My Lord Deceived (7 page)

“Go and get
some rest, I will cover here for a while,” Kat murmured to her
mother. “Take Billy with you.”

“Oh, Kat, if
you are sure?” Agnes sighed.

“Go.” Kat’s
order was softened with a smile and she watched her mother bustle
off with Billy in tow. Her eyes landed on another group of excise
men who worked their way through the crowds. It wasn’t unusual for
excise officers to check up on what stall holders were selling, but
the sight of the men in the market, while Harrison scoured the
village, gave her the shivers.

With a sigh,
Kat turned and smiled at a lady holding out cabbages and completed
the transaction while her attention was firmly locked on one of
their regular customers who stood behind her. A telling look passed
between the women and, when Kat turned to place the dozen apples in
the woman’s basket moments later, nobody noticed the small package
of tea that was secreted at the bottom. Anyone paying attention
would have noticed that the apples cost three times more than they
ordinarily should do, but nobody was that close. A quick hug gave
Kat the opportunity to inform the woman of their problem. She
almost wept with relief when the purchaser, Delores, promised to
take as much of the extra goods as Kat could provide. With a
grateful smile of thanks, Kat accepted the negotiated payment and
watched the woman weave through the crowds.

A cough at her
elbow drew her attention to the man standing beside her and she
took the carrots off him. For now, one problem was sorted, however
they still had one massive, and very smelly, problem at home to
resolve before they could consider themselves ahead of the
game.

Jonathan ambled
through the crowd with a scowl. He had absolutely no idea what had
drawn him to come to the market in Tattersnell. He had just
finished meeting his contact with Harper, but had come away empty
handed and more frustrated than ever. There had been no sighting of
Dubois, only rumours, and Jonathan was starting to wonder if they
were on a wild goose chase.

He had no idea
what had drawn him away from the idea of returning to the peaceful
tranquillity of Dentham Hall. It wasn’t even as though he needed
anything from the market stall holders. He rather suspected that it
wasn’t the goods he had come to inspect, more likely one of the
market traders.

At the far end
of the square, Billy handed a lady a bushel of vegetables and a
small packet. As the elderly lady hurried off into the crowd, her
place in the queue was immediately taken by another customer who
held out two cabbages. Jonathan dodged around a group of children
and looked up in time to watch Billy hand another lady several
larger packets along with a small mound of vegetables. There was
nothing unusual in the transaction at all, but something within
Jonathan was ringing alarm bells, only he couldn’t understand why.
They were stall holders selling their wares, nothing more. But
there was something deuced odd about what he had just seen. Not
only had the woman not paid for her goods, but most of them were
carefully wrapped. Since when did anyone need to wrap vegetables in
broadsheets?

Jonathan
scowled and from within the shadows of a stall selling bolts of
cloth, watched Kat as she dealt with a continual flow of customers.
With a curse, he pushed a thin veil of silken material away from
his face in annoyance when his view was blocked, and was astonished
at what he saw. Hers was by far the busiest stall there. People
were coming and going all over, but Kat’s stall had a constant flow
of people who took away baskets of produce at a time and emptied
the table and cart. His gaze locked on her flash of white teeth as
Kat smiled at a middle aged gentleman, and he felt a surge of
jealousy sweep through him at the easy camaraderie between them as
they chatted. Kat handed the man a handful of vegetables before she
followed him around the far end of the stall toward the front of
the cart.

He hated the
fact that he couldn’t see her and wondered what they were doing. He
couldn’t even see the tops of their heads. Where had they gone?
What were they doing? With a scowl, he shoved the lace out of his
face and headed down the narrow walk way toward Kat and Agnes’
stall.

“Hello,
Agnes.”

He frowned when
his greeting made Agnes freeze. The initial look of astonishment on
her face was quickly replaced by nervous hesitation, and he
wondered what she was worried about. As far as he knew he had never
done anything to scare her, or give her reason to be concerned
about him, but her behaviour made her appear almost frightened of
him.

“How are you
today?” he asked. He tried to keep his voice jovial and
non-threatening but it made no difference to the scared look on her
face.

