Peter pressed his lips into a straight line. “I told her that so I could explain why I had money to buy food.”
“Are you selling the game you poach?” Colin pressed.
Peter nodded slowly. “To the innkeeper,” he said.
“What precisely have you sold to him?”
“Mostly rabbits, squirrels and pheasants,” Peter responded. “However, I did manage to kill a deer.”
“How were you able to do so?”
“With my father’s pistol,” Peter said, sounding a bit proud. “I waited in the brush for hours until I saw a deer close enough that I could shoot.”
Colin cocked his head. “Did you use that pistol on Christmas morning?”
“I did,” Peter replied. “I made so much off the last deer that I hoped to get another one so I could buy my mother a present.”
“You are stealing from me, and that cannot go unanswered,” Colin said firmly. “It is time that we go speak to your mother.”
Peter’s eyes grew panicked. “I can work it off,” he rushed out. “There must be another way.”
“I’m afraid not,” Colin said. “If I discover that you lied to me, then I will go straight to the magistrate.”
Peter turned his pleading gaze towards her. “Please, Lady Arabella,” he started, “I know I promised that I would stop poaching, but we can’t afford to eat and pay our rent.”
Colin looked at her in surprise. “You knew Peter was poaching on my lands and you didn’t tell me?”
Arabella furrowed her brows. “I did, but only because I made him promise not to do it again.”
“He lied to you,” Colin stated. “Just as you lied to me.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but she closed them when she knew there was no point. Colin was right. She had intentionally deceived him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That wasn’t my intention.”
“Then what was?” Colin asked.
“I felt bad for Peter’s plight,” Arabella said, “and I wanted to find a way to help him.”
Colin’s jaw tensed. “His supposed plight.” He shifted his gaze to Peter. “Where do you live?”
“On the other side of these trees, just south of the village,” Peter replied.
“You are one of my tenants?”
Peter nodded. “We are.”
“Not for long,” he muttered, gesturing towards the tree. “Show us the way to your home.”
Chapter Sixteen
Colin trailed behind Arabella and Peter as they made their way to his home. He had every intention of making good on his promise to notify the constable if he discovered Peter had lied to him. He would not be made a fool of.
The thought that Arabella had intentionally deceived him did not sit well with him. Why hadn’t she trusted him enough to come forward with this information? It made him wonder if he had made any progress with her. Although, they had kissed, and it had been a memorable moment for him. He had dreamt about that since he had first seen her again.
He watched as Arabella chatted with Peter, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. She had a kind heart, and she always seemed to believe the best in people, but he would not be deceived so easily by a scrawny young man.
Peter glanced over his shoulder and said, “It is only a few more yards.”
As they exited the cover of the trees, he saw a dilapidated cottage with a collapsing thatched roof. The windows were broken and stuffed with cloth. The main door was tilted, allowing the cold air to pass through the openings.
