A Shadow's Bliss (38 page)

Taylor shrugged. “Hadda be, sir. The senior merchant and your servants certainly knew you was being kept by force. And the chief mate—he must've knowed, though he made a good show of acting like he was hardly done by.”

“For the love of heaven,” croaked Jonathan. “What did they hope to gain? The cargo?”

“Before we sailed, I remember thinking it a bit strange they'd have give command of the
Silken Princess
to such a young gentleman—no offence, sir. But 'twasn't till months afterwards I came at the truth. It was all planned long ago, Captain. Some very rich and powerful gents wanted a special captain for the
Silken Princess.
A brilliant man, with a fine record, but he had to be under thirty—so that when she went down everyone would be ready to blame him 'cause he was too young for his command.”

Under his breath Jonathan swore savagely.

Morris said in disgust, “What a filthy trick!”

“You were selected for ritual sacrifice,” murmured Falcon. “Clever.” Jonathan's glare scorched at him, and he raised a languid hand and said, “Well, you must own it worked perfectly.”

“Not quite, it didn't, sir,” said Taylor, eyeing the depleted plate with regret. “They counted on Captain Armitage being proper bowled out by the lady. And a rare pretty lady she was, but he rumbled her, sir. So he had to be silenced, and that made it more risky. But they weren't after the cargo, Captain. 'Cause there wasn't none to be after!”

“Jamie!” exclaimed Falcon, forgetting himself in his sudden excitement.

Equally excited, Morris said, “The same ploy that was tried on Gordie Chandler!”

“Do you say your confounded League has done this before?” demanded Jonathan harshly. “To other masters?”

Falcon nodded. “To many, we now think—poor devils. The cargo is stolen
before
sailing. The vessel goes off with a hold full of weighted casks and boxes, and then is ‘lost at sea' and no one the wiser. In Chandler's case it was intended that the wreck be blamed on him, and so neatly contrived it came nigh to succeeding.”

“One of our victories,” said Morris. “In fact, that's how we came to meet—” He stopped abruptly.

Taylor said, “We was s'posed to drop anchor in Plymouth Sound, you'll remember, Captain. But we got separated from the fleet soon after we left St. Helena. We was near home when we got blowed miles off our course—or so it seemed, and into thick fog. Two days we drifted, and the third night a wind come up. Along about midnight there was a terrible crash. The bo'sun shouted that the cargo had shifted, and I went down to have a look, but then the
Princess
started to list to starboard, and everyone was screaming that we were sinking. Mr. Wright gave the order to abandon ship. I barely got off. And it didn't come to me till later that there was boats already lowered and well away! That poor
Princess
never went down on account of damage from shifting cargo, sir. She wasn't meant to reach port. They scuttled her!”

Seething with rage, Jonathan said in a rasp of a voice, “You speak of a wind. Yet I seem to remember a great gale.”

“Right you are, sir. They didn't count on that. Come up very quick it did. But not when the cargo was said to have shifted. It didn't really blow till the boats was away.”

“Were there really nine and twenty drowned?”

“Counting you—yes, sir.”

Jonathan stalked over to stand looking down at him, and Taylor scrambled to his feet and faced him apprehensively.

“If you knew all this,” gritted Jonathan, eyes blazing in his dead white face, “why in the
devil
did you not speak up?”

Taylor backed away a step. “I—I didn't know then, sir. I swear I didn't! All of us was under a—a cloud, as you might say. I couldn't get a berth, and came nigh to starving. I was desperate and was glad enough to turn to free-trading. A comrade took me to see a man named Silas, who was paying big wages for a special kind of work. He said it was to let the common folk know how some rich men were no better than criminals, cheating the country and grinding the noses of the poor. I don't have to tell you what was really afoot.”

Morris interjected, “But you believed it all?”

