As Emma glanced toward the high kitchen windows, she caught the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path. A shadow passed in front the windows, darker against dark.
Time had run out, and the decision had been made for her. “Mrs. Hodges, I want you to stay behind me.”
The housekeeper muttered under her breath but moved into the pantry. Emma positioned herself in the doorway, shotgun up and aimed at the steps leading down from the yard. She was rather amazed at how calm she felt, the gun steady in her grip. Perhaps she was in some sort of shock. If so, she hoped it lasted a little longer.
The door from the yard creaked open and Harry descended the stairs, carrying a lantern. Emma had to resist the impulse to shrink back into the pantry, but thankfully he never looked their way.
After placing the lantern on the mantle, he bent to retrieve logs from the basket and arranged them in the fireplace. Using a spill lit from the lantern’s flame, he soon got a fire crackling in the grate. Then he straightened and shrugged out of his greatcoat. As he turned to throw the garment onto a chair, Emma stepped forward, her shotgun aimed squarely at his chest.
Harry froze, coat in hand, his gaze widening with shock.
“Drop it on the floor,” Emma ordered in her sternest voice.
If he did have a weapon, it was likely stowed in his coat.
Harry’s gaze locked on hers, growing as sharp as a blade, and it sent a chill skating across the back of Emma’s neck. Even in the flickering, uneven light, his expression looked positively murderous.
Then he blinked and everything changed. Suddenly he was again the befuddled footman she’d always known.
“Lord, Mrs. Knightley! You scared me right out of my brainbox. Begging your pardon, ma’am, but you shouldn’t be sneaking up on a poor fellow in the dead of night. I was like to have a heart attack.” Then he frowned. “Why are you pointing a shotgun at me?”
Mrs. Hodges leaned out from behind Emma. “Because you’re a lying, smuggling varlet, that’s why. For half a shilling, I’d shoot you myself.”
His eyes popped even wider. “Smuggling! Me, smuggling? Mrs. H, why ever would you think such a daft thing?”
“Give over, Harry,” Emma snapped. “I just saw you out there with those men, unloading casks from the cellar. Now, do what I say and drop your coat on the floor.”
He paused for a long moment before grimacing. “I … well … I’m sorry, Mrs. Knightley. Truly I am. But they made me do it. Honest. They said they’d beat me within an inch of my life if I didn’t help them.”
She scoffed. “Is that so? And how did they get access to Donwell’s cellars in the first place?”
“It was Mr. Larkins, ma’am. I swear it. I didn’t know anything about it until those fellows showed up and said I had to help, now that Mr. Larkins was in the pogey.”
“If that was the case, why didn’t you tell me or Mr. Knightley?”
“I … I was afraid I’d lose my job … or get arrested by that Sharpe fellow. The smugglers said Mr. Knightley would think it was all me. He would never believe it was Mr. Larkins.”
“Because Larkins isn’t the smuggler,” Emma retorted. “Youare.”
Mrs. Hodges made a disgusted noise. “It’s been you all along. Playing the hapless idiot to fool us all.”
“But Iaman idiot, Mrs. H!”
One who was still holding his coat, and he appeared to be inching a hand toward a pocket.
“Harry,” Emma said, “if you do not drop the coat, Iwillshoot you. I’m a very good shot, and I will happily put a hole in your shoulder off for all the trouble you’ve caused.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when he took her threat to heart and finally dropped the coat on the floor.
He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Please, just let me explain, ma’am. I never saw them fellows until a few weeks ago. That was when they showed up, making all their threats.”
“Mrs. Hodges,” said Emma. “Would you please open the other lantern so we have more light?”
That would certainly help if shedidhave to shoot him.
Quietly, the housekeeper complied. As more light illuminated the room, Emma stepped out of the pantry doorway and again moved in front of Mrs. Hodges.
“Did they also threaten to hurt our stable staff?” Emma asked him. “Because their absence this evening is quite noticeable.”
