The Thief's Daughter

by Victoria Cornwall

  Smithy squinted at his cards. They were not what he had hoped. ‘Is your wife visiting again today, Silas?’ he asked.

  ‘My wife has never visited. She has taken our children and now lives with her parents. It is my sister who comes to see me.’

  ‘She is a dutiful woman. My family have disowned me,’ said Timmons, rearranging his cards in the hope it would give him a better hand. It did not. ‘To know you have someone on the outside who cares is a precious thing to have.’

  ‘She is a good sister and I know of none better. We only have each other now.’

  Smithy looked at him. ‘You have no other family?’

  ‘None. Our parents are long gone and our brothers have moved away.’

  ‘I thought you said they were in gaol or transported?’ Smithy challenged.

  Silas looked up from studying his cards. ‘They are not around,’ he replied sternly. ‘Does it matter where they are?’ He looked at the other faces around the table and smiled suddenly. ‘The point I make is that we only have each other and as I have always looked after her, she naturally dotes on me.’ He played his hand and claimed the cut up lengths of bootlace that substituted for money. Sullen faces watched him as he dealt the cards again.

  ‘You have the luck of the devil tonight,’ moaned Smithy.

  ‘Are you saying that I am cheating?’ Silas retorted, feigning indignation.

  ‘I did not speak such words, but if that word comes to your mind, perhaps we should discuss it.’

  Silas made to stand but John stopped him.

  ‘Now, now gentlemen, let us remain civil. I’m sure he meant no such thing.’ He patted Silas’s arm, trying to calm things. ‘Please, sir, continue with the game.’

  Encouraged by Timmons too, Smithy relented and picked up his hand. An uneasy truce descended, as Silas dealt two more games. The first he lost on purpose, the second he won and recouped everything he had previously lost. With perfect timing, he noticed Jenna arrive. It was time to take his leave.

  ‘Gentlemen, my sister has arrived. It has been most enjoyable.’

  ‘For you, maybe, but not for me,’ grumbled Smithy.

  ‘Perhaps your luck will change tomorrow?’

  Smithy grunted. ‘If I had any luck, I would use it to get out of here.’

  Silas was still smiling when he greeted Jenna and led her to their table.

  ‘You look well, Sister,’ he said, watching her as she took five pies from her basket. ‘I see that the sea air agrees with you.’

  Jenna blushed; a feeling of unease sent worms tingling up Silas’s spine, as Jenna never blushed. He looked suspiciously at her. There was something different about her, he realised. Her skin was always smooth, but today her cheeks held a healthy glow and there was brightness in her eyes. What had caused this change? he wondered. What had she to hide?

  ‘Have you been playing faro again?’ she asked. Without waiting for an answer she slipped her fingers beneath his sleeve and brought out two cards. ‘Have you no shame? You will go to hell, Silas.’

  Silas hurriedly picked up the cards and hid them in his pocket. ‘It passes the time, no more. Don’t scold me, no one has been harmed.’

  ‘Until you are out and claim your winnings from them.’

  ‘If they are fool enough to be fooled it is no fault of mine.’

  ‘You sound like Father,’ Jenna said, handing him a pie. ‘Eat your pie. These are for Nell and the children.’ She looked around the room for them. ‘Where are they?’ she asked.

  ‘The children are learning their letters and Nell has gone to watch.’ The lie slipped easily from his tongue. He knew she would ask for them and this time he was prepared. To continue using illness to explain their absences was too risky, as Jenna would insist on seeing them this time. However, Jenna’s delight made even Silas feel guilty.

  ‘That is wonderful! Who is teaching them?’

  ‘Someone.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Someone who can write.’ What could he say? What did he know of such things?

  Jenna folded her arms. ‘Trying to get any news from you is like bleeding a stone,’ she muttered, to which Silas only grunted in reply. Jenna ignored his sulk. Smiling mischievously she said, ‘I am learning my letters too.’

  He couldn’t hide the surprise on his face. Is this what had changed his sister? Was she becoming learned?

