Later that afternoon Jonathan nodded to his butler who had announced the arrival of Mr Harrison from the Excise House. Rather than show the man in, he made him wait in the hallway for nearly half an hour for no other reason that he knew the Excise man wouldn’t like being put in his place. In the end, Jonathan rang the bell and summoned the visitor.
“Take a seat, Harrison.” Jonathan sat back in his chair and watched the man walk across the room. He knew that the study was luxurious to say the least, and saw the avid curiosity on the man’s face as he studied his surroundings. He made no attempt to offer the man refreshments, merely waved to the most uncomfortable seat in the house Jonathan could find. Silence settled between them. When Harrison couldn’t stand it any longer and took a breath to speak, Jonathan interrupted him.
“I take it that you have good reason for your actions today, and every other day of late?”
“Yes, I most certainly do,” Harrison snapped and dropped a sheaf of parchment on to the table with a snap.
Jonathan studied the papers for a moment and slowly unfolded them. They were a manifest of cargo; smuggled cargo unless he was much mistaken, with a delivery date of last week. Anticipation swept through him along with curiosity.
“Who gave it to you?” He sighed, appearing unconcerned as he dropped the parchment into his top drawer and leaned back in his seat. He propping his booted feet on his desk, he leaned back in his chair to listen in a nonchalant pose that belied the ruthless gleam in his eye.
“It arrives on the doorstep of the Excise House about two days before the due date.”
“Overnight?”
“Yes,” Harrison sighed.
“Have you had an overnight watch?” Jonathan’s thoughts turned to the man he had spoken to when he had visited the Excise House. They were hardly the height of sophisticated surveillance but even they should be capable of conducting an overnight vigil on their workplace, surely to goodness.
“We have.”
“But nobody has seen anything?” Jonathan dropped his feet and swung around to study the man before him.
“Not a thing.” The man’s gaze was just a little too direct, a little too forthright to be honest. His gut instinct warned him that the man was a liar. Jonathan was intrigued to know what the man was lying about. The manifest being real, or that he didn’t know who it came from. “I take it that all of your men are trustworthy?”
“Yes they are,” Harrison snapped with a scowl. “We are representatives of the government and provide an exemplary service to His Majesty.”
“I am sure he is duly appreciative,” Jonathan drawled with a dismissive smile. “However, I do believe that someone is being dishonest somewhere. I take it that you conducted searches after the cargo delivery but found nothing?”
“I have searched each and every day since but found nothing at all. It’s got to be around there somewhere. There aren’t that many hiding places they could store cargo of that quantity.”
“Do you believe the whole village are involved?” Jonathan’s voice was deadly. His thoughts locked firmly on Kat. He hated to think that she was a smuggler, but he couldn’t discount any possibility. The thought that she might be involved in illegal goods disappointed him tremendously, but it annoyed him even more. Not only did it go against everything he fought for and believed in, it was also a betrayal of his trust.
“What authority do you have to become involved in this?” Harrison demanded pompously. “The last I heard of it you have shown very little interest in what goes on in these parts of the country. Why now? Surely you have better things to do in London?” The cold contempt in Harrison’s voice was clear, but Jonathan knew better than to tell the man what he really did do when he disappeared for weeks at a time.
“I have the full authority of the War Office,” Jonathan sighed. He opened a drawer and drew out a piece of paper with Hugo’s direction on it. “I suggest you contact this man for clarification. Meantime, when another manifest turns up on your doorstep, I expect to see it within the hour, Harrison, or I will have you arrested.”
“For what?”
“Interfering in War Office business,” Jonathan drawled. His implacable gaze met and held the Excise man’s for several minutes. He could see the questions that hovered in the man’s eyes while he battled the thirst for knowledge with the need to save face. In the end, his ego won and he glanced down at the parchment in his hands. “Co-operate with me and you won’t end up behind bars. If there is something going on in the village, I shall become aware of it and I will put a stop to it, but I warn you now Harrison, I will not stand by and allow innocent members of the community to be harassed by you or your men, and I will uncover those responsible and bring them to justice. Make no mistake,” Jonathan announced flatly as he pushed to his feet. “I don’t. I bid you good day.”
