‘Those Trenchards!’ Oliver spat. ‘They’re nothing but a blight on my land!’
Kane made to protest at that but Luke burst through the door shaking his dark head. ‘There’s no sign of them, Father.’
Beatrice, having been awakened from a drunken stupor at the kitchen hearth when Jack rushed through the room, was shuffling up the corridor, curious to see what was going on. ‘What’s up, Master Luke? Is somebody ill? Is there trouble afoot?’
Luke didn’t answer and Beatrice pushed past him into the parlour. ‘What’s goin’ on?’ she said, wiping a large drip off her nose and sniffing loud enough to receive momentary attention. ‘’As somebody died, God rest their soul?’
‘Stay with Kerensa until we get back, Bea,’ Oliver said, picking the old woman up bodily and dumping her down beside Kerensa.
‘I want to come with you, Oliver,’ Kerensa said, but he held her back.
‘Oh no you’re not. Not in your condition. There’s enough of my womenfolk in possible danger as it is. Jack, saddle up and go over to Trecath-en Farm. See if the Trenchard girl’s there. If not, tell her father to come to the cove immediately and collect her.’
The men were quickly gone and Kerensa and Beatrice were left staring at each other. Kerensa made a quirky face. ‘’Tis always left to the women to sit and wait,’ she complained.
‘’Cept for those three maidens out there somewheres now,’ Beatrice replied, thumping her heavy chest to assist a burst of coughing. ‘Shall I make ’ee a dish of tea, me ’an’some?’
‘I suppose so. ’Tis what we always do in moments like these. I’ll come to the kitchen with you. I’m glad Kelynen has slept through all the commotion or she’d be down here with all her endless questions.’
No sooner had the words left her lips when a large black dog bounded into the room and her sleepy-eyed younger daughter appeared in her nightgown. ‘Mama, where have Papa, Kane and Luke and Jack gone in such a hurry? I looked out of the window and saw them riding out of the stable yard.’
Kerensa smiled and held her arms out. ‘Come to the kitchen, my love. It’s just as warm in there, and Beatrice and I will tell you all about it.’
‘Everything seems to be unsettled since Kane came home,’ Kelynen said, stifling a yawn, after she’d been told the reason for the abrupt departures. ‘Nothing happened for ages and now it doesn’t seem to stop.’
‘Well, just you be sure to behave yourself, young lady,’ Kerensa said affectionately. ‘But while we’re sitting here waiting anxiously for your sister and cousin to come safely home, I’ve got some news for you. Something else that’s going to happen. I’m expecting another baby early next year.’
‘I thought you were,’ Kelynen said matter-of-factly. ‘What with the way Papa’s been fussing over you lately. And you needn’t worry about me causing you worry, Mama. I’ve got Rex to keep me in line.’ She patted the broad head of the dog who was dozing at her knee. Then she stifled another yawn. ‘I couldn’t sleep but I’m tired at the same time.’
‘Be better if ’ee goes back to bed, cheeil,’ Beatrice rasped, giving the girl a toothless grin. ‘Rex’ll be able t’sleep better anyway.’
‘Yes, you go on back up to bed, Kelynen. I’ll come up to tell you straightaway when they’ve come home.’
‘Go on, I’ll look after yer mother,’ Beatrice said, when the girl looked doubtful.
Kelynen was never inclined to argue like her brother Luke and her errant sister. With a shrug of her slim shoulders, she kissed them both and went back to her room, Rex walking up beside her protectively.
‘’Tes all part of motherhood, my dear,’ Beatrice said, looking at Kerensa shrewdly. ‘She’ll be a worry to ’ee too when she gits old enough.’
‘I know,’ Kerensa said resignedly. ‘But she is right, Beatrice. Everything’s been turned upside down since Kane’s come home.’
‘You don’t wanna read nothin’ into that, m’dear! Fate shakes things up fer a little while then it’ll all settle down again.’
‘But we’ve had deaths, the unmasking of a murderer, now all these weddings and I’m with child again.’
‘And when thee takes it all apart and looks at it every which way yer can, m’dear, ye’ll see they were all bound to ’appen.’
