Jaded Moon (Ransomed Jewels Book 2)

by Laura Landon

  “How is she?” Sam asked, walking across the room.

  “She doesn’t have a fever. Hallam said that could be more dangerous than the bullet wound.”

  “It is. But she’s strong.

  “I should have listened to her, Sam. She tried to tell me she didn’t have anything to do with the smuggling but I wouldn’t even give her a chance to explain. I was so angry and all I could think was that she’d taken away my only chance to redeem my name.”

  Sam didn’t say anything, but Ross didn’t expect him to. Sam didn’t know the real reason it was so important for Ross to restore his name. “I have a son. His name is Charles.”

  Ross lifted his head and looked at the surprised expression on Sam’s face.

  “Carrie Gardner was pregnant when she left London and had the babe after she arrived here. I never knew. When she died, Josie took my son to live with her, then placed him in the orphanage. When I found out he was there, I went to get him.” He looked down at Josie and smiled. “She wouldn’t give him to me because she said someone with my reputation didn’t deserve to raise a child. I should have known then that she wouldn’t have anything to do with smuggling opium.”

  “If she wasn’t involved, how did she find out about it?”

  Ross laughed. “I told her. I even asked for her help. I told her I was watching the cove and asked her to give me any information she might hear. Then I told her that when the government found the smugglers, they’d be arrested and hanged. She asked me why the government was so interested in something so insignificant. I told her there was nothing insignificant about smuggling in opium.”

  Ross raked his fingers through his hair. “You should have seen the shocked expression on her face.”

  “Then, it was Josie you saw below the cliffs.”

  “I was watching when the shipment came ashore. I had the match in my hand ready to light the flare when she stepped into the moonlight. I thought I couldn’t be seeing right yet there she was, checking each crate and barrel as they unloaded them.”

  “So you didn’t light the signal.”

  “I couldn’t.”

  Sam paced the room as if sorting through the details to make sure they made sense. “All the time she thought they were bringing in goods the merchant Cornelius Sharpe sold in his shops in Clytheborough, Lindville was bringing in opium he transported to London and sold on the black market. So it was Lindville who was behind the smuggling?”

  When Ross didn’t answer right away, Sam stopped pacing and looked at him. “Why that look on your face?”

  “I don’t know. A gut feeling there’s something I’m not seeing.”

  “Explain yourself.”

  Ross placed Josie’s hand atop the covers and turned to face Sam. “Right after she was shot, she grabbed my arm and said, “I was wrong. It wasn’t him.”

  “Who wasn’t him?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she meant Lindville. Maybe she was trying to tell us that someone else was involved.”

  Ross started to put his thoughts into words but a knock on the door stopped him. Vicar Chadwick stepped into the room and walked over to where Josie lay.

  “I just heard what happened. How is she?”

  “She’s sleeping and Doctor Hallam says that’s the best thing for her right now. Vicar Chadwick,” Ross said, rising to introduce the vicar to Sam. “I don’t think you’ve met my cousin, Major Samuel Bennett.”

  Sam and the vicar shook hands. “No. I haven’t had the pleasure. I met Agent McCormick downstairs. He asked me to tell you he was taking the men back to your camp but he’d return before they left for London. Will you be going back with them, Major?”

  “No. I’m going to stay on until I tie everything up. There are a few details I need answers to first.”

  “Such as?”

  “What can you tell me about Baron Lindville, Vicar?”

  The vicar shook his head. “I just came from Lady Lindville. She’s taking her son’s death very hard.”

  “She had no idea he was involved in smuggling opium?”

  “Oh, I’m sure she didn’t. No one here did.”

  “Was there anyone here to whom Baron Lindville was especially close?”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “Someone who might have been involved with him in the smuggling? A partner perhaps?”

  The vicar looked shocked. “You don’t think Lindville was acting alone?”

  “We’re not sure.”