He didn’t wait for the man to answer, and tugged on the bell pull. He kept his back straight and his gaze impassive as he stared blankly out of the window. Inside he was a seething mass of frustrated anger that threatened to bubble over into a raging hot inferno the likes of which could not be contained. The only outward show of emotion was the tight fists he held behind his back.
As soon as the door closed behind Harrison, Jonathan’s curses broke the silence within the room and he began to pace backward and forward in front of the fire. It was time to call in reinforcements.
He had been sent home to take a rest from Star Elite duties for a while before he began to make enquiries into the activities of the French spies in the area. That he could do, however it didn’t leave much time to investigate the illegal activities of the villagers right on his own doorstep. He cursed and his thoughts immediately turned to Kat.
Had she been honest with him? Or had she more to hide than he had anticipated? He wasn’t sure, but he knew one damned thing for certain. Whatever she was involved in he was going to find out about it and, if she had been lying to him, she was going to have a very harsh lesson on honesty: the Star Elite way.
He shook his head in disgust, stalked over to his desk and sat down to write several missives. With any luck, Rupert wouldn’t have left his last location yet and they could start to unravel this sorry mess sooner rather than later. If not, then he would just have to push matters along a little all by himself. He almost relished the challenge.
The following night, Kat sighed with a mixture of annoyance and relief when Jonathan walked into the tavern. She handed three customers their drinks and headed back toward the bar, however made no attempt to serve Jonathan, merely continued to serve other customers.
Sea shanties were being sung over by the fireplace and they were met with ribald laughter that lightened the atmosphere within the dimly lit tavern. Most of the tavern’s occupants tonight were smugglers who were waiting to go down to the beach. None of them could lose sight of the fact that for the fourth time in two weeks another load of cargo was due to arrive and there was a strange undercurrent of tension in the tavern that was felt oppressive. A sombre air still hung over the village following the demise of Mr Barnaby. He had been a stalwart within the village for many years and it was strange not to see him amble around the village, whistling as he usually did. Still, life went on and they couldn’t leave the goods on the beach.
Kat wasn’t sure what had happened at Dentham Hall, whether Harrison had turned up as instructed, or Jonathan had been forced to call in the help of his friend Mr Hamilton-Smythe. Nevertheless, Harrison had stopped his almost daily searches, for now at least. The break in inspections had allowed everyone to take a deep breath and relax a little. She shared a dark frown with Charlie and they looked at the rain that lashed the windows. They were all aware that the winds had increased and the sea was rougher with the storm that was coming in. It was going to be dangerous to haul the cargo in tonight, and they would be lucky if the boats even made it to the shore.
She absolutely dreaded the hours that were to come, but there was very little choice. Two men were down and it was all hands to the decks. A couple of the house wives had arranged a watch over the children and were now dressed ready to help out. A steady stream of people had come to the tavern to wait for their turn to haul the cargo through the village to the old barn at the top of the hill. Because of the weather, nobody dare venture near the caves, besides, they were already nearly full with cargo they had yet to disperse. It had all started to turn into a nightmare that would bring them all down if the person who arranged the deliveries didn’t draw a halt to it soon.
Despite her best efforts, she hadn’t been able to uncover who the main contact was. She had been handed down information on the cargo from several people, who all gave her different answers until she felt as though she was going around and around in circles. She wasn’t sure if they wanted to protect her from knowing too much, or whether they just didn’t know themselves, but it had gotten so ridiculous that she had finally given up in frustration.
She watched Jonathan take a seat in the far corner of the room and sighed. It would have saved time and a lot of energy if she had not had to go home and sneak back down to the tavern tonight. She was already tired enough as it was, and that was before she spent most of the night on the beach, in the middle of a heavy storm.
“He wants to speak to you,” Harry whispered into her ear as he nodded toward Jonathan. “Take a break and see what he wants will you? If he sits and glowers at the customers any more, he will drive them all away.”