  ‘How? Who?’

  ‘Jack is teaching me. He says that if I am to be a housekeeper I need to read and write, so I can make lists on what I need to buy.’

  ‘Mother didn’t need to.’

  ‘I know. I think he just said that to give him a reason to teach me. It is easier than I thought and he says I make a good scholar.’

  His sister looked pleased with the praise. Who was this man who offered to teach her and what was he getting in return?

  Suddenly Silas felt an outsider. He had always been the most important person in Jenna’s life. They had an unbreakable bond that even his wife and Henry were unable to weaken. Yet this Jack had wheedled his way into their lives and gained her trust right under his nose. Did he teach Jenna her letters by the fireside at night, with their bowed heads touching? Where did that leave her only kin? Outside in the cold, that’s where.

  He moodily looked through the other pies in her basket. ‘I have taught you many things,’ he said, trying to keep the sound of petulance from his voice.

  ‘Not all good things.’

  ‘Have I not always been by your side?’

  ‘I never said you were not.’

  ‘I have always looked out for you, Jenna.’ Even to his own ears he sounded like a jealous child. He bit into one of the pies.

  ‘As I have for you,’ she soothed, taking his free hand. ‘I did what you asked of me.’

  Silas’s eyes widened at her meaning. ‘I thought you may not. I see you came to no harm.’

  ‘I did not.’

  ‘The money?’

  ‘Be careful, Brother, or you will choke on your pie.’ She was smiling at him again. She had smiled more in this short visit than she had in a long time, he thought. ‘I have used it to pay one of your creditors.’

  Silas did not return her smile. So this is what it has come to, he thought.

  ‘You do not trust me with it?’

  ‘Let bootlaces be your only currency until you leave here, or I will spend my life on the beaches of Cornwall trying to pay off your debts for you to only lose it on the turn of a card.’

  ‘I have never lost at cards – unless I plan it to be so.’

  ‘I have done it and it cannot be undone, nor would I want to. Anyway, Jack suggested it would be safer if I pay the creditors myself, and I agreed with him.’

  ‘This man, Jack. Who is he?’

  ‘My employer.’

  ‘The one who pays you too much.’

  ‘He pays me a fair wage that feeds your belly,’ she retorted, withdrawing her hand.

  ‘Even so, he must be after something. Why would he bother with someone like you?’

  Hurt flashed across his sister’s face, but the emotion only mirrored his own. He was not used to hearing Jenna speak of another man with such fondness. Now she was defending him as if he were blood kin.

  ‘He’s a good man, Silas, and I will not have you slander him or question his motives.’

  ‘You defend him too readily, Jenna. You know nothing of the man.’

  ‘I know that he has offered to take my place next time the lugger arrives so I do not have to.’

  Silas sat forward and frowned. ‘To pay off my debts?’

  ‘Yes. He has even offered some of his savings too.’

  Silas saw into Jack’s plan. It was not because he was a good man, it was because he wanted to take his sister from him.

  ‘And then … you will be rid of me.’

  Jenna looked guiltily away. Her action turned the pie in Silas’s throat to sawdust. He dropped the remainder of the crust on the table with the others.

&nbs
p; ‘He is a saintly man, to unburden you from your brother.’

  She looked at him; her intense gaze held a steely determination. ‘You will always be my brother, but I will not pay your debts in the future.’ Silas sat back. ‘I mean it, Silas,’ she insisted. ‘I want no more trouble knocking on my door.’

  ‘You sound like Nell.’

  ‘If it had not been for Jack, I may have been caught at Porthenys. I want to be free of this problem you have laid at my door. I want to live my own life … a good, wholesome life where my children learn nothing of the evil in this world and are not dogged by the Cartwright name as we have been. Is that so wrong of me?’

  ‘And where does that leave me, Jenna? Am I to be cast aside?’

  ‘I do not cast you aside, Silas. I beg you to walk with me.’ Her brother scoffed. ‘But you won’t, will you? Instead you consider me strange and you remain determined to continue on the path to the gibbet.’

