“Ah…that does make sense. If he is really so desperate, perhaps weshouldturn him in. I begin to feel less sympathetic for the young man every moment.”
“Butdeath—Surely we must be certain before we alert Captain Smythe”
And so, Richard found himself spending the bitter watch of the night in the cargo hold with Caroline. It was rather cold, but no colder than their cabin had been of late. Caroline huddled alone under her warm cloak, and Richard rubbed his gloved hands together to stir the blood. He stepped on the vermin occasionally, and Caroline didn’t even flinch at the sound. The cargo hold was redolent of brine and salt fish and sharp cedar, which many of the chests and crates were lined with. Cedar was known to be more resistant to rot and shipworm.
Caroline looked longingly at the cinched, buckled mail bags, but didn’t ask to open them. If anyonewasto open the mailbags, it could only happen under Captain Smythe’s observation, and Richard wasn’t sure even the worst emergency would cause Smythe to allow it.
Caroline eventually regretted her decision to entrap Mr. Belvedere. It was nearly four in the morning by Richard’s pocket watch, and they were both cold, stiff, and without even the easy camaraderie they sometimes had…
But then the door to the hold finally creaked open. It was done slowly and with stealth.
Caroline stiffened and Richard put his finger to his lips for silence. She glared, offended that he would think she needed that reminder. They both looked to the door, and when it opened?—
“Sophia!” Caroline exclaimed.
“Mrs. Scott?” Richard repeated, non-plussed. “What are you doing here?”
Her face was quite pale, and her dark hair was a cloud around it. “Oh! I—I—I can explain.”
If her stuttering was not enough to cause suspicion, her trembling lip told its own tale.
“Come in,” Richard said sternly. He drew her into the cargo hold, not unkindly, but shut the door behind her. “I fancy I know why you may be here, but it is a very serious business. You would do best to make a clean breast of it at once.”
“A clean breast of what?” Caroline said. “Shecannot be searching for—” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no.”
Richard nodded. “You were the one who said she and Mr. Belvedere were growing too close.”
“I—and Mr. Belvedere?” Sophia choked. “You couldnotbe more mistaken.”
“What other reason could there be for your presence here, ma’am?” Richard said. “If he has entreated you to do this task for him—it is the greatest take-in imaginable and the most unchivalrous thing I have ever heard of. Your only hope is to tell us the truth. If you are as blameless as I think you are, I’ll do my best to shield you from this.”
“From this—”Sophia was accustomed to thinking on her feet, and rarely had she been caught so flat-footed. How her late husband would laugh at her…! Andnotkindly. After the first year, he always said she was far too top-lofty for a woman who was little better than a second-rate pick-pocket, a second-rate wife, and a bastard into the bargain. “You weren’t born to it,” her husband had said, “and it’ll never come natural. You aren’t better’n us, for all your high ways.”
And he was right, when push came to shove, shewasn’tbetter than any of his set. She’d thrown away morals and respectability when she ran away and sank herself to that class, and she’d been a fool to think she could leave it behind when Lady Marston offered her this position. But here they were, this oh-so-honorable couple, ready to offer her a way out. In panic, Sophia seized it. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have listened—to Mr. Belvedere.”
The hubbub wasimmense when Captain Smythe was roused, though at first Richard tried to keep it quiet. His discretion was not out of consideration for Mr. Belvedere, but rather for Mrs. Scott’s great humiliation. Any pity or tolerance Richard felt for Mr. Belvedere was ended. The cad had manipulated the lady to do his dirty work, putting both her reputation and her future in danger.
“We suspect he is this man,” Richard told the captain, spreading the paper on the dining table in the semi-dark, and moving a lamp to illuminate it. He pointed to the incriminating notice. “And that he is escaping the country, while also hopeful to destroy the first Writ of Arrestfrom the East India Company that is no doubt following him to the continent.”
“But—of course!” Captain Smythe said. “Iknewthat smirking blackguard was behind it all! Counterfeit to the bone—did I not say it?”
“I suppose you did.”
“But Mrs. Scott is involved? Surely not,” Smythe said.
She shivered slightly, resting her hand for balance on one of the solid dining chairs. Richard felt very bad for her, but nothing would do but the truth now. “Her part was very small, and I’d much prefer to leave her out of it. It seems Mr. Belvedere recruited her help while here on the ship. While she was veryfoolish and very wrong to listen, I think we can all agree the far greater blame lies with him.”
“Of all the terrible?—”
“What is the meaning of this noise?” Lady Marston emerged from her room with Sir Mark behind.
“I can hardly tell you yet,” the captain said, “for we are still getting to the bottom of it! We must get Mr. Belvedere out here.” He strode down the long room and banged on the door of that gentleman’s cabin with his fist. “Here, sir! Come out at once!”
Mrs. Scott twitched. “May I retire, please? It is so awkward.”
Richard looked stern. “No, we really must hash this out.” He knocked on Captain Wentworth’s door also, although they must’ve heard the captain’s shouts.
And indeed, Wentworth joined them in record time, already dressed. “I heard something going forward. What’s happened?”