Kat studied the dark scowl on Jonathan’s face and wondered if he knew what they were up to. From the look of fierce anger on his face, something had definitely upset him. She reluctantly placed the tankard of ale on the counter and took the coins off the customer. With a sigh, she wiped her hands on her apron and made her away across the room toward him.
“Harry said you wanted a word with me,” Kat said, and perched on the stool he motioned to.
“I do.” Jonathan sighed, and rubbed a hand wearily down his face. He wished the rest of the tavern to Hades for their nosiness. Aware of the interested gazes they had attracted, he glared around the room, and watched several people hurriedly look away as they tried to appear disinterested. He lowered his voice, rested his elbows on the table and leaned toward her.
Kat studied his angular face in the candle light and felt the now familiar warmth unfurl deep in her stomach. She studied the rough work shirt he wore and the labourers’ trousers with a frown. They were something that someone on his staff would wear, not a wealthy member of the aristocracy. What was he up to? She took a breath to ask him only for her eyes to be captured by his stern gaze.
“What’s wrong?”
“I take it that there is smuggling going on in the area.” Jonathan’s softly spoken words fell like pebbles between them.
Kat stared at him and felt a tight knot of fear begin to form in her stomach. A wave of sickness swept over her. Her brain wouldn’t focus on anything other than the absolute horror of discovery, and she frantically wondered who had betrayed them. The direct look he gave her unnerved her.
“Smuggling,” she replied dully, as though she had never heard of such a thing before. “Around here.”
“Yes, around here.” He studied her beautiful face, but couldn’t see anything but dumbfounded blankness. Was it because she was panicked, or hadn’t got a clue what he was on about? He hoped it was the latter, but needed to make sure.
“Who on earth told you that?”
“It doesn’t matter. I need you to be honest with me Kat. If there is something going on, you must tell me about it now. There is a lot you don’t know about me, and it is imperative that if there is smuggling in the area, you tell me now.”
“Smuggling,” Kat replied. She winced and realised that she had repeated herself, but she didn’t know what else to say. Words failed her. She hoped that he was just taking a poke in the dark but she couldn’t think that he would simply come up with such an accusation without someone having tipped him off.
“Kat, there are goods coming into the area that are disappearing. Harrison knows about them and it is imperative, for the safety of everyone, that you tell me now if anyone in this village is involved.”
“Why would I know?” Kat gasped. She hated to lie to him. She was certain that she had ‘liar’ stamped across her forehead and he was reading it right now. She felt like she was riding the high waves that were crashing around in the harbour only she couldn’t stop them; couldn’t get off. She glanced frantically at Harry who was busy with a customer. “I have to get back to work.” She pushed away from her stool but paused to stare down at him. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Jonathan watched her move hurriedly toward the bar. The urge to charge after her and drag her outside for a healthy dose of honesty was strong, but instead he leaned nonchalantly back in his seat and watched her. Although at first glance she was going about her duties with swift efficiency, there was a tension in her movements that hadn’t been there before. His gut warned him that she knew something and he had rattled her by asking her about it. But did that mean that she knew what was going on but just wasn’t prepared to mention it, or was she knee deep in the smuggling activities herself?
For some reason he just couldn’t see it. He couldn’t imagine Kat wrestling with carts, barrels and cloth in the middle of a storm. At least he hoped she wasn’t that stupid. Whatever the price the goods fetched, and he was sure it was a hefty price; it wasn’t worth the risk to life and limb, especially Kat’s life and limb.
Kat wiped the bar down absently and felt sweat bead her brow. She daren’t lift her gaze, and didn’t need to look at him to know that he continued to study her closely. Her thoughts turned to the cargo they had to fetch in tonight and she knew she had to warn the others. Unfortunately though, she now had one other significant problem. They needed her help tonight, especially after the demise of Mr Barnaby. How could she help out when Jonathan was with her? Did he intend to go straight home to Dentham Hall once he had made sure she was home safely? Or did he intend to hang around in the area to see what he could discover? She sidled closer to Harry, and smiled at him.