“At first I did, sir. But then this Lord Green came sometimes, and always with the lady. Pretty as ever she was, but I think her conscience was troubling her, and she'd turned to drink, and—”

Jonathan said, “You never mean Mimi Phillips? But I thought she was lost on the
Princess.
”

“Not her, Captain! Though I thought the same till I saw her with his lordship. Proper up in the world she was one evening, laughing wild-like, and talking too loud. Lord Green hit her, and she started screeching at him that she'd have been better off to have told the captain the truth instead of helping them to ruin and murder him. I knew better than to stay in sight, sir. I hid, quick, but I heard enough, and I managed to get away without no one knowing I'd been there. Wasn't but a few days later the poor lady was found drowned. I knew I was mixed up in something very nasty indeed, sir. Only how to get out was more'n I could come at. Some of the lads had got tired of it all, and likely they'd begun to suspect, same as I had. They asked for their pay, but they never said goodbye to no one. Just never was seen again. I'll be honest, Captain, I was proper scared. I kept waiting me chance to hop off—only it never came. Likely never would have, if you hadn't come and found me.”

Jonathan stared at him in brooding silence.

Mrs. Newlyn murmured, “How very dreadful! I cannot believe those wicked men would not have cared about the poor passengers—the little children! The Lady was right. England is threatened, sure as sure.”

Jennifer went to slip her hand into Jonathan's. “And you are cleared, my dear. When we reach Plymouth, Mr. Taylor can tell his story to the harbour master, and you will be exonerated of all blame.”

He looked down into her loving eyes and felt the terrible weight of guilt lifting from his soul. But he felt also a searing rage because powerful men had so carelessly slaughtered the innocent, destroyed a fine ship, and ruined him, thereby as good as murdering his father. He patted Jennifer's hand and muttered, “Yes, I pray God!” And stalking to the stern, stood with his back turned and his eyes closed, in silent and heartfelt communion with a very loved and lost gentleman.

Looking after him, bewildered, Jennifer said, “I thought he would be overjoyed.”

“He's a man coming out of the far side of hell,” said Holsworth.

Morris nodded. “I fancy anyone would find it hard to take in all of it at once. Give him time, Miss Jennifer. He'll get his bearings.”

August Falcon said dryly, “Let us hope he gets 'em in time to take this tub into port!”

C
HAPTER
XVI

Shortly after three o'clock they dropped anchor in the west inlet of Plymouth Harbour. The prisoners were locked into the
capitaine
's cabin pending the arrival of the proper authorities, and having first agreed to meet again at the home of Holsworth's brother the fugitives split into three groups. Tummet and Taylor went in search of an apothecary, Holsworth took his blushing bride-to-be to meet her prospective relations, and Jennifer, Falcon, Morris, and Jonathan went in search of the commodore in charge of the fort.

The afternoon was far advanced when Jennifer left the stark and stuffy waiting room and wandered into the mellow sunlight. Jonathan had suggested that she go with Holsworth and the widow. She'd known he wanted to shield her from having to be a witness against her father, but she had refused to leave him, and had spent much of the long wait in mentally composing the answers she would give to the questions she would probably be asked. It had not as yet come to that, however. The three rather dishevelled young men had been looked upon with shocked derision in the office of the commodore, and refused an audience with the great man. The Sovereign Harbour Master had viewed them with suspicious hostility and sent them to a supercilious captain on the next lower rung who'd had “no time to spare today.” Jonathan was enraged, and August Falcon's cynicism had become ever more marked so that Jennifer could almost feel sorry for the junior minion of the Navy Board with whom they were now ensconced. Hungry and troubled, she had felt the need for some fresh air.

She wandered about the grounds, lost in thought and paying little heed to her surroundings. She had watched Johnny with pride, for all traces of Crazy Jack had disappeared now. The slump to the broad shoulders was gone. He stood straight and tall, head high and eyes grimly resolute. That he would be cleared and reinstated she had no doubt, and she rejoiced for his sake. Yet for her this moment of triumph was shadowed, partly from grief at the bitter parting from her family, and partly because it seemed that in losing the crushed and broken man to whom she had given her heart, she had lost also the sure knowledge that she was cherished and adored. He was as attentive and solicitous for her well-being as ever, but there was a subtle difference in the way he looked at her; it was as if her beloved Johnny had withdrawn behind an invisible wall, and that Captain Jonathan Armitage was a stranger she scarcely knew.

