Smuggler's Kiss (27 page)

The light was fading. Before long, we’d be sailing into Durdle with the last run of contraband. I would be needed above decks to look out for the signal, and I intended to be there as though nothing had happened.

I bathed my tear-stained face and my red eyes in the tepid water that lay from this morning in my can. I packed my two gowns neatly into a small canvas bag and laid it on the end of my bunk. Then I combed my hair and hid it neatly in a boy’s cap.

I was ready to face them all again. Taking a deep breath, I stepped out into the spring evening. There was a mildness in the air that surpassed any of the signs of spring we’d felt up to now. The fresh breeze blew on my heated cheeks and cooled them.

Harry looked up as I stepped into the galley. ‘You look like you could do with a tot of rum,’ he remarked, shaking the half-full bottle at me.

I shook my head. ‘You know I don’t like liquor,’ I said. ‘Do you have any small beer? I’m very thirsty.’

Harry glanced again at my reddened eyes, but said nothing; instead turning way to pour me a mug of the weak ale.

The door banged open and Hard-Head Bill, Sly Pete, and Slippery Sam all came in and took seats at the furthest bench. Hard-Head Bill sent me a look of dislike as he passed. Why did they have to come in now? This was one of the last times I would see Harry.

Without being asked, Harry began pouring out a measure of rum for each of them.

I picked up my beer. Behind me, I could hear the men starting to talk about Will. Their voices were low but still angry. I couldn’t catch more than a couple of words.

Harry pushed three beakers towards me and nodded towards the men. ‘Hand them theirs will you, Isabelle?’ he asked. ‘Sooner they drink up, the sooner they’ll go.’

I carried the cups across the swaying floor of the galley. Sam was shuffling a pack of cards, looking bored, Pete was leaning forward listening intently to Bill who was still muttering fiercely. ‘I tell you, I know who he is. I’ve known all along. And what’s more I know
what
he is.’

‘Heard it all before, Bill,’ said Sam, flipping a card as I approached the table. He glanced up at me, but Bill was sitting with his back to me and didn’t notice.

‘A
murderer
!’ he growled at Sly Pete, ignoring Sam. ‘That’s what.’

I went cold and then hot in shock. For a moment I was still, the rum shaking in my hands. Then I banged the beakers down on the table in front of him. He didn’t jump; he simply raised his eyes to mine.

‘Liar,’ I said softly.

‘Listen to yourself,’ snarled Hard-Head Bill. ‘Spoiled beauty, defending your lover-boy. Well, he’s been busy looking out for you all winter, hasn’t he? What sort of favours have you been giving the murderer in return, eh?’

‘It’s not like that!’ I said angrily.

‘What is it like then? Married girl too good to fall in love with a handsome young lord?’ Bill taunted me. He looked at his friends. ‘What do you reckon, lads? Do we believe her?’

The colour rushed to my face at the knowledge of how easily I’d betrayed my feelings. Did every man on board believe me in love with Will? What did Will himself think? I cringed.

‘You shan’t tell such vile lies about him,’ I told Hard-Head Bill, ignoring his taunts.

‘Lies, is it?’ Bill grasped my wrist, pulling me down to his level. He spoke softly, his rum-soaked breath on my face. ‘Why don’t you ask him?’ he sneered. ‘Ask him what happened to the young lord went missing after a maid and her baby was murdered. Ask him what he knows about how rich toffs hush up scandals and get their sons away from trouble when they go bad. Go on: ask him what he’s doing here where no one wants him and his like. We don’t want you, neither, bringing trouble on us.’

‘What’s up, men?’ asked Harry from the other side of the galley. Hard-Head Bill released me. I shuddered and fled back to Harry.

‘Don’t listen to Bill,’ he said, pushing my mug back into my shaking hands. ‘He’s full of it.’

I tried to sip, but my hands trembled so the beer slopped out of the cup. I felt sick. ‘It’s nonsense, isn’t it, Harry?’ I asked. ‘Will isn’t a … a murderer!’

Harry shrugged. ‘Not that I ever heard,’ he said easily. ‘Besides, I judge a man by what I see, not by gossip. And what I’ve seen in Will is a good shipmate.’

I was still shaken and unsteady when I went back out on deck. ‘You looking out for that signal, lass?’ Jacob asked as he saw me. ‘Due in about ten minutes now.’