“What is it? What are you smiling at me like that for?” Harry demanded warily.
Kat kept her face relaxed, but the smile was fixed to the point that she drew the concerned gazes of Norman and Charlie, who were watching her closely too. “He knows about the smuggling.”
Charles choked on his rum and spat it across the bar. Norman rolled his eyes and began to slap him roughly on the back. Harry stared at her in frozen horror. “What? Are you sure?”
“He has just asked me,” she sing-songed through gritted teeth. She felt the worst kind of traitor, as though she had just betrayed Jonathan in the worst possible way. A part of her warned her that her duplicity would break her heart, but she couldn’t afford to lose sight of the fact that these people before her now were her friends, colleagues and neighbours. She had worked alongside them in the tavern and on the beaches for a couple of years now and they had known her since she was a baby. Jonathan was always on the fringes of her life, dropping in or passing by whenever he chose. He had never been nor would he ever be a permanent fixture. If she had a responsibility to anyone it had to be to the villagers with whom she shared a home.
Still, a small part of her still wanted to rush across the tavern and throw herself upon his mercy; to tell him everything, and plead for his forgiveness.
Kat shook her head at Charlie, and handed him a cloth to dab up the spills on his shirt.
“Get him out of here,” Harry whispered.
“How? Why me?”
“Go home and take him with you. If you go now, he will get bored and head home. We can check he is back at the Hall before we go down to do the business and collect you on the way.”
“What if he isn’t there?” Kat replied. Panic laced her voice.
They all stared at each other. “I will ask the others,” Harry sighed. “But you are going to have to help us tonight Kat. We are already two men down and cannot cover for both of them. We need extra hands, especially with the storm.”
“I know,” Kat sighed. She hoped that Jonathan would drop her off at home and head back to Dentham. The thought that he might not made her feel sick.
“Now, go.”
“Now?”
“Yes, tell him that you have a headache or something. Just get him out of here,” Harry whispered urgently. He gave her a shove toward the end of the bar and moved to serve a group of sailors who waited patiently for their rum.
Kat scooped up her shawl and with a final pointed look at her colleagues, headed toward the door.
“Going already?” Jonathan drawled. Having watched the last few minutes, he was convinced that there was something amiss, but couldn’t see how Norman or Charlie could be involved in smuggling anything. Neither of them were nimble, and were the top end of eighty he was sure of it, or he wasn’t a member of the Star Elite.
“I have a headache,” Kat muttered. She swept past him, right out of the tavern door and didn’t bother to stop to see if he intended to follow her. She hadn’t made arrangements for him to escort her home, and she didn’t see how she had the right to stop and see if his apparent need to escort her home was why he had come to the tavern tonight. Still, she wasn’t surprised when the tavern door opened behind her and the rapid footsteps heralded his arrival at her elbow.
“What is it Kat? What’s wrong?” He demanded softly. He cupped her elbow in his hand and drew her gently to a halt. He bent his head to stare down at her and mentally cursed. If he knew anything about human nature, he knew when someone was rattled. Kat had been shaken by something. Was it his questions about smuggling? Was she really involved? “I cannot help you if you don’t confide in me,” he urged. His voice was far harder than he had intended it to be but he couldn’t draw the questions back now. “There is nothing you can tell me that will bring my censure. I have seen things and done things you cannot possibly imagine. Believe me when I tell you that I will understand.”
Kat stared at him for a moment. She was so tempted to tell him: to hand the whole sorry mess of her life over to him to see if he could make a better job of it because right now, she didn’t know where to start, or how to make sense of it all. She was so far out of her depth with the smuggling, Harrison and even with Jonathan himself that she just wanted to crawl off to bed and stay there.
Still, she was made of sterner stuff and after several moments of expectant silence, she straightened her shoulders and stared blankly up at him.
“I am just tired that’s all. I will be alright. I just have a headache and need an early night, that’s all.”