  The vicar looked to where Josie lay on the bed, then back to Major Bennett. “Do you think Miss Foley knows the smuggler’s identity?”

  “It’s possible. Was Lindville particularly close to anyone here?”

  “Not that I know of. He didn’t spend a lot of time here. He found country living quite boring so he spent most of his time in London. From the stories that came back, he led quite a wild life, but then most idle young men do, I’m told.”

  The vicar didn’t look in Ross’s direction, but Ross felt the implication in his words nonetheless.

  “He had a penchant for spending money. I’m afraid that might be what led him to get involved in such an activity.”

  “Were you aware of the smuggling?”

  A sheepish grin covered his face and Vicar Chadwick quickly lowered his gaze. “I’m afraid I was. Or at least suspected it. So did most of us who live in the vicinity. But the children needed the money so desperately that … well, everyone just looked the other way. No one dreamed Lindville was smuggling in opium.”

  “Did you know about the caves that ran beneath the orphanage?”

  “Yes, I’d heard rumors they existed, although I’d never seen them. Miss Foley was the only one who knew their exact location or had a key to get to them.”

  “Do you know where she kept this key?”

  “I’m not sure. There’s a small tin box in the bottom drawer of her desk that she keeps locked.”

  “Can you open it?”

  “No, but the key may be one that she keeps on a ring she has hidden in the lining of her cloak. I saw her take it out one day when she didn’t think anyone was around.”

  Ross rushed over to the cloak they’d removed from Josie and turned it inside out. He pulled the ring from a deep pocket and showed it to Sam.

  “We need to check out the caves again,” Ross said, then turned to the vicar. “Would you stay with Miss Foley until we return? It shouldn’t take long.”

  “Of course,” the vicar offered. “I’m sure she won’t wake up for a while yet and Lady Clythebrook is just down the hall if I need anything.”

  Ross looked at Josie. He wouldn’t be gone long and if she did wake up, the vicar would be here.

  “Thank you,” Ross said, and followed Sam to the door. He walked down the hall at a fast clip, certain he and Sam would be able to answer the niggling questions that wouldn’t go away.

  …

  “What are you thinking?” Sam asked as he tried the key they’d found in the small tin box in the bottom drawer of her desk. Sam turned the key and opened the thick, oak door in the cave. Ross handed Sam one of the two lanterns he had with him and they walked into the tunnel.

  “I keep thinking of what Josie said. ‘I was wrong. It wasn’t him.’”

  “What do you think she meant?”

  “I don’t know. It wasn’t who? Lindville? But it was. He as much as admitted it.”

  They both walked on, following the tracks the smugglers had left behind. “Maybe she meant he wasn’t the only one. Maybe someone worked for him?”

  “More than likely he worked for someone else.”

  Sam stopped and knelt down, shining his lantern closer to something he found on the ground. “Why do you say that?”

  “I didn’t know Lindville well, but I can’t believe he could have masterminded such a well-organized smuggling operation. Nor can I believe he had the contacts necessary to bring in the quantity of opium that was coming into London.”

  Sam rose to his feet and
slipped what he’d found into his pocket. “Who do you know in this area who would fit the profile?”

  “No one. It would have to be someone with close ties to the orphanage and who knew about the tunnels. Perhaps even someone who works here. Or at least spends a lot of time here. And it would have to be someone who visits London frequently. Someone who goes there enough to make the necessary arrangements both for buying and selling.”

  Ross lifted his lantern and walked further into the tunnels. “That points us back to Lindville.” He stopped at the opening on the other side of the orphanage. “What do you know about this Captain Levy?”

  “We’ve been watching him for some time now. We think he meets a Chinese trader in the Bangka Strait, east of Sumatra, and trades tea from Batavia for opium he brings to England. The Chinese have been major opium suppliers since the early days of the East India Company.” Sam stopped to shine his lantern on a piece of colored glass peeking out of the ground. “Once you have a connection with someone local it’s simple to make the necessary arrangements.”

