My Lord Deceived (2 page)

“Nothing,” he
growled with a huff and stomped past his boss.

“We have a duty
to perform, Catherine. You know we have to search and you cannot
stop us,” Harrison drawled and moved aside to allow his colleague
back into the house. His pale blue eyes scoured her insolently from
head to toe once more. He clearly hadn’t unnerved her enough the
first time, and wasn’t prepared to give up until she squirmed with
discomfort. Rather than give him the satisfaction of knowing just
how deeply he disturbed her, Kat curled her lip derisively and,
with one hand perched tauntingly on her hip, insolently returned
the favour. She studied him dismissively from head to toe, her face
lined with disappointment and disinterest. She saw the ruddy blush
steel over the man’s cheeks, and smirked at the flashed of temper
that appeared briefly on his face before his features turned cold
and hard.

“I suggest that
the next time you want to search my house, you have a bloody good
reason for doing so,” Kat snapped dismissively. With a flick of her
hair, she turned her back and slammed out of the yard. However,
once she was on the other side of the gate, rather than head down
into the harbour, she stood with her back to the wall and stared
into space. Her ears were glued to the sounds coming from within
the yard as the excise men completed their search and disappeared
back into the house empty-handed. The familiar thump of the front
door was the nudge she needed and she quietly returned to the
kitchen.

Unsurprisingly,
Billy was sobbing into mother’s shoulder. It was as though the
nerves that had got him through the last few minutes had snapped
and left him heartbroken. Kat patted him gently on the shoulder as
she moved to stand before the front window. The door to Hester’s
house was closed. Kat didn’t know if the excise men were still
there and decided against a visit to check on her friend just yet,
just in case they were. She could hear the shouts of protest coming
from next door, and knew that Mr Peat was giving the excise men an
earful. He always did, bless him. Kat knew that she didn’t need to
worry Mr Peat would get caught. He always did an excellent job, and
was very inventive with the places he stashed the hoard in his
house.

Still, because
so many people had goods in their houses, everyone depended on each
other to hide their stash safely and not get caught. Everyone in
the village had their role to play in the smuggling operation.
Everyone’s freedom depended on each of them staying out of jail and
keeping their mouths shut. So far everything had gone well
although, of late, there were tell-tale signs that something was
going wrong.

It bothered Kat
tremendously that two of the men in the village had been arrested,
tried, and found guilty of smuggling. Although they had gone off on
their own for one night and joined the gang further along the
coast, they had been caught and it had been a warning to everyone
in the village to be a bit more careful in future. Now that
Harrison’s searches had begun to coincide with the deliveries of
the cargo, everyone had started to feel unsettled that there was a
traitor in their midst, and it not only heightened the tension
within the village, but also made everyone increasingly angry. She
could only hope it wouldn’t make them careless.

Kat sighed and
turned toward Billy, who had settled considerably now that his
initial bout of nerves was gone.

“I think you
should take this as a lesson, Billy. You cannot go out to meet
those boats with the others,” Kat said pointedly. “You are not up
to it and you know it.” They all knew that she was referring to the
long-standing argument both Agnes and Kat had been having with
Billy, who was determined to join the smugglers who met the
delivery boats down on the beach. In deference to anyone from the
excise office who may be able to hear them, she pointedly refused
to say the ‘s’ word.

“But, Mr Ord
said I could as long as it was alright with you. I go out to sea
with him to catch fish, what’s the difference?”

“The difference
is that you can go out to catch fish if you really have to. If Mr
Ord’s crew are busy and they need an extra pair of hands to bring
the catch in, that’s fine, you can go with them and bring the catch
in,” she sighed and suddenly felt far wearier than her four and
twenty years. She glared at him when he took a breath to object and
ignored his dark scowl. She lowered her voice and leaned toward him
to get her message across. “Catching anything else is out of the
question.” She saw the flash of belligerence in her brother’s eyes
and knew they were going to get further argument from him. With a
sigh, she shared a telling look with her mother and walked to the
kitchen. Walking away effectively ended any further objection for
the time being. She knew it was rude but there was little else she
could do. “Let’s get something to eat and then I will go and check
on Hester.”