Jonathan sighed. He had read her hesitation and knew that she had, however briefly, wanted to confide in him, and was fairly certain that she hadn’t intended him to be able to read her so well. She had wavered with the need to confide in him only, at the last minute, something made her draw back and close him out. He bit back a curse of frustration and eased his hold on her. He couldn’t exactly call her a liar because he couldn’t prove whether she had a headache or not. If she did, then she had a very considerate boss in Harry. He couldn’t think of any other tavern he had been to where bar maids would be allowed to leave early because of a headache. It led him to wonder whether Harry had wanted Kat, or himself, out of the tavern for some reason.
He wondered if the tavern had received more than kegs of ale to fill the cellars, and made a mental note to check at the earliest opportunity. His thoughts turned to Harrison, and he knew that the tavern cellars would be the first place the Excise man would look, but that didn’t mean that Jonathan couldn’t check it out for himself.
He escorted her home in silence. At the door he paused, but didn’t make any attempt to follow her inside. The room was brightly lit and he could hear the low murmur of voices through the door.
“Are you going to read to uncle tomorrow?”
“I can’t tomorrow. I have things to do here, but I can come the day after.” With the cargo due in tonight, Kat would be out until the early hours. Once it was safely home she would spend her morning with her mother and Billy. Together they would divide the goods up and store them away. It would be morning before she had the opportunity to catch up on her much needed sleep. She could only hope that Harrison wouldn’t be on the doorstep at dawn.
“Bring Billy with you. I will give him another riding lesson,” Jonathan offered.
“I don’t think that is a good idea,” Kat sighed and turned to stare at him. “Thank you for your kind offer, but I really do think it would be better if you do not encourage him in that regard.”
“What regard? Riding? What’s wrong with it?” Jonathan turned to her with a scowl. Her face was closed to him and, for the first time ever, he couldn’t read any sign of emotion on her beautiful features, and he hated it.
“There is nothing wrong with riding. It is just that I don’t think it would be advisable for you to encourage Billy to do it,” Kat snapped. She tried to keep her anger and frustration at bay. While a part of her was glad he was still around in the village, another part of her wished he would head back to London. Life had never seemed as complicated as it had been since he had re-appeared, and she didn’t like it one bit. If he didn’t head back to his ‘responsibilities’ soon, she would be ready for the asylum, she was sure of it.
“It is a very valuable skill for anyone to have,” Jonathan countered. There was nothing wrong with his offer to teach the boy to ride, and felt that something else was behind her objection to such a mundane activity. Everyone he knew could ride a horse. It was the primary moved of transport apart from walking, or having to lumber along in a large cart. What could be wrong with teaching the boy something he could use throughout his adult life?
“I know but we are different to you,” Kat sighed. She hated to point out the social differences to him.
“How? We all need to get about? At least if he can ride, he can use the skill as he gets older. What on earth is wrong with that?”
“Because we cannot afford a horse,” Kat snapped. “We have Molly but she is a cart horse. She allows us to ride her to and from her field but doesn’t accept a saddle. If you teach Billy how to ride, he will want a horse to ride properly, and that isn’t possible.” She mentally winced at just how rude and ungracious she sounded but she couldn’t grab the words back, even if she wanted to.
The familiarity with which they had ambled up the hill together toward Kat’s house was not lost on her. It had felt far too comfortable to her to have him by her side and she knew it was folly to rely on him to stay around for too much longer. She sensed his objection and sought to find a way to stem the argument that loomed.
“Please just respect our position in the village and don’t encourage him. I won’t bring him to Dentham Hall again and, because of the gossips, who have now gotten wind of the fact that you are escorting me home, I think it would be best if you go about your own way and forget about us.” Kat felt tears sting her eyes but sucked in a deep breath to hold them at bay for now. “I thank you for your kind generosity so far, but you really need to go back to Dentham Hall, and stay there.”
“Kat,” Jonathan sighed. He took a step toward her and reached out to grab her shoulders to stop her only for her to pre-empt him. He watched as she spun around and disappeared into the warmth of the house without a backward glance.