Page 46 of Nature of the Crime
“He is gone.”
“Who?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.” With a sigh, she turned around and made her way back toward Becky. The chambermaid stood where she’d been left, clutching her reticule, her cheeks too pale to make sense in this raw, frigid weather.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“I’m not sure.” Audrey caught her breath. “It was a man. I have the impression he was trying to listen to our conversation and had the misfortune of being seen.”
With a high whine of fright, Becky’s eyes welled again. And then, in a blink, she hurried off.
“Wait! Becky!”
But the young woman ran on, her feet slipping in the snow as she passed the Grand Shaft entrance. She kept on, into the scrub brush on the Western Heights.
“Becky!” Audrey cried again, but the chambermaid wasn’t going to stop.
“What is the girl thinking?” Greer asked, gawking after her. “She’s lost her wits.”
“She’s terrified.” Audrey glanced again toward where she’d seen the stranger. If he’d heard any of Becky’s confession, she may have a right to be, too.
“Come along, Greer. We have to find the viscount and lieutenant. Someone in town must know of a smuggler known as Sin.”
Her maid followed her toward the Grand Shaft, the descent promising to be far more rapid than the climb. “And Mrs. Plimpton?”
Audrey grimaced, uncertain how to keep Becky out of it. She’d just have to try. “Let’s see what she has to say for herself.”
Chapter
Eighteen
The sight of Audrey and Greer exiting the entrance to the Grand Shaft restarted Hugh’s faltering heart. Edmunds’s carriage drew to a stop on Snargate Street, and he jumped free, his relief beyond measure.
“What happened?” he asked. “Sir said you were summoned to tea, but Edmunds’s wife is not even here in Dover.”
Audrey appeared unharmed, but anxious. She increased her pace to meet him.
“We were tricked,” she answered, “but it wasn’t out of malice. It was Becky, the chambermaid from the inn. She had some illuminating information about Mrs. Plimpton.”
Hugh led her to the carriage, where Thornton held out his hand to help her up. Hugh assisted Greer, and then instructed the driver to hold a moment. Quickly, Audrey revealed what Becky told them and why she’d lured them to the Western Heights to do so.
“So, Mrs. P, the baron,andthis Sin fella were all dangling abouttogether?” Sir said, squinting as he tried to work it out.
Hugh had felt a stroke of validation at the name of the innkeeper’s second lover. He was now certain of the theory that had taken form after seeing theGorse’s manifest.
“Perhaps we should leave off with this discussion until later,” Thornton suggested with a pointed look at Sir.
The boy scowled at him. “Come off it, Saw Bones, I know what’s what.”
Hugh raised a hand to quiet them both. “There is no need to protect Sir’s sensibilities, especially since we’re so short on time and manpower. From what Becky has said, it’s clear the baron knew more than he was letting on. At the inquest, a publican reported seeing him and Vaillancourt in a discussion in September, just before you would have left for the Continent.” Audrey’s eyes brightened at this.
“Might he have hired him then?”
Hugh took the manifest from his greatcoat pocket. “I think so. With the help of S. J. Jewell.”
Audrey hinged forward and reached for the paper. “That was the name I noticed too. Jewell.” She met Hugh’s eyes, and he could see her indecision. But there was no way forward without saying more. She exhaled. “Jewell House.”
“What is that?” Greer asked.
