My Lord Deceived (26 page)

“Unless they
had a deal whereby Harrison calls at the village and supposedly
finds nothing. If he helps himself and smuggles away the odd packet
of tea or sugar, who is going to object? The smugglers can hardly
report it to the magistrate.”

“But what would
be in it for Brian Meldrew?”

“Getting back
at the villagers?”

“Who receives
the main hoard though?”

“I have no
idea,” Jonathan sighed. “By the time I got to the cliff top and
located the bodies of the sailors, the cargo had disappeared off
the beach. I am fairly certain it didn’t go into the village. There
wasn’t the time or the people. Someone collected it and must have
waited nearby and watched it come ashore.”

“Who though?”
Stephen sighed.

“I don’t know,
but Harrison keeps looking for it.”

“He knows it is
around but just doesn’t know who has it.”

“But why
doesn’t he wait with his men and seize it when it arrives on the
shore if he knows when it is going to be delivered?”

“Exactly,”
Jonathan sighed.

They all stared
at each other.

“Unless,
Harrison stops the cargo on its way to the owner, seizes it and, on
the seizure inventory, doesn’t list all of the goods. That way he
gets to siphon off some for himself, has a list of seized goods to
back up his regular searches of the village, and makes himself a
tidy profit.”

“Have you
searched the Excise House yet?”

Jonathan looked
askance at him. “I have been back here three weeks now and have
spent my time just trying to unravel the secrets thus far. I have
been to and fro from Dadington more times than I care to count, but
I cannot be everywhere all of the time.”

“That’s where
we come in,” Stephen sighed. He glanced at Rupert. “Unless you have
any objection, I will take the Excise House.”

Rupert
shrugged. “I will go over to Dadington and see if Dubois or Barnard
have surfaced yet, or left a trail for us to follow.”

“I am going to
keep watch on the smuggling operation and see if I can identify a
few more of those involved in the village. There were a few that I
couldn’t identify because it was dark, there were hats and the
like.” He didn’t need to mention Kat’s name but from the looks that
passed between Rupert and Stephen knew that they understood. “Thank
you for that.”

“Don’t worry
about it,” Stephen sighed. “I am sure our turn will come.” He
wasn’t referring to problems with women. He had seen enough of the
troubles the rest of his colleagues had been subjected to while
they tried to secure their wives hands in marriage. There was no
way in hell he was prepared to go through the same ordeal for any
woman. Some men were destined to enjoy bachelorhood for all of
their lives, and that included him.

The men made
their way across the hallway toward the dining room where a
veritable feast awaited them. Jonathan ate somewhat absently and
almost choked on his soup when he remembered another vague snippet
of a clue that he had previously missed.

“What now?”
Rupert sighed and brushed splatters of soup off his jacket.

“Cloth,”
Jonathan murmured and stared blankly down the table. His fury grew
and his fist clenched around his spoon to the point that it started
to bend under his fingers. He knew his colleagues waited for an
explanation. All too carefully he placed his spoon back into his
bowl and paid no attention to the mangled state of the handle. “She
had a bolt of cloth propped up in the corner of the sitting room on
the first day I called at the house.”

“Cloth? What
type of cloth?”

“French
lace.”

Silence settled
over the table and Rupert sighed. Kat was indeed one of the
smugglers. He looked at the angry glint in Jonathan’s eye. If there
was one thing he was certain of, he didn’t relish being Kat when
Jonathan caught up with her.

He ate the rest
of his meal in thoughtful silence, and couldn’t help but wonder
whether this time, unlike the other members of the Star Elite,
Jonathan’s romance of the woman he loved would not end happily.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The following
morning Jonathan stood in the shadows between two taverns and
watched Kat work on her mother’s market stall. Tattersnell was a
hub of activity and occasionally people blocked his view, but he
had seen enough to know for certain that sold more than fruit and
vegetables.

