“I am fine. It is nothing to worry about,” Kat snapped in an attempt to hastily reassure her fearful mother.
“Don’t tell me that they plan to target you now,” Agnes gasped. She clutched at the small silver crucifix necklace that rested on her chest as though she needed divine inspiration. “Dear Lord.”
“I am fine, mother. It is nothing to worry about,” Kat whispered and rushed forward when her mother collapsed into her chair.
“That’s it, we have to move,” Agnes cried. “We are not going to stop here now. I have had enough. First thing tomorrow morning we have to start to find ourselves somewhere else to live that is far away from here.”
“What?” Kat glared at Jonathan as she passed him, and bit back the urge to lambast him for unnecessarily scaring her mother. If he hadn’t just saved her from Brian, she would have thrown him out on his ear.
Jonathan watched the over-reaction and wondered what else was going on. Agnes had gone from tired, to wary, to panicked in less than five minutes. He studied Kat’s almost maternal soothing and couldn’t help but think that he had missed something – something significant. Billy stood in the kitchen doorway and wrung his hands indecisively as though he wasn’t sure what to do. The young boy was clearly upset at the latest news, or was he shaken by it?
“Look, Agnes, I can escort Kat from the tavern at night and keep her safe. I can also collect her and drop her back here when she reads to my uncle. That is not a problem. However, if she has to go to market to help you then I suggest that you all go together rather than leave Kat to walk alone across the fields. I am going to speak to Brian and his colleagues as a matter of urgency.” Jonathan relished the confrontation. “Until then, I think it would be wise if you ladies stuck together.”
“Oh, we will,” Agnes sighed. She offered him a hesitant smile that was half-apology. “Please forgive my bad manners. Can I offer you some refreshments?”
“Oh, no thank you,” Jonathan replied. He eyed the bolt of cloth propped up against the corner of the sitting room and wondered if they planned to do some sewing. It was a large bolt and would have cost a pretty penny. He wondered whether it was curtain material or meant for clothing, but then decided it was really none of his business.
His thoughts turned again to the customer she met in Tattersnell. It was on the tip of his tongue to make polite reference to having seen her in the tavern but, given the fear still evident on Agnes’ face and the rising tension within the room, decided it was best to take his leave.
“I will call for you about six?” His look defied Kat to object.
“I will already be at work by then. It is still light when I go, so you don’t need to worry yourself,” Kat argued. She did not want to have to rely on anyone, especially Jonathan who unnerved her so, but struggled to find a way to put him off without sounding rude and churlish: something she knew her mother wouldn’t let her get away with.
“It’s no trouble. I have a duty to ensure that everyone in my parish is safe, and that includes you, Kat,” Jonathan murmured gently. He knew that even if she wouldn’t allow him to escort her home, he would do it anyway. The likes of Brian and his little gang of cohorts wouldn’t be dissuaded easily, and he had no doubt that they would wait for Kat to finish work one night when it was dark and quiet and she least expected them to appear. While he had breath in his body, that would not to happen.
His thoughts flickered briefly to his work with the Star Elite. Work that still awaited his attention, but he quickly blanked it out. Until he had decided what to do with Brian and his colleagues, there was no prospect of him going anywhere else; Star Elite or not. His nearest and dearest were always a priority and, when they were placed at risk like Kat was, Star Elite business had to be put firmly to one side. It had been the same with Hugo and Simon, and indeed Jamie, who had recently wed his bride, Cecily. It was going to be the same with Jonathan; or he was going to quit the Star Elite, it was as simple as that.
“I am not any of your concern though,” Kat argued and ignored her mother’s warning look.
“I am afraid that you are,” he replied softly. “You all are. These trouble makers are running rife, right on my doorstep. It is down to me to put a stop to it.”
“But this is village business,” Kat gasped.
“Kat.”
She turned and her mother’s look and sighed. “I am just saying that Lord Dentham has been away from home for a long time,” she shot him a pointed look. “I am sure there are a lot of things that require his attention at Dentham Hall.”
“There are, but I also have a man of business who is paid handsomely to ensure that urgent matters are dealt with speedily. I wouldn’t want to impede his endeavours.”
Silence settled over them.
“Well, I will be in the tavern later to escort you home.”
“I am due to read to your uncle, though.”
“I will send your apologies for today. Given your ordeal this afternoon, I think you should take a well earned rest instead. I am sure that Uncle Bruce will understand. If you are available, I will collect you tomorrow morning?”
“That’s fine, I will be ready.” She could think of nothing else to say.
“I will see you later this evening,” Jonathan promised, and moved toward the door.
Kat threw a frantic glance at her mother who merely stared back nonplussed. Luckily there was no shipment due tonight but there would be soon, of that there could be little doubt. What then?
“Thank you, my lord,” Agnes murmured and followed him to the door.
“Please call me Jonathan. We have known each other long enough now to dispense with the formalities. I hope I am not taking a liberty by calling you Agnes?” He gave her his most charming smile that turned into a grin at the flustered blush that flooded the older woman’s cheeks.
“Oh, my dear. Of course not.”
