But Solomon’s hand was on the small of his back, urging him on.
“Don’t do anything suspicious,” Solomon murmured.“Just keep walking.”
The mare came plodding steadily onwards, closer and closer.The gentleman’s gaze fell on them, and he studied them with mild curiosity.
They tipped their hats.The man nodded absently and rode on.
The horse’s hooves faded away around a corner.Once they were out of earshot, Jed let out an explosive breath.He wiped a hand across his forehead.“Maybe I do make a convincing landsman, at that.Thank Christ for this new rig you got me.”
As they walked on, Jed could still feel the ghost of Solomon’s hand lingering on the small of his back.
An hour or so later, they fell in with an itinerant peddler and his son, a sturdy young lad who would make an excellent topman on a man-of-war; Jed hoped the lad would not run into the press gang.Officially, their warrant only allowed the impressment of men who had some previous experience at sea or in coastal waters: merchant seamen, smugglers, longshoremen, and the like.But they weren’t averse to snatching any healthy young man who crossed their path, and they often got away with it, the devils.Jed had once heard tell of a parish constable who had himself been taken when he tried to interfere with the unlawful pressing of two baker’s apprentices.
The peddler, stooped and grizzled, was much less likely than his son to interest the gang.He seemed a cheerful sort, and he soon engaged Jed and Solomon in conversation as they walked.At first, of course, their talk was of the rumours of pressings in the district.
“My son and myself have only just come to these parts,” the peddler said.“We spent last month in and around Bristol.How about you fellows?Have you been many days on the road?”
“I came down from London on the roof of the Bristol stage,” Solomon said.
Jed shot him a curious look.If Solomon was coming from London and bound for Barnstaple, wouldn’t it have been quicker to take the stage to Exeter, or at least Taunton, instead of Bristol?
The peddler was still questioning Solomon.“And where are you bound?”
“I’ll be in Barnstaple by the end of the week, I hope.”
“Ah, Barnstaple.I’ve never been that far west.How do you find the town?”
“I don’t know it, I’m afraid.A friend is waiting for me there.”
The man chuckled heartily and elbowed Solomon in the side.“A woman, is it?”
Solomon let out a startled laugh.“No, no.Just a fellow I knew in London.”
Secretly, Jed was rather grateful to the peddler.He hadn’t liked to press Solomon with questions; they’d only just met, after all, and a man’s business was his own.But something about Solomon exerted a fascination on him—a desire to know him better.
The peddler turned to Jed, catching him off guard.“And you, friend?”
Jed opened and then closed his mouth.
“He’s come down from London with me,” Solomon said, to Jed’s gratitude.
“I was in London once.Fine place.Very fine place.”And the peddler launched into an account of his visit, with the blissful unself-consciousness of a man who has never wondered whether others like the sound of his voice.
Behind his back, his son pulled a grimace.“En’t we going to stop for the night soon, Pa?”
Dusk had begun to fall, and Jed had been pondering the same question.He had slept in his cart or under a hedgerow many a time before, but he’d rather avoid it while winter lingered in the night air.
“We’ll sleep at Mr Dawson’s,” the peddler told his son.He turned to Jed and Solomon.“We know a farmer who will let us sleep in his barn for a penny apiece.You look like honest fellows—you’re welcome to come with us.It’s just up this lane.I see the lights from here.”
He hurried forward to the next crossroads, chivvying his son along.
“He’s uncommon trusting,” Jed said in an undertone.“Why, we might slit his throat in the night and make off with all his wares.”
“You don’t know me.Imight slit your throat while you sleep and make off with your money,” Solomon said dryly.
Jed grinned.“That did occur to me, I grant.But if you were designing to do me in, wouldn’t you have set upon me while I was lying helpless on the beach?”
Amusement flickered across Solomon’s face.“Very true.”
