A Gentleman By Any Other Name (7 page)

“I would speak to you in the nursery, sir,” Julia said, and he nodded, knowing the only way out of this bedchamber was via that nursery and that Julia Carruthers would probably physically tackle him if he attempted to leave without listening to her as she gave her opinion on whatever was sticking in her craw.

Mrs. Jenkins, nipping gin and all, would have made a safer choice. Any woman who had not been raised near the coast in Kent would have been a better choice. Someone oblivious, someone who would keep her nose in the nursery and her opinions to herself.

But he had picked Julia Carruthers. And this woman
knew.
But did she know enough to watch her tongue?

If he managed to stifle her now, it would be only a temporary victory—and perhaps a very costly one, as well. For Julia was certain to pick at him and pick at him until she'd said what she felt needed to be said—probably at the most inopportune time and in the most dangerous company.

Chance retrieved his greatcoat and hat and followed Julia as if he were a schoolboy summoned to the headmaster's office. Once they were in the nursery, he stood with his back to a piebald hobby horse he could remember as Cassandra's favorite and ruled his expression unreadable.

And, fool that he was, he'd hope that Julia had some budget of complaints about something other than what had been made so glaringly and disgustingly obvious to him. “Well?”

Julia's heart was pounding so loudly she was sure he could hear its every beat. She pointed in the general direction of the center of the house and said, “You know what's going on here? This Jacko person? And Billy? I never thought that Billy…although I should have…I've seen many a man like him walking the streets of Hawkhurst. They're seamen—at least, they were. And men who have been to sea very often feel a kinship for the smugglers. Georgie and his brothers did a very dangerous and stupid thing that could bring trouble raining down on everyone. What's really going to happen to Johnnie and Dickie? Are they in danger here?”

Chance clenched his hands into fists. She was going to ruin everything.

He had to shut her up. Now.

“I believe I can see where that vivid imagination of yours is taking you. Yes, Billy and Jacko were once sailors, years ago, and came here to Romney Marsh when we left the islands. But Billy's far too lazy and Jacko far too fat and happy here for either of them to care about anything but their own comfort. This is Becket Hall, not your childhood home in Hawkhurst. You're exhausted, Julia, darling, and our adventure on the Marsh and your very natural fatigue have made you fanciful,” Chance said, still with his back to the door and as, with eye shiftings accompanied by jerks of his thumb, he directed her attention to that open door.

Darling?
Julia took a step back. What on earth? Someone was out there? Someone was listening?

And then she shut her eyes, realizing the mistake she'd made, before opening them wide again, looking straight into Chance's face. “That is…oh, I don't know what's wrong with me. Those poor boys, come upon by robbers out there on the Marsh. A person who grows up in Hawkhurst hears stories of the old days, you understand, and I was so tired, tending to Alice all day—she's a sweet child, but her own fatigue made her a little fractious, didn't it? I'm so sorry…” She took a deep breath, let it out in a rush and pushed on, taking her cue from him. “Dearest Chance. I'm seeing bogeymen, aren't I? That will teach me to allow my imagination to wander.”

“Yes, it will, won't it,” Chance said, looking into Julia's frightened eyes and marking the rather alarming lack of color in her cheeks. She might be pluck to the backbone at times, but she could also topple in a faint at any moment. “But Alice is asleep now and we're alone. Just let me close this door so no one disturbs us. I haven't kissed you in hours.”

Well, that brought the color back into her cheeks!

“But…but don't you think you should seek out your father…that is, Mr. Ainsley Becket? Jacko must have told him you've arrived.”

“He can wait. They can all wait. I can't,” Chance said in a near growl, walking over to the door to the hallway now that he'd given anyone who might have been listening time to hide out of sight. He stepped into the hallway himself, and it was empty, as he'd expected, then backed into the room and closed the door. Locked it.

“Was…was anyone out there?” Julia asked, whispering.

He could say no. But that wouldn't put the fear of God into her, would it? Besides, he knew Jacko. Jacko may have the size of a bear, but he moved like a cat. He knew the man had been there listening. “Yes, I saw Jacko, the back of him, sneaking into a room down the hall.”

“Oh, good God in Heaven,” Julia said as she clasped her hands in front of her to keep them from shaking. “Do you think he heard me?”

Chance stepped closer. “I'm sure he did, but you didn't say anything too dangerous. You're concerned for the idiots we brought with us, that's all. Ease your mind on that head at least, please. The boys and their family will be leaving the Marsh in the morning. I'm having them sent north, to my estate near Coventry, well clear of here. Now say whatever else it is you feel you must say and then we won't discuss any of this again.”

Julia backed up two paces, because he was standing so close and she was suddenly very aware that he had earlier called her “darling.” She mined her brain for the list of questions she had for him and came up with the first that she recalled. “Why is Billy your coachman? He's an atrocious coachman.”

Chance smiled. “I knew you'd have questions, but I hadn't considered that one. But fair enough. Billy is my coachman because I choose that he be my coachman—and probably because he believes his life's work is to protect me, from only God knows what.”

“He still walks as if he's on a rolling deck,” Julia said, hoping to ease the tension that seemed to be increasing between them, a tension that had little to do with the questions in her head or the growing fear in her heart.

“He does that, doesn't he?” Chance said, smiling. “Jacko was also a sailor, as you already guessed. Ainsley was a sailor. Most anyone you encounter here at Becket Hall might have gone to sea at some time. After all, we lived on an island. But that's all it is, Julia. When we left the islands and came here, everyone gave up the sea. They gave up anything to do with the sea. Do you understand me?”