Kat rolled her eyes and shook her head at the man’s unabashed cheek. He really was a scoundrel. A teasing glint of success lit his eyes when they met hers and she felt the full force of his charm right down to her very toes. She caught herself just as she started to smile back and sighed.
If the man didn’t get out of their house soon, her besotted mother would be apt to follow him home, and most probably her as well, Kat thought ruefully. She watched the man wink at Billy before he closed the door behind him. He really was a relentless charmer.
“Cor, did you see the size of his gun?” Billy gasped as he rushed to the window to peer out at the rapidly retreating back of the enigma from the big house.
“Billy Baird, don’t you dare start,” Kat warned. She knew that Billy was not likely to leave the subject of guns alone until he had all of the facts about them from Jonathan. “Leave the man alone.”
“He is quite nice, really,” Agnes sighed.
“Good Lord. Not you too,” Kat chided with a scowl.
She was half way up the stairs to change her dress for work when she realised that she too had taken a quick peek out of the front room window to catch one last look at the man who had surprised them all.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I need your advice, Harry,” Kat mumbled later that night. She had to keep her voice down. There were very few patrons in tonight, possibly due to the fact that a strong storm had blown in and almost everyone, except for a few hardy drinkers, had chosen to remain at home.
“What’s that?” Norman leaned forward to listen.
Kat glanced at Norman, Harry and Charles, the three elderly locals she knew she could trust. She explained the incident in the field with Brian and his friends, and Brian’s ominous threat. When she had explained about Jonathan’s insistence that he offer his protection on the way home after her shift, she paused and waited for her friends’ opinion. She watched them glance at each other carefully for a moment while they absorbed what she had told them and wondered if she should just go and serve, when Charles sighed.
“Well, I think you have a bit of a problem on your hands t
here girl, and that’s a fact.”
Kat fought the urge to roll her eyes. Talk about stating the obvious, she sighed to herself.
“At least if he does escort you home then he isn’t going to be around to see what we are doing,” Norman replied reasonably.
Harry lifted his brows and looked askance at Kat. “Unfortunately though, you will be at home when you need to be here, so will have to make two journeys on your own.”
“Down on the beach there are enough of us to make sure that you are looked after. We all know what Brian is like. He won’t get near you with us about, don’t you fear.”
“Shh.” They all cast furtive glances around the empty tap room before they put their heads together again.
“We can all help her get the goods home. At least then she will be with us all the time.”
“What about the lord though? We cannot risk him staying in the area once he has dropped her off.”
Silence settled for a moment while they all thought.
“Course, she could always allow him to take her home and stay there herself. We can drop her cargo off when we take our own deliveries home. We have to take Hester’s and Pete’s. We can drop Kat’s off at the same time.”
Kat wasn’t sure whether she liked that idea or not. If there was a spy in the village who was reporting to Harrison, she didn’t want a band of smugglers turning up on her doorstep with boxes of cargo. By herself, she was just making trips backward and forward from work. There were numerous excuses she could make: taking laundry home perhaps, or checking on her family while she was at work. Unfortunately, having to explain the presence of a gang of smugglers carrying boxes into her house would take some inventiveness even she wasn’t sure she could manage with any degree of conviction.
She sighed and wondered how long she would have to live with this arrangement. If luck was on her side, Jonathan would soon get bored with village life, as he usually did, and head back to the bright lights of London. Then life in the village of Bentney on Sea could return to normal.
A small voice warned her that it was impossible now. She had gotten too close to him. This time, although he had only been back a few days, they had spoken more than ever before. She had seen him more than ever before and couldn’t understand what had brought about this change in circumstances. He had never really shown any interest in anything that had gone on in the village before, so why now? She wondered if he had heard rumours about the smuggling and was intent on checking out for himself what was going on. She sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case, and hoped instead that he had found himself a bit bored for something to do while on his brief visit home.
“I think that you have to allow him to take you home and let us bring the stuff to you. I can store it here overnight and deliver it to you in the morning,” Harry offered.
“Harrison always turns up though,” Kat countered. “It is as if he knows when it is due to arrive, and starts to look for it before we can store it.”
“I know,” Norman grumbled. “That man knows something and that’s a fact.”
“Do you think there is a traitor in the village?”
“I am certain of it,” Charles joined the conversation for the first time. “You cannot discount the fact the usually absent lord of this parish has turned up at the same time that Harrison has started to step up his searches.”
“They aren’t working together,” Kat gasped. She refused to believe someone like Jonathan even spoke to someone like Harrison. “I don’t believe it.”
“Your young man is a friend of that magistrate, Harper-Smythe. They had dinner together recently I heard.”
“Where do you get your gossip from?” Norman sighed. He rolled his eyes and wondered if Charles still visited that cook’s assistant, Gertie.
“I am not going to tell you,” Charles snapped, “It is just that Kat’s man –”
“He isn’t my man,” Kat interjected.
Charles merely looked back at her obliquely until Kat rolled her eyes.
“He is friends with the magistrate. He has friends in high places and that’s a fact. You cannot ignore the fact that he could be working with Harrison, and they could be friends.”
