The Smuggler's Gambit (Adam Fletcher Adventure Series Book 1)

by Sara Whitford

  Was Mr. Rogers blinded by his long-standing relationship with her family? He said he had known her since she was born, after all. Maybe it was impossible for him to conceive of her ever doing anything to betray him. But then again, he thought, why would she? It was her property that he used as a second dock. She had been seeing him receive clandestine shipments there her whole life. Why would she turn on him now?

  While he thought it was unlikely that Laney could be even remotely attracted to pale, gangly Francis Smythe, in spite of his money, he could see how she might be romantically interested in Richard Rasquelle, handsome devil that he was. Adam figured that if Rasquelle had told her what he initially tried to tell him—about how the town could suffer if King George saw it as a haven for smugglers—she might have been naïve enough to believe him. That might have caused her to have second thoughts about allowing the continued use of her property for those purposes. But then again she didn’t really seem like the naïve type. Although physical attraction can make a person do stupid things, so anything was possible.

  Adam acknowledged to himself that Richard Rasquelle, in spite of his questionable character, was a handsome, successful, and ridiculously wealthy man. And he might be just the kind of person who would make Laney willing to give up her inheritance—at least if it came down to that.

  Maybe she’d calculated all that. If the property was lost as Emmanuel’s second dock, her guardian, Absalom Reading, might be implicated. After all, she was underage and had been in his care since her father died. That could free her from the conditions in her father’s will about whom she could marry. Then her only obstacle would be her brother, and he’d be unlikely to stand in the way of her happiness—at least that’s what Martin had said.

  The more Adam thought about all of the what-ifs, the more his mind began to run very quickly through possible scenarios. He thought, for instance, about how Rasquelle clearly had an ax to grind with Emmanuel and wanted to see him go out of business. Maybe Laney knew that and was feeding him information in an effort to win his favor. That could be how Rasquelle knew about Adam and Martin going to her estate that day. Maybe she was colluding with Rasquelle to put an end to Emmanuel’s use of her property—and if she believed Rasquelle was connected with government officials, she might believe that could exempt her from any sort of punishment and win her the approval of the Crown.

  But if she was doing that, why wouldn’t she just come out and tell the authorities everything she knew about Emmanuel’s past operations and get it over with? Why the charade? Well, she even said herself that pretending to be friendly with Rasquelle was just a “clever charade,” so as troubling as it was to consider, it could be a double deception.

  But why? And why now?

  Maybe Rasquelle had told her that Emmanuel needed to be caught in the act. That would mean Rasquelle enlisting Adam to spy on Emmanuel might have just been a ruse. Adam wouldn’t put it past Rasquelle to use him to take the fall so that Emmanuel wouldn’t suspect Laney if and when he was reported to the authorities.

  In his gut Adam just couldn’t believe—or maybe he just didn’t want to believe—that Laney could be guilty of such a betrayal. But now that his mind had ventured down this rabbit trail, he’d have a hard time forgetting about what he’d seen and the possibilities he’d imagined.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “THIS MAY SERVE TO INFORM THE PUBLICK, especially the traders to North Carolina, that the Hornet sloop-of-war lies in Cape Lookout Bay, has two tenders, one a Virginia-built pilot boat with two swivel guns forward, the other a small schooner, with six swivels, which strictly examine all vessels they meet bound to North Carolina; some have been seized.”

  So read the announcement in The Gazette. It sent shock waves through Emmanuel Rogers’s company. The news couldn’t have come at a worse time.

  Operations were already moving slowly and with extreme caution, thanks to the constant threat Rasquelle’s spies posed to conducting business as usual. The pending arrival of La Dama del Caribe, out of Cuba, which was due to come on the heels of Liverpool’s Elizabeth Ella, only made things worse—especially since the Elizabeth Ella’s arrival was already a few days behind schedule.

  Emmanuel and his crew knew the worst possible scenario would be if both ships arrived at the same time, in which case there would be no way to cover both transfers. Now, however, Emmanuel was beginning to wonder if one or both of the shipments might be lost to the customs inspectors offshore.

