Page 63 of The Swan Detective (The Swan Syndicate #2)
Beckworth watched the three women on the patio play a card game called Go Fish that Stella had taught them.
It was a child’s game, but the simplicity worked in their favor when all they wanted to do was gossip.
And regardless of how many times she did it, Mary always got a thrill when she yelled “Go fish!”
“They’re waiting for you in the west study.” Barrington stepped next to him and stared out the solarium window. “She seems fine.”
He nodded. He wasn’t sure when it happened; it was never just one thing, but more a collection of everyday life events after something traumatic that seemed to settle her soul.
Her role as lady of the manor, playing with the colt, their horseback rides to Bart’s and Eleanor’s cabins, and playing a simple child’s game with good friends seemed to have restored Stella’s bold, charitable, and sometimes irritating as hell temperament.
His thoughts made him chuckle.
“What’s so funny?”
Beckworth shook his head. “Nothing important, but I agree. Stella’s fine.” He tugged at his shirtsleeves. “Let’s see what Hensley has to share. And while Stella appears demure at the moment, on the inside she’s more than curious about why Jamie and Lando were late.”
Barrington huffed as his gaze traveled around the landscape. “The gardens are looking well. I hear you have plans for changing some of the beds.”
“I’ll share the plans tomorrow. I think Stella has finalized her changes.” With a last look at her, he turned for the door. “Let’s see what tales the men have to share.”
He’d expected Stella to manipulate Jamie and Lando into sharing their journey to Bristol, but the two men had expertly maneuvered around her questions with several amusing mishaps.
He was certain the incidents had nothing to do with the trouble Jamie likely found.
She’d seen through their deflections and had let it go rather than persist in her pursuit.
Sooner or later, he’d know the story, and he’d promised never to hold back the truth from her again. Until then, she seemed content to remain in her happy place. If that was what she needed, that was alright by him.
He let Barrington take the lead as they strolled through the manor from the solarium to the west study.
If not occupied, there was a chair by the window with a view of the garden where he could keep an eye on her.
He didn’t need to. She was fine with the women, but for some reason, it comforted him to know she was close.
When Barrington opened the door, the conversation died as heads turned to greet them.
Hensley sat at Beckworth’s desk as expected.
Jamie was in a chair in front of the desk, while Lando leaned against a bookcase.
Fitz, who puffed on an unlit pipe, rested in a chair across the room with his injured leg propped on a stool.
Beckworth took the chair by the window, while Barrington took the seat next to Jamie in front of the desk.
“So, what happened on your sail to Bristol that you feel the need to keep secret from Stella, or perhaps the ladies in general?” Beckworth turned to Hensley when he added, “I won’t keep secrets from her. Not anymore.”
“No one is keeping secrets.” Hensley appeared perturbed by Beckworth’s statement but relented.
“On further reflection, I made a mistake in asking you to do that. Particularly after she ended up in the middle of it anyway.” He pulled out a handkerchief and blotted his forehead before taking a sip of something amber colored.
Hensley preferred Scotch but seemed to be gaining a taste for Jameson.
“Somehow that woman ends up in chaos without lifting a finger,” he muttered.
Then he chuckled when everyone else did.
“Jamie, share your story, and then we can discuss what to do about it.”
“It’s a simple enough story,” Jamie started. “We’d left the Thames and were an hour past the Narrows when Lando noticed a familiar ship following us. It took some time before we decided it must be The Horseman .”
“ The Horseman again.” Beckworth considered it. “Why would they be following the Daphne ?”
“That was our question, so we decided to test the theory. It might have been a coincidence, and they were on their way back to the western coast, where McDuff likes to prey. We moored at Southampton for a night and let the men have some time ashore. We weren’t an hour out of port before the ship was behind us again. ”
“They must have found a place to moor and wait for you to pass,” Fitz suggested.
“Aye.” Jamie glanced at Hensley. “Do you want to tell him?”
Hensley sighed and turned to Beckworth. “Do you remember what Stella told Leclair when she took the jewelry?”
“She suggested finishing the trade, and though she’d be leaving the next morning, she’d have one of her men contact André.” It had been a wise decision in the heat of the moment, as long as it didn’t depend on her involvement.
