Page 63 of The Cornish Widow

Jack gestured at the gunwales. “Do you mind if we sit while we await your men’s findings?”

Fitz glared at him. “Please yourself.” He must realize that neither Jack nor Will would be so offhand if anything remained on board to incriminate them, and that Jack’s claim they’d thought his ship a privateer was a barefaced lie.

With studied nonchalance, Jack leaned against the gunwales as The Fly rose and fell gently in the swell, her fenders rubbing against the hull of The Dolphin. On an impulse of solidarity, Harriet sat beside him, both hands hanging onto the ropes, just in case. She wasn’t nearly as confident at sitting with her back to the sea as she wanted Fitz to think.

From the far side of the deck, Theo’s eyes met hers, and the scamp grinned at her. He must know full well that what they’d been doing was illegal and was enjoying every minute of this delay.

A lot of banging ensued from down in the empty hold as the men fulfilled their duties and poked into every hole they could find. But the tobacco had been well-wrapped, and the brandy had been in barrels, so there could be nothing to find. Eventually, looking disgruntled, the men reappeared on deck. “Nothing, Captain.”

Fitz shot another glare at Jack. “Don’t for one moment assume that I’ve been fooled by your little charade, Captain Trevelyan.” He nodded to the men who started to climb back on board their own ship. “And don’t think that I won’t be stopping you again if I come across you and your ship out at sea. I’m going to catch you red-handed in the end, mark my words.”

Jack grinned at him. “The day you catch me red-handed doing anything will be a long time coming.”

Dislike crackled between the two men, but Fitz was the one who had to give way. On this occasion. He pivoted on his heel, grabbed a rope and swung himself aboard his own ship, followed by the last of his men. The crew of The Fly hastened to unhook the grappling irons and the two ships drifted apart at speed.

“Hoist the sails,” Jack called to his men. “Let’s get Mrs. Penhallow back home again, shall we?”

Harriet stared at the rapidly diminishing deck of The Dolphin, where Fitz was standing staring at them as his own men readied their ship for departure. There went a man scorned and humiliated, something she doubted he would want to put up with.

*

It must havebeen the middle of the afternoon when The Fly finally tucked herself in to the narrow inlet in Bessie’s Cove. The journey back had been uneventful, after the amusing hold up with the preventative men, but long, as the previously fresh wind had diminished and they’d had to raise more sails to catch it. Tired after no sleep in nearly thirty-six hours, and ready for his bed, Jack watched the men tie her up to the metal mooring rings in their little rocky channel. The crew would have time to get over to the kiddley for an hour or two before taking her round into Penzance to do some much needed honest carrying. With Fitz sniffing after them, and having brought the revenue sloop all the way round from St Ives to do so, they’d have to lie low for a while.

Not that Jack minded. He had other things on his mind, and one of them was Mrs. Harriet Penhallow and the interrupted kiss they’d shared.

With her and Theo’s clean clothes wrapped in a bundle and tucked under her arm, she was now preparing to disembark.

“Couldn’t I stay on board and go round to Penzance with you?” Theo asked, his face bright with hope. “I’ve quite got my sealegs now so I won’t be sick again, I promise. You need another cabin boy. I could help Clemo lots.”

Clemo, engaged in sweeping down the decks, glanced up. “I c’n learn’im how to be a cabin boy.”

Jack chuckled. Probably Clemo thought that if he managed to gain an apprentice of his own, his role would be improved. He’d no longer be the ship’s dogsbody.

Harriet shook her head. “Thank you, Clemo, but no. Theo has his lessons to do and isn’t old enough.”

“I’m nearly as big as Clemo,” Theo, ever hopeful, tried.

“But not so old,” Harriet retorted. “And what I say goes. There’s to be no more sneaking out in the middle of the night.”

Jack caught hold of the mooring rope and pulled the ship in closer to the ladder. “Do you need a hand?”

Harriet shook her head. “Now I’m an experienced smuggler, I feel I should be able to disembark by myself.” And with that, she hitched up her skirts and climbed the ladder with aplomb. Theo swarmed up it after her.

Jack followed. “Let me carry your bundle, at least.”

She eyed him with a slight renewal of wariness. “Very well.”

He took the bundle from her as Theo raced up the track ahead of them and disappeared around the bend. At least if he reached home before her, Bertha and Lyddie would have advance warning of her arrival and not be quite so shocked. Guilt swept over her once again that she’d given them so little thought while she’d been away.

Jack smiled. “You look none the worse for your adventures.”

They started up the path. “And what adventures they were. I feel I might keep them to myself though. And don’t worry, I’ve already instilled into Theo that we have merely been out for a sail in your ship. He won’t be telling Bertha and Lydia anything of what has occurred. He’s quite pleased to be a keeper of secrets. I can only hope Captain Carlyon doesn’t raise the subject in front of them.”

“You think he’ll call upon you again?”

She chuckled, the first time he’d heard her do so. “I imagine not. He probably thinks me a willing party to your smuggling. Although, I dare say he might return expressly to question me on what I know. There is that.” She paused. “But I shall reveal nothing, have no fear.” Her hazel eyes twinkled with amusement.

They reached the junction of the paths by Tummels’ house. He was sitting on the bench outside it with a pewter tankard in his hand and a greasy, well-worn hat jammed onto his head. “Mornin, Cap’n.” He glanced at Harriet. “If’n you’re lookin’ for your boy, he’s gone runnin’ home. And as for you,” he nodded at Jack. “Your ma’s bin searchin’ for you high and low. Somethin’s afoot over at the Castle, but her man dint say as what it were. He come here an’ asked me but I dint tell him nothin’.”