Page 93 of Trouble

Emily left Fairmont the moment the sky lightened from deep black to a touch of navy. She did not hesitate or look back. There was no point, now she knew for certain that she would never be returning. It would just be rubbing salt into the wound, and her visit to the captain’s room had been more than enough of that.

It was very hard to walk with her trunkandthe basket of goods Meera and the others had provided, but like many things Emily had faced in her life, it was still a whisker short of impossible, and that whisker made all the difference. She simply had to take rests every now and then, to put her things down and shake out her arms and try not to get frustrated about the fact that she was getting in her own way.

When the village finally came into view she was hot with effort, and although she was certainly notcrying, the wind had made her eyes smart and water so much that she looked as if she had been.

‘Christ,’ said the innkeeper at the Rose and Crown, when she met him outside, rolling a barrel in through a side door. ‘Are you after doing something dramatic?’

‘No,’ said Emily. ‘Just catching the post.’

‘So .?.?. you aren’t running from an overenthusiastic paramour, or fleeing the scene of a crime, or .?.?. or escaping from a haunted manor, with ghosts and that?’

Yes, thought Emily.All three, actually.

‘Just the post,’ she said out loud.

‘Ah well,’ said the innkeeper. ‘You’re early. You can wait inside, if you like. There’s tea.’

Emily dragged her things inside, more excited at the prospect of a chair to sit in than any sort of tea that the Rose and Crown might provide. She chose a table in the corner, collapsed brokenly into the chair, and was just trying to do something about her windblown hair and wet cheeks when she realised that somebody was watching her from across the room.

When she looked up to meet their gaze, her stomach plummeted directly through the dirty flagstones and landed somewhere in the vicinity of the ocean floor.

Charles was sitting with a newspaper in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, his face lit by the harsh light of a candle stub.

She sat frozen, too appalled to make her face pretend otherwise, as he slowly put down his cup and approached her table.

‘Miss Laurence,’ he said, sitting down in the chair next to her.

Emily did not respond. She barely breathed. She was as still as she would have been if confronted by some sort of predator in the wild, who would eat her hands if she made the slightest wrong move.

‘You are early,’ Charles said quietly. ‘Although .?.?. by the look of your luggage, you weren’t planning on making our appointment at all. How very hurtful.’

Emily’s mouth came unstuck. ‘Why are youhere?’

Charles looked slightly bemused. ‘I do not live nearby, Emily. I lodge here before our meetings. You can see why I find it so dreadfully rude when you do not attend, when I have gone to the trouble of commuting. I am not a great sleeper, so I often come down early for breakfast .?.?. and how fortuitous that I do,and that our paths have crossed.’

‘I do not have anything for you,’ Emily said in a rush, to avoid drawing this torturous conversation out for any longer than necessary. ‘There was nothing to find, I looked, but .?.?. I cannot help you. I have left the captain’s employ. I can be of no further use.’

‘Hmmm,’ said Charles, frowning. He seemed irritated that she had not played along with his false niceties and asked him if he was enjoying his tea or the weather. ‘I hardly think that’s true. You simply need to dig a little deeper to get to the truth.’ He ran a hand across his mouth, considering her at his leisure. ‘Do they even know you’ve left? This time of the morning, it rather looks as if you’re .?.?. sneaking out. Turn around and walk back to Fairmont, Miss Laurence, and do as I have asked, and all will be well.’

‘I cannot,’ said Emily, because it was true.

‘Cannot or will not? Your cowardice, which is more than evident, is not enough to excuse you I’m afraid.’

‘It is notcowardice—’

Charles abruptly misplaced his temper. ‘You are attempting to sneak out of the house like a fleeing ratandrenege on your agreement with me. You are a coward, Miss Laurence, and a shirker, and although you clearly have no regard for your responsibilities to others, perhaps you will understand if I speak plainly:you owe me.’

Despite all her attempts at restraint, Emily’s temper vanished into the same abyss as Charles’s had.

‘I amnota coward, or a—I am notanyof those things. You might have poked around in my life to retrieve a few facts meant to bully me into obedience, but you have made it very clear that you know absolutelynothingabout me.’

Charles clenched his fists, tensing until his entire being looked red and taut, and then slapped his palms against the table so loudly that Emily flinched.

‘Let us go and speak to the constable,’ he said, trying to regain some of that earlier joviality. ‘And get all of this straightened out.’

‘How willyouexplain yourself?’ Emily countered, not able to hide the shake in her voice. ‘If you tell everybody I have been stealing – how didyoucome to be in possession of the stolen goods? Why have we been meeting here, if you are not involved in something untoward? I’m sure there are plenty of witnesses who would attest to that fact.’

‘I don’t think that’s a risk you can afford to take, Miss Laurence,’ said Charles. ‘But by all means, continue digging your grave. The quality of prisons in the county is really rather troubling – you can give me a first-hand account when you get out.Ifyou get out. I’m afraid they tend to forget who they’ve got in there, after the first few months. I only fear for the toll it would take on your sister’s health, should you—’