Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 02] (43 page)

“Bless you, so we’ve been told this very day, ma’am, but I’m wondering how you came to discover it. I know for a fact that Sir Antony has not been at home today.”

She did not answer, hoping he would assume she required all her concentration to make her way back up the steep, narrow track without slipping. When they reached the main path along the cliff top, she said, “I left a horse nearby, Mr. Oakes.”

“I presumed as much, ma’am. One of my lads will have moved it, I’m sure. We are trying to keep the area hereabouts as quiet as possible, though we’ve a pretty accurate notion as to who is about and who is not.”

“You’ve been watching then,” she said. “I looked down here from my window earlier, but I saw no activity, and since I was unsure if my information was correct, I rode first to see if there was activity on the Devil’s Sand.”

“If I might be so presumptuous as to ask, my lady, does Sir Antony know you have acquired this habit of riding about at night all by yourself?”

“Where is he?”

“Below, watching for one who might well manage to slip past us. He’s done so in the past, I’m afraid.”

“Michael Peryllys?”

“The same. And again, I’m wondering—” He broke off with a low chuckle. “Ah, but I am forgetting that you are the one who set young Jenifry Breton free. You’ll be knowing the worst about Michael.”

“I know he has done murder.”

“Aye, young Annie, and mayhap others before her, if we but knew it. Hush now about that, for here’s Gabriel coming now, with a couple of my lads.”

She saw figures approaching, and when they met, before anyone spoke, Oakes drew them farther away from the cliff path. Despite the darkness, Charley saw enough of James Gabriel’s expression to know that her presence had astonished him.

He obeyed Oakes’s gesture for silence until they were some distance from the path, but then he exclaimed in an undertone, “What mischance brings you here, my lady?”

“No mischance, Mr. Gabriel. I chanced to discover that your information was slightly in error, and came to see for myself what mischief was afoot.”

“As to error,” he said, “we cannot be wholly certain yet that the Duke is safe. Those lads on the beach will take their booty where they find it, and if Wellington’s ship should appear first …” There was no need to finish. His meaning was clear.

She said, “How many men have you got with you, Mr. Oakes?”

“Twenty, my lady, scattered here and about.”

“Will they be enough?”

Gabriel said with annoyance, “We should have ordered up a full military troop.”

Ignoring him, Oakes said, “I hope we have enough, ma’am. I didn’t dare trust anyone else, not with His Grace coming and all. I just hope and pray that lot below haven’t told the whole countryside to expect a wreck in the bay, but I think they’ll want to take the best for themselves first, since they’ve lured it here by knavery.”

“You think they intend somehow to run it aground?”

“I do. It was bound for Falmouth, and they have already taken steps to force it off course. But I ought not to be talking with you about such things. With so little wind, we ought not to be talking at all. Perhaps you would like me to provide a couple of my men to see you safely home again,” he added diplomatically.

Charley said firmly, “I am not going home, Mr. Oakes. To take away any of your men when they are sorely needed here would be quite unconscionable of me.”

“Now, my lady, I am persuaded Sir Antony would say you should go home.”

“He is quite right,” Gabriel said testily. “Sir Antony would insist!”

“I don’t agree. Sir Antony is one of the most reasonable men I have ever met. I think if he were to weigh the cost of reducing your force by the number of men you would think necessary to send with me, against the advantage of having one more person here to help, he would say that since I am here, I ought to stay.”

Gabriel gasped, and a strangled sound from Mr. Oakes indicated that that good man had stifled his first, impulsive reply. She gave him full marks for good sense, but he said with obviously forced calm, “I don’t know that Sir Antony would say that, ma’am. Nor do I know what help you could be to us in a fracas.”

“In a physical fracas, probably none,” Charley said frankly. “I’m not nearly large enough to hold my own against desperate men determined to win free. However, if you will be so kind as to return my pistol, I can keep watch from here and engage to keep anyone who ought not to leave from doing so, at least by that trail yonder.”

“Nonsense,” Gabriel snapped. “Keeping lookout is no job for a mere woman.”

“If we are not to fall out,” Charley said flatly, “do not let me hear you speak again of
mere
women, sir. A trigger does not know male from female, and I promise you that no man climbing that trail will argue with me. I am too well known in these parts for any one of them to doubt my willingness to shoot him.” Choked laughter from one of the shadowy figures was hastily stifled.

