My Lord Deceived (29 page)

During his
visit earlier that day, Stephen had been able to practically walk
into the Excise House through the front door, and had made his way
through the main hall toward the back corridor unchallenged, thus
was the professionalism of the operation there. He had searched
Harrison’s office with a fine toothcomb, but had come up empty
handed and had left the building without any incident, or threat of
detection whatsoever. It had been ludicrously easy; as easy as the
search of Harrison’s house had been.

While Harrison
hadn’t been at home when Stephen had searched the house, the man
had managed to secure his home with a fervency that would have
befitted a banking establishment. Still, Stephen had managed to
find a way in and had retrieved the valuable papers they needed to
prove that not only did Harrison have a ship’s manifest that
detailed the cargo being delivered tonight, but manifests from a
lot of other deliveries. They included dates, and numbers of
barrels, boxes, crates and the like of which simply boggled the
mind. He had also uncovered a list of goods seized by the Excise
men but as yet had to uncover why Harrison had decided to keep
those lists at home rather than his office and had chosen not to
officially act on the information he had been given.

It hadn’t been
lost to Jonathan that his request to see the next tip-off that was
given to Harrison hadn’t materialised on his desk. It didn’t
surprise him one bit. Was that because Harrison didn’t want
Jonathan to know what was due to arrive? He thought about the cart
that carried the huge mound of goods off the beach, and the large
piles of items that were left on the dry sand. He wondered whether
those goods had been collected by Harrison and wished now that he
had kept a watch on the goods rather than look for bodies.

“I am
absolutely positive that I have to do this,” Jonathan replied
dourly. “I just need to identify whether Kat is there or not and,
if she is, get her out of there before Harrison’s men turn up.”

“Do you think
he will turn up tonight? The man hasn’t bothered with nightly raids
before, even though he is armed with delivery information.” Archie
sighed.

“I don’t know.
If he isn’t there tonight then we know he is going to search the
village in the morning.”

“But why wait
until morning?”

“Because he
doesn’t want the cargo to be seized,” Simon sighed around a yawn.
“He wants it for himself.”

“What?” Archie
paused and turned toward his friend.

“Who in the
hell would buy smuggled goods off an excise man?” Jonathan frowned.
Whatever the man was up to was undoubtedly illegal.

“Maybe he is
selling it back to the smugglers at an inflated price?” Simon
offered as he studied his boots.

“Jesus,” Archie
sighed. “You mean he is stealing off the smugglers and then selling
them their own goods?”

“I don’t know
for certain, but it is entirely possible. Who would report him?”
Stephen growled.

“It is a crime
he could get away with because of his position.”

“But why
continue to haunt Bentney on Sea the way he does? The man searches
practically daily. If he knows when they are due to arrive, why not
just wait at night and follow the goods home?” Jonathan scowled
deeply. He tried to remain calm and relaxed but his temper began to
surge at the two-faced duplicity of the man who had pestered Kat so
much.

“Hasn’t he done
that already?”

Jonathan shook
his head. “He wasn’t there when I watched the last operation.” He
nodded toward the manifests Stephen had found. “The list is there,
so he knew they were due to arrive. There was no sign of him or his
men on the beach or the cliff.”

“He wants the
goods for himself,” Rupert sighed as he shoved his feet into his
boots.

Jonathan paused
and stared into the fire. He wasn’t sure whether the need to
unravel the truth was down to the need to solve one set of
problems, or protect Kat. Whichever, it was vital that he kept his
mind on the task that lay before them. With a sigh he turned to
face his colleagues and watched while Rupert tied his boots on.

“We need to
search Harrison’s house for any sign of smuggled goods.”

“There is
nothing in his house.” Stephen’s voice was cold and hard. He had
searched every inch of the man’s house and had not found even a
packet of sugar.

“I know of a
few places the smugglers use to hide their goods,” Jonathan
growled. His thoughts turned to the places Kat and her family used
in their home. “One thing I have learned from Kat is that the
villagers are very inventive when it comes to hiding their goods.”
His voice was rough with unbridled anger and he jammed his feet
into his boots with more force than was necessary.

