Jaded Moon (Ransomed Jewels Book 2)

by Laura Landon

  If she’d been involved in smuggling for nearly two years, what had she done with the money?

  Nothing made sense to him. If only he hadn’t fallen in love with her. But how could he have stopped himself? She’d made her way into his heart as if that was where she belonged. As if there’d always been a special place for her and she’d finally come to claim it.

  How could she have given herself to him—not once but twice—and not known that what they shared was special? How could she have cheapened what they’d shared because she thought it might benefit her later? Ross stopped at a place near the bottom of the steep decline as an answer to his question slammed into him.

  She couldn’t have. The Josephine Foley he knew couldn’t have.

  And yet she had.

  “Where did they unload the opium, Ross?”

  He jerked his gaze to where Sam stood and walked over to the place where the boats had pulled ashore.

  “Here. There were three boats and six men. They unloaded several crates and barrels and carried them through there,” he said, pointing to the mouth of a cave. Both Sam and McCormick lit the lanterns they’d brought with them and entered the cave.

  Ross stayed outside, not wanting to see what they discovered. He knew when they saw the shipment they’d have other questions, like: What else had he seen? Did he recognize any of the smugglers? How long had it taken them to unload the goods? Did he see who had contacted them? The moon was full—that damnably full, magical moon. Surely he’d recognized whoever had come to meet the smugglers and could identify them.

  Ross fought the waves of self-loathing. He was as much a traitor as his father. How could he answer their questions without condemning Josie? Or live with himself after he did?

  “Ross, get in here.”

  Sam’s voice crashed in on his thoughts, pulling him back to the present. Ross walked into the cave and toward the light. Sam and McCormick stood in the large opening, the lids of barrels lying on the ground, tops of crates hanging by their hinges.

  “Is this all of it?”

  Ross looked around. He could see without counting that not all the boxes and crates that had been unloaded last night were here. The opium wasn’t there. “There were more.”

  He grabbed the lantern from Sam’s hand and walked to the back of the cave. Sam and McCormick followed. They found nothing until they reached the thick wooden door he’d discovered before.

  “Where does this lead?” McCormick asked, trying the door to make sure it couldn’t be opened.

  “There are tunnels beneath the orphanage that were used for smuggling more than a hundred years ago.”

  “They must have already taken the opium out this way,” Sam said, hunkering down to check the sandy floor of the cave. “But if they did, they were damn careful. There’s only one set of footprints and from the size of the imprints, they weren’t made by a man.”

  McCormick bent down to study the evidence then rose and started for the mouth of the cave. “We’ll go to the orphanage. Someone there knows what the hell is going on and I want to know who it is.”

  A heavy weight sank to the pit of his stomach. Part of him hoped Josie was already gone so they couldn’t talk to her. Another part knew it wouldn’t make any difference. It was only a matter of time until they discovered she knew more about what went on at the orphanage than even Vicar Chadwick did.

  A terrible premonition chilled the blood running through his veins. He may have saved her last night but he knew there was nothing he could do to help her today.

  “What’s going on, Ross?” Sam said when McCormick was far enough ahead of them so they couldn’t be overheard.

  Ross stared at McCormick’s retreating back and shook his head.

  “Dammit, Ross. Don’t shut me out. Maybe I can help.”

  Ross wanted to laugh. This was no different than the night he’d realized what his father had done. “It’s too late for that.”

  “Who is she?”

  Ross jerked his head to the side. There was a look on Sam’s face that Ross had seen often in the past. The intelligent gleam in his eyes that enabled him to look at something and see beneath the outer coating to reveal what was hidden. Ross was certain it was this ability that had made him such a valuable asset to the government.

  “What makes you think there’s a woman?”

  “I know you. I know how badly you wanted to do this. You wouldn’t have let the ship leave without signaling us if you hadn’t seen something that stopped you. I just hope she was worth it.”

  “Bennett!”

  Sam gave Ross one more second to confide in him, then walked toward the entrance of the cave and stepped out into the sunshine. Ross followed him to where McCormick stood close to the water’s edge. His gaze was fixed downward. Sam and Ross both looked out to see what had drawn his attention.

  “Bloody hell,” Sam whispered, stepping into the water. He picked up some of the debris lapping up to the shore with the waves and held it in his palm.

  “I don’t understand,” Ross said, looking from the water-soaked cakes in Sam’s hand to the frown on his face.

  “Someone destroyed the shipment of opium.”

  “Why?”

  “My guess would be to make sure none of it reached London. You wouldn’t know who that might be, would you Ross?”

  Ross’s heart slammed against his ribs. Oh, yes. He knew who it had been. He remembered Josie’s answer when he asked her where she’d put the opium.

  Where no one will ever find it.

  Then he remembered the question she’d asked him before that.

  Would it be expecting too much to ask you to believe I didn’t know about the opium?

  What if that had been the truth? What if Josie hadn’t known about the opium until he’d told her and she’d come here last night with the express purpose of destroying it before it reached London?

  Blood thundered in Ross’s head. Did she have any idea what she’d done? Didn’t she know what Lindville would do when he found out?

  “We have to get to the orphanage.”