“Jonathan is completely opposite to Harrison. They are the least likely men ever to be friends in the entire county of Cornwall.” Kat ignored their raised brows at her familiar use of Jonathan’s first name.
“I am not saying they are,” Charles argued. “But it is damned odd, you have to admit.”
“Keep him out of the way,” Harry warned. “We can go about our business. The man wants to walk you home. What harm can it do? At least when he has dropped you off at home, he can then go back to Dentham Hall, and is far away from the village.”
“What does he want with Kat though?”
“Well, she is pretty,” Harry remarked dryly. “What man wouldn’t want her?”
“Wait a minute?” Kat snapped. “I am not going to be offered up as a human sacrifice to any man.” She stared down at each man in turn and glared when Harry sniggered.
“You lot are reprehensible,” she growled with a scowl. “If only your wives could hear you now, you would all be sleeping out in the back alleys where you belong.”
“An ale please.”
Kat gasped and turned to Jonathan’s now familiar face. She threw one last contemptuous glare at the older men and turned her back on them, aware that Harry’s shoulders still shook, and Norman’s smirk was carefully hidden behind his tankard.
“Are these reprobates bothering you?” He drawled and smiled at the flashing fury in Kat’s eyes. Together with the angry blush that stained her cheeks, she looked as ferocious as a kitten and he couldn’t help but wonder where this delightfully passionate woman had come from. She looked as though she was going to lunge across the bar and scratch his eyes out. He studied her with a wary respect at the same time that he threw the elder men a studying look. They had been teasing her mercilessly if he was any judge of character, and Kat was as annoyed as she was amused by it.
“They are always bothering me,” Kat drawled. “They breathe, that’s enough.” She threw a dark scowl and the remark in their direction, and handed Jonathan his ale.
“It’s quiet tonight, Kat, why don’t you head home?”
Kat stared blankly at the wall for a moment and slowly turned to Harry, who still battled to keep his smirk under control.
“Oh, I take it that I am still going to get paid despite being let off early?” She smirked back when Harry hesitated and stared at her nonplussed for a moment.
“Erm.”
“Well, thank you, that is very generous of you, boss,” Kat snapped. She left the bar and snatched up her shawl. “I will see you tomorrow,” she nodded to Jonathan who tossed a coin on the bar. He hadn’t touched his brew but didn’t mind one bit. Being able to witness the interplay between them was a privilege. It gave him an insight into who Kat really was, and how much respect she had from the locals. It warmed him to know that the almost paternal teasing was a result of a deep rooted respect and admiration of the young woman and that, coming from the older generation, was not an easy fete in such a small, close-knit community.
He held the door and waved Kat out before him. They were immediately swept up in the strong winds that buffeted the harbour. Kat shivered and glanced at the boats as they bobbed about on the storm tossed sea.
“I hope it dies down by morning, or the fishermen are going to have a rough ride.”
“They are used to it,” Jonathan replied and lengthened his stride to keep up with her. The first smattering of rain drops began to fall around them as they made their way up the narrow, cobbled streets toward the small house in which Kat lived. It really was a quaint little village that was full to bursting with families, both young and old alike.
Unlike some of the villages he had been to over the past few years, this one had an age-old air of mystery around it that he had grown familiar with but never questioned before. It was something tha
t had drawn him back again and again. Other villages had the same atmosphere about them, as though if you looked into a dimly lit window you would see a familiar face looking back at you. However, unlike other villages this one felt safe, as though you could walk around with a pocket full of gold coins and still reach home safely. He had kept in regular contact with Harper Hamilton-Smythe to know that there was very little illegal activity in the village. There had been no reported crime for at least two years which, given the current financial climate, was extremely rare. Most people struggled financially, and it was habitual for the odd sheep or two to disappear one dark and lonely night, however in Bentney on Sea, there didn’t even appear to be even sheep stealing going on. He couldn’t help but wonder why.
Once again, he wondered whether he was looking for ghosts where there were none. He glanced down at the lady at his side and held out an elbow almost hopefully, and was pleasantly surprised when she took it. He used the contact to draw her infinitesimally closer while they hurried up the hill toward home.
“You know in all of my years of living here, I have never been able to get used to these steep streets,” he growled when a particularly strong gust of wind snuck up his back and made him shiver.
Kat threw him an amused glance. “Well, you don’t come here very often. Maybe you are not as fit as you think you are.”
His brows rose and he grinned openly at her. “I can out-run you any day,” he challenged, his voice dipping low.
“Ha! You are an urban gentleman. I bet the last time you ran anywhere, you were chasing your newspaper,” she snorted and cast him a disparaging glance.
“The last time I ran, I was the one being chased.” His low drawl made her stop and, despite the inclement weather, she turned to stare at him, seemingly oblivious to the driving wind and persistent rain.
Jonathan had never seen anyone so beautiful. Tiny curls had started to spring free from their tight confinement and now lay teasingly against her high cheekbones and delicate curve of her jaw. He ached to sweep them away along with the rainwater that trickled slowly down her smooth, alabaster cheeks.
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