“Walk you out,” Nate drawled, following suit.
They had barely made it out to the dusty, rutted street before Clancy broke the news. He didn’t even turn around or stop, which made Beau realize that this was not information for witnesses.
“Queer goings-on,” the stablemaster quietly said. “Miss Pip sent me quick as could be. She said to say that smugglers have a shipment of guns in your cellar, and she thinks it’s all tied in. Make sense?”
Beau was afraid so. That quickly his fear solidified.Oh, God. Pip.
“I don’t suppose she ran away.”
Clancy chortled. “Our Pip? You know better, milord. Settin’ up camp, but said she’d wait for you.”
“She’d better,” he growled, shoving his cap on his head and heading for the stables. “Or I’ll hurt her worse than they could. Now, fill me in.”
Clancy did as the three of them walked over to pick up horses.
“I’ll get word to Drake,” Nate said. “He might prefer we just follow that lot, see who the guns are for.”
“Not sure I’ll be able to wait,” Beau retorted, terrified he was already too late.
Damn her, he thought. How does she always manage to winkle her way right into the middle of disasters? Damn him, if he didn’t get to her in time.
He walked faster.
* * *
Come back,Beau,Pip kept thinking as she gathered her staff in the kitchen. Her palms were sweating, and she wanted to vomit up the tea she had never gotten to. She kept listening through the open cellar door, struggling to hear any noise of invaders. She couldn’t hear anything but her own breathing.
“Do you know where the Fairy Steps are?” she asked the assembled staff as they all crowded around her.
“I do,” young Sam said with a grin. “Mighta used ‘em to sneak back in late like
a time or two.”
Mrs. Webb gave him a smack on the shoulder. “I should report you.”
His grin was bright as noon. “But you won’t. What’s this about, milady?”
Pip still had to get used to that address. “I need you all to use the Fairy Steps to sneak back into the Hall,” she said. “As quickly and unobtrusively as you can. I’m afraid we have a problem.”
Every person in her kitchen straightened. “What kind of problem?” Joyful asked.
Pip sighed. “There seems to be a new—and unfriendly—group of smugglers who found a tunnel to the Dower House and a second cellar where they are even now storing crates of guns, which I fear they intend to use very soon. I do not want any of you to be in danger, so I am asking you to very quietly sneak out. There are watchers up by the hall as well, which is why I want you to use the tunnel.”
“Tell you how careful we’ll be,” Billings retorted, on his feet like a new recruit. “We’re stayin’ here. You was gonna do this alone, wasn’t you?”
She shrugged, heartened by the nods she saw at Billings’ declaration. “I have sent for Lord Drummond. He will know what to do. Hopefully, in the meantime, we need to keep them in the tunnel.Doesanybody know anything about that second cellar?”
She was answered by shaken heads. She nodded back, assessing the staff’s response. Billings and Hawkins looked determined. Joyful simply stood like a hipshot horse, her hand on her hip. It was very difficult to excite Joyful. Mrs. Webb and the maids looked nervous. And poor Mr. Sullins, Beau’s very precise and nervous valet, looked as if he were about to weep.
“Mr. Sullins,” she said. “May I ask you to follow Sam to the Fairy Steps and help guide everyone through the tunnel to the Hall’s chapel? They will need a steady leader.”
She saw Mrs. Webb stiffen in outrage and gave her a pointed look. The undercook took a quick look at the relief in Mr. Sullins’ posture and huffed once before stepping back.
“Thank you, Milady,” she said, folding her arms. “We’ll all do fine.”
“Thank you all for making this easy.”
“I’m not going,” Joyful interrupted, her laconic voice belying the steel suddenly in her spine.
