Chapter Two
Jemma and Ben watched the excisemen encircle several village men, separating them from the rest of the crowd. Ben wondered if the government representatives knew they’d cornered the few men in the village who weren’t actively engaged in smuggling. Rajesh, Theo, Lord Pencarrow, and the Duke of Harrelson stood apart with the three seniormost officials.
Ben tucked Jemma behind him as they stuck to the shadows and crept toward the back of the assembly hall. He planned to hide her in a recessed part of the building’s south wall. She would be veritably unnoticeable with only the moon to illuminate her. A soft rustle met them as the approached.
“Shh-shh-shh.” The soft cooing revealed a woman with two children hid where Ben wished to tuck Jemma away.
“Charlie?” Ben slid his hand into Jemma’s and practically dragged her the last yard as Ben hurried to his sister’s side.
“Yes. We’re fine. Rajesh sent us out the moment the men arrived. But the cold woke Anjali. She slept through the bedlam. I suspect she’s cold and hungry.”
“She’s not the only one, Auntie.” Charlie’s older niece, Indira, tugged on her aunt’s sleeve. “When can we go back inside? It’s too cold out here.”
“I know, poppet. But we need to remain where Uncle Raj can find us. If we go too far, he will panic when he can’t find us.”
Ben let go of Jemma and leaned forward to open his arms. At nearly ten, Indira was too heavy for Charlie to lift, even if her arms had been free and she didn’t have a swelling waistline. She was little more than a feather to Ben. Much like he’d engulfed Jemma in his arms and shielded her from the wind before giving her his tailcoat, he protected Indira, too. With one arm beneath the little girl who clung to him, he reached out his free hand to Jemma. She didn’t respond immediately, too stunned at the picture Ben and Indira made. Both of the girls’ parents were Indian and favored their father’s family. Jemma had been the man’s cousin. She knew both Indira and Anjali looked much the way she had at their ages. Seeing Ben holding a miniature of herself made her heart skip. She knew what he would look like carrying their daughter.
Rather than accept his hand, she wrapped her arms around Indira and Ben. Nothing about the evening had gone expected. After the kiss they shared where anyone could have seen them, standing with her arms around the man she finally admitted she wished to marry was the least of her sins. The noise from the other side of the building told her the commotion still held most people’s attention. It would be salacious gossip if anyone spotted them as they stood now, but few people were around to start it. With Charlie there as a chaperone, she hoped anyone who spied them wouldn’t look too askance.
“I need to get all of you home.” Ben worried about the weather and the brouhaha spreading around the corner and engulfing his family and Jemma in its midst. He wouldn’t be able to protect them if the excisemen arrested him, which was always a possibility since he’d raced suspicions for years, but no one had ever caught him or gathered enough evidence against him.
This wasn’t the merry holiday party everyone envisioned. As Ben guided the women away from the building, the noise swelled with angry voices rising over the others. He glanced over his shoulder to see Jemma’s brothers running toward them. The young men encircled their sister and cousins, helping Ben hurrying them away. But pounding feet behind them had him drawing his knife and whirling around. He breathed easier when he saw Raj and Theo racing toward them.
“You need to get to your cart and hide it better. His Grace and Lord Pencarrow have the men occupied for now, but they won’t distract them for much longer. They’re refusing to heed His Grace’s command to leave. We’ll take the women home. Thank you.” Theo stepped between Ben and Jemma, having noticed how the young man held tightly to his daughter as they ran.
“Where will you go?” Jemma looked around her father, fearful Ben would ride through the night to put distance between Lantic Bay and him. She worried about the danger that presented, and she wanted him to speak to Theo about courting her.
“He can hide it in our stables. The lads and I will help,” Theo offered. He watched the relief on his daughter’s face, and he knew the two must have put aside their differences. He knew Jemma held a tendre for him, but he didn’t understand how she overlooked his disdain for her. He didn’t trust Ben not to disguise lust as love to ensnare Jemma. He trusted Ben with illicit goods, but he didn’t trust him with his precious Jem.
“Thank you. I will be there as soon as I can.” Ben didn’t like letting Jemma go to make room for her father. He sensed Theo knew their relationship shifted, and the older man didn’t approve. He feared Jemma was wrong about her father accepting his impending request to court her.
“Be careful, Ben.” Jemma stopped her hurried pace when Ben dropped back after handing Indira over to Rag. She glancedat her father before stepping close to Ben. He wrapped his arms around her, uncaring for now that he would likely lose both hands for touching Jemma in front of Theo.
“I will. Go before they catch up with you. It’s too cold out, and you still don’t have your cloak. I don’t want you to fall ill.” Ben lowered his voice. “I already worry about you. This is enough to drive me mad. Do as your father and Raj say, please.”
“I will. I worry about you, too.”
