The Unmarriageable Collection (Books 1–3)

by Lancaster, Mary

  “We climbed over the rocks on the other side of that beach, too, and there are several men hiding up there,” Richard said. “They must be excisemen waiting for smugglers.”

  Henrietta took the glass from him and peered though it out to sea. To her relief, there were no ships anywhere near the shore. But then, it was broad daylight. The watchers must have gone into hiding early so that any smuggler look-outs wouldn’t see them.

  “Maybe we could take the boats out and row around the coast,” Richard said eagerly.

  “They aren’t our boats,” Henrietta replied. “And there’s no one to ask. Besides, they might belong to the excisemen.”

  “We don’t know that,” George argued. “And it wouldn’t be for long. I’ll get hungry soon, anyway.”

  “No,” Henrietta said firmly. She raised the glass again. A small ship she hadn’t even noticed earlier was now sailing toward the land, aided by the gusting wind and the tide. She handed the glass to Richard who, being closest in age, was most likely to disobey her. “There’s a ship sailing toward the shore. Can you see what it’s called?”

  “Not from this angle…”

  “I’ll bet it’s smugglers!” George exclaimed, and Horatio grinned with delight.

  Henrietta had the horrible feeling he was right. It was none of her business, of course, if smugglers sailed into a trap and were caught. Not unless the smuggler was Captain Cromarty. She owed him.

  “Perhaps,” she said casually, “I could come and look at these boats of yours.”

  Having done it before, the boys were able to show her the easiest way over the rocks. Every few steps, Richard paused and pointed the glass toward the ship. “It’s still coming…it’s changing course, slightly…The Siren. It’s called The Siren. Isn’t that the name Lily said?”

  Henrietta paused on the rocks, straightening while her stomach twisted. “Yes…”

  “What’s so pretty about it?” George demanded.

  “Why don’t we wave to it?” Henrietta said. From there, she was sure the hiding excisemen would be able to see them, but surely waving at passing ships was an innocent enough pastime?

  She and the younger boys both waved merrily while Richard watched the progress of the ship.

  “It’s still coming closer,” he reported.

  “Maybe it can’t go back with the tide and the wind as they are,” Henrietta said worriedly.

  “No, it doesn’t need to come this close,” Richard insisted. “Perhaps they just haven’t seen us waving. Or perhaps they don’t care because they’re not smugglers!”

  Henrietta turned and looked at the men on the rocks. One held a rifle at his side, pointing upward. Further up the rocks, another rifle pointed straight at the ship.

  If Captain Cromarty died, Charles’s father would be Silford’s heir. Had he arranged an assassination? Even if he hadn’t, this was suddenly far too dangerous.

  “Still coming,” Richard said. “There’s activity on the ship… I think they’re lowering a long boat.

  There was no other decision possible for Henrietta.

  “Richard, you have to take the boys back to the inn and look after them. Tell Lily what we’ve seen.”

  “What?” Richard lowered the glass, staring after her as she began to scramble over the rocks unaided, without a care for her dress. “Where the devil are you going?”

  “Please just do it!” she called back. “And take care of Miss Milsom! Hopefully, I’ll join you for dinner!” With that, she jumped from the rock on to the next pebbly beach.

  By this time, the sea had reached both boats. To her relief, neither appeared to be leaking. It was simple to release the rope and climb in, using one of the oars to push the boat off.

  She hadn’t rowed since she was a child and one of her father’s assistants had taught her along with Richard and George. That had been on a lake in Italy, not the sea.

  Her body seemed to remember the movements, but it was much harder work against the wind and the tide. It took all of her strength and attention to force the boat in the right direction, so it was several minutes before she realized the boys were following in the other boat.

  “Oh, dear God! Go back!” she yelled furiously, afraid to let go of the oars. Why could they never do as she told them? Well, she had never done what Thomasina or Charlotte had bidden her, unless there was no option. But that had been over trivia, not lives.