Small brown
packages were handed over to several customers who paid more for
their vegetables than they ought to, even from the most expensive
stall holder. The last time he had checked, it hadn’t taken notes
to pay for a bushel of vegetables or half a basket of apples. He
studied the packages carefully. His fingers itched to know what was
inside them but he couldn’t think of a way to get hold of one
without alerting Kat and her mother to the fact that he was onto
their scheme.

He turned away
with a sigh and made his way toward their house. Rupert had already
gone to Dadington to look for Frenchmen, and Stephen was on watch
over at the Excise House. Jonathan had more than enough time to get
to Kat’s house in Bentney on Sea, and back to Tattersnell again
unhindered.

It was good to
know that he had his associates at his back. It was going to be a
difficult task to stop the villagers from smuggling, even with
Hamilton-Smythe working with him, but he still had a job to do for
the Star Elite.

At the rear of
Kat’s house, he watched the children play at the far end of the
alleyway, close to the harbour side. A few doors away an elderly
lady finished hanging her washing out to dry. After a quick glance
up and down the alley, Jonathan hurried through the gate and into
the back yard of Kat’s house. Once at the back door he studied the
lock with experienced eyes. Given what he knew about the way the
villages like Bentney on Sea worked, it was highly unlikely that
Kat locked her door.

To his
consternation, he was wrong. He rattled the latch, but the door
wouldn’t give. He eyed the lock carefully. He could kick it in, but
that would alert half of the neighbourhood and he was surprised he
had got thus far without arousing anyone’s suspicion.

With a sigh, he
eyed the window beside the door he took a small tool out of the
pocket of his great coat, and began to scratch at the window.
Moments later he hopped down into the kitchen and studied the room
before him. At first glance there was nothing untoward about the
kitchen, or the sitting room beyond that. Everything was neat and
tidy, and very clean. However, the further he dug around; into
cupboards, behind shelves and the like, the more his disgust
grew.

A search of the
ground floor revealed the brown paper and broadsheets they used for
the packages, along with several balls of twine. He wasn’t usually
responsible for doing the shopping but he was fairly certain that
his cabbages didn’t come neatly wrapped in brown paper packages. He
studied the kitchen for a moment but couldn’t see anything amiss.
The small bottle he had found in the kitchen cupboard contained
rum, not brandy. So why had Kat offered him brandy? Had she wanted
to tell him that she was involved, only couldn’t bring herself to
say the words out aloud, or had it been a mere slip of the
tongue?

He made his way
quietly upstairs and entered what appeared to be Billy’s room.
There was nothing untoward in there either. With a sigh he stalked
across the corridor into another bedroom, and stopped dead. One of
Kat’s dresses was draped haphazardly on the floor. An undergarment
draped over the end of the bed had small flowers scattered over it.
Even if he ignored the clothing, the room smelled of her. His body
immediately began to respond but he blanked out his eager response
to her scent that lingered in the air, and began a thorough search
of the room.

“Shit,” he
sighed. He shook his head and stared at the back of the drawers he
had pulled away from the wall. It had only been when he had slid
the drawer back into place after a thorough search of the contents
that he realised that the drawer was shallower than the top of the
dresser. He tugged the unit away from the wall and cursed when the
loose panel rattled. With his flick-knife, he removed the screws
and removed the panel. The boxes of tea and packets of sugar
secreted in the hidden compartment was all he needed to see. He
didn’t need to search the rest of the house, but he knew that he
bolt of cloth was hidden around somewhere.

When everything
was placed back to where he found it, he turned to study the room.
He wasn’t sure whether to be hurt, angry or just plain
disappointed. He was probably all three, but he couldn’t make sense
of which was the worst. Her lack of trust in him, her continual
lies, or the fact that she was one of the people he had spent the
last several years trying to eradicate from the country. Would
marriage to her make him a hypocrite? He wasn’t sure, but at that
moment didn’t rightly care much. She was going to be his wife, if
only so he could make sure that she stopped the bloody risks she
took and didn’t end up behind bars before he got her up the
aisle.

