The Thief's Daughter

by Victoria Cornwall

‘I have no weaknesses that I am aware of.’

  ‘That is where you are wrong, my friend. All men have a weakness. The question is does yours come in the form of a comely figure and dark brown eyes? I grant you that it is a pleasant weakness to look upon, but it is just as dangerous as any other.’

  ‘She is recently widowed. I do not make a habit of taking grieving women to bed.’ Jack suddenly smiled to ease the tension. ‘Consider my employment of Jenna Kestle as part of my plan to infiltrate the community.’

  ‘I can see you jest, but I am serious. Perhaps she has also seen your weakness. Perhaps your enemy is closer than you think.’

  Jack tore off some bread and quietly chewed it. ‘I will watch her, but apart from her husband being a rogue she has done nothing for me to doubt her good intentions. True, she was persistent that I should employ her, but it was only after I chased away the only person who was going to hire her.’

  ‘And what made you do that?’

  Jack looked at the freshly baked bread Jenna had made. He could not deny that she was an attractive, beautiful woman. Would he have been so concerned for her welfare if she was an old hag with a foul tongue? He had to acknowledge that he probably would not have been. ‘I think it had something to do with her comely figure and dark brown eyes,’ he conceded. ‘You are right, Enoch, I should remain wary. This game we are playing is too dangerous to lose.’

  Jenna sat on the grass and looked down on the beach below her. Deciding to walk along the coastline rather than take the stony track from Lanros, she had come across the sandy cove by accident. She had not seen it before, as it was so well hidden from view that unless you looked directly down upon it, it was easy to pass it by. The entrance of the cove was long and lined with jagged rocks. The sandy beach had a gentle gradient and a wide track, which led directly out to the countryside. Protected from the wind, the water within the cove was unusually calm and although Jenna knew nothing of smuggling, even to an inexperienced eye the cove looked an ideal place to land contraband.

  Jenna opened her box of sweetmeats and selected one of the sugar-coated delicacies in her fingers and took her first bite. To her surprise, tears threatened. The delicious taste, and that someone was kind enough to tell her to ‘treat’ herself, almost overwhelmed her. This moment should be joyful, not filled with regrets for past sorrows, she reprimanded herself as she chewed. It was gone too soon. Determined to make the next mouthful last, she closed her eyes and popped the other half into her mouth, before lying back in the grass, savouring the taste.

  Jenna opened her eyes and looked at the blue sky above. She was truly blessed, she thought, to find work in this beautiful place and be employed by a man such as Jack Penhale. Jenna smiled at her good fortune, for she had never met a man quite like Jack before. Although firm and often sombre, he had a gentle quality about him, mixed with sudden flashes of humour that mirrored the twinkle in his dark eyes. Despite his occasional jesting at her expense, for the most part he was respectful and always thoughtful. He would be a reliable provider for his family one day. She wondered if there was a woman in his life at the moment and if he used the hours in the day to call upon her.

  A noisy seagull flew across the sky, disturbing her musings and causing her to frown irritably. She closed her eyes to block the disturbance out and Jack’s image immediately came to mind. She could see him clearly standing before the fire, looking thoughtfully into the flames as he so often did during the winter evenings. Jenna’s frown melted away and the gull was forgotten, as she cast her eyes over his body in a way she would never allow herself to do in reality.

  He is a slender man, Jenna observed, yet not too skinny or lacking in strength like many. No, there was a sturdiness and quiet power to Jack Penhale, born from the solid muscle that lay beneath his clothes.

  Jenna bit her lip as she watched with her mind’s eye Jack undo the buttons from his shirt and let it fall to the ground. The orange glow from the fire caressed and warmed his skin, while casting shadows on the undulations of his chest. Jenna felt the heat too, a strange heat that pooled deep within her. A soft moan escaped her causing Jack to raise his dark brown eyes from the fire and look at her.

