My Lord Deceived (20 page)

The knowledge
that he didn’t have months in which to persuade her, fuelled his
determination to surge forward with his plans at the earliest
opportunity, regardless of whatever else was going on. Like a
flickering light in the middle of the night that guided him home,
he would not lose sight of his ultimate goal. Not for one second.
The sooner that Kat realised that, the easier everyone’s life would
be.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Later that
afternoon Jonathan nodded to his butler who had announced the
arrival of Mr Harrison from the Excise House. Rather than show the
man in, he made him wait in the hallway for nearly half an hour for
no other reason that he knew the Excise man wouldn’t like being put
in his place. In the end, Jonathan rang the bell and summoned the
visitor.

“Take a seat,
Harrison.” Jonathan sat back in his chair and watched the man walk
across the room. He knew that the study was luxurious to say the
least, and saw the avid curiosity on the man’s face as he studied
his surroundings. He made no attempt to offer the man refreshments,
merely waved to the most uncomfortable seat in the house Jonathan
could find. Silence settled between them. When Harrison couldn’t
stand it any longer and took a breath to speak, Jonathan
interrupted him.

“I take it that
you have good reason for your actions today, and every other day of
late?”

“Yes, I most
certainly do,” Harrison snapped and dropped a sheaf of parchment on
to the table with a snap.

Jonathan
studied the papers for a moment and slowly unfolded them. They were
a manifest of cargo; smuggled cargo unless he was much mistaken,
with a delivery date of last week. Anticipation swept through him
along with curiosity.

“Who gave it to
you?” He sighed, appearing unconcerned as he dropped the parchment
into his top drawer and leaned back in his seat. He propping his
booted feet on his desk, he leaned back in his chair to listen in a
nonchalant pose that belied the ruthless gleam in his eye.

“It arrives on
the doorstep of the Excise House about two days before the due
date.”

“Overnight?”

“Yes,” Harrison
sighed.

“Have you had
an overnight watch?” Jonathan’s thoughts turned to the man he had
spoken to when he had visited the Excise House. They were hardly
the height of sophisticated surveillance but even they should be
capable of conducting an overnight vigil on their workplace, surely
to goodness.

“We have.”

“But nobody has
seen anything?” Jonathan dropped his feet and swung around to study
the man before him.

“Not a thing.”
The man’s gaze was just a little too direct, a little too
forthright to be honest. His gut instinct warned him that the man
was a liar. Jonathan was intrigued to know what the man was lying
about. The manifest being real, or that he didn’t know who it came
from. “I take it that all of your men are trustworthy?”

“Yes they are,”
Harrison snapped with a scowl. “We are representatives of the
government and provide an exemplary service to His Majesty.”

“I am sure he
is duly appreciative,” Jonathan drawled with a dismissive smile.
“However, I do believe that someone is being dishonest somewhere. I
take it that you conducted searches after the cargo delivery but
found nothing?”

“I have
searched each and every day since but found nothing at all. It’s
got to be around there somewhere. There aren’t that many hiding
places they could store cargo of that quantity.”

“Do you believe
the whole village are involved?” Jonathan’s voice was deadly. His
thoughts locked firmly on Kat. He hated to think that she was a
smuggler, but he couldn’t discount any possibility. The thought
that she might be involved in illegal goods disappointed him
tremendously, but it annoyed him even more. Not only did it go
against everything he fought for and believed in, it was also a
betrayal of his trust.

“What authority
do you have to become involved in this?” Harrison demanded
pompously. “The last I heard of it you have shown very little
interest in what goes on in these parts of the country. Why now?
Surely you have better things to do in London?” The cold contempt
in Harrison’s voice was clear, but Jonathan knew better than to
tell the man what he really did do when he disappeared for weeks at
a time.

“I have the
full authority of the War Office,” Jonathan sighed. He opened a
drawer and drew out a piece of paper with Hugo’s direction on it.
“I suggest you contact this man for clarification. Meantime, when
another manifest turns up on your doorstep, I expect to see it
within the hour, Harrison, or I will have you arrested.”

“For what?”

