Page 70 of Bargaining with the Devil

“’Tis a fitting name for the boat.” Bonxies were great seabirds who sometimes robbed other birds of their meals.

“Some cleverness there,” Blackmore agreed.

He and Blackmore and Pereira had settled down to talk quietly. Eva and Edmund were across the parlor with Lucy and Mrs. Blackmore.

“Lees has his fingers in a number of pies up and down the coast. Customs hasn’t caught Lees at work yet, but they’re sure it’s him.”

“What’s his angle?” Blackmore asked. “That is, how does this relate to Lymington?”

“They believe he’s accepting pay from Lymington to make use of one or more local networks. And as far as him being tapped into those . . . If locals pay him, he turns a blind eye on their smuggling. Conveniently, he does not arrive quite in time to catch their boats out in the water or alert excisemen on land. If the locals don’t pay him . . .” Pereira shrugged.

’Twas easy enough to guess what that outcome might be. “’Tis a good deal for him, as far as that goes: accepting bribes from the locals—requiring protection money, more like—while accepting pay from Lymington as well.”

“He has become too greedy. That is what finally tipped off Customs as to his identity. He’s been living above the means of a revenue cutter captain.”

“So the man or men who tipped off Lymington about Lucy . . . He—or they—might not be local directly to Auchencairn,” Blackmore stated.

He picked up on that line of thought. “Elsewhere in Kirkcudbrightshire, mayhap, or perhaps even a bit farther afield.”

Blackmore tapped his fingers against his leg. “Even if they aren’t men from here, my concern is this: If we interfere in any way with the smuggling operation, even just to get at Lymington, it will come back onto us. I’m still an outsider in the eyes of many. They won’t welcome our meddling.”

“’Tis a fair point.”

Blackmore was visibly thinking. “Except their concern isn’t with us. Of herself, Lucy is not a threat to them. Nor am I. And families around here aren’t going to do anything that gets too many people speaking openly about their business when it comes to smuggling.”

“Will they act under Lymington’s orders though?” Pereira asked. “Despite no personal conflict with you.”

“An excellent question. How long has Lees been assigned here?” Blackmore asked.

“Only a few months.”

That tracked with what he’d been told, coming up here. “So ’tis recent. And Lymington didn’t expand to here till around the same time as Lees and the Bonxie came this way. ’Tis not a coincidence, that, I’m thinking.”

Blackmore sat back. “Local networks were well established long before that, I’d wager, in all probability going back generations in the same families. Perhaps Lymington stepped into a void made by another distributor’s death.”

“Or perhaps he merely had the coin to convince them to accept some extra hauls,” Pereira interjected. “Some work on the side.”

Back in the day, ’twas common for great gangs of local men to simply band together, nearly daring the excisemen to challenge them and intimidating them into inaction. Times had changed since the mobs ran circles around the Customs men, but there was still the threat of violence.

He didn’t have any real objection to smuggling, truth be told. ’Twas against the Crown’s laws, sure, but free trade was a proud enterprise going back generations, not just here but in many coastal areas. Home in Ireland, he knew of at least three family members on Mam’s side, had been proud free traders.

Still, he was meant to be seeing justice done. As far as Customs was concerned, Lymington’s activities needed to cease. The Foreign Office, as he’d told Blackmore, had more or less already washed its hands of the entire business.

“I say we avoid stirring up the locals if we can avoid it,” he said now. “We’re not acting under direct orders from Customs, aye?” He looked to Pereira to confirm that hadn’t changed.

Pereira shook his head. “Still the Foreign Office’s men. Well, two of us are,” Pereira amended, glancing at Blackmore. “On loan at the moment in a sense, but Customs has their own investigation going.”

“And the Foreign Office only cares about Lymington,” Blackmore said musingly. “The rest of those involved belong to Customs, as far as they’re concerned.”

He’d just say what they were all thinking. “’Tis my thought we keep them out if we can. Look the other way. We let them know it, if we get the chance, that so long as they don’t interfere with our pursuit of Lymington, if they can keep out of the way of Customs going after Lees, they’ll be free to carry on as before.”

Blackmore nodded but then asked, “But could we then trust them to leave Lucy out of it? I don’t want any sort of threat remaining that will keep me looking over my shoulder after this. Perhaps more accurately, anything that has me concerned for the welfare of my wife and children or for Lucy.”

“Not knowing who they are, ’tis only speculation.” Little as they liked it, ’twas the case. “With you gone in Glasgow, I did as much unobtrusive work as I could, but there wasn’t much gained from it.” Aside from an education in stake nets. “Is there anyone here you trust enough, might trust you enough in return to tell us the truth?”

“Aye, I think Mr. Bairden at the Auchencairn Arms might be forthcoming if he knows the risk to Isobel and Lucy. He and his wife are quite fond of them.”

“Then ’tis time we talk to him, aye?” He stood.