“Go on then,” Fox pushed them out, shut the door on them. MacEwen glared. Jenny hovered, rubbing her arms.
“I wasn’t done,” MacEwen said.
He needed a moment for the men to clear out to the road.
“Get what you need to go north of the point.” His heart pounded. “Before you leave, give Jenny a pistol and show her how to use it. The lady is out there somewhere, on that south road.”
MacEwen bit his lip and huffed. “It needs but that.”
Fox strode out to the stables, saddled the gelding in no time and led him out into the yard.
A darker shadow loomed, and his hand went to his pistol, and then his heart crashed. A small figure was leading a horse. Chestnut. And Perry was not sitting atop the mare.
The horse stopped. “Don’t shoot, sir. I didna’ steal her. I found her like this on the road just runnin’ and she remembered and came to me.”
This was the boy, Pip. Had Perry taken the boy out for a ride tonight? Had she fallen?
“Where’s the lady?”
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t have time to doubt the boy.
The kitchen door opened and MacEwen strode over.
“Who’s on the south road, Pip is it?” Fox asked.
The boy shifted on his feet.
“Who’s taken Lizzie?”
“It must be the men from down south. Scruggs sent me carrying a message.”
“What message?”
“Watch out for John Black. He be coming.”
John Black, the smuggler who’d been transported the year before. Fox had read about the trial, and the man had held fast to his innocence until the end.
“John Black’s gone.”
“There be another one. The real one.”
Of course there was,and why had none of them thought of it? The crimes of John Black had been worthy of hanging, yet he’d been transported. Someone had paid off the patsy and the judge. “John Black” was anom de guerrefor a local free trading chief.
Who he would bet his right painting hand was not Scruggs. “Mac, put Chestnut up.”
MacEwen took the reins. “Then I’ll follow.”
“No.” He grabbed the boy, who squirmed. “This one is going with me.” Fox plopped the boy on the gelding and climbed on behind.
“Where yer taking me?” His little voice shook with a combination of defiance and fear.
“South. You’ll give your report and help me find my lady.”
Black night shieldedthe three men, from their boots to their black neck cloths and caps, and dirt darkened their cheeks and noses.
One of them pushed Perry, making her stumble in her stuffed boots. Pain shot through her wrists as she caught herself.