  She was having increasing difficulty controlling the oars. Her one hope seemed to be the small boat from The Siren, speeding toward her…or was it trying to run her down?

  Chapter Ten

  Captain Cromarty’s ship had been skulking for an hour, looking for any movement on the cliff that might spell danger to his cargo or his crew. It wouldn’t be the first time he had landed goods in broad daylight, but it wasn’t something he cared to do too often. He wouldn’t even be thinking about it now if didn’t need to sail to France with the turn of the tide, and if he hadn’t seen the boats waiting on the beach. This meant his comrades on shore were ready to distribute and it was therefore safe. Probably. Or that they’d left the boats there on the off-chance and forgotten about them.

  As they sailed closer, his eyeglass picked out movement on the other beach—a woman and three boys, playing. From their attitude, they were of no interest to him and his business would be nothing to them.

  He gave the order to lower the boat and load it up.

  “They’re waving at us, Captain,” one of his men reported. “But it don’t look like the warning waves to me.”

  Cromarty only grunted and impatiently ushered his two oarsmen down the ladder into the boat. It was only as he climbed down himself that he saw the woman rowing the boat out from the shore.

  “What the devil is she doing?” he said, irritated. “She’s going to get in our way.”

  In any case, such a silly little boat would struggle in these currents, especially with the wind whipping up. As he took his place and the boat was cast off, his men began to row, and he raised the glass to his eye once more.

  His heart lurched once and he adjusted the focus. He couldn’t breathe. Henrietta Maybury was rowing toward him, being tossed about on the waves, and shouting over her shoulder at another tiny boat following her. Not excisemen but a youth and two children.

  “Get alongside,” he ordered, leaping to his feet. “We’ll take her on with us.”

  He had never been so frightened in his life as in those few minutes as the waves all but upended her boat, and his men had to balance between getting close to her and ramming her. She was shouting something to him as he leaned out and hauled the side of her boat against his. He only caught, “back!” and “excisemen”. But still she clung to the oars as if she actually meant to row back to shore.

  “Come here!” he yelled, too furious yet to admit admiration for her bravery. “Leave the oars or you’ll die!”

  She glanced behind her again at the boys, but at least she stumbled to the side, reaching up so that he could grasp her hands and then grab her under the arms and haul her up. Her boat took a wave that knocked it right over, just as he swung her inside his boat and hard against him. She was soaking wet and shivering, her hair blown out of its pins and plastered against her face. She had never looked so beautiful. From sheer relief, he covered her gasping mouth with his for the barest instant.

  “My brothers,” she sobbed. “They were supposed to go back to the inn but they followed me.”

  “We’ll get them,” he assured her, sitting her down on the bench and reaching for the blanket beneath. By the time he’d draped it around her, holding her against him for warmth, they were alongside the other little boat. The oldest boy, who might have been fifteen or sixteen, cooperated fully, helping his younger brothers into Cromarty’s grip before accepting the help of his oarsman.

  “Back to The Siren,” Cromarty ordered.

  Henrietta, who had been hugging and scolding her brothers at once, jerked her head up. “Oh, no! Miss Milsom!”
/>   He blinked. “Miss Milsom? The governess? Don’t tell me she’s out here, too?”

  “No, no, she’s back at the inn but she is ill with influenza or something similar and…”

  “The Villins will take care of her,” he interrupted impatiently. “What the devil are you all doing?”

  “We saw your cousin at the Hart with an exciseman,” Henrietta said unexpectedly. “And then we saw the men hiding on the cliffs. They’re armed, and I was afraid they had some order or bribe to kill you. We tried to wave, as Lily said, but—”

  “Lily?” he broke in, frowning. “Never mind, go on.”

  “I told the boys to go back and decided to row out to meet you and warn you. I’d no idea the sea would be so rough.”

  “It’s these currents. Especially at high tide.” He touched her cheek, which was all that was visible now outside the blanket, and her gaze flew up to his. “It was very brave of you. Thank you. But you should not have risked this for me.”

