Page 14 of Pride of Duty
“You’re lucky you’re young enough to heal quickly, but I couldn’t have patched you up without Wills Morton. I wish you could have thanked him as well before he left the ship.” Cullen returned the squeeze and shook his hand.
Mr. Parker gave him an odd look. “Wills left the same day you did. Said he was going to work for one of his father’s friends.”
“Did he now? I’ll be gone for at least a day or two finalizing some family business before we set sail for St. Helena. Keep up the good work here.” Then he pointed to his patient. “I expect to see you up and about with Mr. Parker’s help before I get back. Practice on that cane we had made for you.”
Cullen hurried down theArethusa’sgangplank before racing back to the Still and West Inn.
Cullen entered the inn’s pub with a rush, his neckcloth askew and his hair tousled from the run up from theArethusa’sberth. After a quick search of the room, he spotted Fergus in a comfortable chair by the fire, sipping and savoring what looked like a pint of ale, his legs stretched toward the fire.
Fergus caught sight of Cullen and raised his glass toward him before motioning to the serving woman. “Ye look as if ye’ve seen the shade of a Campbell.”
“She’s gone.” Cullen sat on a bench near his aunt’s old retainer.
“A tankard of ale will take too long, the way you make it last.” Fergus walked over and changed his order. He returned with a tot of Scottish whisky for Cullen as well as another pint of ale for himself.
“Now tell me everything. Do ye know where she went? Do ye know why she left?”
Cullen gave him a wild look. “None of that matters. We have to find her.”
Fergus closed Cullen’s hand around the small glass. “Drink this.” He settled back into the warm chair and finished off one of his tankards of ale before tucking into the second. “If we’re going ta find yer lass, we need to start with who saw her last and what she said. Ye do ken that?”
Cullen sipped at the fiery drink before tipping back his head and downing the remaining amber contents in the bottom of the small glass.
“She told Captain Still she was going to work for one of her father’s colleagues. He happens to have a practice in Peterfield, and his name is Dr. Partlow.”
“I’ll go out to the stable and procure their best cattle to get us up the road as soon as possible.” He clapped Cullen on the back on his way out to the courtyard and stables. “In the meantime, you see if anyone here knows where this physician lives.”
Cullen shoved away his empty glass and leaned his head into his hands for a few moments to gather his thoughts. He had not yet met Wills as a woman and already she’d turned his life into a whirlpool of uncertainty.
Willa rubbed the nose of a huge gray gelding and whispered calming words before rising on her toes and feeling along the withers for any sign of sores.
A sudden commotion at the entrance to the stables made the young stable boy steadying the gray flinch. “Sorry, Wills. Gotta go see what that bellowing Scotsman wants.”
She stood and took charge of the gray, giving him gentle, sweeping rubs. The nerves at the tips of her fingers prickled. A Scotsman?
After a few moments, the stable boy ran back toward Willa. “Can you help me? The old gentleman needs his rig and four right away. He has to get to Peterfield as soon as possible.”
Willa flinched. A Scotsman in a rush to get to Peterfield? Surely this man had nothing to do with the annoying Scotsman she’d rid herself of on theArethusa. Dr. MacCloud had no doubt returned by now and was as happy as a fat pony in heather to be rid of his unwanted assistant.
She was safe right where she was until her father’s solicitor notified her of the resolution of her father’s estate. She’d written to let him know that Miss “Willa” Morton could be contacted through the inn. In the meantime, she could billet in the vast second level of the stable with the other grooms. The proprietor had been eager to have someone available to keep his stock healthy so that the coaches could keep to their demanding schedules.
A small bribe to the innkeeper’s wife ensured that Willa’s secret would be safe. She’d been surprised at how little the woman cared that “Wills” was actually “Willa.” She’d merely winked at Wills and pocketed the coins.
Chapter Seven
Cullen’s headthrobbed with a dull ache. Captain Still had apologized and wished him luck in finding the elusive Miss Morton. The damned woman was gone. Apparently, she’d not absorbed his previous criticisms very well. Truthfully, he’d considered his comments “advice,” not criticism.
All they now knew was she’d traveled to Peterfield to work as an assistant to an old colleague of her father’s. The captain said she’d been vague about the doctor’s name, and he hadn’t pressed her. But her father had been friends with a Dr. Partlow there.
How many physicians could there be in Peterfield? Probably only one. That was the plus side of the ledger. The negative side? He and Fergus were on the Portsmouth-to-London road again with another set of fresh horses.
They’d pitched in to help the lads hooking up the traces at the inn. The one obstinate swab had kept a hat pulled down over his eyes and mumbled when spoken to. He couldn’t seem to grasp the importance of working side-by-side with Cullen, Fergus, and the other, small lad. He’d kept working the far side of the team, constantly moving and making it impossible for conversation.
They bowled along at a good clip back toward Peterfield, and Fergus, inexplicably, had a broad smile on his face.
“Why are you so happy?”
“We’ve almost finished the quest, laddie. I feel like I’m in one of those gothic novels your aunt hides beneath the pillows in the family sitting room.”