Although the
excise men had been and gone, Kat and her family left the goods
hidden in their hiding places. It wasn’t unknown for the excise
officers to make an impromptu return inspection. Nobody in her
house was going to be lulled into a false sense of security.
However, they all knew that once the all clear was given, they
would have to remove their hoard and cut it down into saleable
packages. Their afternoon would be spent dividing up the goods to
fulfil their orders before Kat left to begin her shift in the
tavern in the harbour.

Later that
afternoon, having stashed the packets back in their hiding places,
she nudged her chest of drawers back into place and clapped a
companionable hand on her brother’s shoulder as they made their way
back downstairs for the second time that day.

“Right, go and
find something useful to do. I am off to work.”

“Time to muck
out Molly’s stall,” Agnes called. She threw Billy a pointed look
that was met by his despondent groan. Kat smirked and called
goodbye to her mother before she left the house.

She took a deep
breath of the crisp sea air and sighed at the sight of the harbour
lying at the end of the road. Now that the excise men had left, the
village had returned to normal. People hustled about as they
shopped and gossiped. Several fishermen sat on the harbour wall
mending their nets and baskets while gulls swooped and cried
overhead in search of fishy cast-offs. She loved living in the
village but, more importantly, enjoyed working at The Shipwright
Inn. It was a small tavern that was always full of ribald laughter
and singing, but it also had a friendly camaraderie that
immediately made Kat feel relaxed and at ease with the world around
her.

At that moment,
with the goods stashed and the threat of jail removed, life was
good. Well, about as good as it was going to get for the time
being, at least.

She smiled when
she heard the rapid thud of footsteps behind her and knew that
Billy had snuck out of the front door again. Mother would be angry
and would scold him when he returned, but she could understand
Billy wanting to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine for a while,
especially after the tension of the morning.

“Kat! Wait! I
want to talk to you.”

She sighed,
knowing that he hadn’t forgotten the argument about his joining the
smugglers. She felt some of her joy dwindle a little but valiantly
tried to hold on to her patience as she slowed her gait to allow
her brother to catch up.

“Look, Billy, I
know you want to join the smugglers,” Kat murmured to him when he
slammed to a stop beside her. She felt him tense beneath the hand
she placed on his shoulder, and knew that he was going to object.
She silenced him with a gentle squeeze of his shoulder. “Right now,
I work at night as you know.”

“Sis,” Billy
sighed.

“Listen to me,
Billy.” Kat tossed her head to flick stray strands of her hair out
of her eyes and stared down at her younger brother. The stiff
breeze coming of the sea held a hint of the future storm that
lurked on the horizon, but neither of them gave it a second glance.
“I work until late, and we really cannot leave mother alone in the
house overnight. With the threat of the excise men appearing at a
moment’s notice, I need someone responsible; a man in the house, to
keep mother safe.” Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.
“I cannot be there because we cannot do without my wages, so the
responsibility of running the house falls upon you.”

She mentally
heaved a sigh of relief when Billy’s chest puffed out importantly
and he straightened his spine. “I know you want to join the crews
but, right now, with the excise men breathing down our necks, I
need you at home. Mother needs someone reliable to help her.”

“Of course, I
hadn’t thought of it like that,” Billy sighed. He was a little
disappointed but could see Kat’s logic. Mother would get stuck
going up the chimney. It was a hiding place that only Billy could
reach, and it was the only place they had in the house that was big
enough to hold the bolts of cloth. “Alright,” he replied, kicking
dejectedly at the stones beneath their feet. “For now, I will stay
with mother.” He turned to glare at her defiantly. “When I am older
though, I am definitely going out.”