  When the Elizabeth Ella finally did arrive, on Friday morning, everyone in the company seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief. Emmanuel and his crew learned in full detail of the vessel’s experience at the customs checkpoint. It was a rigorous inspection that had forced many vessels to wait in queue before passing through to their destinations.

  The Elizabeth Ella had stopped at a few other ports en route to Beaufort, some of which were restricted trade partners. Fortunately, by intermingling contraband with legitimate cargo throughout the cargo hold, the crew managed to trick the inspection team and were free to go.

  Within just a few short hours, the crew of the Elizabeth Ella were arriving at a rainy Port Beaufort, where they docked right in front of Emmanuel’s warehouse. In spite of the stormy weather, not only were they able to off-load the vessel in record time, they were able to load her up without a hitch and get Ellison Smythe to sign off on everything. The ship’s captain having documents in hand with the customs agency’s certification would make it easier for the Elizabeth Ella to return through the customs checkpoint at Cape Lookout before moving on to its next port stop, farther north.

  Just before the Elizabeth Ella left Emmanuel Rogers’s dock, word arrived via a couple of local sailors that there was a ship sinking off of Cape Lookout. The customs sloop Hornet was assisting, but more help was needed to try and salvage the cargo, as well as help the poor souls on board.

  Emmanuel didn’t know if it was one of his shipments, or another, but unfortunately he was not equipped to do anything about it at present. He had only his periauger. It was a small craft, not nearly large enough to conduct the rescue of a large merchant vessel. He had to make a difficult decision that might cost him, but he knew people’s lives, as well as their livelihoods, were at stake.

  Richard Rasquelle’s Fortuna was the largest cargo vessel presently in port at Beaufort. There were other ships in port, of course, but Rogers knew that his competitor’s ship would be the most efficient means of saving whoever and whatever might be on board.

  Without hesitation he went to Rasquelle’s warehouse.

  After Emmanuel had explained what he had heard about the sinking vessel, Rasquelle wasted no time offering to go assist with the shipment.

  “I think you have done a great service today by coming to me about this, Mr. Rogers,” said Rasquelle. “It’s humble of you to be willing to come to your competition for help.”

  “Mr. Rasquelle, this isn’t about business or competition. This is about a ship full of God only knows how many poor souls, who are in trouble. Unfortunately, with my largest vessel out on delivery at this time, there’s little I can do to help. I know you’re more equipped to go to their aid, and so I implore you to do so.”

  Rasquelle nodded. “And I most certainly will, sir. Don’t you worry. I’ll have my men ready the sloop right now. We’ll be under way very shortly. And rest assured we’ll do everything we can to save both the passengers and the merchandise on board.”

  Emmanuel bowed his head and said, “Thank you, sir. I pray you have a safe, speedy journey—that you can get there in time to be of help.”

  “Fear not, sir,” said Rasquelle. “We will handle everything.”

  As soon as Emmanuel was on his way, Rasquelle went to his floor supervisor and said, “Ready the men. A merchant vessel is in trouble near our coast—a few miles out. We need to send out a ship and offer our assistance.”

  The merchant’s men worked in unison like the gears in a clock. There was no talking, no bravado,
just moving in concert to accomplish the task of getting the ship out of the harbor, then beyond the inlet at the eastern end of Taylor Creek.

  Soon they were in the open sea approaching the sailing vessel offshore. They all knew what to do. After all, this wasn’t the first time they’d come to the aid of a ship in distress. Indeed, Rasquelle’s business boomed after The Gazette, the region’s most popular newspaper, ran a feature celebrating his heroic rescue of the Sea Sprite two years earlier. The misfortune of the Sea Sprite turned out to be an incredible stroke of good luck for the young merchant. When he first arrived in town, Richard Rasquelle struggled to line up enough shipping customers in Beaufort to make it worth his while to set up shop there. Most folks were either well established with their longtime friend and neighbor Emmanuel Rogers or traded with another merchant, named Faulkner Baldwin.