Hensley nodded. “She’d also mentioned at her dinner with Leclair that she’d taken care of her troublesome betrothed, and not with a simple farewell note.”
The men chuckled at the implication.
Hensley finished his whiskey as he reviewed a parchment while waiting for the men to quiet. When he felt he had their attention again, he continued, “I decided to use Thomas as our go-between.”
“Thomas?” Beckworth glanced around. “He was in London?”
When Jamie and Lando didn’t meet his eyes, Hensley answered.
“It wasn’t meant to be a secret. Since he’d been associated with Stella and her supposed fiancé, we wanted to keep him out of the way in case anyone recognized him from Tenby.
No telling who might have seen him there after he pulled Stella out of her dinner engagement with McDuff, or in the alley when she was kidnapped.
But with Stella’s fabrication, this puts Thomas back in play. ”
“How so?” Beckworth asked.
“The cover story is that she paid Thomas to get rid of her pesky suitor in exchange for a share of her operations.”
“I take it Thomas is now onboard the Daphne ?”
Jamie nodded. “He’s making himself seen around Bristol, seeking new cargo for a run to France. He’s going to try to make it to Waverly before you and Stella leave.”
Something nagged at Beckworth. “I assume Thomas told someone in London that he would be following Lady Swan to France. If they assume Thomas is on the Daphne , which is probably why The Horseman followed you, shouldn’t you appear to be on your way to France?
Heading north up the coast is the wrong direction. ”
“I told you the little man was smarter than he looked.” Lando gave Beckworth a huge smile.
Beckworth ignored him. Sooner or later, Lando would give up on the blasted nickname.
Jamie’s eyes lit with humor. “We used an old trick of Finn’s and rigged the sails to make it look like we took damage.
While the Daphne is in port, I decided to replace an old yardarm.
It will take long enough to replace that it will seem like a required repair.
We’ll make a quick trip to Dublin, then head south for France. ”
“And you think The Horseman is out there, waiting somewhere?” Beckworth asked.
“They made port in Bristol the day after we arrived, and we’ve seen a few sailors keeping an eye on the Daphne ,” Jamie said.
“So what happens after France?” Beckworth saw potential in the operation, but he wasn’t sure what Hensley’s endgame was.
“I’ve given Jamie three crates of French rifles,” Hensley said.
“From our unsuccessful exchange?” Beckworth asked.
Hensley nodded. “Jamie will go to the monastery. It’s been some time since his last trip. I have messages I need to get to France, and I’ve already given him the letters from Sebastian.”
“And you expect The Horseman might follow?” Beckworth felt out of touch with all his questions, but he was still trying to put it all together.
Jamie shrugged. “It won’t be easy for them, but worth the risk if they want to discover our contact. Though I think we can manage not leading them directly to the monastery.”
“Then what?” Beckworth understood Hensley’s network had to get more involved in the smuggling to make a difference, but the Daphne was only one ship against McDuff’s network, whose size was unknown.
Hensley sat back and clasped his hands over his belly, a predatory smile on his face. “On his return, he’ll stop in Bristol to check in before sailing up the coast to Scotland and then to Ireland.”
“With any luck, we’ll find McDuff before we get too far,” Jamie added.
“And what will you say when there’s no Lady Swan?” Beckworth didn’t like where this was going, though he’d be lying if he hadn’t seen it coming.
The men glanced at each other, but no one responded. After a minute passed, Fitz laughed out loud.
“I think I’ll start the pool as soon as I return to the Daphne . I’ll give it three and a half months until we’re sitting with Hensley in this same room waiting for Beckworth and Stella’s return.”
Why did hearing that give Beckworth equal measures of both excitement and dread?
T he meeting broke up shortly after the revelation of Hensley’s plan for their pursuit of McDuff and what might be a larger network of smugglers than previously thought.
With Hensley, the mission was never about smuggling.
His concern was the rebellion McDuff was stirring up by supplying firearms to rebels in Ireland who could open ports to French naval ships.
The question Beckworth had to answer, and would need to discuss with Stella, was how much they wanted or needed to be involved.
He knew the outcome of the war. The problem with knowing how things turned out was that one could never be sure what actually turned the tide.
Was it just one large action or a cumulative number of events—smaller battles won or lost, the secret whispers of spies in the right ears, or a destroyed smuggling network—until there was only one possible ending?