“I don’t know. Four, I think. Some went back to the ship, and that’s gone, my man says.”
Her hands filled with ribbon selections, Lizzie suddenly straightened. “Ship? What ship?”
“A lugger, my lady.” She shrugged. “Too typical to point out.”
Luggers were smuggling vessels, of course.
“No name?” Lizzie asked.
“No’m. Didn’t expect any. Came and went tidy like from the east.”
From the east where there were so many good ports and smaller coves.
Lizzie just stood there, frozen. Pip was beginning to be worried.
“Lizzie?”
That quickly her friend came back to life, offering a rueful smile. “Nothing. I’m sorry.”
Pip would ask later. She turned instead to Mrs. Martin. “They plan to move the guns tonight?”
“I think so. Said that if we all stay out of their way, Robbie’ll be back tomorrow or next day.”
Pip nodded, her brain whirling. “Do you know where the Lion and Bandit is, Mrs. Martin?”
Mrs. Martin scrunched up her placid face. “That place? What could you want there?”
“Help. My husband—” Lord, she thought. She had just said that as if it were true. “—was meeting someone there. We need to get word to him.”
“They’re watching everyone here, miss.”
She nodded. “They’re watching the manor as well. And by now they know that somebody is staying in the Dower House.”
“It’s over to Abbotsbury, miss…I guess it is Missus now, though. Isn’t it? My Lady.”
Pip smiled and patted the older woman’s hand. “I hope I’m always Miss Pip to you, Mrs. Martin.”
“I do wish you well, Miss Pip.”
Pip shared her best smile. “Thank you, Mrs. Martin.”
“Pip,” Lizzie protested. “You aren’t thinking of getting involved? Let them go. Let them get far away from here so all our people are safe.”
“I don’t think I can, Liz. I need to reach Beau to find out what we should do and get our staff somewhere safe.” She looked over at Mrs. Martin. “I don’t suppose there are any other tunnels about?”
That earned her a brief grin. “Afraid not. Just those two.”
Pip nodded. “All right. I know I can trust you not to say a word. We shall do our best to get young Robbie Evans back.” Although how, she didn’t know. “How far to the Lion and Bandit?”
“Maybe two miles east on the coast.”
Pip nodded. “Thank you. Now, if you don’t mind, Lizzie will buy that lovely orange ribbon she has been clutching, and we will be on our way. Nobody needs to know what we said.”
Every instinct Pip had screamed at her to run for the inn and the stables. She didn’t know who was watching her, though, so after Lizzie made her exchange, she and Pip stopped into the little lending library for a few minutes and said hello to the blacksmith as they passed his forge, all the while discussing the upcoming Christmas festivities.
When they finally did make it back to the inn stables, it was to find Charlie McKay and Clancy bringing the horses out.
“Figured you’d be back this way about now,” Clancy said laconically.