  Sam bent to pick up the colored object, then turned it over in his fingers. “What the hell? This is the second one I’ve found. Do you know what this is?”

  He handed it to Ross and Ross looked down at a piece of smashed red gumdrop. A gumdrop like Vicar Chadwick always carried in his pocket. But Chadwick said he’d never been here.

  Chadwick’s lie hit Ross square in the gut along with the danger Josie was in by being alone with him.

  “Bloody hell. No!”

  Ross clutched the gumdrop in his fist and ran to the opening of the tunnel. It was him. This is what she meant. Lindville wasn’t behind the smuggling ring. It was Chadwick. Somehow she’d found out.

  And Chadwick couldn’t let her live to expose him.

  …

  Josie awoke in a foggy haze. Pain shot through her shoulder and down her arm. She tried to go back to the dark place where it didn’t hurt so much but she’d lost her way and was trapped somewhere between where she’d been and where she was going.

  She tried to open her eyes but couldn’t. It was as if heavy fingers held her eyelids closed and she couldn’t lift them. She knew something had happened, something that still terrified her enough to make her heart beat faster but she couldn’t remember what it was. Only that it had frightened her.

  With her eyes shut and her mind racing from one place to another, she let her ears try to decipher what was going on. There were voices. One was Lady Clythebrook’s and Josie heard the worry. She wanted to reassure her she was all right and tried harder to open her eyes, but the black hole she had fallen into was so deep. She tried to speak but no words would come so she gave up and sank back to listen again.

  The other voice was a man’s. She hoped it belonged to Ross. She desperately needed him to be with her. She would be safe then. But when the voice spoke again she knew it wasn’t his.

  Stabs of warning raced through her. This voice belonged to someone she needed to fear. Josie tried to open her eyes again and this time she saw shadows on the other side of the room.

  One of the shadows was Lady Clythebrook and Josie felt safe, but Lady Clythebrook left the room and Josie knew she’d been left alone with the man who wanted to kill her. She forced herself to breathe through the pain, then opened her eyes.

  “Well, well, Miss Foley. Welcome back.”

  “Where’s Lady Clythebrook?”

  “You just missed her. She’s been quite concerned about you but I assured her you were in good hands and convinced her to leave for a while.”

  “Please, ask her to—”

  The sardonic grin on his face stopped her words and Josie looked up at him with new-found fear.

  “I’m sorry, but I prefer she didn’t return just yet. Not until I’m finished.”

  Vicar Chadwick reached for one of the pillows on her bed and held it in his hands.

  “You realize I have to kill you, don’t you.” He took a step closer.

  “Captain Levy came to me right away. He assumed you knew I was involved, but realized too late that you didn’t.”

  He clutched the pillow tighter. “I was hoping Lindville would take care of you for me but he didn’t.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Too bad.”

  She shook her head and tried to speak but no words would come. She tried again. “No one knows. I promise, I won’t tell anyone.”

  He laughed. “Oh, please, Miss Foley. What kind of fool do you think I am? I know you and Rainforth are lovers. He’s been determined from the first to stop the drugs.”

  “If you leave now—”

  “Oh, I’m going to leave. Just as soon as I gather what I need. But first I have to make sure you’re not around to tell anyone what you know.”

  Josie’s heart thundered in her breast. She doubted she could scream loud enough for anyone to hear her. But surely, in time, someone would come to check on her.

  “Why did you do it?”

  “Smuggle in drugs?” His eyebrows arched high. “The money, of course.” He ran a hand over his worn black frock. “You know the life of poverty we lowly vicars are supposed to be content to live. Well, I don’t have the stomach for it. I’ve gone without my whole life while fools like Lindville have been handed life’s riches on a silver platter. I refuse to live out my days watching everyone else enjoy what I should have.”

  “But why did you involve Lindville?”