I nodded and swung myself up into the rigging, climbing towards the look-out. As I pulled up towards it, however, I saw Will already standing there. I froze for a moment, furious and embarrassed that I’d not checked who was up here. Then I swung away, crossing to the right and hanging in the rigging, my eyes fixed on the shore. Will didn’t call to me and I took care not to look in his direction again.

We both spotted the all-clear flink at the same moment; calling out simultaneously and pointing. We studiously ignored each other. The estrangement between us caused me to wink tears away again. I gritted my teeth fiercely. No weakness; I must show no weakness now. I owed it to my pride to show a brave face.

‘Isabelle!’ Will’s words, even spoken softly, reached me over the wind and waves. I looked up at him. Meeting his blue eyes gave me a jolt somewhere in the region of my heart. ‘Why did you lie to me?’ he asked.

‘I didn’t lie,’ I told him desperately. ‘I even tried to tell you … ’ I looked away. This was too painful.

Will swung down off the look-out and stood beside me on the ropes. ‘Am I so hard to trust?’ he asked, his voice hurt.

‘At first you were,’ I retorted. Will turned his face away, biting his lip.

‘I mistrusted you,’ he admitted. ‘And resented you.’

‘But you expected me to trust you?’ I asked him.

‘Later perhaps. We were friends, weren’t we? I’m beginning to doubt everything.’

‘We were friends,’ I replied in a constricted voice

Unexpectedly, Will laid his cold hand over mine. I felt my heart lurch with pleasure. How dare Bill put such dreadful doubts in my head? Will was both honest and true, I was certain of it. You only had to look into his clear eyes to see it.

‘I’m sorry for my anger towards you earlier,’ said Will. ‘But Isabelle.
Married
. It’s such a … it’s so … ’

‘Final?’ I asked him. It was a relief to speak openly at last and it was a relief to speak about anything that drew my thoughts from Bill’s dark, accusing words. ‘I know.’

‘You weren’t wearing a ring,’ Will said, his voice unsteady.

‘I was. It must have slipped off my finger in the cold water. It was a bit loose. I’m … I’m so sorry, Will.’

Will nodded, not meeting my eyes. ‘So am I,’ he said quietly. ‘But, Isabelle, why did you marry him? If it made you so desperate that you wished to take your own life afterwards? Did your parents force you?’

I shook my head, my lips tightly pressed together. ‘I wanted to marry. To help them. He had agreed to make a generous settlement. They wouldn’t be so poor. But then … Oh, I can’t tell you,’ I said, tears starting in my eyes. The door that haunted my dreams loomed large and dark in my mind. The door I had shut everything behind; that I never wanted to open again. My face started to burn. ‘It’s too … too dreadful,’ I whispered.

‘Try?’ asked Will gently.

I shook my head vehemently. I was too ashamed to even look at my memories, let alone share them. I’d hidden so much for so long. I started to cry.

Will put an arm around my shoulder and spoke into my ear, his breath warm on my cheek: ‘You are not the first person to sacrifice their lives for their family. It seems like such a noble act, but it can be harder to live with the consequences than you expected.’

Dimly, I thought he sounded bitter; as though he had experienced something of the kind himself. But I was too wrapped up in my own distress to question him. ‘You should have explained,’ Will whispered. ‘It wasn’t fair.’

His words suggested he felt something for me. Something that could never be. I couldn’t bear it. Tears spilled hot and salty down my cold cheeks. I was leaving tomorrow and we would never see each other again. There was no choice. No alternative.

What was worse, I now knew that any hope I might have nurtured of being taken back on board
The Invisible
next autumn was gone. There was no chance at all that the men would risk my husband’s wrath.

I fought to control my misery. I needed to be glad that whatever rage Will had felt against me for my deception was over. But it was a bleak comfort. The parting, unavoidable and irrevocable, still lay before me.

The ship heeled as we came about to head into the bay, throwing me against Will. His arm tightened around me, holding me close against him in the cold wind.

We were sweeping into the bay by the time I was able to look up again, the sea creaming white beneath our keel. I mastered my tears. Will let go of me to pull out a telescope and through it he surveyed the shore. I watched him, and felt indignant, remembering Bill’s words. ‘Do you know,’ I began indignantly, ‘what Bill is saying of you?’

‘What?’ asked Will absently.

The grey stone arch loomed out of the water to our starboard side, glinting in the moonlight and casting a black shadow onto the water. I could see the landers on the beach, standing waiting.

‘He said … ’ I stared at the landers and forgot what I’d been going to say. The sight of them standing on the beach struck a discordant note. Normally they didn’t show themselves so openly until we were in and unloading. Something was wrong.