  Ross raced up the steep incline, leaving Sam and McCormick far behind him. He scrambled to the top, but stopped short when he looked up.

  Geoffrey Lindville stood at the top of the cliff with Josie in front of him. One arm was wrapped around her chest in a death-grip. The other hand held a gun. She struggled to free herself when she saw Ross, but Lindville pressed the gun harder against her temple. Josie stood still.

  “I wouldn’t come any closer, Rainforth. It wouldn’t be safe for Miss Foley if you did.”

  Ross jerked to a halt and raised his hands in surrender. He hoped Sam and McCormick saw him and knew to stop. He didn’t look behind him to find out.

  “Let her go, Lindville.”

  He took one small step toward them and Josie tried to take advantage of his movement to twist out of Lindville’s arms. Ross stopped when Lindville twisted Josie’s arm behind her back and she cried out in pain. He took a small step back and Lindville relaxed his grip just enough so Josie’s breathing returned to normal.

  Her eyes were wide and her face was pale. All except for the deep red mark on the left side of her face that was turning purple. Ross was filled with a deep-down rage that boiled inside him.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, knowing she wasn’t, but needing to say the words to feel a connection to her. His question forced her to look at him. She nodded.

  He held her gaze and tried to put a look of confidence on his face. Her grim expression told him she wasn’t any surer of him than she was of Lindville. And he didn’t blame her.

  “Let her go,” he repeated.

  “Miss Foley and I have some unfinished business to settle. I don’t suppose you’d consider forgetting what you saw here and leave?”

  Ross stepped to the side, hoping he could position Lindville with his back to the water to keep him from seeing Sam come over the steep incline. “I said, let her go.”

  Lindville smiled,
then shrugged. “I guess not. That’s unfortunate. I really hadn’t intended on killing you, too, but… well, you can understand the predicament I’m in.”

  “You don’t have to kill anyone. Your smuggling venture is finished. Just cut your losses and run while you can.”

  “Cut my losses. Bloody hell, Rainforth, you’re a damn fool if you think I intend to walk away from this. You don’t even know what’s going on here.”

  “Oh, but I do. You’ve been using Miss Foley and the orphanage to smuggle in opium that you sell in London. The authorities have been investigating you for months and are waiting to arrest you.”

  “If they arrest me, they’ll have to arrest Miss Foley too. She was as much a part of it as I was.”

  “No!” Josie argued. “I didn’t know you were smuggling opium. I only thought you were bringing in items Cornelius Sharpe could sell.”

  “You were such a fool. For nearly two years you carried the messages back and forth, then religiously unlocked the doors to the passageways each time before you left and sealed everything back up in the morning after the goods were gone. And not once did you suspect a thing.”

  “I didn’t think I needed to suspect anything! I didn’t imagine you would involve yourself with smuggling opium. Or involve the children and me.”

  Lindville pressed the gun beneath her chin and lifted until she was forced to look at him. “How did you finally discover what we were doing? Not that I care, mind you. I’m just curious.”

  Ross tried to take a step closer. They were still too far away from him. “I told her. You were right when you put a connection between my cousin and me. The authorities are on to you.”

  “That’s too bad. But they won’t be able to prove anything. Not with you dead.”

  “Don’t add murder to your crimes. It’s not worth it.”

  Josie struggled again and Lindville tightened the hand he had wrapped around her.

  “Oh, it won’t be murder. It will seem like a tragic accident. Miss Foley slipped and fell to her death. In your grief and despair, you rushed down the steep slope to get to her. Unfortunately, you stumbled and fell. Your deaths won’t even be suspect because I’ll be a witness to the tragedy. I’ll tell the authorities how devastated I was to have witnessed the whole event without being able to reach you in time to help.”

  “Is that what you told the authorities when you reported Carrie Gardner’s death?”

  Ross saw Lindville’s reaction to his accusation and knew what he’d suspected for weeks was true. The sadistic grin on Lindville’s face confirmed it.

  “You think you have it all figured out, don’t you Rainforth?”

  Ross moved another step to the side. “Why did you kill her?”

  “I didn’t kill her. She had a tragic accident.”

  “You killed her the same as you intend to kill Miss Foley and me. Why?”

  He tightened his jaw and spoke through clenched teeth. “Because she was blackmailing me.”

  Geoffrey Lindville was as a poor an excuse for a human being as Ross had ever seen and just looking at him made Ross ill. “Carrie Gardner wasn’t blackmailing you. She didn’t need money.”

  “She wasn’t blackmailing me for money. You provided her with more than enough to live a comfortable life at St. Stephen’s.”

  “Then why would she blackmail you?”

  “She objected to the attention I was showing her and threatened to tell my mother about certain … habits I’d acquired if I didn’t leave her alone. Everyone knew she’d been your mistress and you’d sent her to live in this God-forsaken part of England when her belly swelled with your bastard. I just wanted her to provide me the same services she’d provided you.”

  “So you killed her when she refused?”

  “It was an accident. We struggled and she fell.”

  “And you told everyone she had a carriage accident.”

  “I’m tired of talking about something that happened another lifetime ago. I’m more concerned with what is happening right now. Where is the cargo Captain Levy brought last night, Miss Foley?”

