you and cut your heart out for it.”
“I’m sure. You got what you wanted; let Danny have the girl.”
Pryce’s lips curved up in a smile as his gaze met Daniel’s. “Not just yet. It seems to me, Mr. Brennan, that you have your hands full at the moment. So if you don’t mind, I’ll hold on to Lady Juliet a bit longer until I’m sure you will prevail. We’ll meet you outside.” He whispered to Juliet, and though she seemed to protest, he thrust her back into the tunnel.
“Pryce, come back here, damn you!” Daniel shouted, but Pryce shot his pistol into the roof of the tunnel mouth, raining sandstone down that quickly hid him and Juliet from view.
“Get him!” Crouch yelled to Big Antony, who started for the clouded mouth of the tunnel.
In that moment, Daniel made a split-second decision. Keeping the knife to Crouch’s throat with one hand, Daniel grabbed one of Helena’s pistols with the other and shouted, “Stop, or I shoot!”
At least the Italian understood
that
much English, for
he halted in his tracks. Jack did the same. Daniel returned the pistol to Helena. “Aim that at Big Antony, love. And keep the other on Jack.”
“But Daniel, what about Juliet?”
“God help me if I’m wrong, but I think she’s safer with Pryce than with Crouch.”
Pryce had been right—Daniel was hardly sure he could get Helena out safely, much less Juliet.
“I wouldn’t have hurt the girl,” Crouch muttered. “I swear it.”