Page 45 of The Cornish Widow

Just as she’d been fearing.

Theo swallowed another mouthful of bread. “Are we smuggling? That’s what’s in the hold, isn’t it? You didn’t want me to see in case I gave you away, but I wouldn’t do that. Not ever. I want to be a smuggler one day, too. Just like you.”

Harriet suppressed a smile at his use of the word “we.” Did he fancy himself a party to this now they’d been discovered? What boy didn’t dream of adventure on the high seas. What mother didn’t fear it becoming a reality.

“No, Theo,” Harriet said. “We are not doing anything of the sort, and you are never going to become a smuggler. Captain Jack, on the other hand, seems to be doing just that.”

Theo frowned. “But I’m on board now, and I want to help.” He glanced at where Clemo was doing something to the end of a rope. “And he’s not fourteen, is he? You said I had to be fourteen to sail with you, and that boy isn’t that old. He’s not much bigger than me.”

Jack opened his mouth to reply.

“Where in France are we going?” Harriet asked, swiftly changing the subject. “I mean, where are you going?”

Jack leaned his elbows on his knees. “Roscoff.”

As Harriet had no idea where this was, she was none the wiser, but she wasn’t about to let Jack know that. “And what are you going to do there?”

He tilted his head to one side. “What do you think? But I’m not sure it’s something I should divulge to you. After all, you were seen in company with Captain Carlyon not so long ago. Did he ask you to find out about me?”

Harriet’s body stiffened at his own change of subject. “Do you have people out spying on me?”

Theo’s eyes widened.

Jack chuckled and shook his head. “Not especially. But everyone in Cornwall knows what everyone else is up to. I’d’ve thought you’d have known that, being from Truro yourself. Or maybe up there they’re not so nosy. But they are down here. You’d be wise to bear that in mind.”

Harriet bristled. Whatever he said, only a spy could have reported this. “While it is true that Captain Carlyon came to call on me last week, I can assure you it was not a welcome call.” Above her head, the sails snapped in the wind. “I could not in all politeness turn a visitor away without seeming rude and churlish.”

“Lyddie and me were doing our lessons,” Theo said. “We were listening. I don’t think he asked about you.”

Harriet held up a hand to hush him. “I was most surprised that he chose to call. He suggested taking a walk along the cliffs to the east, which would have passed the alehouse—the kiddley—and that big square house on the point. But I suggested we should head west as I hadn’t seen that part of the coast yet.”

“Cudden Point,” Jack said. “Yes. You were seen.”

Harriet bristled again. “You say you weren’t spying on me and yet it seems you were. You have your informants in every corner of the countryside. If you knew that was the way we’d walked, why not just come out and say it?” She glared at him. “Did you think I might try to lie to you? Was this a test of some kind?”

He had the grace to blush. “Nothing of the sort. But in my line of business it’s well to cover every eventuality. And to keep an eye on those we don’t trust.”

Did he not trust her? “Well, as it happens, he did ask me questions about you. But I told him I scarcely knew you, and you’d just been kind enough to allow me to ride out on your mother’s horse to visit Mrs. Bolitho. Because I’m a friend of your mother.” She paused. “She’s not a smuggler, too, is she?”

This served to make him laugh, and Theo joined in. “No, my mother most definitely is not a smuggler,” Jack managed. “She would be horrified if she thought you believed that.”

“I don’t. I just wanted to check. I didn’t think you could be a smuggler until last night.”

“What did you think was going on, then?”

“That others were using your ship for their own ends, unbeknownst to you.”

He laughed again. “I’d like to see them try.”

“You haven’t answered my question yet. What do you plan to do in this Roscoff place?”

He got to his feet. “Well, now you’re a smuggler yourself, you might as well know. We’re more than halfway there and should be moored up in harbor by early evening. We’ll dispose of the goods we have stored in the hold and take on the cargo for the return journey. Then we stay the night and return tomorrow morning, so we’ll be back in the dark with the rising tide to unload.”

Harriet’s mouth fell open. “Theo and I are most definitely not smugglers any more than your mother is, so please don’t include us in your deeds.”

Jack grinned, suddenly as wolfish as Fitz. “You’d rather we just put you ashore in Roscoff and left you there? I think you’ll find that all the English craft that put in there are about the same business as we are, so you’d be hard put to find a berth on a return journey that doesn’t see you as implicated as returning with us will.”

“So, we’re truly smugglers now?” Theo’s satisfaction at this prospect shone out of him, banishing the last dregs of seasickness. “Oh boy!”

At the side of the boat, Clemo lugged up a fresh bucket of water. “If’n you wants me to clean up the hold then you’d all better shift,” he said, banging the bucket down in front of them, a surly expression on his young face.

Harriet and Theo rose to their feet and Harriet grabbed Theo’s hand before he could get away. “We are not smugglers. And you, Theo Penhallow, are staying right beside me. The sides of this boat don’t look anywhere near high enough for safety.” He wriggled but she had him tight.

Clemo threw them both a pitying look. “Sit on the spare sails up in the bows, why don’t you? I likes to sit there when I’s not workin’. Makes a good place for forty winks.”

“Thank you.” Theo’s hand still firmly clutched in hers, Harriet turned away from Jack and walked carefully up the rolling deck. Sure enough, there were the sails, although they didn’t look as comfortable as Clemo had implied. She settled herself on them with Theo beside her. At least here, they were mostly out of the wind, and if she tried hard she could pretend she wasn’t on a boat at all. Maybe…