Page 91 of The Gift of Patience
“At this point, there’s nothing we can do but wait. Normally, you’re not so impatient, Ash. Might it have something to do with the blue-eyed beauty waiting just across the water?”
Ashley gritted his teeth.
“She’s your perfect match, you know. I hope you won’t let her go over some misguided sense of honour all of us seem to have. We all feel unworthy having seen and done the things we have—besides being second sons as though it makes us unworthy somehow.”
“You are dashed philosophical tonight, Fielding.”
“Observant,” he corrected. “This job leaves a great deal of time for overthinking everything. But watching the two of you together makes me somehow wish for even a chance with such a one.”
“Such a one,” Ashley muttered. Such little words for such a handful.
There was no more time for his friend to continue with the most uncomfortable conversation. Ashley knew he’d be a fool to let Patience go. If she’d even have him. She was hardly whatcould be called a traditional miss. Perhaps she was toying with him and had no intention of anything more than flirtation. It was a sobering, sickening thought.
Fielding put the spyglass back to his eye. “A small skiff in the distance.”
“How many people?”
“Only one, I believe. Could be someone coming in for the night.” Fielding handed him the glass, and he took a look. The person was not rowing hard, but being carried along with the current. When they came close, they began to turn towards the docks. There was little to decipher about the person, whomever they may be. A cloak with a hood shrouded them. They paddled closer and closer, and Ashley’s hand went to the revolver at his waist.
“A crewman perhaps?”
“An odd way to travel, I would think, before a long voyage.”
They slid right into where the barge had been before, put away the oars, and hooked a rope around one of the posts on the pier. As they climbed from the small skiff onto the pier and passed right before them, they could not see their face. The person climbed on boardLe Coquette, then immediately went below deck.
Would Devil return to investigate? Ashley was almost certain, if he looked, he would see the barge approaching again.
With so much at stake, there was devilish little going on, even though the tension was thick in the air as though a storm was about to erupt. He wanted action and he wanted Patience tucked away safely in her bed.
As predicted, the barge with the cargo approached, but could not dock due to the skiff. The ferryman angled as close as he could, then Devil jumped to the pier and followed the other man down below deck.
Emerging again alone a few minutes later, Devil then somehow signalled to his gang who crawled out from nowhere like worms from the depths of the earth. They worked efficiently and put the crates down into the hull within minutes. It was frightful how quickly they offloaded the stolen goods then escaped into the night. No wonder the gang was sought-after.
Just as Devil himself emerged, Chum walked up. “This is my brother’s ship,” he said in disbelief to Devil. “Is he down on board?”
It was plain to see Devil did not wish to answer. He angled his head towards the boat without speaking.
“Oh, no,” Ashley whispered. “Why would he do this?”
The timing could not have been worse. The excise men arrived at the same time and surrounded the ship.
“Are you the owner of the ship?” a uniformed officer in a tricorn hat demanded.
“It belongs to my family,” Chum answered. “But there must be some mistake.”
“I’ve orders to search the ship.” He placed the warrant against Chum’s chest and then proceeded to board the ship as the furrow between Chum’s brow grew deep as realization crossed his face. He looked up towards where he knew his colleagues must be, then climbed aboard the ship himself.
“This is not going to end well,” Fielding predicted.
“Shall we try to help?”
“That’s not in our script. We lead the authorities to do the messy part.”
“Neither is Chum jumping into the middle of apprehending the culprit,” Ashley argued.
A string of curses assailed Ashley’s ears. Fielding very much liked to operate by the rules, but this was a grey area. It involved one of their own.
“You may stay here and see if you’re needed.” Ashley was not waiting to find out. He slipped from the shed, and could already hear shouting and the sounds of a probable scuffle taking place. He hurried to the gangway and feared he was too late. Singleton was holding a knife to his brother’s throat while two excise officers pointed guns at both of them.