Kat nodded
absently and glanced up as a flurry of movement across the harbour
caught her eye. Her heart lodged in her throat at the familiar
sight of Jonathan Arbinger who was riding around the harbour toward
them. She glanced down at Billy’s disparaging snort and smiled
distractedly at him.

“I take it you
don’t like him,” Kat muttered. She tried hard not to stare at the
handsome vision Jonathan made riding astride the huge chestnut
horse.

“Flaming
nabob,” Billy snapped in disgust.

“Billy Baird,
don’t you dare use swear words like that,” she chastised him.

“Morning
Catherine, Billy,” Jonathan drawled, slowing his horse to a walk.
He nodded amiably as he passed, but made no attempt to stop. The
glance he flicked at Billy was brief. All of his senses were tuned
to the beautiful young woman battling with the fly away strands of
hair tickling her cheeks. His fingers tightened on the reins with
the urge to reach out and stroke them away. The opportunity to
study her was far too brief as far as he was concerned, and it was
a wrench to have to turn his gaze away once he had passed them. He
had to struggle with the urge to turn back to see if she was
looking and, instead, turned to nod at Mrs Fitzsimmons in the shop.
Uncharacteristically, he paused to chat to the woman. Although her
general enquiry as to the health of his uncle didn’t warrant him
stopping, he took the excuse to be able to turn sideways in the
saddle and pass the time of day with the elderly woman who stood in
the shop doorway. He flicked the much needed glance behind him, and
watched Catherine walk with her brother around the harbour toward
the Shipwright Inn where she worked. She moved with an effortless
grace that was most soothing on the eye, and he sighed regretfully
when she moved into the darkened doorway of the drinking
establishment and out of sight.

He had loved
Catherine Baird since the first moment he had clapped eyes on her
when he was nine years old. He had been playing in the orchard when
she had come to Dentham Hall, his family home, with her mother to
speak to the cook about the arrangements for the harvest festival.
The family always provided the use of one of the fields for the
locals to hold their annual celebration that marked the end of the
gathering of the harvest. Although he hadn’t spoken to her, she
being six years old at the time, he had never forgotten the
soul-less dark eyes in the pixie-like face that was embraced by
those riotous curls that had haunted his every waking moment ever
since. Most of his evening at the harvest festival that year, and
every year since, had been spent swooning over her from a distance.
He had watched her laugh and dance with a youthful enthusiasm that
had been infectious, and he had found himself envying her for her
familiarity with the locals, and envying the locals for their
familiarity with her. He had spent several weeks afterward asking
questions about her and making any excuse possible to head into the
village in the hope of catching sight of her.

Although he
hadn’t realised it at the time, on each occasion he had seen her,
he had fallen in love just a little bit more. Now, as a grown man,
his adventures had taken him to numerous continents, and he had
experienced many, many adventures; some better than others.
However, he had never forgotten the place called home, or the one
particular woman who drew him to return time and again. He knew
that at some point in the not too distant future, the expectancy on
him to continue the family name would call upon him to select a
wife and settle down but, right now, he couldn’t countenance that
wife being anyone other than Catherine Baird.

Although how he
went about capturing her interest, he had no idea. As a well
travelled man of the world, he was not unfamiliar with women, and
had sampled his fair share however, those had been physical
dalliances. None of them had ever touched his heart and, he
suspected, no woman except for Kat, ever would.

“Please send my
regards to your uncle, my lord,” Mrs Fitzsimmons sighed, and nodded
respectfully at him. She beamed from ear to ear with pride that the
Lord from Dentham Hall, had stopped to converse with her.

“I will, Mrs
Fizsimmons, thank you.” He turned to scowl at an altercation
further around the harbour, and watched as excise men stormed into
one house whose owner was protesting his innocence, and the
frequency in which his home was invaded.

Jonathan
frowned and nodded toward the house as he caught one word.
“Again?”

“Second time in
two weeks,” Mrs Fizsimmons replied with a sigh. “I have no idea
what they are searching for, but they seem to have it in their
heads that we have something to hide.”