Page 82 of By Marsh and By Moor
Jed glanced nervously at the door.Bothwell was probably almost at the harbour by now.
“We’re leaving now,” Wallace said.
Vaughan had let the cutlass dip, but now he raised it, pointing it at Wallace.
Wallace looked down at the swordtip at his chest.“What’s this?If you can’t have me, no one can?”
His voice was calm, but Jed saw his hands were trembling.
“Wallace, I love you.”Vaughan’s voice was low and persuasive.“I’ve been looking for you for months.I gave up everything for you.My career, my life in London…”
“I never asked you to.”Wallace took a step away from the cutlass, but he was already backed up against the wall.
“If you walk out on me now, I’ll never forgive you.I’ll have your friends pressed.I’ll have them hanged for mutiny!”
They had all frozen when Vaughan pressed the swordtip to Wallace’s chest.Now, Emma caught Jed’s eye.She was the closest to Vaughan, and as he spoke, she began to inch her way around behind him.
Suddenly, she threw her arm around Vaughan, pinning his arms to his sides.The cutlass fell to the ground with a clatter.Jed scooped it up.
Vaughan shook her off, and she stumbled back.Vaughan rounded on them.
“You can’t imagine I’ll let you simply walk out of here.I know your names, employers, place of residence.I know you mutinied on the schooner tonight.”
“I wouldn’t advise biding in town long enough to do anything about it,” Emma said calmly.
“Oh?Why’s that, woman?”
“I’ve been speaking to Mrs Penwick of Ledcombe.Maybe you know her?Her husband is on friendly terms with the Minehead magistrate.”
“What does that signify?I have the law on my side.”
“Well, there’s a few interesting things as come up while we were talking.Most particularly, your good works on behalf of the Naval Hospital in Greenwich.”
A flicker of something—fear?—crossed Vaughan’s face.
“Mrs Penwick and I had a very pleasant chat,” Emma went on.“I told her all about what you were used to get up to in London.You weren’t always pure as the driven snow, were you?And that put her in mind of the donations you’ve been collecting for the Greenwich seamen.She thought it might be interesting to make enquiries as to the monies received by the hospital.To be sure it adds up to the same as what was collected down here in Devon, you see.”
Vaughan made a little noise in his throat.After a moment he collected himself.“That’s nothing.”But the strained note in his voice said otherwise.
Emma put a hand on Wallace’s shoulder.“Coming?”
They walked out.Jed went last, brandishing the cutlass to keep Vaughan at bay.
Vaughan regarded him coldly.“You won’t really use that, Trevithick.”
“No, I won’t, because I’ve never done violence to any man or beast without I was forced to it by the likes of you.Andyouwon’t come after us, because you have worries enough of your own.”
He stepped out the door and pulled it to, leaving Vaughan standing alone inside.
Downstairs, Jed tossed the cutlass aside and followed the others out into the street.Wallace was trembling.Solomon threw his arms around him, squeezed tight, then let him go.Emma put a hand on his arm, and he turned to bury his head in her shoulder.
After a long moment, he straightened up, taking a deep breath.“I suppose I could have saved us all a mint of trouble if I’d done that months ago.”
“Seems to me you’re the only person as gets to decide the time and place for that,” Solomon said.
Chapter Nineteen
“Now who can that be?”Mrs May exclaimed, rising from her seat to answer the knock at her cottage door.