  She held his gaze, her own consciously brave. “Why should I not?”

  “You know.” He stood. “Can you manage to climb on board?”

  She looked up at the rope ladder up the side of the ship they were almost bumping against. It seemed a long way up. “I’ll try.”

  “I’ll be right behind you. I won’t let you fall.”

  She jerked around. “The boys!”

  “Cutter and Haines will do the same for them,” he assured her, holding onto the ladder to keep them steady.

  She made no further fuss but clambered onto the ladder with his help and began to climb.

  His men knew better than to express any surprise let alone disrespect to anyone boarding the ship, so Henrietta was helped onto the deck with rough courtesy, and the boys treated with perfect good nature.

  “As soon as the boat is secured, get under way for France,” he ordered his capable lieutenant.

  “France?” Henrietta repeated, spinning to face him in clear startlement. “We can’t go to France!”

  “Sadly, we must.”

  “But Miss Milsom! Our parents!”

  “They already know we won’t be home tonight,” Richard pointed out, his eyes shining at this new adventure. “This is wonderful, sir! Are you really a smuggler?”

  “Free trader,” Cromarty said flippantly.

  “And we’re actually going to France? Into enemy territory? This is better than anything!”

  Henrietta groaned. “How did I not foresee this?”

  Amused, Cromarty led the whole family down to his cabin—a spacious apartment furnished with a large bed, a desk, a bookcase, and a cupboard, which he immediately opened. He took out a few pairs of trousers, a small pile of shirts and stockings, and his two spare coats.

  “I’ll have to scrounge a couple more coats. And you’ll have to roll up all the sleeves and legs, but at least you’ll be dry.”

  Henrietta looked from the clothing on the bed to his face, as though she suspected him of alluding to their encounter at the Hart. Which in fact was true.

  He grinned at her. “You’re not going to make a fuss, are you?”

  “Of course not,” she said with a glare. “Thank you. Boys, you change first,” she added, following him from the cabin into the narrow passage. “Sir, I am grateful, but…are we truly going to France?”

  He wondered what she suspected him of, but in the gloom of the passage he could see no accusation in her eyes.

  “French waters. You won’t set foot on French soil, and with any luck, neither will I.”

  “But you already have a cargo of French brandy,” she argued, “or whatever was in the boat with us, which you would have landed today in England.”

  “I have a different cargo for France.”

  “Why do you do this?” she asked abruptly. “You have no need. Even without Lord Silford, you have no need.”

  “Brandy won’t smuggle itself, you know. Treat the ship as home as long as you are here. Except if I tell you to do something, you must do it at once. So must your brothers. All our lives could depend upon it.”

  He knew she still stared after him as he ran up the ladder. He didn’t blame her. After lecturing her on risk, he was taking her and her brothers into enemy territory.

  If there had been another way, he would have done it, but he had to land his passenger tonight.

  *

  By the time Henrietta emerged from the cabin, a thick cloak wrapped around her baggy male attire, she thought she had grown used to the rolling of the ship under her feet. But she had to cling to the handrail of the ladder as she climbed onto the deck in search of her brothers.

  They were having a wonderful time, rushing from place to place on the deck, exchanging jokes with any seamen they encountered, and then rushing back to Captain Cromarty, who lounged by the wheel, looking more amused than irritated.

  “Henrie, this is much better than the Royal Navy ship!” George exclaimed.

  “I’m not sure His Majesty would be pleased to have his frigate compared so unfavorably to a—this vessel,” Henrietta finished hurriedly.

  The captain straightened, smiling sardonically at her avoidance of the term “smuggling vessel”. “It’s a good little trading ship. She was my first investment.”

  “I would like to hear the story of your life, some time.”

  His lips twisted. “I don’t think you would.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Suitably edited, of course, to remove any tales of blood and violence.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” George demanded.