“I am fine
thank you, my lord, and yourself?” Her query was accompanied by a
furtive glance around them as though she wasn’t comfortable with
being seen conversing with him. It annoyed him that the woman
seemed to think that he was a nabob who rarely mixed with the
masses.

“I am very
well, thank you. I see you have done a roaring trade again today,”
he drawled smoothly. He had to dig deep for all of his charm,
especially when he wanted to shake the woman and find out where Kat
had gone with that customer.

“
What?”
Agnes’ eyes grew wide. She physically jumped when she realised that
he was talking about the fruit and vegetables. “Oh, yes, well, we
are always busy,” she replied vaguely.

“Is Kat not
about?”

“She has gone
for a break,” Agnes sighed with a frown. She had no idea what the
man wanted with Kat, and made a mental note to ask her daughter
about it later. A quick glance at the packet Billy held was enough
to warn her that they had to be careful. This was the lord over the
parish in which they lived. He had no idea about the smuggling and,
if they were all to maintain their freedom, he could never know
what was going on. Jonathan Arbinger would have no hesitation in
informing the magistrate if he ever got wind of anything
clandestine going on. She tried to conceal her shudder of horror
and shifted to one side. Her movement drew Jonathan’s attention
back to herself when he started to study the area behind her in
search of Kat with far too much intensity.

“Can I interest
you in some erm –” Agnes glanced disconcertedly down at the empty
table behind her and realised that most of the vegetables were at
the far end of the table, near to Billy, who was only just
completing his transaction “- vegetables,” she finished weakly.

Jonathan kept
his face bland, and only just stopped himself from scowling. He
could smell a rat when he was near to one, and knew with certainty
that something was definitely going on with the stall. If only he
knew what. He glanced at the tavern across the square and wondered
if that was where Kat had gone.

“Not today,
thank you Agnes,” Jonathan replied. “I wish you good day.” He
nodded his head and moved away, his gaze riveted on the tavern
doorway.

He had no idea
what was driving him to find out where she had gone with the man,
and why, but something kept pushing him, warning him that he needed
to know. If only to make sure that she was safe from harm.

He was about to
go into the tavern when movement from the alleyway beside him drew
his attention and he watched as Kat said goodbye to the man before
they parted company. A dark scowl fell over his face, and he
watched in consternation as Kat returned to her mother’s side. The
urge to follow the man and find out everything about his opponent
was strong, but he knew that right now, he had other things to
contend with.

The odd
conversation with Agnes was a little disconcerting, if only because
he now knew that he made Kat’s mother nervous, but it was the
knowledge that he really knew very little about the woman who had
held his heart for practically all of his life and it was strangely
disconcerting. If she was to become his wife, and he still
sincerely hoped that was the case, then he had to be on a
considerably better footing with her friends and family. How the
hell he went about that was anyone’s guess. Who was that man? Why
had Kat disappeared behind the buildings with him? Why was Agnes so
shaken by his arriving in the market today?

He shook his
head, went to the bar and ordered a tankard of ale before he chose
a seat at a table overlooking the market. From his position, he had
a clear view of the market and a small view of Kat’s stall. As he
drank, his gaze remained firmly locked on the woman who brought
about so many questions. Not least of which was; what on earth was
she up to?

From his
position he could see Kat, her mother and Billy, as they went about
their business on the stall. There was nothing untoward about any
of their behaviour and he started to wonder if he was chasing
shadows. After all, they had been polite, but were busy selling
their wares in just the same way as all of the other market traders
who were selling their goods at the market today. Did he suspect
that something was amiss because he had spent so much time working
for the Star Elite, and had learned to trust nobody, not even Kat?
That thought bothered him immensely. If Kat was innocent, and she
discovered that he had considered her involved in smuggling, she
would never forgive him and he would lose any chance he may have of
getting her to the altar.