“Interfering in
War Office business,” Jonathan drawled. His implacable gaze met and
held the Excise man’s for several minutes. He could see the
questions that hovered in the man’s eyes while he battled the
thirst for knowledge with the need to save face. In the end, his
ego won and he glanced down at the parchment in his hands.
“Co-operate with me and you won’t end up behind bars. If there is
something going on in the village, I shall become aware of it and I
will put a stop to it, but I warn you now Harrison, I will not
stand by and allow innocent members of the community to be harassed
by you or your men, and I will uncover those responsible and bring
them to justice. Make no mistake,” Jonathan announced flatly as he
pushed to his feet. “I don’t. I bid you good day.”

He didn’t wait
for the man to answer, and tugged on the bell pull. He kept his
back straight and his gaze impassive as he stared blankly out of
the window. Inside he was a seething mass of frustrated anger that
threatened to bubble over into a raging hot inferno the likes of
which could not be contained. The only outward show of emotion was
the tight fists he held behind his back.

As soon as the
door closed behind Harrison, Jonathan’s curses broke the silence
within the room and he began to pace backward and forward in front
of the fire. It was time to call in reinforcements.

He had been
sent home to take a rest from Star Elite duties for a while before
he began to make enquiries into the activities of the French spies
in the area. That he could do, however it didn’t leave much time to
investigate the illegal activities of the villagers right on his
own doorstep. He cursed and his thoughts immediately turned to
Kat.

Had she been
honest with him? Or had she more to hide than he had anticipated?
He wasn’t sure, but he knew one damned thing for certain. Whatever
she was involved in he was going to find out about it and, if she
had been lying to him, she was going to have a very harsh lesson on
honesty: the Star Elite way.

He shook his
head in disgust, stalked over to his desk and sat down to write
several missives. With any luck, Rupert wouldn’t have left his last
location yet and they could start to unravel this sorry mess sooner
rather than later. If not, then he would just have to push matters
along a little all by himself. He almost relished the
challenge.

The following
night, Kat sighed with a mixture of annoyance and relief when
Jonathan walked into the tavern. She handed three customers their
drinks and headed back toward the bar, however made no attempt to
serve Jonathan, merely continued to serve other customers.

Sea shanties
were being sung over by the fireplace and they were met with ribald
laughter that lightened the atmosphere within the dimly lit tavern.
Most of the tavern’s occupants tonight were smugglers who were
waiting to go down to the beach. None of them could lose sight of
the fact that for the fourth time in two weeks another load of
cargo was due to arrive and there was a strange undercurrent of
tension in the tavern that was felt oppressive. A sombre air still
hung over the village following the demise of Mr Barnaby. He had
been a stalwart within the village for many years and it was
strange not to see him amble around the village, whistling as he
usually did. Still, life went on and they couldn’t leave the goods
on the beach.

Kat wasn’t sure
what had happened at Dentham Hall, whether Harrison had turned up
as instructed, or Jonathan had been forced to call in the help of
his friend Mr Hamilton-Smythe. Nevertheless, Harrison had stopped
his almost daily searches, for now at least. The break in
inspections had allowed everyone to take a deep breath and relax a
little. She shared a dark frown with Charlie and they looked at the
rain that lashed the windows. They were all aware that the winds
had increased and the sea was rougher with the storm that was
coming in. It was going to be dangerous to haul the cargo in
tonight, and they would be lucky if the boats even made it to the
shore.

She absolutely
dreaded the hours that were to come, but there was very little
choice. Two men were down and it was all hands to the decks. A
couple of the house wives had arranged a watch over the children
and were now dressed ready to help out. A steady stream of people
had come to the tavern to wait for their turn to haul the cargo
through the village to the old barn at the top of the hill. Because
of the weather, nobody dare venture near the caves, besides, they
were already nearly full with cargo they had yet to disperse. It
had all started to turn into a nightmare that would bring them all
down if the person who arranged the deliveries didn’t draw a halt
to it soon.

