Disheartened, Arabella urged the boy to eat his biscuit. “Is there nothing you can tell me about him, David?”
“Not much, Miss.” He chewed on his biscuit and his eyes lit up, as crumbs rained down into his lap. “But I can show him to you.”
Arabella’s heart nearly stopped. “You can?”
“Aye, Miss. I wasn’t just waitin’ in that cave for the good of me own health, though I don’t mind the swimmin’.” The boy swallowed his biscuit in a hurry, his eyes bulging as he tried not to choke. Arabella put her own teacup to his lips, letting him drink so he could continue.
“Go on, David…” she said, trying not to sound desperate.
The boy cleared his throat. “The Master is comin’ back tonight to pay what he owes. Told me to hide there ‘til he came with the coin. Expect he wants to see I did what I said I’d do, first.” He eyed her warily. “You’re not lyin’ to me, are you? You’re not goin’ to turn me in?”
“I am not,” Arabella confirmed. “Ensnare this wretch, as he has ensnared you, and I will speak for you. I will ensure no harm befalls you.”
The boy breathed a soft sigh of relief. “Like the young lady in the story?”
“Precisely, David.”
He scratched his chin in thought. “I suppose I’m not the hero, since I did that bad thing. But maybe I can be a kind of hero, so you can get revenge for bein’ all bruised and scared and that.”
“I think that makes perfect sense, Dear Boy.” She fed him another biscuit, but her mind was already on the coming night. As she had anticipated with the boy, it was far easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar. But she had no honey left for the man behind this boy’s hopeless actions—the man who might have sealed her fate, if not for Henry.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Night fell upon a tempestuous sea, the waves crashing against the cliffs and sending up furious sprays, as though the water desired the same revenge upon the land that Henry and Arabella desired to take upon the fire’s true culprit. The relentless boom, akin to someone pounding upon a bass drum, beat to the same rhythm of Henry’s heart.
“You will remain well hidden?” He held Arabella’s face in his hands, wishing he had commanded her to stay behind. Not that she would have listened.
They were standing together at the line of trees that watched over the cliffs, marking their gradual encroachment with every passing century. Many of the soldierly trees could remember a time when the sea was not nearly so close, and the salt did not trouble their bark as much.
Arabella nodded, covering his hands with hers. “I entirely believe that Cassie would drag me back here by my hair if I attempted to behave otherwise.”
“I would, My Lord,” Cassie chimed in, keeping her gaze turned away. “Why else would I have kept it long when I fashioned it this evening?”
Arabella chuckled softly. “Do not worry for me, Henry. You have greater concerns to contend with. I will not stand in the way of them. Just promise me, as soon as you have apprehended the wretch, you will call for me so that I may look into his eyes and he may know how much I abhor him.”
“I promise.” Henry dipped to kiss the flat of her forehead, tasting the salt of the sea and the metallic tang of imminent rain upon her smooth skin. He was about to walk off to join the group of men he had gathered together for the night’s endeavors, when he paused and glanced back at her. “When this is done, will you grant me an answer and put me out of my misery?”
Arabella clasped a hand to her heart. “You know my answer, Henry. At least, I hope you do.”
“Nevertheless, my love, I would hear it put plainly when I return, if you would oblige me?” His chest swelled with adoration for this fierce, sweet, witty, beautiful woman who had chosen him above all the gentlemen in the country. The gift he had so foolishly given away seemed to have come back to him, and he would never make the same mistake again.
Arabella smiled. “Very well. You will receive your answer this night, my love.”
With that, he turned on his heel and strode over the strip of grass, down the stone steps, and into the cove. There, tucked inside the archway that led to the longer beach, the stablemaster—a barrel-chested beast of a man—flashed his lantern three times, to let Henry know everyone was in position. More men were stationed above, waiting in the trees like Arabella, though they would all move forward into a formation of defense once their target arrived.
You have no means of escaping us once you are down here, whoever you are.Henry gazed out toward the glistening water, knowing there were three men hidden in the slick, rocky alcoves of the half-submerged cliffs that curved into the sea.
All that remained was for Henry to take his position… and wait.
* * *
Thighs cramping from being crouched for so long in the gloomy, tight space of a sea cave, Henry fumbled for his pocket watch. By the faint light of a cloud-covered moon, he saw that the hour had just gone midnight, and the first spits of rain had begun to fall.
Where are you?The boy had told Arabella that the “Master” would come at midnight, so he was not yet impolitely late in arriving. Still, Henry had been crammed in the cave for two hours, and his watch over the cove was beginning to wear very thin, indeed. He could only imagine what the others were thinking, though the majority had been soldiers in their time. They knew that fighting was only a small part of being a soldier. The rest was waiting.
As the pocket watch ticked on to a quarter past midnight, a sound drifted across the pebbled shore, reaching Henry’s ears. It was not the crunch of footsteps he had anticipated, but the steadyslap-slapof an oar slicing through water. He would have known that sound anywhere.
Peering into the gloom, Henry spied the small rowboat coming around the right-hand curve of the cove. The men had been instructed to wait for his command, but he could sense the tension stretching through the shadowed air. The enemy had made their move, but Henry still had to bide his time, lest the wretch row away again.