  Unfortunately for Baldwin, Rasquelle’s business was built by picking off his customers. When Rasquelle’s arrival in town was punctuated by the newspaper article celebrating him as a hero, Baldwin’s customers started flocking to his young, new competitor. Baldwin’s customers hadn’t been with him as long as Emmanuel Rogers’s clientele, nor did they have the same loyalty to him. As a result, within eight months of Rasquelle’s arrival, Baldwin was forced to close up shop. Word had it that he had planned to move to South Carolina, but no one ever heard from him again after he left town.

  On this day, however, things were different than they were during the sinking of the Sea Sprite. British customs officials nearby at Cape Lookout were also assisting the sinking vessel.

  Rasquelle’s men already had a plan in place. They sent word to the customs sloop that if they rescued the passengers, the Fortuna would try to salvage the cargo, as their ship was equipped for just such a situation.

  Together, the two vessels were able to save all of the people on board the sinking ship, as well as much of the cargo. The passengers went on the Hornet, and the cargo on the Fortuna.

  Chapter Twenty

  EARLY ON SATURDAY, LA DAMA del Caribe arrived at Port Beaufort. Rather than coming directly into Topsail Inlet, she first sent one of her tenders, a small and swift cutter, into Taylor Creek to notify Emmanuel Rogers of the ship’s arrival.

  The timing of La Dama’s approach was serendipitous. The inspections sloop that had been stationed at Cape Lookout was busy bringing back the passengers of the sunken vessel, and Rasquelle’s crew were tied up transporting the cargo back to town.

  When Adam and the rest of Emmanuel’s men received word that La Dama had arrived, they wasted no time traveling over to the Martin estate. The gate at the entrance of the estate was secured, and they all took their positions on the dock, the ramp, and in the basement and awaited La Dama’s arrival.

  Adam wondered what would be on board the foreign ship. He knew whatever contents it carried would have been perfectly legal had the vessel been English, but since it came from Cuba, it was all contraband.

  Emmanuel refused to pay an additional tax to receive shipments from the captain of La Dama, who was an old friend, simply because his point of origin was a Spanish port. It was the principle of the thing that so frustrated Emmanuel. Why should he be browbeaten into limiting his trade with only English vessels? Merchants the world over had been trading with one another since time immemorial. It was too late for King George to put that genie back in the bottle.

  La Dama del Caribe was piloted by a Spaniard named Santiago Velasquez de Leon. He had been sailing between his home port in Havana and destinations up and down the eastern seaboard for nearly two decades, but it had been a long while since he had come to Beaufort, and he dealt more frequently with merchants in Charleston and Providence, Rhode Island.

  As soon as the ship docked at the Martin estate, the men of both crews moved swiftly to shift the cargo from the ship to the dock, then down the ramp and into a holding area in the basement. Just as swiftly they rolled several barrels of various naval stores onto the brig and moved some pigs and sheep on board from the Martin farm, which would provide food for the Cuban crew on the long journey back to Havana.

  Once the cargo transport was done, Captain Velasquez invited Rogers’s crew on board to browse through some limited stores of exotic items he had obtained in trade from various ports and ships with whom he had done business. The merchandise didn’t amount to enough to justify wholesale transactions. They were typically slightly damaged goods that weren’t acceptable to merchants, but Velasquez had discovered that people everywhere enjoyed his diverse wares. There were vanilla beans and chocolate from Mexico, dominoes from Italy, and various games and toys, including dolls from France and pan flutes from Colombia. Then there were fireworks from China and all sorts of other knickknacks.

  All of Rogers’s men bought gifts for their families or themselves except Adam, who didn’t bring any money to spend on trinkets.

  Captain Velasquez noticed him watching the other men browse through his wares and asked him in Spanish, “¿No quieres comprar nada?”

  Adam gave him a puzzled look. “Huh?”

  “You don’t want to buy anything?”

  He shook his head. “Oh, no thank you.” Adam was too embarrassed to admit he didn’t have any money.