Clearing his throat, Oakes said, “I don’t doubt your ability, my lady, and nor do I deny that we’ll need every man once we begin making arrests. But I’ll require your assurance—your word of honor, if you don’t mind—that you will stay put and not try to follow us to the beach. I could never reconcile it with my conscience were you to get involved in what is like to be a most violent situation. Nor would Sir Antony forgive me, whatever you say to the contrary.”

“I won’t dispute that,” Charley said, not even wanting to think of what Antony would say if she should appear in the midst of a battle against the wreckers. “May I say, however, that you are one of the first men I’ve met who believes a woman
has
a sense of honor?” she added. “Generally, if a woman says she does, men laugh at her.”

“One has only to meet you, my lady, to know you are woman of your word.”

After that, even if she had considered defying him, she knew she would not. Not only would she have Antony’s displeasure to face, but to fly in the face of trust so freely given went against everything she believed in.

Suddenly, Gabriel said, “On the horizon, Oakes! There, to the southwest, against the horizon, bearing straight toward us.”

Charley saw the pinpricks of light at once, and she saw, too, that lights began to spring up all along the coast. In the mist, she knew the merchantman must be closer than it appeared, for them to see it at all. She knew, too, that the mist would distort the lights along the cliff tops, making it difficult to tell one set from another. The twin lights at the Lizard, normally visible from Seacourt Head, and which many ships used as landmarks when entering the Channel from the Bay of Biscay, were not discernible to her now. If they could be seen from the ship, they must, she knew, appear much the same as other lights along the coast. All the captain would know was that he had entered the Channel. No one aboard would know their exact location.

“How did the wreckers intend to bring it in?” she asked.

“We are not certain,” Oakes said. “It is quite likely that they have at least one cohort aboard the ship, but it is also likely that they have suborned one of the pilot boats from a local port. We’ll know soon enough which it is. No one aboard that ship would know for certain in this mist, and with all them lights, where Fowey Harbor is, let alone where this here bay is to be found.”

“It will be a pilot boat, I think,” Charley said, explaining swiftly what Cubert Breton had said, without naming him.

“Aye, you’re right,” Oakes said a moment later. “There they come now.”

Charley had glanced away momentarily to see if the light on Seacourt Head blazed as brightly as the others. An annoying glimmer of an idea stirred in her mind, but she couldn’t catch the full thought, and before she could concentrate on it, the glimmer had died. The men around her shifted impatiently.

“Light below,” one said. “Quick on and then out. A signal, Mr. Oakes?”

“Yes, so I should think,” Oakes agreed. “We’ll need to be moving soon, before they see our boats.”

Charley said, “What if they have weapons aboard the pilot boat, Mr. Oakes? Could they not board the merchantman and force her to run aground?”

“Perhaps, but most merchantmen have ways of repelling boarders, especially from a much smaller craft like a pilot boat. I’m thinking it’s more likely the captain of the pilot will turn tail and run for it if he catches sight of the cutters. We’ve two in the water, sitting dark and watching for bigger ships. It’s as well the merchantman has shown itself. With this mist, if they’d had to wait much longer, they’d have had to light up so as not to be overrun by some unsuspecting, innocent ship. Wouldn’t do to have one of His Majesty’s revenue cutters creating a hazard in Channel waters. They’ll be moving in behind that pilot boat now, and if he shifts a degree off course once he’s got the merchantman in his wake, they’ll board him. Mark me, lads,” he added in a louder tone, “I want this lot below gathered up before they realize their race is run.”

“Ought to wait a bit and catch them red-handed,” Gabriel muttered angrily. “They all want hanging.”

“If you are suggesting, Mr. Gabriel, that I should allow that merchant ship to be wrecked with all its cargo, just to hang this little batch of thugs, I tell you I won’t do it. We’ve enough to charge them all with attempt, because they’ll have got their tools with them. No jury in these parts will mistake wreckers for honest fishermen.”

“No jury in these parts will condemn wreckers for
attempted
wrecking,” Gabriel snapped. “Hard enough to find any who would convict them of the real thing.”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong, sir, if you’ll pardon my saying so,” Oakes said. “Opinions have been changing hereabouts, thanks to men like the old earl. It’s slow but it’s sure. Attitudes change, even in Cornwall.”

