“Gaz isn’t here today, is he? Scruggs won’t finger him as a traitor so my aunt and the girls will be fine. And I’d best get myself to the inn before he notices I’m missing. You’ll stay here, Pip.”
“Go with Davy, Perpetua,” Shaldon said.
“She’ll go in a moment,” Fox said, putting steel into his voice. If he and Perry were to marry, he must begin as he planned to go on, else Shaldon would have both of them jumping through hoops. “For now, she is part of this discussion.”
Shaldon’s jaw tightened and he gave a cursory nod. “Very well.”
“The informant saidthey will land further south, in this cove.” Farnsworth’s finger settled upon the map laid out on the desk, and Perry moved closer to peer around his shoulder. On Farnsworth’s other side, Fox was frowning down at his lordship’s fingertip.
“You have an informant?” Perry glanced at Fox who was staring hard at Father.
“Do you know the area, Fox?” Father asked.
Fox took an audible breath.
“Mayhap they will find that Frenchman’s body when they land,” Kincaid said. “Is that what you’re thinking?”
Her heart began to race and she leaned closer. How could anyone tell one craggy inlet from another? And last night, she’d not been paying attention. She’d not thought of anything except trying to survive the trip in her wet clothing in the breezy skiff.
And who was this informant?
Father slid the map her way and settled a fingertip on one rocky point down the coast from where Farnsworth had indicated. “Here is Gorse Cottage,” he said. He stretched his arm further and a bit inland. “And here is Sir Richard’s.”
Her pulse rattled. The night’s landing place was closer to the Baronet’s estate than to Gorse Cottage. “Will you take him tonight then?” she asked. She must get her chance at him. Shemust.
The three older men exchanged looks.
“Tonight, it is Carvelle and his cargo we are after,” Father said.
Anger spiked in her. “Why?”
Father’s face hardened and he lifted his gaze to her, his eyes a dark agate, his look binding up her tongue. She was here at his allowance, his gaze was telling her. They would carry on according to his schedule, not hers.
“Are they working together, then?” she asked. “I should at least like to go with you when you go after Sir Richard. I should like to assist you.”
Father reached for her hand, his touch warm and firm, sparking moisture behind her eyes. “Revenge will endure, Perpetua,” he said, “until the time is right.”
She blinked several times and swallowed hard. Agents of the Crown did not cry, nor would she.
And Father knew quite a bit about pursuing revenge.
“Yes, Father,” she said.
Just as quickly, he dropped her hand and went back to the map. “Now. Our source points us at this cove, but Davy says Scruggs has his men going here.” He pointed at a spot to the north of Gorse Cottage. “What say you, Perpetua? You wish to be involved—what do you advise? Go north, or south?”
Davy was not their informant. Was it perhaps Scruggs misdirecting them? “They are both claiming the same cargo?” she asked.
Father blinked once, no doubt with the effort of deciding how much information to share. “Davy does not know what the cargo is, only that Scruggs has been seen working with Carvelle.”
“And thus, he thinks Carvelle will be at the north point?”
He didn’t nod or shake his head.
“And thus,youare guessing Carvelle will land to the south,” she said. “As your informant said.”
His lips quirked ever so slightly, and she leaned over the map again. Smells swirled around her—damp wool, leather, horses, shaving soap. The smell of men; not the dandified men of the ballroom, but honorable men working at something important and washing whenever they could.
And she was part of this important work. Her blood raced just a little faster.