“Setting
Harrison aside for a moment: what do you want to do with the
smugglers we round up?” Rupert asked as he drew on his coat.

“I am going to
be deal with Kat personally if she is there. I am fairly certain
that she isn’t going down onto the beaches, that job belongs to the
men. But, I do know that one of the smugglers, a fisherman,
recently died while out at sea. They are one member down, at least.
I know that Kat has some of the goods but if she is down on the
beach, I intend to teach her a lesson she won’t forget in a
hurry.”

“What about the
others. We can round them up, what then?”

Jonathan
beckoned everyone closer and lowered his voice. The fire crackled
and popped as it flickered in the grate but none of the men paid it
the slightest bit of attention while they discussed the best way to
rid Bentney on Sea of crime.

Kat kept her
eyes on her feet as she followed the others down onto the beach.
The cold wind that came off the sea was accompanied by the sharp
sting of the rain that lashed down around them. Even from the
harbour side, she had heard the loud crash of the waves as they
pounded the shoreline. Now that they were on the beach the noise
deafened them to everything, and left them with no option but to
shout at each other, in spite of the risks.

She watched
Harry lift the lantern to signal the boats that waited out at sea.
In the darkness, she could see the faint flicker of a light from
the ship as it bobbed up and down, before it disappeared
altogether. She couldn’t help but wonder if the boats would bother
to try to fight their way through the surf. The last time they had
tried, they had lost one boat and all of its crew, although the
smugglers had managed to salvage the cargo out of the soggy
foreshore.

It seemed to
take an age before the first shadows of the boats became visible
through the gloom. She watched them dip and sway as they were
relentlessly dragged toward the shore.

Kat snuggled
further down into her coat and fought to keep her teeth from
chattering. She had been out for nearly an hour now and was already
soaked to the skin. The horses had started to shift restlessly
against the noise and their endless wait in the darkness. It was as
though they had sensed danger because they were usually as docile
as they came, but tonight didn’t seem able to stand still.

She tugged her
hat low on her brow and wished she was back at home in bed. Guilt
still weighed heavily on her. She had promised Jonathan she would
remain at home yet here she was, on a beach with a group of the
very people he was trying to eradicate. The thought of his reaction
if he ever found out what she was up to made her squirm. There was
no way out of her commitment though. She had promised the others
that she would take part in one last operation, and that was
exactly what she had to do.

At least
tonight was the last night.

Jonathan felt
the soft thud of footsteps and turned to watch Stephen move into
position. He studied the procession of people head down toward the
beach and made a mental note of those he recognised, and tried to
remember as much detail as he could of those he didn’t. There were
twenty of them all in all, along with four people who stood with
the horses on the beach, and at least six look-outs on the top of
the cliffs.

He studied the
last person carefully. It was the person with the flat cap he
hadn’t been able to get a proper look at the last time he had
watched them. Whoever it was had a quick conversation with Harry
but, given that there was very little moonlight, it was impossible
to tell whether they were male or female under all that heavy
clothing.

While he had
searched Kat’s house yesterday, he had not found any unusual attire
except for some old men’s clothing in her mother’s room. Were they
the same as the ones the unknown person wore tonight? He wasn’t
sure, but he was damned near positive he could remember that flat
cap somewhere before, and it wasn’t just on the beach the first
time he saw the smugglers.

He watched them
all take their places to await the boats. As soon as the signal was
given and the dozy patrol had wandered uselessly past, he slipped
next to Rupert.

“The one in the
flat cap is mine,” he whispered. He gave Rupert a pointed look.
Rupert rolled his eyes and peered over the edge to look at the
figure Jonathan believed was Kat. From this distance it was
impossible to tell but he relied on his friend’s powers of
observation and gave him a swift nod of acknowledgement.

Jonathan moved
around to Stephen who was on the main pathway off the beach. He was
in position and waited to waylay the horses when they left the
beach.

