Page 5 of No Ordinary Lady

Uncle tossed a few small value coins at each of them, their share of the profit, that they all hastily tucked away in various hidden pockets.

It was a disappointing take for everyone else, but Marian was satisfied with her day. She might just have saved a handsome gentleman from unnecessary harm at their hands tomorrow.

Uncle preferred their targets to be wealthy and foolish, men who drank heavily and noticed little that happened around them until it was far too late. He might be satisfied with only having that secret second gold sovereign in his pocket.

Tommy’s eyes fell on her and narrowed with barely concealed irritation. Marian smiled back, but privately worried about his intentions now. Of late, Tommy had been advocating for a more direct approach to filling their pockets. They could get by picking pockets and begging for charity, but he always wanted more. Marian had sensed his interest in the traveling carriage as soon as it had rolled through the last town and knew it would end badly for someone. She’d heard all the arguments for and against taking the carriage by force when and if it left Wraxall tomorrow.

It would go badly for the grooms on the carriage particularly and for the gentleman inside, too. And of course, there would be consequences for her family if they were caught robbing it.

Tommy seemed to think he was invincible and could take anything that caught his fancy these days. Beatrice encouraged him to believe that, too.

She cast a careful glance over at Beatrice, hiding how she felt about the woman. Everything had changed when Beatrice Woods had joined their little group six months ago. In the beginning, it had been a comfort to have another woman always around. Someone to talk to and knowledgeable of a woman’s lot in life. But that was only in the beginning weeks. Once Beatrice had secured her place in their troupe, she’d shown her true colors, disagreeing with Marian at every turn, flirting with Crossman, and because he hadn’t discouraged her attentions, she’d started throwing around her opinions more freely.

Lately, though, it seemed to Marian that Beatrice and Tommy had formed a secret alliance. They’d started whispering together when Uncle Crossman was not around and more than a few times had slipped away together at night, though both pretended otherwise the next day. Perhaps it was love, or just a convenient rutting. Either way, Marian had a bad feeling about them growing closer.

“The way one of the servants carried on, his master is rich. I expect he’s jewels hidden somewhere,” Beatrice said suddenly, narrowing her eyes on Billy.

Marian checked Billy’s reaction to her words and shook her head. “He carried none on him, Beatrice, or Billy would have shared that, of course. Perhaps any jewels remained in his carriage.”

“No,” Tommy answered curtly. “I searched for hidden compartments when the men went in to dinner.”

“He must not have had any then,” she said, pulling a face. “I’m sorry, Uncle, I know you hoped for more profit than this.”

They had been watching fine carriages pass along this road for months, in the high hope that this time, they could retire on their haul. Rich gentlemen hardly ever stopped at this particular village.

“It is, as ever, a gamble,” Uncle mused. “Time to go back to what we do best, I think. We’ve traveled as far west as I care for already. Time to head home.”

Uncle’s home. A place Marian hadn’t seen in so many months, but that wasn’t where she’d originally come from. Portishead was where her poor parents were buried and where she’d been when her uncle had come to mourn his beloved brother, though he bore a different surname.

She was lucky to have had someone to take her in as an orphan, family, but Uncle had never stayed in one place or town for long.

Tommy glanced sideways at Uncle, and his jaw set before he stalked away. After a moment, Beatrice set aside her mending and headed in the opposite direction to Tommy.

Marian wasn’t fooled, and looked toward her uncle to see if he was at all suspicious. He was too occupied with his pilfered wares to seem to notice.

He glanced in her direction. “You did good today,” he said. “No sense taking putting us all at risk for so little gain.”

“I doubt we’d catch him unawares a second time,” she warned.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Uncle said cryptically, smiling as he polished the pocket watch with his handkerchief. “This will fetch a pretty penny. More for your dowry,” he promised, but that was only said in jest.

Marian had little of her own or ever expected to have, and nothing of any real value she couldn’t live without, either. She liked to always keep her belongs to a minimum and at the ready because she never knew when she’d have to make a quick escape.

She dug into the food sack. “Billy, this is for you,” she said, offering him a hunk of bread and then some cheese. He was a growing boy, but he never asked to be fed. Someone had to take care of him, and it had fallen to her to do it.

She noticed her hands were dirty and wrinkled her nose at the state of her gown. She snatched up her satchel. “I need a moment alone to wash and change. I’ll go downstream,” she murmured, and uncle nodded absently. But Billy hurried to hand over her cloak. She thanked him as he passed it to her, and she walked off alone into the woods.

They traveled as a family, old father and his four motherless children, passing through town after town with none the wiser that they were robbing them as soon as they met.

At the moment, their carriage carried a fortune in stolen goods in hidden compartments under the floorboards and seats. They’d sell their wares later to an acquaintance who knew better than to ask where they came from.

Marian hurried down to the stream, ducked under the low-hanging branch of a large tree to change into traveling clothes and wash. Once dressed again, she settled herself down on a rock to indulge in the peace of her surroundings.

It was rare she was ever entirely alone lately, but she enjoyed these small moments of peace on the road and by herself. At such times, she pondered what her life might have been like if her parents hadn’t died so young and orphaned her. Would she be married and living in a fine house somewhere with a half-dozen children underfoot?

It was a secret longing that could never come true. No man would knowingly marry a thief and Marian wouldn’t lie about her past just to have a ring on her finger. She had no good reason to change her ways at this point, did she?

She pushed aside any lingering regrets with the toss of her head and thought of the handsome gentleman she’d met today. He’d been too easy to fool. Clearly, he was prosperous and quite kind to strangers in need. But the way he had looked at her first, though, suggested he might be a bit of a rake when it came to women.