  In her daydream, neither spoke – or dared to. His steady gaze released a stream of swirling sensations within her, which spiralled down through her body in an uncontrolled, excitable frenzy. She was snared by his gaze and could not move, a hostage to her body’s needs – and a hostage to his. He saw it and felt it too, strode determinedly towards her and reached for her—

  Jenna woke with a start and sat bolt upright. She looked guiltily about her, too aware of her heart thumping noisily in her breast and her skin flushed with heat. To her relief, she found she was still quite alone. The dream had been so vivid it was a shock to discover it had not been real at all. She had no right to see Jack Penhale as she had just seen him. Her job was too important to jeopardise with lurid thoughts of her employer. How could she allow herself to be distracted from her brother’s plight as if she did not have a care in the world?

  She touched her lips with a trembling hand, still feeling the imagined touch of Jack’s lips on hers. It was just a dream, she reassured herself, no one need ever know – he need never know. She looked up at the blue sky above and, reassuringly, found nothing had changed. The sun was still shining and she still felt blessed.

  She looked at the remaining sweetmeats and smiled. She had the sudden urge to share them and bring joy to someone else. Guiltily, she thought of her brother and his family having to endure each day in the debtors’ prison. She had denied him the chance of eating sweetmeats as a child, but now, as an adult she could make amends. To see his face brighten when she gave them to him on her next visit would give her far more pleasure than eating them alone. After all, easing Silas’s troubles was the most important thing right now. She closed the box and scrambled to her feet. It was time to return, or Jack would be wondering where she was.

  Jenna woke in the night to hear Jack moving about downstairs. Hearing the back door shut quietly, she went to the window and saw his dark figure walking away into the night. Something had changed since her return from Lanros. His smiles were gone and he appeared troubled. On several occasions she found him watching her, his brows furrowed as if deep in thought.

  Yesterday, he began to question her about her life before he met her and instinctively Jenna’s guard went up. Past experience taught her not to mention the Cartwright name, or her family’s disregard for the law, so her answers were stilted, evasive and filled with half-truths. She could tell Jack was not fooled. When he chose to leave the questioning, Jenna felt no sense of achievement that she had convinced him, just a sickening feeling she had let him down. The responsibility of her brother’s debts, and the fear that she would be dismissed when the truth of her family came out, weighed heavy upon her. As much as she wanted to tell Jack the truth, she did not know him well enough to trust him and her fear of losing her position compelled her to remain careful. If a wedge of distrust had begun to grow on his side, seeing him walk out into the night did not improve her trust of him. Dressing quickly, she went downstairs and followed him out into the darkness.

  At first she thought she had lost him. A strong south-easterly breeze whipped her loose hair against her face and she was forced to hold it back in order to see about her. She saw him in the distance against the inky black sky, striding towards the cliff edge. The force of the wind made it easy for her to follow without being heard, as any sounds she made were soon carried away in the opposite direction. She realised he was heading for Porthenys Cove, the inlet she had discovered a few days before. But whereas she had discovered it by chance, Jack knew exactly where he was going.

  As he neared the edge, she saw him crouch low. Jenna followed suit, lifting and pulling at her skirts so she would not fall. Eventually she stopped and lay flat on the ground, her chin resting on the wet grass in order to watch Jack in the distance.

  For a while nothing happened and Jenna wo
ndered what she hoped to achieve by following him. She had no reason to pry. It was not as if she was his wife and he was leaving the house in the middle of the night to visit another woman. Yet the drive to know was just as strong as if she were his woman. Her stupidity on acting upon it mocked her rational mind, as the wetness of the ground seeped through her dress and stays and chilled her stomach.

  A strange noise caught her attention. A gentle flapping, as if someone was shaking a sheet, carried to her on the wind. She turned her face towards the sea to find the source. Moving at speed, and barely visible in the night, Jenna saw what she suspected to be a free trader’s lugger. Its angular sails, painted black to avoid detection, flapped in the wind as it manoeuvred past the jutting rocks in the rising gale.

  The skill of its captain and crew was unrivalled, as the King’s Cutters, which normally patrolled the area, preferred to seek shelter in the local harbours in such weather. Inadvertently they had left the coast clear for a smuggler’s drop, which was manned by a crew who did not fear the rising squall.

