Company Of Rogues: A Shocking Delight Part 49

She pulled out the cloth and screamed as loudly as she could. "Help! Help!" Then inspired, she added, "Captain Drake needs you!"

"Lucy!" her father bellowed, which was stupid of him.

The man carrying her seemed frozen.

"This'll do no good," her father snapped. "Come on, man. She's still mostly bound."

But people were coming out of buildings, some dressed and some in nightclothes, some with lanterns, but all with a weapon of some kind, from a skillet to a pistol.

"Don't hurt them!" she cried, not sure which side she meant. She gathered control. "Put me down," she said to the man who carried her, "and unwind me."

He obeyed, looking at her with wide eyes.

She realized she was still brandishing the knife, though what he thought she could do with a two-inch blade, she wasn't sure.

Once she was untangled she shook herself, wondering what to do now.

"What's amiss?" an old man in the crowd asked. "What's gone wrong?"

"Nothing to do with the run," she a.s.sured them. "I'm Miss Potter. . . ."

A woman said. "We know who you are, miss, and reckon your business is the cap'n's business. What do we do with these 'uns?"

Lord above. It sounded as if an order to kill would be obeyed.

"Let them go if they're willing. Well?" she asked her father. She did her best to send the message not to make a bad situation worse.

"d.a.m.nation, but you're grand, Lucy. Foolish, but grand."

"Perhaps like my mother? She wouldn't be pleased about this."

He flinched. "She would want you out of this mess."

"Whatever the truth of that, I've made my choice, as she did."

He stepped closer and she raised the blade. They both looked at it in astonishment.

"Perhaps you are suited to be a dragon's countess, you willful chit. That being the case, call the alarm. The excise man's alerted."

"Your doing?"

"Yes."

She wanted to scream at him, but said, "Leave while you can."

She could see him itch to grab for her, despite her knife and the encircling villagers. He was not a man used to defeat. Was he armed? Was his man? Would they fight?

"Go," she said, "or I'll never speak to you again."

"Lucy . . ." When she didn't weaken, he gestured to his man and walked away. The villagers made way to let them through, then closed afterward as if protecting her.

But they looked to her for orders.

She remembered what her father had said. Oh, G.o.d.

"How do we call off the run?"

"It might be too late," an old man said.

"We have to try."

"There's a signal from the Crag for that," he said. "And from some other places. But someone else'll have to go. I can scarcely walk the street."

"I could go, Ma!"

"And I!"

"And I!"

Lucy looked in horror at the eager boys, all in nightshirts, none older than eight, surely. Because the older ones had work to do this night?

She saw a mother's hand touch one lad's hair-the one who'd been spinning-but then the woman said, "Off you go then, Thad, fast as you can to the Crag. You know the door in at the side?"

The lad nodded, beaming at the treat and ran off.

"It's so dark," Lucy protested.

"Bless you, miss-he'll be all right with that. They play in the dark round here, in case."

Training to be criminals!

Two other lads were already off, one carrying a lantern.

"They'll give the signal from Puck's Point, miss. Maybe sooner from there."

They were all looking to her for more instructions. She had no idea what to do.

Then Amelia ran up, lantern in hand. "What's happening?"

Could she keep her father's name out of this? "I can't explain now. But I got word the Preventive man knows. The run must be canceled. A boy's gone up to the Crag. Others somewhere-"

"Puck's Point, Miss Amelia," a man said.

"Good, good," Amelia said. "I wish Susan was still around. I've never done this sort of thing."

"Lloyd'll not be coming through the village way," a crook-backed man said, leaning heavily on his cane. "There'll be watchers up there. So likely down by Markem Slide to take 'em from the side."

"The next cove over," Amelia said. "Little more than a fissure, and hard going. We can't stop them, but if the run's canceled, they'll be too late to do harm."

"What can we do?" Lucy asked.

"Nothing more," Amelia said. "It should be-"

A boom shook the air.

"What was that?" Lucy cried.

"Ship's cannon," a man said.

Chapter 38.

"Please G.o.d, no." Lucy grabbed a lantern from someone's hand and set off at a run toward Dragon's Cove.

She heard Amelia cry, "Lucy!" but she couldn't stop. She had to be there. If David was injured, she had to be there.

She realized she still had the open knife clasped in her hand and paused long enough to close it and put it back in her pocket.

Amelia caught up. "All right, but go more slowly. David doesn't need to find your corpse."

"Like Romeo and Juliet!" Lucy said with a wild laugh.

"What?" Another cannon boom. "Never mind. Come on."

When they reached the ridge where the road sloped down to Dragon's Cove they saw people coming up. Lanterns hung here and there outside houses, providing some light. Perhaps that was normal here in the night, so to darken them would be suspicious.

"Run's off," a man said, hurrying by, but in an orderly manner. "All to go home."

Amelia grabbed another. "Are the goods landed?"

"Nay. The warning came. Navy's chasing the Guernsey ship."

"Not firing at land?"

"Nay, they'd not do that."

Lucy and Amelia paused for breath, letting the orderly retreat flow past.

Lucy's sense of panic eased, but she shivered. "I'm not sure I can live through this again."

"You'll have to," Amelia said. "And mostly they're not like this. You'd hardly notice a thing, and the next day the only sign is that everyone's yawning over their work."

"Those children!"

"Having the night of their lives. It's in the blood."

"In yours, too?"

"A bit," Amelia said, "but not enough to take serious risks."

"Your family must all know."

"About smuggling? Of course."

"About David."

"It's not mentioned."

"What are they doing now?"

"They went back to bed. Better not to know."

"But you came out."

"I needed to know. But we'd better go home."

Lucy shook her head. "I can't." The flow of people was dwindling, so she wove her way through them down toward the beach.

Amelia caught up again with the lantern. "David will be up on top. That's Captain Drake's position. Observing and directing."

"So he'll be safe?"

"Of course. Come away."

There weren't many people coming up the road anymore. Those from Dragon's Cove would have slipped back into their houses. Perhaps some had gone up the ropes to escape another way. The beach ahead was impenetrable darkness. It was impossible to see where land ended and sea began.

Then the blackness ahead was broken by a bright flame, and night shook under a tremendous boom. A moment later a crash sent bits of rock and dust showering down on the houses.

People cried out.

"They're firing at the village!" Amelia screamed. "Come on!"

Lucy paused, thinking of all the people in the houses, but they all knew and must do as best they could. She picked up her skirts and raced back up the hill.

Another thumping boom. No rock and dust pouring down here, thank heavens, but a mighty crack somewhere higher and tumbling rocks that went on and on. Pray G.o.d not onto someone's house. Panting, almost deafened by cannon fire and her own heart, she stumbled over the crest of the hill and stopped, sucking in breaths, listening for another shot.

"They . . . must be mad!" she gasped.

"There'll be h.e.l.l to pay," Amelia agreed and Lucy was comforted to hear that she was out of breath, too. "But that captain's developed a grudge against us. The candle in my lantern's gone out." They were in darkness again.

"I might just sit here until dawn," Lucy said. "It can't be many hours off on a short June night."