“The flat cap
is mine,” Jonathan growled.

“We have
company,” Stephen whispered. He nodded once toward a thick patch of
hedgerow further along the cliff. Jonathan lifted his brows when
Stephen gave him a description of Brian Meldrew and Colin.

He couldn’t
help but wonder if Brian was the one who had chosen to tip Harrison
off. If so, what was his motive? He was busy on Mr Barnaby’s boats
surely to goodness? Why would he enter an agreement with an Excise
man? Unless he had secrets of his own he wished to keep, and
Harrison knew and wanted in on the smuggling operation.

“See where they
head to. If they go for the cargo, arrest them. If not, follow
them. I want to know why they are spying,” Jonathan ordered. He
knew that Archie and Simon were in position but daren’t head toward
them. Instead he wriggled backward to take up his own position just
above the person who wore the flat cap.

“Do you know
them?” Stephen asked as he glanced toward Brian.

“I most
certainly do. The dark haired one likes to use a flick knife, so
watch him.”

Jonathan
continued to wriggle back and made his way down the narrow path
toward the far end of the beach, closest to where the person with
the flat cap was waiting. He suspected that if it was Kat, she
would run home at the first sight of imminent capture and he had
every intention of waylaying her departure.

She was his,
and he wasn’t going to allow her to escape.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Everyone waited
in nervous anticipation for what seemed an age before the first
shadows of the boats began to form into solid shapes as they drew
closer to the shore. They seemed to have battled with the tides for
hours. Jonathan wondered how long they would try before they
finally surrendered to the powers of the ocean. Even from several
feet away, he could hear their grunts and shouts as the crew tried
to row in unison against the oceanic fury.

All at once, a
huge wave appeared to rumble toward them. The rolled top broke into
white caps that grew and grew with menacing intent as it rolled
further inland. Cries and shouts were quashed by the wave as it
landed directly onto the boats and obliterated them from view.

“God, they are
all gone,” Harry cried. He lifted his lantern to try to see better
and didn’t notice that the tide had risen onto the beach to soak
his boots. Everyone remained perfectly still and stared at the spot
where the boats had disappeared. Barrels and boxes began to bob to
the surface, some of which began to slowly move closer to the
smugglers while others were dragged back out to sea.

“We have to
save them,” Charlie shouted. Several of the rowers bobbed about on
the water. Their arms waved desperately as they tried to shout for
help. Despite the foreign language, their cries for mercy were
unmistakeable to everyone. Immediately, half of the smugglers
formed a human chain and started to battle the surf in a desperate
attempt at a rescue. The other half tried to grab the cargo that
floated to stop it hitting the men in the water. Eventually, three
of the Frenchmen were caught and hauled to safety, but the
smugglers weren’t fast enough to save the other two, who
disappeared into the darkness. Their cries grew weaker and weaker,
and disappeared altogether within minutes. As soon as they had
hauled the last two sailors ashore, they turned their attention to
recovering whatever cargo they could get hold of.

Kat was
exhausted. She struggled to gain her feet against the strong
currents that shifted the sand beneath her feet. Once or twice she
stumbled, and was helped upright by a hand on her elbow.

Jonathan
flicked a signal and lunged to his feet. He didn’t need to glance
at the flurry of movement further down the beach to know that Simon
had broken his cover. Archie would ensure that the path off the
beach was blocked while Stephen moved forward to ensure that the
horses didn’t leave.

Together, in
spite of the fact that they were going against their operational
orders, Simon and Jonathan waded into the sea to help bring
everything home. The sooner everyone got to safety, the less
likelihood there would be of a death tonight.

Rain pelted
down around them. He watched the hat fly off and disappear on a
tide of darkness. The sight of Kat’s wild mane of hair was all he
needed to see. He cursed fluidly when she began to be dragged
backward as the wave returned to the sea. He ran the last few steps
to get to her before she disappeared into the darkness after her
hat. With a curse, he grabbed the collar of her jumper in a fierce
grip and hauled her to her feet.