I stared at them in the gloom, straining my eyes to pick out familiar figures. They were definitely landers, not soldiers. I could make out the shape of their smocks. There were no uniforms there. ‘There’s something strange,’ I murmured out loud. Will was still scanning the beach through the telescope. Then he left my side, clambering swiftly higher to get a clearer view past the sail.

We approached closer to the shore. The beach shelved very steeply here and we could get to within a few feet of the shingle. I glanced up at Will above me and saw he was studying the men one by one. I wasn’t the only one who was uneasy, though the men below were making ready to unload as usual.

One man on shore had something sticking up behind him. It wasn’t ropes. It was surely a rifle strapped to his back?

‘Will, they aren’t … ’ I began urgently.

Before I could finish my sentence, Will shouted ‘Ambush!’

For a moment, there was chaos on the decks. Some men froze, others began at once to take various evasive measures, not all compatible. The skipper looked up at Will and at me.

‘Soldiers!’ shouted Will frantically. ‘Disguised as landers!’

The skipper looked at me. ‘Isabelle?’ he asked. I hesitated. I’d not had the close-up view that Will had had and it was too dark to be certain. But I too felt something was wrong. ‘I think he’s right!’ I called down.

‘Turn the ship about!’ bellowed the skipper. He ran to take over the wheel, whilst the crew swarmed up into the rigging to raise the sails once more. The boat that had been lowered into the water was tethered and left. With infuriating slowness,
The Invisible
swung around into the wind away from the shore. But we’d come close in; right into the bay, almost to the shingle.

The men on the beach could see now what was happening. Doubtless they’d heard our shouts too. At first they had continued to play their part; standing innocently on the beach waiting for the contraband. But as soon as we began to move off, they fell into a well-disciplined line, dropping onto one knee, and pulled the rifles onto their shoulders. Despite their smuggling apparel, there could no longer be any doubt what they were.

‘Halt in the king’s name and surrender!’ shouted one of them. I felt sure it was Lieutenant Oswald and cursed him silently. When we continued to glide away from the beach, picking up speed, a volley of shots were fired. I felt one whistle close to my left ear and ducked in shock. The sound of splintering wood echoed around me as the balls lodged in the timbers of the ship. Sly Pete dropped from the rigging to the deck below me with a cry, clapping one hand to his shoulder. I swung down the rigging, seeking the relative safety of the deck.

‘All canvas!’ shouted the skipper. ‘Full speed!’

We were pulling away now, the open sea before us, promising us safety. But before we could clear the cove, a ship hove into sight on our starboard side. She cleared the headland to the right of the bay and sailed into plain view, her guns already run out. Will’s telescope was immediately trained on her. ‘Navy sloop!’ he cried out, having seen the colours she was flying.

The skipper turned
The Invisible
to port, hoping to slip out past her. We were swifter than she was, and more manoeuvrable with our fore-and-aft rigging. ‘We may yet have the advantage,’ said Jacob anxiously, looking critically at the passage between the sloop and the open sea.

A Revenue cutter slid out from the other headland. We were trapped. ‘Treachery,’ muttered Jacob. ‘We’ve been betrayed.’

‘But surely it wasn’t Will?’ I asked uncertainly, recalling the arguments.

Jacob shrugged. ‘I don’t want to believe it,’ he said. ‘But if not he, then who?’

The skipper was staring helplessly at the two ships approaching. We were caught in the jaws of a trap: two ships in front of us barring our escape route, and the soldiers lined up on the beach ready to shoot any who tried to escape that way.

‘So much trouble for a few free-traders,’ he muttered. ‘This isn’t normal.’

‘We’ve been too successful, damn it,’ said the pilot. ‘And this time there’s no clever way past them. They’re determined to put a stop to us.’

The skipper shook his head. ‘It’s not just that,’ he said. ‘People in powerful places have pulled strings here. The Revenue can’t command all this firepower to capture one ship.’ He sprang into action, turning to face the crew. ‘Ditch the kegs!’ he called out. ‘All the contraband over the side.’

‘Aren’t we going to fight?’ demanded Slippery Sam ‘We’ve got guns as good as theirs.’

‘No,’ ordered the skipper decisively. ‘If we could fight and run, then maybe. But we’re trapped. Firing the guns would make this a hanging matter. We need to get everyone off safe now. To hell with the ship. It’s not ours anyway.’