  The captain grabbed a small, crudely sewn cloth sack—the same kind Rogers’s men were filling with their desired goodies—and grabbed some Mexican chocolate, some Chinese fireworks, and a handful of candies, and tossed them into the bag and handed it to Adam.

  “Toma esto,” said the captain. “I think you will like these.”

  “Oh, no thank you,” said Adam. “I really don’t need anything.”

  The captain smiled at him. “No te preocupes. No te cobro nada. You can have them. You worked very hard today. Everyone should go away with something.”

  Adam smiled and held out his hand to take the sack from the captain. “Thank you, sir.”

  “De nada,” said Velasquez. He smiled at Adam, “¡Disfrutalos!”

  Adam looked the captain, puzzled.

  “I said, ‘You are welcome. Enjoy them!’”

  Adam couldn’t believe how quickly the whole transfer took with La Dama del Caribe in comparison to the Elizabeth Ella. Then again, the English ship had much more cargo and was also receiving much more in the way of naval stores to be taken back to England. In addition, La Dama needed to move out quickly after their transactions were complete. Neither Emmanuel Rogers nor Captain Velasquez wanted to be caught by British customs authorities, nor Rasquelle’s spies.

  Once La Dama was gone and the day was done, Emmanuel Rogers’s crew quickly dispersed. There was a great sense of relief that, at least for the time being, they had successfully eluded discovery.

  Back at the warehouse apartment, Adam, Boaz, and Emmanuel sat around the kitchen table.

  “Boy, I’m glad that’s done,” said Boaz. “I didn’t know how we were going to pull that one off with that inspections sloop sitting offshore.”

  “Same here,” said Adam. “And I was worried about Rasquelle catching us.”

  Emmanuel nodded in agreement. “We were indeed quite fortunate today. Things could have gone very differently. So tell me, you lads get anything from the captain’s treasure shop?” said Emmanuel.

  “I did,” said Boaz. “Bought a game from Italy called dominoes. Can’t read the instructions, though. They’re in Italian. Also got some of those sweets he had.”

  “I wasn’t going to buy anything,” said Adam. “Didn’t have any money, but the captain gave me this.”

  He pulled the cloth sack out of his pocket and dropped it on the table in front of him.

  “What do you have there?” said Emmanuel, smiling.

  Adam dumped out the bag’s contents. “Let’s see . . . looks like some chocolates—I don’t know where they’re from, but they’ve got Spanish writing on them, I think—some firecrackers—what are they? Chinese?—and a bunch of other sweets, but I don’t know what they are.”

  Boaz picked out a piece of the cho
colate. “I’ll bet this is from Mexico. Be careful with that.” Boaz chuckled as he held up a block of the sweet stuff and said, “They put spices in it—cinnamon, peppers. It can set your mouth on fire.”

  “Peppers? Really? In chocolate? Well, what I can’t wait to try out are some of these.” Adam fingered through the bundle and picked out some of the brightly wrapped fireworks. “Never had these before. Seen some, but never been able to try them out for myself.”

  “You’ll want to be careful with those, too,” said Emmanuel. “They are explosives, you know.”

  “I know, but they’re fun explosives.”

  He stood and said, “In fact, I think I want to try a couple out right now.” He grabbed the ember bowl and tongs from the sideboard.

  As he darted out the door and down the stairs, Emmanuel called out after him, “Don’t set them off in the warehouse! For goodness’ sake! You’ll blow us all up!”

  “I know!” the boy could be heard calling back from downstairs, his voice trailing as he got farther away.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  THE DAY AFTER THE ARRIVAL of La Dama del Caribe, Adam went to church with Emmanuel and the rest of the men in the company, along with their families, if they had them. The old merchant expected all of his employees to attend church—regardless of their feelings about the local congregation. “Don’t ask the Lord to do anything for you if you refuse to do anything for him,” he’d often say.

  Emmanuel had one time explained to Adam that while he was no theologian, he believed the Lord had saved him from a life of reckless living, so he committed to trying to live a “right and obedient” life, the chief exception being his refusal to follow what he believed were immoral laws imposed by Parliament relating to trade practices.