The room had been turned into a makeshift office.Scattered across the desk were sheets of paper, an inkpot, an officer’s bicorne, and the remains of a fish pie.In one corner stood a locked chest and two valises.In another there lay coils of rope, hemp sacks, and other odds and ends.
“Leave us,” Vaughan said to the men who had brought Jed.
“You sure, sir?This devil almost took our heads off when we pressed him.”
“Very well.Tie him to the chair.”
Solomon stirred, shifting his weight from foot to foot, but said nothing.He’d lost the confidence he’d seemed to have when they were first taken prisoner at the Rose and Crown, and now he only looked miserable.
The gangers tied Jed up and left the room.
Vaughan turned to Jed, bestowing a charming smile upon him.“I hope you will forgive me these precautions.Think of it as a compliment, if you will.I know you very much desire to be free—and who knows, perhaps you soon will be.But I must have a word with you first.”
Jed had been expecting to face an officer’s orders, not whatever this was.He stared in confusion.
“Perhaps you are aware that I’m looking for a friend of mine,” Vaughan went on.“Wallace Acton.Solomon here says you know where he is to be found.He has very helpfully suggested that I release you, so that you may lead me to Wallace.”
Jed felt the first precious stirrings of hope.He looked properly at Solomon for the first time since he’d entered the room.Solomon’s expression was full of meaning, but Jed couldn’t read it.There was guilt there, certainly, but also something else.Some wild idea that, having saved Wallace, he could now save Jed too?Surely he did not really want Jed to lead Vaughan to Wallace—but maybe he was hoping that Jed would somehow escape on the way there.
Jed wished desperately that he knew what Solomon was thinking—or at least, that he knew what words Solomon and Vaughan had exchanged before Jed was brought to the room.If Solomon did have a plan, Jed wasn’t confident that there was anything more to it than wild ideas born of desperation.
“Jed, you’re a friend of Solomon’s, I understand?”Vaughan said, drawing their attention back to himself.He bestowed another gracious smile upon Jed.“You work together?”
“Ah…”—he shot Solomon an uncertain glance—“you could say that.”
Vaughan leaned forward.“Jed— I hope you don’t mind if I call you that?Solomon refuses to tell me your surname.”When Jed made a confused sort of noise of agreement, he went on, “Thank you.Now, Jed, I knew Solomon and Wallace in London.Indeed, Wallace is a particular friend of mine.We shared lodgings in London for several years.”
“Yes, I know.”He swallowed down thesirhe had almost added to the end of that.
Vaughan’s smile broadened.“Then you’ll also know how happy I was to discover that Wallace was here in the district.”
“If you say so.”
“How is he?I’ve been worried about him.”
Solomon jumped in.“He’s well, Hugo.Jed will take you to him, just as soon as you let him go.Or I will do so.But not while Jed’s being held prisoner.”
Vaughan eyed him speculatively.“You said Jed was a friend of yours.Veryclosefriends, I take it?”
Jed studied Vaughan, an unwelcome suspicion growing in his breast.The brief burst of hope he had felt was fading.
“He’s a friend, yes,” Solomon said cautiously.“Listen, Hugo, do you want Jed to take you to Wallace or not?”
Vaughan didn’t answer Solomon.“You’ve been to sea before, I understand, Jed?I’ve had report of a deserter living in Ledcombe: the able seaman Jedediah Trevithick—I presume you are he?You are quite desperate not to return to sea, I collect.”
Jed regarded him sourly.“Isn’t everyone?”
“So you’d be willing to make a little bargain with me?If I let you go, would you take me to see Wallace?Or maybe just carry a note from me to him?I would be most grateful if you could even help me that far.”
Jed had had enough.“Oh, bugger off, why don’t you?”
“Jed!”Solomon exclaimed, starting forward.“Hugo, listen, let Jed—”
Jed cut him off, his voice flat.“Solomon, he has no intention of letting either of us go.He don’t need us to tell him where Wallace is.He already knows more nor enough to track him down.”He could still hear the innkeeper saying,that’s the Barnstaple carrier.“He’s just trying to find out whether Wallace is fucking someone else now.Me, for example.”
He was looking at Vaughan as he spoke.A split second of white hot anger crossed Vaughan’s face, and then he was smiling again.
“My, aren’t you the clever one,” he said in a soft, silky voice.