  Frightened, Jenna looked around for Jack. Had he seen it too? Were they in danger of being seen by the smugglers? In horror she watched Jack stand up in the darkness and brace himself against the wind. He had seen the lugger too, she realised, but unlike her, he was not afraid and seemed to expect its arrival. Up until now, she believed him to be a good, kind man, but now, as she looked at his black figure appearing to welcome the lugger’s arrival, she began to doubt her first impressions.

  She saw Jack look up at the sky and followed his gaze. The rising wind had broken the blanket of cloud in the sky and was now chasing the remnants away. The light of the moon threatened to break through the fleeting gaps and would soon cast a transient light on the area. Jack must have thought that too, for when she looked down again, he had already gone.

  Jenna pressed her body into the ground as the first moonbeam travelled across the coast, lighting up the cliff and travelling across the bay. As suddenly as it came it had moved on and she found herself shielded by the darkness of the night again. Jenna should have returned to the cottage then, but the noise of the sails beckoned her forward and fed her curiosity. She wanted to know what was happening on the beach and Jack’s involvement in it, so she crawled towards the cliff edge on her belly to get a better view. At the edge, Jenna settled to watch the black shape of the lugger, which was now anchored in the shallow waters offshore. They had taken down the sails and appeared to be waiting for something.

  Jenna saw the light from another moonbeam in the distance, travelling up the coastline and across the beach. The illumination lasted longer than the last, lighting up the empty beach, the rolling, white edged waves and the men working on-board the ship. They were fervently dropping bundles of smuggled goods over the side and into the water, one after the other, plopping, splashing, depending on their size. Not far away, heading toward the shore, was a single rowing boat manned by four men. Suddenly, the cove was cast in black shadow once more as the light of the moon was swiftly extinguished by a passing cloud.

  Jenna had to wait for several minutes before she had a good view again. By the time the next moonlight passed through, the rowing boat was already returning to the lugger. Jenna suspected they had dropped off something too precious to be hidden underwater until it could be collected. Was that what Jack was waiting for? Jenna shivered. The wet ground was beginning to take its toll. She should go back to the cottage before Jack returned. It was time to go.

  Jenna moved away from the edge and used the cover of darkness to make her escape. As she retraced her steps, she thought of Jack and her heart grew heavy with sadness and disappointment. Jack was no better than her brother, her parents or Henry, she thought, for he smuggled goods too and cared not a fig for the law. She should not care, as he was just her employer, yet strangely the discovery tore something inside her and made her want to weep.

  The smell was as bad as she remembered, but the building felt colder than before. Winter was knocking on its door and making its arrival felt by the wretched inhabitants inside.

  ‘I have missed you, Sister,’ Silas said as he hugged her briefly.

  ‘How are Nell and the children?’ asked Jenna as he led her to the same table they had sat at almost two months before.

  ‘Much the same,’ he replied, taking an interest in her basket. He began to rummage roughly through it. Fearing the sweetmeats would become broken she slapped his hand away and took them out herself.

  Smiling, she opened the box. ‘I have brought these,’ she said, tilting the box in his direction.

  Silas glanced at them. ‘Where did you get them?’

  ‘I bought them at Lanros village shop. I live in the Captain’s Cottage near the cliff and the village is just a stone’s throw away in the valley nearby.’

  Silas took a closer look, selected one and popped it into his mouth. To Jenna’s disappointment, in two chews it was gone. He screwed up his face in disgust, but reached for another, which soon followed the other.

  Disappointed with his reaction, Jenna shut the box.

  ‘You look as if you do not like them,’ she grumbled.

  ‘I have eaten it and will eat another if you let me.’

  ‘I want Nell and the children to have one.’

  Silas took the box from her and hid it in his shirt. ‘I will give it to them later. The children are sleeping and Nell is with them.’

  Jenna’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why are they sleeping in the day?’

  ‘Enough of your questions, Sister. What news do you have of the outside world?’

  ‘Are they ill?’

