Page 79 of Bargaining with the Devil

“Will I ever see you again once this is over? Matters with Lymington?”

He didn’t answer at first before sighing again. “I’d never say never, but I don’t plan on coming back here. I’ll be staying home this time. I’ve decided that for certain. I’ve been away too long, missed too much. And the truth is, I’m getting tired of it, not having my own place in the world to call my home.”

“When will you leave?” The words were difficult to force out with her throat trying to swell shut. “How soon afterwards?”

“As soon as it’s all settled. Mayhap the day after. I want to make sure weather doesn’t hold me up, getting to Dún Laoghaire in time for the wedding. ’Tis a bit of a journey from here, with some of the roads questionable. Travel to Portpatrick. A packet from there to Donaghadee. Then travel to Dublin.”

It was just a matter of tracing some information, Nathaniel had said yesterday before he departed on some fact-finding trip up the Solway. Then they’d know how to end this.

Quinn rested his chin atop her head. She wished⁠—

It doesn’t matter what I wish. Not in this moment, not tomorrow, not next week.

Maybe not ever in this lifetime.

Chapter 23

“Ididn’t meet the man, but Lees’s wife’s cousin lives in Colvend,” Blackmore told them on his return from Palnackie, three days after he left. “That’s farther up the Solway, inland from Port O’Warren. It was Lees’s doing, introducing them to Lymington. He was already in Lymington’s pocket elsewhere on the Solway.”

“So ’twas Lees creating the introduction rather than the other way ’round.”

“As we expected,” Pereira remarked.

“Aye.” Blackmore scrubbed a hand along his jaw. “Good to have it confirmed though.”

“Not Lymington’s men from the outset. Nor Compton’s?”

“No,” Blackmore said. “Not as far as I know. Mrs. Bairden’s sister knew what she did because her son-in-law’s family have been smugglers running through Colvend for a few generations now. So I spoke with the son-in-law living in Barnbarroch, who works with them sometimes.”

“’Tis a common story, here and at home. Practically a birthright of coastal families, free trading.”

Blackmore nodded. “It was much the same in Kent. Two of my mother’s uncles were involved in the local ring.”

“Aye, ’tis certain there are a few on my mam’s side.” Possibly the man who sired him too; aristocrats were just as apt to be mixed up in free trade as any man. They just rarely dirtied their hands directly.

“They had their own network in place in Colvend, their own contacts, and it was Lees impinging on his wife’s cousin that upset the system,” Blackmore continued. “The introduction of Lymington further belabored it. Lees convinced them to do some work on his behalf for added protection from Customs, but they had no outside loyalty to him prior to that.”

“They betrayed Lucy to Lymington by name,” he said bluntly. “Whatever their loyalty, ’tis a point still needs clarification as far as I am concerned. A conversation.”

“We’ll have a chance for that conversation soon. They have orders to offload some things in a small cove on the Door of the Heugh—that’s on the other side of Balcary Point from the bay, up towards Rascarrel—and Lymington plans to oversee it personally. I’ll walk you two down there later to get the lie of the land.”

“Will they be expecting us?” Pereira asked.

“The son-in-law won’t be there himself, but he’s letting them know that if there are two or three men on the strand who are clearly not excisemen, they should hear us out for a couple of minutes rather than shooting us straightaway.”

“Comforting that it won’t be straightaway,” Pereira said drily.

Blackmore’s lips twitched. “Indeed.”

Usually he’d have laughed, but today he just didn’t feel that amused himself. “’Tis a question we’ll put to them, about Lucy. How they answer dictates what comes next. If ’tis their own interests they’re most concerned with, Lucy has nothing to do with that.”

“And never has,” Blackmore said.

“Neither do you.”

Pereira nodded. “Given the choice between acting as loyal dogs for Lymington and preserving their own best interests, perhaps they’ll act for themselves.”

“Maybe even aid us if they can be assured we have no stake in their operation,” Blackmore said. “I was under the distinct impression—it was strongly implied—that they’d be grateful to get out from under Lymington’s thumb and back to doing things their own way. Out from under Lees too, although I let the son-in-law know that we’re not involved in that part of things, not being with Customs.”