Page 74 of By Marsh and By Moor
It had hurt, rather a lot, to hear Solomon speak of the evenings he had spent spilling his guts to Vaughan—while later Jed had to scrabble for breadcrumbs.And it hurt even more to hear it from Vaughan’s mouth now.
Jed didn’t know whether he wanted to defend Solomon against Vaughan or himself against Solomon.
“You know nothing about him,” he said shortly.
“No?You know him better, I collect?”
Jed opened his mouth, then shut it again.The only power he had in this moment was that Vaughan did not know him very well—did not know what strings to pluck to play him as he wished.The more Jed spoke, the more that power would slip away.
Vaughan pulled up a chair, its back to Jed, and straddled it so that they sat eye-to-eye.He said quietly, “I know what it is to be in love with a man who has turned against you.”
“I’m not—”
“Aren’t you?”Vaughan’s voice was soft.He was watching Jed closely, studying the effect of his shots in the dark.“If you weren’t, it wouldn’t hurt so much, would it?”
To his dismay, Jed felt his eyes sting.He blinked hard, wrenching at the ropes tying his hands behind the chair.
“The only thing I care about is getting out of this bloody prison.”
“Yes, about that,” Vaughan said.He straightened up, putting some more space between them, and Jed could breathe again.“Why are you so anxious to escape?Is it so bad, to be in the Navy?You’ll be fed, clothed”—his gaze lingered on Jed’s shabby and ill-fitting clothes—“paid a decent wage, perhaps win yourself a little prize money…”
Jed said nothing.
“Of course there are the disadvantages of the wind and the rain, storms, shipwreck, perhaps the occasional burst of cannon fire.But you don’t seem to be a man lacking physical courage.”
You’ve left out the chief disadvantage, Jed thought with a sort of sour amusement.The utter powerlessness.“I want to be my own master,” he said aloud.“Is that so strange?”
But he didn’t expect Vaughan to understand.You lord it over me now, he thought, but I bet you come running when a captain snaps his fingers.
Vaughan was watching him, lips pursed.Abruptly, he said, “I’ll be honest with you, Trevithick.I’m desperately worried about Wallace.He means the world to me.I love him, God help me.I would forgive him anything.”His voice rang true—and there was, perhaps, some truth in it.“Only tell me—how is he?Is he well?”
“And then you let me go?”
Vaughan nodded.
“And—” He hesitated, because knowledge was power.“Solomon too?”
Vaughan looked pleased at this little victory—this little confession of Jed’s.“And Solomon too.”
Jed thought of Wallace, on the way to that inn he hoped to run.Of Emma Yates.Of evenings at the Boar.Of Wallace beaming at Solomon, entering eagerly into conversation with Jed.
Would it be so bad to tell Vaughan what he wanted to hear?Would it really do any harm to Wallace?
But it was the first step along a path Vaughan intended to entice him down.A path that didn’t lead anywhere Jed wanted to go.
Jed looked him in the eye.“No.”
“No?”
“I don’t trust you as far as I could throw you.”
Vaughan’s lip twisted in a snarl that he couldn’t quite hide beneath a smile.
“I see,” he said softly.
Jed’s pulse hammered in his temples.This was a man who could have him hanged for desertion in the face of the enemy.But he couldn’t bring himself to submit to Vaughan—and then be sent off to sea anyway.
Vaughan rose to his feet and walked around Jed.Before Jed knew what he was about, Vaughan had cut his bonds.