Sighing, she glanced up and met the disapproving gaze of a splendidly uniformed guard. She'd collected many such glances, and knew that her gown was creased and her shoes muddied, and she had lost her cap. Infinitely worse, she was a young lady with neither a gentleman at her side, nor a servant to lend her propriety. She walked purposefully around the corner of the building the stern sailor guarded, and found herself in a narrow grassy area at the very brow of the hill. Below spread the blue waters of the Sound, where many ships lay at anchor, tossing lazily to the movement of the waves, their sails reefed, the gulls wheeling and clamouring about them. It was a beautiful sight, and, soothed by it, she sat down and leaned back against the high wall that enclosed what appeared to be a private garden.

A proud navy frigate was tacking slowly towards harbour. Jennifer watched her idly. The breeze was soft and pleasant, and the air warm. Her eyelids began to droop. The frigate was trimming her sails as she passed a small yacht and—

Jennifer's eyes shot open. She knew very few families having the means to own such a vessel, but she was sure she recognized this one. She sat up straighter, then stood, straining her eyes. There could be no doubt. The yacht was the
Deliverance!
Lord Morris was here, then! He had undoubtedly heard of his cousin's peril and had come at once in search of military help. Overjoyed, she hurried to the front of the building. Lord Kenneth was respected and powerful, and could be of invaluable assistance to them.

The guard was still on duty. She hesitated. If she told him the truth there would be a fuss, for he looked the pompous sort and would undoubtedly refer her to an endless succession of aides and attachés who would demand identification and explanations and think it very odd for an unchaperoned female to approach them.

A moment later, the guard was listening sceptically to the sad tale of a young lady who had been most distinctly told not to wander away from her uncle's party, but had become so interested in the fort she had done that very thing. “If you could please tell me where he has gone, sir,” she said, smiling hopefully up at him, “I would be so very grateful.”

“Ha-rumph!” said the guard. “I don't know as 'ow I can—”

“He is Lord Kenneth Morris,” said Jennifer.

“Ho!” said the guard. The silly young creature had likely gone a'roving in the gardens, she looked that crumpled. But she did have the prettiest smile and such big beautiful eyes … “In that case,” he relented, “I'll 'ave you took to 'is lor'ship at—”

“Oh, pray do not,” she begged. “If I am taken to him, he'll know I got lost, and he will be cross. It would be so much better an you would kindly tell me where I may find him. I might be able to slip back with the others, and he'll not even know I was gone.”

His lor'ship would know after one look at that creased dress, thought the guard, but he had daughters of his own, and they was all the same. Not two thoughts in their pretty heads! “Very well, miss,” he said. “Matter o' fact, 'is lor'ship's in this very building. There's a garden in the back. If you was to go in the side gate…”

He smiled and gave a knowing wink. Jennifer patted his arm and told him he was “a dear soul,” then hurried to enlist the aid of Lord Kenneth.

The “side” gate was more at the back than the side of the wall, and the slope of the hill behind it was quite precipitous, but Jennifer was determined, and after a little tugging succeeded in swinging the gate open. She entered a charming courtyard with shrubs and trees set about in tubs, and some wooden chairs and stone benches. It would be a pleasant place, she thought, for a man to escape for a while from the burdens of a busy day. At the moment, however, she was the only occupant. Two glass doors stood open to the warm afternoon air, and she could hear voices inside. She ran forward eagerly and entered a large room having more the appearance of a study than an office. And she'd not been mistaken, for Lord Kenneth Morris sat in a deep leather chair talking with a civilian gentleman who was in the act of walking over to a credenza set against the far wall.

Lord Kenneth sounded angry, and belatedly it dawned on Jennifer that her unannounced arrival might not be welcomed.

“… the deuce was I to know?” said his lordship. “I thought the damned fellow went down with his ship. We all did! When the Squire learns what a mull we've made of it, Pen…”

Stupefied with astonishment, Jennifer clapped a hand over her mouth lest her horrified gasp betray her.

The man called Pen had poured two glasses of wine. When he turned, he would be looking straight at her. She gathered her wits and fled back the way she had come, holding her breath, her heart pounding so wildly she was sure they must hear it. Fortunately, Pen had a loud voice that effectively drowned the swish of her skirts as she whipped out of the door and leaned against the wall behind it.