  “To keep from having to expose myself. He was my insurance. The person I could count on to take the blame if anything went wrong. And he did. Look how perfectly it turned out? Except…”

  He frowned and placed a finger against her cheek. “Look what he did to you. You’re going to go to your Maker with some terrible bruises on your face. I’m glad he’s dead. He got what he deserved.”

  Josie felt a sickening dread and moved her head to keep him from touching her. “How did you find out about the tunnels?”

  The vicar grinned. “My grandfather was a smuggler of some renown years ago. The caves were a part of the stories we all listened to as children.”

  “If you knew, then why involve me?”

  “You were the most reliable person to make sure the passageway was open, then locked again when the goods were removed. You were also the perfect contact person for Cornelius Sharpe. You gave our little smuggling operation an air of credibility. Everyone knew about it, yet because you were involved, the whole countryside turned a blind eye to what was going on.

  “You were so focused on the few pounds that were coming in for the children that not once did you consider something else might be going on. You were the ideal choice. So organized. So responsible. The perfect liaison between Captain Levy and the men who would come to remove the goods from the cave when it arrived. Baron Lindville certainly couldn’t be trusted. His dependency on the drug made him more useless every day. But you… As long as you received a small portion of the profits for the orphanage, we could count on you to do what had to be done and keep your mouth shut. The children were your Achilles’ heel. You’d do anything for them. And you never suspected a thing. Quite foolish of you, actually.”

  “But why didn’t you—”

  “Enough questions. Do you think I don’t know what you’re doing? Stalling for time won’t do you any good. I have to be gone before Rainforth and Major Bennett return from the caves. Not that they’ll find anything. Everything has been removed.”

  He stepped back a fraction and looked at her. “What did you do with it? I looked all over and there was no sign of the opium anywhere. Where did you hide it?”

  She glared at him and tried to turn away from him but he clamped his thumb and forefinger on either side of her jaw and turned her face back to him.

  “How did you get rid of it?”

  “I dumped it in the ocean.”

  He laughed. “How brilliant. Even in the end you did me a favor. You destroyed any proof that might be used to incriminate me. I owe you a huge favor. Unfortunately, you’ll never
be able to collect.”

  Josie watched as he raised the pillow over her head then brought it down. She struggled to free herself but firebrands of burning pain shot through her. She scratched at him with her uninjured hand and felt her nails sink into his flesh. He muttered a vile oath, but he didn’t release her. He only held the pillow tighter against her nose and mouth.

  She couldn’t breathe. Bright lights exploded behind her eyes and her lungs burned as if they were on fire. A thousand voices screamed inside her head but she wasn’t sure any of them reached beyond what she alone could hear.

  She was going to die. She wasn’t strong enough to fight him any longer.

  Ross’s face shone before her the way he’d looked when he’d seen his son for the first time. The way he’d looked when he’d made love to her. The way he’d looked when he’d smiled at her.

  She held onto that image as everything around her went black.

  Jaded Moon

  by Laura Landon

  Ransomed Jewels Series Book Two

  CHAPTER 23

  Ross didn’t wait for Banks to open the front door but burst into the entryway at Clythebrook Manor and took the steps that led to Josie’s bedroom three at a time. Sam wasn’t far behind him but that didn’t matter. If they were right about Chadwick, Josie could already be dead.

  All the way to her bedroom he tried not to think what might have already happened. But suddenly, the possibility that he might be too late to save her couldn’t be ignored and he realized he wasn’t sure he could survive without her.

  Why had it taken so long to realize Chadwick had been involved? The clues had been there all along yet he hadn’t seen them. He threw open the door and stopped.

  Josie lay beneath the covers as still as if she were sleeping—or dead. Chadwick loomed above her, the pillow that should have been beneath her head was over her face. The vicar jerked up when the door slammed open but the imprints of his hands still indented the downy feathers.

  An eruption of fury raged within Ross and he lunged across the room, pulling both the vicar and the pillow off her. The vicar slammed against the wall and Ross threw himself at him.