CHEVERLEY PACED THElength of the secret storeroom beneath Ithwick Manor, waiting for Thaddeus to return with every weapon in the house he could find. He’d thought for certain Anthony would have discovered the room by now, but Thaddeus had produced the single key saying his mother had bid him to keep it safe.
Penelope.Always a step ahead.
The duke had built this chamber separate from the other cellars in order to store the best of his wine. Casks for which, of course, he had not paid customs.
Unlike the cellars beneath Ithwick Castle’s ruins, this never connected to the tunnels, and unlike Ithwick Manor’s other storerooms, this one could only be entered through a hidden door.
Cheverley had used the room, too. It was where he’d stored his bows. His axes. Nothing he’d constructed at Pensteague before he left had been quite as secure.
So strange to see his bows and other treasures just has he’d left them. Like some sort of Viking hoard dug up centuries after it had been buried.
And, like a Viking hoard, his possessions would have been left here to rot if he had never returned from sea.
Sobering.
And terrifying.
Almost as terrifying as Penelope and Thaddeus remaining in harm’s way.
He’d been wrong to suggest she leave. Wrong to believe he had any other duty more essential than his duty to his wife, his son, and his home. Yes, hunting down the pirate may have brought a measure of relief, but he’d leave her to the Admiralty.
He was not willing to leave Penelope and Thaddeus any more than Penelope and Thaddeus would have been willing to leave him. He’d prove that to her when he won the competition.
He’d tell her, too—he’d been wrong, and she’d been right—just as soon as she returned from the vicar’s, where she’d gone to cancel the banns and spread the word about the competition.
He arrested his turn as the cool metal of a pistol barrel pressed into his throat.
“Very good, Thaddeus,” he said. “I did not hear you approach. I am impressed.”
“Just practice.” Thaddeus withdrew the pistol. “However, if you trespass on my mother’s trust, you will pay.”
He smiled. “I’d be unwise to cross any lady who throws a knife like that, don’t you think?”
“She throws brilliantly. Always catches me off-guard.”
“Oh?” Chev replied. “Like you just did me?”
“I did, didn’t I?” Thaddeus grinned. “And you were the one who told me never to turn my back to a person with a weapon.”
“Yes,” he replied. “But next time, remember to cock the pistol before issuing the threat.”
“Oh that,” he answered cheerfully. “I’d have done so, only I didn’t actually wish to hurt you, you see.”
Something very much like pride filled his chest.
“We had better get to work.”
They moved the guns into the room, carefully stacking them behind the casks.
“I’m not so sure about any of this,” Thaddeus said. “What was she thinking?”
Cheverley smiled to himself. “The better question is,howwas she thinking?” And the answer was brilliantly.
“I don’t understand.”
“The gifts she requested—none of them can be obtained by legal means, not without an exorbitant price.”
“She means to prove Anthony is in league with the smugglers?”