He sighed and
fought the urge to bang his head on the table. There were so many
possibilities and probabilities that he just couldn’t spend the
weeks he needed to make sense of it all. One thing was for certain,
he wasn’t getting his job done sitting in a tavern gazing at the
love of his life. He had a Frenchman to unmask, hunt down and bring
to justice, as well as an estate to put to rights, and a smuggling
gang to unmask.

Maybe then, if
Kat wasn’t involved in smuggling, he could set about sorting out
his love life.

CHAPTER
FOUR

Later that
afternoon, having watched Kat pack up the stall with her family,
Jonathan headed back toward Dentham Hall. He made a mental note to
speak to Harper as soon as possible to see if he had found anything
out about smuggling in the area. On his way through the large port
of Upper Dentham, he spied the Excise House and, without thinking,
headed in that direction.

“Good
afternoon.” He wandered into the darkened recesses of the main
lobby and stopped at the officious looking man standing behind the
desk. The man immediately drew himself upright at the sight of
Jonathan, a lord of the realm, standing before him, and nodded his
head politely.

“Sir.”

For a moment,
Jonathan wondered if the man was going to salute him but, at the
last moment, he seemed to realise it wasn’t necessary.

“Is Harrison
about?”

“No sir, he is
out doing Excise business.”

Jonathan’s
piercing gaze looked the man straight in the eye. “Is he still
scouring Bentney on Sea?”

The man flicked
a glance at the clock on the wall. “He should be done about now
sir, unless they have found something amiss.”

“Like smuggled
goods, perhaps?” Jonathan watched the man’s gaze turn sharp and
allowed silence to stretch between them for several moments. “I
take it that is what Harrison is after?”

“I am not at
liberty to say, sir,” the man stammered. He was clearly at a loss
to defy orders but didn’t want to annoy the powerful man before him
either.

“He is very
persistent,” Jonathan drawled. “I wonder when he is going to get
the message.”

“Message,
sir?”

“That there is
no smuggling in Bentney on Sea.”

“Oh, sir but we
have very reliable information that smugglers run in the village
somewhere. It is only a matter of time before we catch them.”

“With a man
like Harrison at the helm, I am sure you are right,” Jonathan
replied conversationally. He watched an almost derisive look appear
on the man’s face for a moment. It was so brief that if Jonathan
hadn’t been looking he would have missed it. “I hope Harrison
doesn’t make such a pain of himself this time,” he added with an
almost dramatic sigh.

“Pain sir?”

“Oh yes. He was
moved from his old post because he became too officious. I am
afraid that he is going to have to move on again soon if he does it
again.”

“He is a -” The
man seemed to realise what he was about to say and snapped his
mouth closed.

“Pain in the
arse, you can say it,” Jonathan drawled with a conspiratorial
smirk. “I take it Harrison is behind the one-off incident just down
the coast?”

The man frowned
and Jonathan mentally sighed. He couldn’t help but wonder if all of
Harrison’s men were this dense. “Ransley and Hawkshurst,” he
snapped and watched the man’s brows lift. “Mr Hamilton-Smythe is my
associate,” he boasted.

“Harrison did
get information about their activities, yes sir,” the man replied
casting a nervous look at the connecting door that led to the rear
of the building.

“From
where?”

“Well, I am not
sure, sir, but it was very accurate information,” the man sighed.
He hesitated, as though he wanted to confide in Jonathan but didn’t
know whether to trust him or not.

Jonathan merely
stood perfectly still, and waited. His patience was rewarded when
the man spoke.

“Nobody likes
him around here much, sir,” the man whispered as he cast a furtive
look around him in search of witnesses. “There is something odd
about him.”

“I know there
is,” Jonathan replied equally quietly. He was glad that the man had
chosen to confide in him, but made a mental note to ensure that the
gossipy excise man was moved on as soon as Harrison left his post.
Excise men as unprofessionally co-operative as the one before him
should not be working on government business. “Keep an eye on the
man for me and, if you uncover anything untoward, it is in your
best interests to make sure either myself, or Mr Hamilton-Smythe,
learn about it in the first instance. Do you understand?” The man
nodded emphatically and an almost malicious glee entered his
eyes.