Ben gave her a squeeze before releasing her and nudging her toward the others. He watched the group, minus Theo who went to find Vinita, hurry away before turning back to the village square. He eased into the stables through a narrow door in the back. He knew the crowd was to his left. Somehow, it had shifted away from the large door through which he needed to pass to leave with his cart. He wondered if that was engineered to allow his getaway. He crept to his horses and offered them both apples.
“Shh. We shall race tonight. But I must harness you first. Are you ready to show them you’re not plow horses?” The animals were sturdy and appeared better suited to a farm, but they were fast. Ben didn’t relish revealing that secret to any pursuers, but he wouldn’t waste time near the village. Once he was certain no one followed him, he could slow to a less suspicious pace.
When his horses were harnessed to the cart, he went to the door and eased it open all the way. He stuck his head out and looked in both directions. The commotion hadn’t died down. If anything, it grew louder by the minute. He counted on the noise to disguise any he and his horses made. He stepped up to the cart’s seat and slapped the reins over his horses’ backs. The animals moved forward as Ben hunched forward. Jemma still had his tailcoat, so he had nothing to buffer the wind nor a high collar to mask his face. His hair would be a beacon indaylight, but he counted on the dim moonlight to make him less recognizable.
“You, there! Halt!” The deep voice bellowed to his right just as he commanded the horses to turn left. Ben glanced toward the exciseman who ran toward him. “Pedrick, halt!”
Bloody hell. They know who I am.
Rather than follow the order, Ben slapped the reins across the beasts’ backs and urged them to move from a walk to a trot. There wasn’t enough space along the narrow village lane for them to canter. He maneuvered the pair, heading in the opposite direction from the Rowes’ home. He wouldn’t hint where he intended to go. He wouldn’t bring any of the government officials close to Jemma or her family. He wouldn’t take them to his sister or the young children. He would protect them and take his chances on the road. The officials were on foot, so they would need to round up their mounts before they could give chase. He prayed he could make it past the edge of the village and get lost in the dark. He knew the area nearly as well as his village of Bedruthan Steps.
All too soon, he heard pounding hooves behind him. A single rider atop a mount was faster than a pair pulling a laden cart. The sound grew louder far faster than Ben expected. He urged the horses past a canter and into a gallop. He risked his contraband cracking and spilling, but it wouldn’t matter what condition they were in if he was dead. He needed to hide, so his pursuers had no chance to search him. The need to escape urged him to push the horses into a precarious pace. If he hadn’t eluded excisemen before, he would fear he demanded too much of the steeds, but he knew they could continue for a few more miles before he needed to slow them.
Ben heard the musket’s report, but he didn’t dare look over his shoulder to see which man fired at him. Two more muskets fired in quick succession. He didn’t know which shot struck hisright arm, but a blaze of pain coursed up to his shoulder and down to his elbow. His sleeve soon stuck his arm as blood seeped from the wound. The pain threatened to make him vomit, but he wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t just his life at risk, even if all the men’s muskets now pointed at him. Everyone he cared about could be sentenced to hang if the men found his smuggled cargo.
He charged toward the cliffs’ edge, the cart careening around a bend in the road as he turned off the thoroughfare and pointed toward a thicket. He’d recognized a handful of the officials, and he was aware they knew the area as well as he did. He prayed they wouldn’t think of the same place as he did. He charged toward an opening among the trees he knew was wide enough for his cart to pass. The trees would soon grow too close together for him to easily drive the cart between. But there was another path he would take that would be an exceedingly tight fit for the cart and horses, but if he timed it right, he would slip through the trees until the space widened. It would allow him to double back and head toward the Rowes. Not many people knew about the second path since it wasn’t easily noticeable during the night, and it was virtually invisible in the dark.
He counted the trees on his right until he was certain his horses were nearing it. He forced them into the tight turn, and he praised God for the umpteenth time since buying the pair that they were so agile. The cart swung out behind the animals, but man, beast, and vehicle soon disappeared deep into the woods. He slowed to ensure neither the horses’ hooves nor the cart’s wheels gave them away as they traversed ground littered with twigs and branches. When he was far enough from the turn he’d taken, he stopped the horses and waited. He caught snippets of conversation as the men who chased them called back and forth. He listened to them approach before the sound receded. He didn’t want to waste a moment of opportunity to continue hisflight, but he also wanted enough time to pass, so the excisemen were less likely to hear him.
When he was ready, he nudged the animals forward, eventually leaving the thicket behind. He kept a wide berth of the village as he drove around it and headed to the Rowes. His arm was so painful, he found it hard to breathe. His head pounded with the same tempo as his pulse. His ears rang, and he shook his head to clear it. That only made him groan. He held the reins in one hand as he wrapped the forearm of his injured arm around his waist. When the manor house’s lights flickered in the distance, he commanded the horses into a gallop once more. He clutched the reins as he fought to keep his seat. He charged through the gates and around the drive to the stables. Theo and Raj awaited him.