‘You mean Kane was bound to leave the army and me to have another baby? That Hezekiah Solomon was bound to be found out? Sir Martin was bound to die and Sebastian to choke to death with his eating habits? And the girls to seek adventure?’ After a few moments’ thought on each event, Kerensa realised the truth of most of it. ‘But not Clem marrying the parson’s sister,’ she said with a smile.
‘Naw, p’raps not that, I’ll agree with ’ee. ’Ow do ’ee feel about that then?’
‘It seems an unlikely coupling but I wish them well.’
‘Still ’ave a little love fer ’e, Clem Trenchard, don’t ’ee?’
‘For Clem? I don’t suppose the feelings of love I had for him will ever fade away to nothing. But I love Oliver and I’d like to see Clem happily married, the way he was with Alice.’
‘But thee don’t think ’e’ll be ’appy with Miss Cath’rin’?’
‘I think it’s unlikely, they’re not at all suited. Oliver thinks he’ll back out when the time comes. It would be very cruel if he did. I think Miss Catherine finds her spinsterhood something of a shameful condition. But if he does marry her and they end up hating each other, that would be cruel too.’
‘Well, we’ll jus’ ’ave to wait ’n’ see. They might git along jus’ fine, stranger things d’appen at sea an’ it went bring the sky fallin’ down. But there’s nothin’ wrong with bein’ unmarried, don’t know why maids d’git into such a state over it.’
Kerensa looked at Beatrice with a sudden burning curiosity. ‘Did you ever get married, Beatrice? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention a man in your life.’
The old woman tapped her fat red nose with a finger. ‘Never ’ee do mind, but I’ve ’ad me moments.’
Kerensa smiled but became anxious again. ‘They must be at Trelynne Cove by now. And I don’t really believe that Olivia and Cordelia doing this was inevitable.’
* * *
The Pengarrons and Jack trotted quickly over the familiar tracks through the night, all carrying lanterns, and soon parted company for their separate destinations.
‘I wonder how they came up with this idea,’ Luke said through the dark to his father and brother.
‘From you and your little gang of free-traders I expect,’ Oliver retorted. ‘Yes, I do know about your little nocturnal activities,’ he added on a crosser note.
‘And you mind us free-trading?’ Kane asked, as they reached the beginning of the cliff paths that would take them to Trelynne Cove.
‘Not you, I don’t, it’s what every Cornish man does and enjoys taking the risk. But it must have been where the girls got their idea from and that I do mind. If the Trenchard girl and her ilk want to risk themselves ending up as prisoners of the Revenue men, then that’s up to them, but there are other considerations where Olivia and Cordelia are concerned. They’re ladies and are open to different forms of abuse.’
Kane didn’t like the way his father was referring to Jessica. He was terribly worried about her and he derided to change the subject before he was stung into saying something he would regret. ‘Are you and Mama adding to the family, Father?’
‘Yes,’ Oliver replied. ‘And so far it hasn’t been a happy time for her. We were about to tell you when Jack came into the room. Let’s hope we can get your sister and cousin back safely. I don’t understand how Olivia could take such a risk so soon after her recent ordeal.’
It took only a short time to get to Trelynne Cove. There seemed to be nobody about. They dismounted and ran down the winding path onto the shingle, shouting the girls’ names. There was no sign of their ponies and all was quiet except for the roll of the sea and the cry of the winds.
‘Do you think they’ve been here?’ Luke said
, holding his lantern higher. ‘Perhaps they went somewhere different to where they told Jack.’
‘No,’ Kane said. ‘If they’ve arranged to land a run at the cove, they wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. Perhaps they have already met the smuggling party and left.’
‘Impossible,’ Oliver snorted. ‘A smuggling run takes time and it would take three girls even longer to haul goods about. Even if they had gone, we would have met them returning home. But look around. There’s no sign of anyone having been here.’
‘Perhaps they’ve gone over to Trecath-en Farm to stay the night there with Jessica for some reason,’ Luke said, trying to think of a comforting reason for the girls not being at the cove or at home.
‘I hope you’re right,’ Oliver said grimly. ‘I have a bad feeling about this. We’ll walk to each end of the beach calling their names. They could be hiding away and are afraid to come out, not realising it’s us who’s here. We’ll go up to Mother Clarry’s end first.’