  Silas roughly wrapped the remaining pies in a cloth from her basket.

  ‘This man, how will I know him? I would like to thank him for teaching my sister her letters so she can look down on her family.’

  ‘I do not look down on you, Silas. Have I not risked my life to help you?’

  Silas sighed. ‘I’m sorry. This is a rat infested hole that I have found myself in and although I want to be out, I do not like to feel beholden to a man I do not know.’ He glanced up at his sister and resentment churned his stomach. This man, Jack, had infected her heart with kindness and although his sister was only the width of a table away from him, she felt unreachable. ‘I am serious, Jenna, truly I am. I would like to thank this man for helping to release me.’ He saw the distrust in Jenna’s eyes. He took her hand in his and compared them, hers clean, small and pale, his grimy and scarred. He smiled and gave it a squeeze. She continued to look at him with a faint line in her brow as she considered his request. Finally she relented and told him what he wanted to know.

  ‘His name is Jack Penhale,’ she said. ‘But you must address him as Mr Penhale and be polite when I introduce you.’

  Years of gambling on the turn of a card had honed his skills in deception as he hid any signs of recognition he felt when he heard the man’s name. Sweet, trusting Jenna.

  Silas gave her hand a final squeeze and let it go. ‘I will look forward to thanking Mr Penhale in person,’ he said, gathering the parcel of pies. ‘Now it is time for you to go home as we cannot risk displeasing your employer who has shown such kindness to us.’

  They stood in unison.

  ‘Stay by your fire on the night of the next run, Jenna. I want you to be safe. It was wrong of me to ask you to do what you did. Forgive me.’

  Her smile broadened. ‘You will soon be out of here, Silas, and we will start anew.’

  After saying their goodbyes, he watched his sister leave, carrying her empty basket in the crook of her arm and with an optimistic spring in her step. What a foolish girl, he thought to himself, allowing a man such as Jack Penhale into her life. She had been a fool to marry Henry, and look how he had turned out. Now she was not seeing clearly again.

  Had not their parents warned them, as small children, to beware of thief-takers? Yet, here was his young sister living beneath a thief-taker’s roof. Silas now languished in this debtors’ prison because of him, for he was the thief-taker his creditors had hired to capture him. While Jack Penhale was free to enjoy his sister’s company, her brother lived, ate and slept in the dark. Well, he was not in the dark any more.

  Silas returned to the table where Timmons, Smithy and John still sat.

  ‘Smithy, will you lend me your boy to run an errand for me?’

  Smithy looked up and smelt the food. ‘For the price of a pie, I would.’ Silas opened the cloth and tossed him one. Smithy caught it in his lap. ‘This is a fine pie.’ He looked up suspiciously. ‘It is not like you to give away food. I will not have my boy harmed.’

  ‘The errand is to ask a man to visit me and therefore deserves such a fee. When he has done this, he can have one himself.’

  ‘This man, is he important?’

  ‘He is. Not as important as what I plan to tell him. But it will come at a price.’

  Chapter Eight

  Jack acknowledged the landlord’s greeting and took his usual seat in the corner of the Tolbridge Inn. As he waited for the landlord to come over, his thoughts turned to Jenna, as they so often did.

  This morning, under the pretence of shopping for supplies, she asked if she could accompany him to Goverek. Jack, not minding her company, agreed, but he knew better than to think it was only supplies that tempted her to town. The real reason, he believed, was her desire to visit her brother, but knowing that Jack did not like the man, she had the good sense not to say.

  Jack was torn on how he felt about her visits to him. Loyalty was an admirable character trait, but her loyalty to Silas was not. He imagined Silas’s smug face when he learnt someone else was willing to pay off his creditors. The irony that it was the same man who had put him away would add to his joy. A muscle twitched in Jack’s jaw. The farce would be more bearable were Silas grateful for his help, but he would not be, and would show no remorse for the trouble he brought to people’s doors. No, Jack was glad he did not question Jenna about her reasons for accompanying him, or he may have let his frustration show.