“You're telling me that no one at Becket Hall is associated with the smugglers or even knows or cares about them. I understand.” She bit her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked at him, as everything seemed to fall into place for her, the pieces of the puzzle now all fitting together tightly, showing her a picture she'd rather not see. Did he think her a fool? “They know you are a part of the War Office.”

“Yes, they do,” Chance said, his expression going dark, unreadable. “And the war is on the continent, not here in Romney Marsh.”

Why did she keep pushing at him? But she had to know. “True enough. But the Owlers are here, and they trade with the enemy. Did you really bring Alice to Becket Hall because you believe she should be here or are you using your own daughter as an excuse to spy on the smugglers for the king?”

“One does not necessarily make the other true. I had only planned to bring Alice home. And, my dear, as it stands, I don't have to justify my actions to you.”

“No, you don't. But please don't dismiss me as some foolish London society miss who has no notion of what can happen here. Do you know the history of the Hawkhurst Gang? You made mention of my birthplace, but I doubt you know all that I know. The worst of it happened a long time ago, but the stories still are told and retold in Hawkhurst.”

“I only know that some five or six men were hanged in chains for murdering a king's officer, their bodies strung up along the roadway for all to see. But that was—what?—sixty years ago?”

Julia nodded her agreement. “They butchered one of their own at the same time, a man who was going to give the king's testimony against the gang. The gang had grown too large, too powerful. Smuggling isn't only a dangerous but necessary occupation for desperate people wishing to feed their families. Many people became very rich, both here and in London.”

“The government destroyed the Hawkhurst Gang, and many more like them. There are better patrols now, Julia, more troops assigned to capture smugglers. The Crown has the situation under control—or will very soon. The war and the shortages war causes have simply stirred things up for a while, that's all.”

Julia wasn't convinced and was far from satisfied with his reasoning. Hadn't she only a fortnight ago drunk the last of the contraband tea left at the church just days after her father's funeral? She had to make him understand.

“The Hawkhurst Gang thought nothing of murdering people who got in their way, people who saw too much, said too much. People like Dickie and Johnnie. People like us, who have stumbled over what they'd done. And from what Dickie said, it would seem there are more large gangs out there now who could be very much like the Hawkhurst Gang. This Black Ghost, for one.”

Chance felt a tic beginning in his left cheek. “You never heard that name, Julia. Never. Never so much as think it again. And I won't keep you here if you're going to worry yourself to death. I can send you back to London tomorrow morning, if that's what you want.”

Julia shook her head, feeling suddenly stubborn. “Not unless Alice travels with me.”

Chance cursed under his breath as he stabbed his fingers through his hair. “Do you honestly think I would let Alice come to any harm? This is my
family,
Julia. It may not seem so to you so far, but they would kill for me, and I would kill for them. Any one of them. And I would never harm them. Never. Jacko and Billy? I consider them family, as well. Everyone at Becket Hall is family. No matter how stupidly they—”

Julia watched as Chance brought himself back under control. She longed to ask the
real
question: did he think members of his own family had joined the smugglers? Because she'd certainly gotten that impression through his few terse comments to her in the coach after they'd found the boys.

And yet, was that so terrible? Her own father allowed contraband to be stored in his church before the smugglers could move it inland. Everyone in Romney Marsh and other coastal areas, in some way, large or small, was involved with the smugglers, knew some of the smugglers, benefited from the goods that were left as payment for the use of an outbuilding or the loan of a horse. Her best gown, the yellow silk, had been fashioned from a bolt of cloth left for her at the vicarage one night.

“The matters of business that will keep you here for a few weeks,” Julia asked, “do they have anything to do with the smuggling trade? No, please don't answer. I shouldn't have asked. We shouldn't even be having this conversation. Not any of it.”

Chance smiled at her. “At last. Yes, Julia, we shouldn't be having this conversation. But I will tell you, I am not here to run about, hoping to capture smugglers and bring them to Dover Castle to be tried and hanged. I'm only charged with speaking to the Waterguards and such up and down the coast, hopefully putting some of the fear of God into them so that they will do what needs to be done. Because they certainly haven't yet, have they, or Georgie would still be alive and thinking of no more than hoping to steal a kiss from some young girl.”

Julia nodded, agreeing with him. The pity of the smuggling trade was not only that it was so necessary to survival but that generations of Marshmen knew no other way to feed their families.

“I…I suppose you should go downstairs. Your…your father may be waiting to see you.”

“I'm sure he is, along with at least one of my brothers. As I remember it, your chamber is over there, on the other side of the nursery. Will you be all right? No bad dreams about bogeymen coming to truss you up and toss you in the Channel?”

“I believe they buried the king's man alive as he stood in a hole and tossed the other man down a dry well, then dropped rocks on him until he stopped moaning. But as you said, that was long ago.” Julia hugged herself, rubbed at her arms as a chill overcame her. “No, I'll be all right. I believe you. That all happened very long ago. The world is much more civilized now. Besides, Billy has vouched for me,” Julia said. “Good night, sir.”

Chance let her get nearly to the door to her chamber before he stopped her, turned her around at the shoulders. “Jacko overheard us, remember? The man gossips like an old woman. By noon tomorrow, they'll all think we're lovers. That means you're mine, and no one associated with Becket Hall would even think to harm anyone or anything that's mine. I'm sorry I could come up with nothing better, but at that moment it was the only thing I could think of to…well, to shut you up. Do you want me to tell them otherwise?”

At last he had come close to admitting that, yes, there could be danger here at Becket Hall because of what they'd seen and heard on the Marsh. Julia felt her heart begin to race again and willed herself to be calm. “I knew what you were doing, once you did it. But I'm only the nanny. No one will care what our…association might be.”