“This morning we were writing about April of 1775, when Captain Digby was garrisoned near Boston,” Sophia quietly volunteered.
Fairfax glanced down at her, frowning in puzzlement.Then his expression cleared and his eyes widened.“Oh, hell.”
Three “hells” in the space of under an hour, when she couldn’t recall him uttering the word before at all?Fairfax must indeed be concerned.And if he was concerned, Sophia’s anxiety ratcheted up even further.
“What happened near Boston that spring?”Mildred’s innocent look glanced between Sophia and Fairfax.
Fairfax pursed his lips, as though debating how much to say.“One of the first battles in the war with the colonies.Uncle Digby suffered a minor injury, but the officer beside him took a musket ball to the chest.”
Theo and Mildred both gasped.Mr.Huntley put his arm around Mildred’s shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze when Mildred’s face turned green and she looked to be in danger of casting up her accounts.
Sophia had felt the same reaction as Mildred when Mrs.Digby read her journal entry this morning.She’d kept her head down, staring intently at her writing so as not to reveal her shock.Afterward she distracted herself from the horrors of war with her anxiety over the smuggled goods and the danger this new development presented to Mildred.
“May I suggest we move away from the tunnel entrance?”Sophia pointed toward Theo’s work area.“We can continue our conversation over there.”
Fairfax held onto her hand until he took out a handkerchief to dust off a rock for her to sit on, then he perched on another rock nearby.Mr.Huntley did the same for Mildred.Theo pursed her lips to hide a smile as she took a seat on her small stool, her basket of work tools at her feet.
Sophia felt torn between appreciating Fairfax’s gesture, and missing the comforting strength of his hand holding hers.
Fairfax gestured at the basket of tools.“Miss Burrell, do you come down here often?”
Theo nodded.“I’ve been working on excavating this fossil almost every day that it hasn’t been raining, since I came home after the Academy closed.”
“And have you seen any unusual activity in the area?”
Theo fidgeted with her chisel in her hands as she glanced up and down the beach.“There are always people out for a stroll when the weather is nice.I haven’t really seen anyone pay attention to the cave, and I have not explored any of them since I found this.”She indicated the fossil on the bluff she’d been working to extricate.Her head snapped up.“There is, however, one new person who I have seen multiple times.”
Everyone leaned in close, the better to hear her.
“Lady Lyttleton’s heir.Mr.Thorpe.”
Mildred gasped.
“He seemed like a nice chap at supper last night.”Mr.Huntley ran his fingers through his auburn hair, sending the waves into disarray.“What do we know about him?Did he inherit enough blunt to run the estate she left him?”He shook his head, settling his hair more or less back into place.“An estate is more trouble than it’s worth if its previous owner let it go to wrack and ruin.”
“I was not privy to the state of Lady Lyttleton’s finances,” Theo began, “but I do not recall her ever mentioning nor showing signs of financial difficulties.She was most generous in granting me in her will the rights to whatever fossils I find on her property.”
“But what do we know of him?”Sophia smoothed her skirt down as the breeze picked up.“What did Mr.Thorpe do before he inherited the estate?His hands are not that of an idle gentleman.”
Fairfax looked at her sideways.
“Calluses.”Sophia held her hands palm up.
Fairfax nodded.“A man who has labored.”
“Perhaps he was in debt and needed even more than what he inherited,” Mr.Huntley tossed out.
“Perhaps he is indebted to someone of nefarious character, and they are blackmailing him,” Mildred said, leaning forward in her excitement.“Either to do the smuggling himself, or—”
“But the smuggled goods are not on Mr.Thorpe’s land.”Fairfax shook his head.
“Are there caves on Mr.Thorpe’s section of the beach?”Sophia turned so she could get a better look at the bluff, and squinted.Were there any openings she had missed?She had not noticed the opening to the tunnel on Mrs.Digby’s property at first.
Theo waved her hand dismissively.“The geological formations differ.The bluff starts to descend and smooth out, until you get to the flat beach down by the inns and hotels in Sidmouth proper, before it rises again on the far side.”
“So if he did need a cave to hide smuggled goods, he would have to use the one on Aunt Gertrude’s property.”Fairfax grimaced.“Miss Burrell, under the circumstances, I think it best if you paused work on your excavation site.At least until we find out what is going on.”
Theo looked like she was going to argue, but then her shoulders sagged and she let out a deep breath.“Much as it pains me, you are probably right.”