  Lindville pressed the gun harder to her head and repeated his question. “Where is it?”

  Ross watched Josie brace her shoulders and lift her chin. He’d never seen anyone braver than she was. He’d never loved anyone more. But he couldn’t let her tell Lindville what she’d done. He’d kill her as soon as he found out.

  “Don’t tell him, Josie.”

  “Shut up! Where’d you hide it?”

  When Josie didn’t answer right away, Lindville clamped his fingers around her arm and twisted it behind her back. “Where!”

  She screamed in pain and Ross took a step toward her but Lindville waved his gun and Ross stopped.

  “Where is it?”

  “There!” she said on a gasp and pointed toward the ocean.

  “Where?”

  Lindville looked out over the inlet but didn’t understand what she meant.

  “Gone.”

  Comprehension slowly dawned and the features of his face reddened with violent fury.

  “No!” he bellowed and brought his hand up. Before Ross could move, Lindville slammed his fist into Josie’s face. Her head flew back and blood spilled from her mouth.

  Ross lunged toward him. If only he’d managed to get closer. If only he could cover the distance separating them before Lindville had time to fire his gun. But he knew he couldn’t. At least Sam and McCormick had heard enough to convict Lindville of smuggling and murder. No matter what, Lindville would hang.

  Lindville dropped his hands from around Josie, then lifted the gun and aimed it at Ross’s chest. As if the world shifted into slow motion, he saw Lindville’s finger pull back on the trigger and he fired the gun. At the same time something moved to his right and before he could reach out, Josie was in front of him.

  Her gaze locked with his and her look of confusion turned to surprise, then pain. Her breath caught and she staggered a shaky step toward him before her knees buckled. Ross caught her and brought her up against him.

  “Josie, no!”

  He took her to the ground and shielded her with his body. A second shot echoed from behind him and Ross turned. Sam stood near the edge of the cliff with his arm outstretched. Smoke streamed from the gun in his hand.

  Lindville’s eyes opened wide in shocked disbelief before he fell to the ground. McCormick rushed to where he lay and even though it was obvious Lindville was past the point of using it, grabbed the gun from his hand.

  It took Ross a second to shift Josie in his arms and when he lifted his hand from around her, his fingers came away sticky and wet.

  “Don’t move,” he said when she tried to lift her head.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “…all my fault.”

  “Shh. You can talk later.”

  Ross pulled his neckcloth from around his neck and pressed it to her back. She winced when he touched her, but she didn’t cry out.

  “How badly is she hurt?” Sam asked, kneeling down beside them.

  “We need to get her home.”

  “McCormick’s getting the horses. It won’t be long.”

  Josie’s fingers clamped around Ross’s forearm. “Ross. I was…wrong. It wasn’t him.”

  He placed a finger over her lips to quiet her. “Don’t talk, Josie.”

  She squeezed his arm tighter. “The vicar. Get…the vicar.”

  A lump formed in his throat. “Don’t worry,” he whispered, then brushed a strand of golden hair from her face. “I’ll get him.”

  She seemed to relax when he promised to get Vicar Chadwick and that frightened him more than the blood he couldn’t get to stop.

  “Why did you do it? Dammit, Josie. Why?”

  She slowly lifted her hand and cupped his cheek. Her fingers were ice cold and her hand trembled, but the feel of her touching him with such tenderness brought tears to his eyes.

  “…couldn’t…lose you.”

  Ross leaned down and k
issed her lightly on the lips then picked her up when McCormick came with the horses.

  Ross mounted first and Sam gently lifted Josie into his arms. Somewhere between the cliffs and Clythebrook Manor she lost consciousness. The bullet was still in her shoulder and Ross prayed she didn’t wake up until they had it out.

  It wasn’t until he carried her into her room that he remembered his promise to her. But now he wasn’t sure he could do it. Admitting she needed Vicar Chadwick was admitting that she might die. And he couldn’t do that.

  Jaded Moon

  by Laura Landon

  Ransomed Jewels Series Book Two

  CHAPTER 22

  Ross paced the floor at the end of the bed where Josie lay. Doctor Hallam had taken the bullet out and applied salve to the bruises on her face and she’d finally fallen asleep.

  He stopped to watch her. Any doubt he had that he loved her was long gone. He only wished he’d have told her when he had the chance. He wished he’d have let her tell him she loved him when she’d started to.

  “Why did you sleep with me?”

  “Because I lo—”

  But he’d stopped her.

  He sat down on the edge of her bed and brushed his fingers across her forehead. Doctor Hallam said they needed to watch for fever. The next twenty-four hours were crucial.

  He picked up her small hand and held it in his. Why hadn’t she come to him when she’d realized what Lindville was doing? Hadn’t she trusted him enough to know he’d have done anything to help her? Instead, she’d met the smugglers alone, destroyed the opium alone, faced Lindville alone. And stepped in front of the bullet that would have killed him—alone.

  “I love you, Josie Foley,” he whispered then leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

  She stirred but didn’t wake, and Ross watched as rays of sunshine streamed through the window and bathed her in a soft glow. Behind him, the door opened then softly closed.