Despite her
best efforts, she hadn’t been able to uncover who the main contact
was. She had been handed down information on the cargo from several
people, who all gave her different answers until she felt as though
she was going around and around in circles. She wasn’t sure if they
wanted to protect her from knowing too much, or whether they just
didn’t know themselves, but it had gotten so ridiculous that she
had finally given up in frustration.

She watched
Jonathan take a seat in the far corner of the room and sighed. It
would have saved time and a lot of energy if she had not had to go
home and sneak back down to the tavern tonight. She was already
tired enough as it was, and that was before she spent most of the
night on the beach, in the middle of a heavy storm.

“He wants to
speak to you,” Harry whispered into her ear as he nodded toward
Jonathan. “Take a break and see what he wants will you? If he sits
and glowers at the customers any more, he will drive them all
away.”

Kat studied the
dark scowl on Jonathan’s face and wondered if he knew what they
were up to. From the look of fierce anger on his face, something
had definitely upset him. She reluctantly placed the tankard of ale
on the counter and took the coins off the customer. With a sigh,
she wiped her hands on her apron and made her away across the room
toward him.

“Harry said you
wanted a word with me,” Kat said, and perched on the stool he
motioned to.

“I do.”
Jonathan sighed, and rubbed a hand wearily down his face. He wished
the rest of the tavern to Hades for their nosiness. Aware of the
interested gazes they had attracted, he glared around the room, and
watched several people hurriedly look away as they tried to appear
disinterested. He lowered his voice, rested his elbows on the table
and leaned toward her.

Kat studied his
angular face in the candle light and felt the now familiar warmth
unfurl deep in her stomach. She studied the rough work shirt he
wore and the labourers’ trousers with a frown. They were something
that someone on his staff would wear, not a wealthy member of the
aristocracy. What was he up to? She took a breath to ask him only
for her eyes to be captured by his stern gaze.

“What’s
wrong?”

“I take it that
there is smuggling going on in the area.” Jonathan’s softly spoken
words fell like pebbles between them.

Kat stared at
him and felt a tight knot of fear begin to form in her stomach. A
wave of sickness swept over her. Her brain wouldn’t focus on
anything other than the absolute horror of discovery, and she
frantically wondered who had betrayed them. The direct look he gave
her unnerved her.

“Smuggling,”
she replied dully, as though she had never heard of such a thing
before. “Around here.”

“Yes, around
here.” He studied her beautiful face, but couldn’t see anything but
dumbfounded blankness. Was it because she was panicked, or hadn’t
got a clue what he was on about? He hoped it was the latter, but
needed to make sure.

“Who on earth
told you that?”

“It doesn’t
matter. I need you to be honest with me Kat. If there is something
going on, you must tell me about it now. There is a lot you don’t
know about me, and it is imperative that if there is smuggling in
the area, you tell me now.”

“Smuggling,”
Kat replied. She winced and realised that she had repeated herself,
but she didn’t know what else to say. Words failed her. She hoped
that he was just taking a poke in the dark but she couldn’t think
that he would simply come up with such an accusation without
someone having tipped him off.

“Kat, there are
goods coming into the area that are disappearing. Harrison knows
about them and it is imperative, for the safety of everyone, that
you tell me now if anyone in this village is involved.”

“Why would I
know?” Kat gasped. She hated to lie to him. She was certain that
she had ‘liar’ stamped across her forehead and he was reading it
right now. She felt like she was riding the high waves that were
crashing around in the harbour only she couldn’t stop them;
couldn’t get off. She glanced frantically at Harry who was busy
with a customer. “I have to get back to work.” She pushed away from
her stool but paused to stare down at him. “I have no idea what you
are talking about.”

Jonathan
watched her move hurriedly toward the bar. The urge to charge after
her and drag her outside for a healthy dose of honesty was strong,
but instead he leaned nonchalantly back in his seat and watched
her. Although at first glance she was going about her duties with
swift efficiency, there was a tension in her movements that hadn’t
been there before. His gut warned him that she knew something and
he had rattled her by asking her about it. But did that mean that
she knew what was going on but just wasn’t prepared to mention it,
or was she knee deep in the smuggling activities herself?