He clambered
back out of the window and secured it as best he could before he
made his way out of the yard. He was angry but also felt a thrill
of anticipation at the confrontation that lay ahead.

What he had
discovered today meant that he was now able to take one giant leap
forward in his drive to ensure Kat became his wife. As long as she
learned the lessons he was about to give her, then they would have
a very long and very happy life together.

If not, then
one of them was going to be broken hearted.

Back at
Tattersnell, Jonathan resumed his original position that overlooked
the stall. He was close enough to be able to watch the
transactions, and the purchasers, considerably more closely. It
amazed him just how furtive the transactions were. If he hadn’t
been watching closely, he would have missed the majority of them
just by the blink of his eyes. It was very clever the way that the
small brown packages were slipped into baskets under the disguise
of apples or bunches of carrots and, on one occasion, the large
leaves of a cabbage. It was very impressive to watch, and gave him
some idea of just how long they had been involved in the sale of
smuggled goods.

From the depths
of the shadows, he allowed his gaze to wander freely over the
market. People from all walks of life milled about. Posh ladies
held their skirts up to keep them out of the dirt while they
absorbed the sights and smells of the local market. Villagers from
miles around, dressed in their best, purchased the provisions they
would need to survive the forthcoming week or so. Farmers drove
their livestock through the crowds while children danced, played
and squealed with laughter when the odd chicken or pig broke loose
and ran amok.

He glanced down
when one gentleman walked past just a little too closely and stared
with a mixture of anticipation and horror at the all too familiar
face. A quick glance at Kat assured him that she was busy with a
customer. Agnes and Billy were just headed into the bakery. For all
intents and purposes, life was perfectly normal in Tattersnell.

Nobody had the
slightest idea that they had a French spy in their midst because,
unless Jonathan was very much mistaken, Beaulieu’s contact, Joseph
Bernard had just walked past.

Jonathan’s gaze
locked on the Frenchman as he weaved his way through the crowd with
a confidence that warned him that the foreigner was familiar with
the market. Once or twice he had to lengthen his stride to keep the
man in plain view as he dodged his way around the people. At one
point he lost contact and cursed the number of people that had
descended on the market. It wasn’t likely that the Frenchman was
here to do his shopping, so what the hell was he doing in
Tattersnell?

More
importantly, why hadn’t Jonathan noticed him before?

He followed the
man down an alleyway and out into a small lane at the back of the
houses that lined the main street. Vaguely, he heard someone call
his name but didn’t break his gaze from the back of Bernard’s head.
He used the shadows of buildings, and whatever cover he could find,
to follow the man to the outskirts of the village, all the way to a
nondescript cottage on the edge of town. He watched Bernard
disappear inside but knew that someone else was already in the
house, because they had clearly been keeping a look-out for
Bernard, and had opened the door to allow the man in before he had
even reached the front step. Unfortunately, it was too dim inside
to be able to see who that other person was, but Jonathan’s gut
feeling told him that it was Dubois, or one of the other French
spies still at large.

Loud pants from
behind him drew his attention and he quickly turned around. His
groan was loud at the sight of the eagerness on Billy’s face as he
raced toward him.

“I was calling
you, but you didn’t hear me,” the young boy gasped as he drew to a
stop beside him. The smile on his face grew hesitant when Jonathan
made no attempt to smile back, and merely scowled at the young boy
in consternation.

“Go back to
Kat, Billy, now,” Jonathan growled.

“I just wanted
to ask you if you could give me another riding lesson?”

Jonathan sighed
and fought the urge to shove the boy roughly in the direction from
whence he came. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he
was fairly certain that someone was watching him – them, but
daren’t turn around and take a look. With a sigh, he pushed Billy
into the sheltered protection of an alleyway and turned him roughly
around to face away from him.

“I said; go
back to Kat, Billy. Now,” he repeated. He glanced up and cursed
fluidly at the sight of Kat, who now stood at the end of the
alleyway watching them. “Get out of here, both of you.”