They walked in a row, their riding boots crunching over the shingle, calling loudly with their hands round their mouths. ‘Olivia! Cordelia! Jessica!’
When they reached the end of the beach they stopped and looked up at the outline of Mother Clarry’s seat, a jutting piece of smooth rock that was rumoured to be the seat of an ancient mythical witch.
‘I wish she was up there now, this very minute, to tell us if anything has happened here,’ Kane said, his gut in a tight knot.
Oliver cupped his lips and shouted, ‘Olivia! Cordelia! It’s Father! Answer me!’
But there was no reply. It was chillingly quiet. The clouds had been slowly clearing from the moon which was now circled by a halo of yellow and pink, but nothing could be seen in its light.
‘Where are they?’ Luke said in anguish, looking upwards. If the moon had witnessed what had happened to his sister and cousin and Jessica, it gave no clue to their whereabouts now.
‘We’ll try the other end of the beach,’ Oliver said.
They retraced their long strides, shouting all the way. There was no sign of the girls.
‘What next?’ Kane asked.
‘We’ll clamber over the rocks. Try your great-grandfather’s hidey-hole. We should have thought of it in the beginning. If there was any trouble, they might have gone there. In fact they could be in there hiding from us. Leave your lantern here, Luke, we’ll go in by the light of mine and Kane’s. You’ll need your good arm to hold on with.’
Even in the half-dark they quickly located Old Tom Trelynne’s hidey-hole, behind which lay a shallow cave hewn out of rock. Kane and Luke had contraband stored in there now, put there on an almost pitch-dark night after the rest of the smuggling party had disbanded. Their hopes soared when they saw a boulder at the entrance had been removed and they made light work of removing more until it was wide enough for a broad man to squeeze through.
One by one they wriggled through, Kane compressing and hurting the tender spot on his stomach and Luke jarring his painful stiff arm. Oliver could just make them out rubbing at their old wounds as they all stood on the other side.
‘Are you two all right?’ he asked, as if he was talking to two elderly ladies shamming their ailments.
His sons dropped their hands guiltily to their sides.
‘Good, then we’ll proceed, shall we? We won’t shout. I don’t want them getting in a panic and falling off the rocks in the dark.’
He led the way, followed by Luke, with Kane bringing up the rear on the narrow, tricky route to the cave. Luke stumbled, and Kane braced his feet and reached out to stop his fall. They came to the entrance of the cave without further mishap and looked inside intently. Nothing seemed to be there but the contraband lying about in casks and bales.
‘I thought they’d be here!’ Oliver said desperately. ‘Olivia! Cordelia!’
‘Jessica!’ Kane and Luke called together.
One of the bales of silk seemed to move.
‘What was that?’ Oliver said. ‘Did you hear something?’
Then something was pushed aside and two figures rose like ghosts in the eerie lantern light. The men gasped.
‘Father! Oh, it’s you,’ Olivia called out, climbing over contraband and running to him.
Cordelia was on her heels with cries of ‘Uncle Oliver!’
The girls hugged the brothers but before any explanations were asked of them, Kane gripped Olivia’s wrist tightly and asked with a hiss, ‘Where’s Jessica?’
‘But isn’t she with you?’ Olivia cried.
Chapter 24
‘Where is Jessica supposed to be?’ Kane shouted in blind panic, pulling on Olivia’s wrist until she cried out and Oliver wrested his hand away. ‘Why isn’t she here with you?’
‘She went up to the top of the cliff,’ Olivia wailed, jumping up and down as she always did when distressed, ‘to signal back to the smuggling boat. Didn’t you see her? Perhaps she’s up there hiding or she may have run away home.’
‘You were here to take part in a smuggling run,’ Oliver said sternly to both girls. ‘What made you hide in here?’
‘We heard a strange noise from up on top of the cliff,’ Olivia began shakily. ‘Then we heard a rush of feet running down the cliff path towards us.’
‘We didn’t know who it was,’ Cordelia carried on the tale. ‘We thought that perhaps it was the Revenue men. They were shouting, “Get them!” and we thought they could only mean us. We scrambled up the rocks and through the hidey-hole’s opening – we’d already moved the rock so we could get through without delay should anything go wrong. We hoped Jessica had found a place to hide away in the dark. She knows the area very well.’