  ‘You are the only customer I have who has only one drink,’ said the landlord as he began to fill his tankard with beer.

  ‘Good day, Klemmo. Are you the only one working today?’

  ‘My wife and maid are out at the back. We may have a wedding in the family very soon. A young man has taken an interest in Melwyn. He walks four miles to see her each Saturday and she has a fondness for him.’

  ‘She is a pretty girl.’

  ‘She was. Her choice of suitors is more limited now.’

  ‘You will miss Melwyn when she is wed.’

  ‘I will be glad when she is away from here and safe.’

  Jack glanced up at Klemmo’s guilty face. He had said too much and was already regretting his slip. Jack grabbed his wrist, unwilling to let the opportunity pass.

  ‘Klemmo, talk to me. I have watched your family and know what you sell.’

  The landlord bent forward so no one else could hear. ‘I will tell you no more. It is best it stays that way. I cannot tell what you want to know.’

  Jack would not let go. ‘Cannot or will not?’ Klemmo tried to look away, so Jack tightened his grasp. ‘My family was like yours once. I know what it is like to be caught in a web that you cannot break free from. I need information, Klem. I can put an end to this.’

  Klemmo pulled his hand free. ‘Leave well alone, Jack. You will put yourself in danger and there is nothing you can do. They are too powerful for the likes of us.’

  Jack watched Klemmo hurriedly walk away. He was nervous and watchful, afraid that someone may have seen.

  Jack took a drink of his warm ale. Over the last few weeks he had cultivated his friendship with the landlord, but today he may have pushed it too far. He had come to believe that Klemmo was an unwilling receiver of smuggled goods. If he was right, the landlord might be willing to help him. Jack thought the landlord was beginning to trust him, but he may have miscalculated. It appeared that Klemmo trusted no one, and certainly not a man who he had only recently come to know.

  Jack sat back in his seat to moodily nurse his beer until the outer door opened and another man entered. The stranger’s furtive glances as he surveyed the room piqued Jack’s interest. He did not know him, but he realised that Klemmo did, and was not pleased to see him. Jack straightened in his seat to obtain a better view just in time to see him grab Klemmo’s shirt and push him through to a back room. Jack pushed away his tankard. Seeing the man manhandling Klemmo meant that he had no choice but to get up and follow.

  Unnoticed by the other drinkers, he followed the angry voices to an outhouse at the back of the inn and listened from a recess in the yard.


  ‘You will have ten kegs,’ shouted the stranger angrily.

  ‘The price is too high,’ argued the landlord. ‘Bring it down and I will reconsider.’

  The sounds of a scuffle made Jack step closer.

  ‘The price remains as I have told you. Ten kegs on Friday and another the following week.’

  ‘I cannot hide that amount and I do not have the means to pay for so much.’

  ‘You will do as you’re told or I will slice your daughter’s face, as he did.’

  Jack heard the sound of fighting and a body hit the brick wall. He heard Klemmo cry out in pain. The landlord was no match for the younger man and it was evident that he was not winning. Unwilling to hear any more, Jack entered the outhouse to find the younger man kicking a crumpled body on the floor. Jack grabbed him by the coat and dragged him backwards away from his victim, before roughly turning him around to face him. Their eyes locked momentarily, before Jack punched him in the face. The man staggered back, momentarily dazed, before lurching forward at his unknown attacker with an amateur swing. Jack was ready for him, dodged his punch and came up with another to the bottom of the younger man’s chin. The man toppled backwards and landed heavily on a pile of logs behind him, before sliding to the floor at Jack’s feet. Jack did not have the patience to wait for him to get up. Lifting him up by his arm, he marched him out to the alleyway and shoved him into the street.

  ‘Get out and don’t come back or next time you will not have legs fit to walk away on,’ he warned.

  Klemmo, half stooping, followed him into the alleyway. ‘He will be back.’