“We’ll see that,” Gabriel growled. “We’ll get at least one, at all events. I want Michael Peryllys to pay for
all
his crimes. I want that devil hanged at the next Assizes.”

“I know that,” Oakes said grimly, “and we’ll get him.” They watched for a few more minutes before he gathered his men again and gave them their orders, sending a number of them to descend a second trail, which led to the beach near the Fowey end of the bay. A few minutes later, Charley saw a blue flicker in the distance.

“They’re set to move now,” Oakes said. “Come with me, Mr. Gabriel, and mind now, Lady Foxearth, you’re to stay here no matter what occurs below. I’ve no wish to be threatening a lady, but I think it only fair to warn you that if you do show your face on that beach, I won’t hesitate to tell Sir Antony that I gave you strict orders to stay here. And say what you will about him being reasonable, ma’am, I’ve never known a man yet who takes it kindly when his wife flings herself into danger against orders.”

A shiver raced up Charley’s spine at the thought of Antony’s anger, but she managed to keep her voice calm. “I have given you my word, Mr. Oakes.”

“Aye, you have, my lady, and I have agreed to accept it. Forgive me if my fear of Sir Antony’s displeasure stirred me to overstep the mark of civility.”

“No apology is necessary, Mr. Oakes. I’ll walk with you to the top of the trail, and perhaps you could just show me where you hid before, for it was a most effective hiding place. I was completely unaware of your presence until you grabbed me.”

“You were watching your step, ma’am, so it’s not so odd you missed seeing me. I’ve been thinking about that, and it seems to me that if you should see or hear someone moving downhill toward the beach, you should let him pass. If you fear he might take us unawares, just let off that popgun of yours once he’s well away from you. You will have the advantage over anyone coming uphill, you see, but downhill it’s a bit different. You’ll be safer then to keep mum, if you’ll take my advice on the subject.”

“I will,” she said. “I can fire two shots, so a warning shot won’t leave me unarmed. I’ve extra bullets, too, but I confess, I am not very adept at reloading under the best circumstances, let alone in the dark.”

“That don’t astonish me, ma’am, since few men are skilled at reloading a weapon in the dark. Ah, here is the boulder where I concealed myself. We’ll leave you now, and may I say I think you are a very brave woman.”

Watching him make his way down the path with his men and Gabriel, Charley was impressed by the silence with which they moved. She was certain she had made much more noise than they did, though she had been alone. She could not see any activity on the beach because the slope of the cliff face obstructed her view, and she found the silent darkness unnerving. Reminding herself that Oakes believed she was brave, she pretended that she was utterly intrepid, and pretended, too, that she had convinced herself as well as Oakes that Antony would not mind her staying to help.

In the distance, she could see the merchantman. It loomed larger and larger in the mist, and even she could tell now that it was off its course. Sailing into Falmouth Harbor, it would present a side view, for it would be sailing nearly due north from its present position. Instead, she faced its bow head on. The lights of a much smaller boat, the pilot, glinted far below the merchantman’s bowsprit light. Though she expected momentarily to see lights of at least two other ships, she saw nothing but dark water and sky. Overhead a few stars twinkled. A breeze stirred nearby shrubbery, but otherwise, except for the muted sound of the surf below, the night was still.

On the beach, Antony saw movement as men began to gather near the eastern end of the bay. It was nearing midnight. Even so, he wondered why the merchantman was so trusting of the pilot. Surely, they would expect to see more lights at Falmouth than they could see now. Catching the arm of a passing man, he said with his best French accent,
“Mon ami,
how is it they think they are sailing into a big port, eh?”

“Keep your voice down, Frenchie. We ain’t seen no sign o’ revenuers or customs’ lads, but it don’t do to be calling attention to what we’re about.”

“Ah,
oui,
but me, I did wonder,
sais-tu.”

“If you must know, your own people set this up, and they’ve a lad aboard yon merchant ship what’s told them all English townsfolk go to bed at sundown. Reckon they can’t see Land’s End at all in this mist, but word is they’ll be told the reason there be lights along the cliffs tonight is that we’re expecting the Duke o’ Wellington. Your French friends would like to meet him, I’m thinking.”