‘Did you see any smugglers?’ Luke said.
‘We saw no one at sea. They could have signalled to us and receiving no signal back sailed away,’ Olivia replied, shivering with the cold despite the extra clothes she’d put on.
‘So you have no idea who these men were?’ Kane asked.
‘No. We heard them swearing when they couldn’t find us,’ Cordelia said, shaking in her boots. ‘Then after a long time everything went quiet and we decided to wait until it got light before we came out.’
‘You would have recognised them as Revenue men by their uniforms and they would have challenged you in the name of the King,’ Luke interjected. ‘I have an awful feeling the men were in fact the smugglers but they planned something other than smuggling for you.’
‘They could have asked for a huge ransom for both of you,’ Oliver said grimly.
‘But not for Jessica!’ Kane tore back out of the cave and scrambled to the opening of the hidey-hole, his lantern bobbing wildly. He thrashed over the shingle until he was racing up the cliff path.
‘Jessica! Jessica!’
When he got to the top he scrambled about looking for her and then he saw her lantern, knocked onto its side, the candle lying on the ground. ‘She’s gone!’ he shouted like a madman. ‘She’s gone, taken.’
Luke who was behind him grabbed his arm. ‘Kane, the girls say that the run was planned by Zack Maynard. He must have taken Jessica. Apparently she saw him at one time going into a gin shop in Marazion. We’ll search every drinking hole in the town until we find them.’
‘You know this Zack Maynard?’ Oliver asked at their backs.
‘Yes, he’s the man who’s been organising our runs here in the cove and other places. We think we may know where to find him and his gang,’ Luke said.
‘I knew we couldn’t trust that man,’ Kane moaned, and he felt partly responsible for Jessica’s disappearance.
‘Luke, escort your sister and cousin safely home,’ Oliver said. ‘You’ll have to take Kane’s horse for them. Kane and I will ride together on Gereint to Marazion at once.’
‘Why must I take them home?’ Luke grumbled.
‘It is just as important to escort these miscreants safely home and reassure your mother,’ Oliver said in a tight voice that brooked no argument. ‘Go with him,’ he ordered the girls. �
��Go straight to your rooms and stay there. I will have more to say to you both about this, and Olivia, I shall be sending Jack straightaway to Perranbarvah to inform Timothy Lanyon of what you’ve been up to. No doubt he will have some harsh words for you, and deservedly so.’
‘Yes, Father,’ she said contritely. ‘But please go quickly and see if you can rescue Jessica from that man. From what she said about him, I fear he has the same designs on her as Hezekiah Solomon had on me.’
‘Don’t worry your mother unnecessarily,’ Oliver warned, ‘or I’ll punish you severely.’ Then he and Kane mounted Gereint and left.
They met Clem and Jack a few moments later coming towards them. ‘I have some grave news for you, Trenchard,’ Oliver said, and he recounted the story.
Clem made a groaning noise and looked as though he was about to burst into tears. ‘So it’s just my maid who’s in danger, is it? My son Philip thinks this might have something to do with a man he and your sons have been smuggling with.’
‘Zack Maynard is his name,’ Kane said from his perch behind his father.
‘Aye, that’s the one. Philip usually met him at Painted Bessie’s kiddley but thinks he haunts Marazion as well. If he and his gang have taken Jessica and planned to kidnap Miss Olivia and Miss Cordelia, they are more likely to have run for there, to get away on a ship or something,’ Clem said fearfully. ‘With the kidnapping gone wrong, they know we’ll be after them sooner or later. Philip and David have ridden on ahead on the farm home to Marazion. If you intend to help me get my daughter back, Kane, Sir Oliver, I thank you for it but we’d better hurry. It’s high tide in an hour and Jessica could end up anywhere in the world.’
They rode quickly to the Parsonage to inform the Reverend Lanyon of the night’s activities and to ask him to go to the Manor and stay there until they returned home. Kane took Jack’s pony, leaving him to make his way home with the parson. Then he, his father and Clem rode as fast as they dared on their joint errand, the only time in their lives that Sir Oliver Pengarron and Clem Trenchard had put aside their differences.
Pengarron's Children Page 34