  “I’m not a pirate, you know,” Cromarty said in clear amusement. “Free traders do a lot more sneaking than fighting.”

  “Sneaking,” Horatio repeated doubtfully. “Is that fun?”

  “It can be like a battle of wits. Or it can be floundering about in the dark.”

  The boys’ eyes gleamed. “Dodging the excisemen and the revenue cutters?”

  “That kind of thing,” Cromarty said vaguely. “But I would like to point out that most of my trading is not free and does pay duty.”

  “Then why do you do this?” Henrietta asked.

  He shrugged, looking out to sea, “Because it is fun. And because I get to be at sea a lot without going very far. It gives me—” He broke off. After a barely noticeable instant, he waved his arm to encompass the ship and the surrounding sea. “It gives me this.”

  It hadn’t been what he was going to say but she let it go.

  He said, “And your father was a diplomat and you travelled in Royal Navy ships.”

  “But we weren’t allowed to run around in case we got in the seamen’s way,” Richard said, wrinkling his nose. “So, all our voyages were dull!”

  “Will your father go abroad again?” the captain asked.

  “If he’s asked, I suppose he will,” Richard said. “But I don’t know that we’d all go with him again. The estate went to the devil because we were never there, and we nearly went under. Which is when he came up with the notion of marrying off the girls.”

  “Richard!” Henrietta objected.

  “Well, he did,” Richard said defiantly. “And you all went along with it, even Charlotte.”

  “Yes, well, Charlotte didn’t like it at all, if you want the truth. She only went along with it because no one expected her to marry well, and Tommie and I thought it was a wonderful idea to be great wealthy ladies and save the family at the same time.” She gave a deprecating smile. “We were naive. We thought we would fall in love with only the handsomest and wealthiest of gentlemen. But it was Charlotte who married the duke and saved the family.”

  “Then there is no pressure on you,” Cromarty said without emphasis.

  “Only the usual.”

  “In the London clubs, they’re betting on Rudd.”

  Her mouth fell open. “I think I should be outraged by that. But I shall have the last laugh when they lose their money.”

  She didn’t look at him as she spoke, but she felt his eyes burnin
g her face. She felt at once breathless, exhilarated, and contented, as if an unknown hope was seeping up from her toes like some reasonless bout of happiness.

  “I believe dinner is ready,” he said. “It will be informal and not what you’re used to, but you are cordially invited to join me in the cabin.”

  Dinner was lively and amusing. Cromarty seemed to take the boys’ curiosity and bluntness in stride. He never spoke down to them or appeared remotely irritated, simply answered their questions in as much or as little detail as he thought fit. He teased them and asked them questions in return, entering into the spirit of their humor and the things that were important in their lives.

  Content with the laughter and with learning more snippets of the captain’s life, Henrietta smiled a lot but contributed little. He remarked upon this fact after the boys had settled down to play cards in the cabin and she accompanied him on deck to watch the sun set.

  “You were quiet during dinner,” he said, leaning on the rail.

  “It is difficult to get a word in when my brothers are in full flood.”

  “Then you are not uncomfortable in this situation?”

  She smiled, nodding at the brilliant pinks and golds in the sky and their muted reflection in the rolling sea. “How can one be uncomfortable surrounded by this? I know I should be worried—about Miss Milsom, about the boys being here, about tomorrow and the future—but I don’t seem to be.” She laid her hands on the rail beside him. “I like being here. With you.”

  “Why?”

  She smiled, because only he would ask such a thing. “I don’t know. It just feels…right.” She glanced up and met his fixed gaze. Perhaps it was the light, but there seemed a wealth of pain behind the exciting heat in his eyes. “You make me happy.”

  “Henrietta,” he began with a hint of warning that she couldn’t bear.

  “Don’t,” she interrupted. “I don’t want you to pretend anything. I know I’m nothing but an amusement to you—to say nothing of the trouble I bring!”

  His hand covered hers. “You talk a lot of nonsense, you know.”