  ‘They are not,’ he replied curtly, looking away and taking an interest in everyone but her.

  Jenna realised she would get no further news of them from him. Her time in Goverek was limited as she had arranged to meet Jack within the hour in order to return home. She was determined to make the most of her visit to her brother and she could not spend these precious moments falling out with him.

  ‘I have sent money each week to the keeper. Your food should be of better quality now.’

  Silas nodded. ‘It is. Where has the money come from to improve our comfort and buy such things?’ he asked, patting the box inside his shirt.

  ‘I have a job. I am a live-in housekeeper for a single gentleman. Here are my wages to pay some of your debts. I have been hired for a year.’

  ‘How much?’ her brother asked, folding his arms and looking at the purse that lay between them.

  ‘Eight pounds for the year,’ Jenna said proudly.

  ‘A princely sum. What other services does he expect you to provide?’

  ‘I shall take the money back if you are to speak to me like that.’ Jenna reached for her purse, but her brother snatched it away from her before she could touch it.

  ‘It is my concern for your welfare that makes me say such things,’ he grumbled as he looked inside it.

  ‘I can look after myself.’

  ‘As you did when you married Henry.’

  Jenna relented. Her brother’s orchestration of her husband’s arrest had saved her life. Had she still been married to Henry there was no doubt that he would have eventually killed her.

  ‘Let us not fall out, Brother,’ Jenna replied softly.

  Silas nodded. ‘You are right,’ he said, pocketing the money. ‘Let us talk of other things. So you live near Porthenys Cove?’

  ‘Do you know it?’ asked Jenna in surprise.

  ‘Aye, I do.’ Silas looked about him to see if anyone was within earshot. Although confident they were not, he still leant towards her and lowered his voice to a whisper.

  ‘A good place to land goods. I have carried a few tubs in my time … and Henry too.’

  ‘I did not know that.’

  ‘It is true. I earned as much as a month’s wage in one night. It is a profitable trade.’

  ‘Considering you have never worked for an honest wage in your life, I am surprised you know what you are capable of e
arning.’

  ‘I get by just fine with the skills I have.’

  Jenna looked about her at the squalid conditions inside the prison, but decided not to challenge him.

  ‘If I was not here, I would be keeping an eye on the town hall’s weathervane,’ he added.

  Jenna frowned. ‘You are talking in riddles.’

  Silas leant still further towards her. ‘The weathervane has a cockerel. When news arrives of which beach is to be used for the drop, the cockerel is turned so its beak points to the cove they plan to use. There are not enough preventative officers to watch the entire coastline in this area.’ Silas chuckled. ‘The free traders are always one step ahead. If the preventative men are seen in one area, the vane is turned to another. The fools are like headless chickens as they run in panic to catch the smugglers. By the time they learn of the landing site, the ship has already gone and the cargo collected.’

  ‘I saw it,’ Jenna blurted out.

  Her words lit up Silas’s eyes in a way that her sweetmeats failed to do.

  ‘Saw what?’ He spoke the words as if he almost dared not say them in case he had misunderstood her.

  ‘The free trader’s ship.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Last night.’

  ‘Sails painted black?’

  Jenna nodded. The more excitement Silas showed, the more discomfort she felt. She began to withdraw, but Silas grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward.

  ‘I thank you for the money you have brought, but it is not enough. I could earn more if I was out. They sink the goods under the water and inflated bladders are left to mark the spot. The attached feathers make them look like seagulls floating on the surface, but underneath the water are the weighted down goods.’

  His sudden excitement at her news seemed almost absurd to her and her discomfort grew with each word he uttered. He licked his lips. ‘The following night they are collected.’ He suddenly stopped and looked at her. There was a new glint in his eyes that she had not seen before. ‘This could be my salvation,’ he said eagerly. Jenna shook her head in denial as she knew what was coming. ‘I would go if I could and earn a pretty penny,’ Silas continued as Jenna tried to pull her hand away. His hold on her wrist tightened. ‘But I can’t, sister. I am stuck here.’