me. I leaned against him gratefully, but I knew there was something between us, something I had to tell him. Not now, though. Safe at last I felt a strong desire to sleep, but I fought it off, looked up at him, and tried to smile.

He looked bright, alive, excited by the recent action, but in control. He leaned down to kiss me but stopped, and studied me closely. “What happened?” His face clouded with concern. “What did he do to you?”

Tom was sitting on my other side by now. He glanced at me when he heard these words, troubled. “Do you want me to tell him?”

“Thank you, Tom, no. I’ll tell him myself, but not here, not now.”

“Dear God.” Richard guessed some of it. I waited for him to draw away from him. Instead he held me closer. “I’ll kill him.”

“No,” I said calmly, “I will.”

He stared at me, startled. “You will tell me.”

“Yes I will. But not now.”

He frowned, but let it rest. I was too tired and this was too public a place for me to tell him what I needed to.

James came to us, and I showed him a smiling face. I assured him I was perfectly well and none the worse for my ordeal. I had no desire to let everyone know how much I’d been used and humiliated, and I didn’t want Terry lynched by vengeful males. I wanted to be there to do it myself. Richard might allow that. James certainly wouldn’t.

For the first time since we arrived, I looked out to sea. Smugglers usually preferred a moonless night, but not these people—the moon was full and bright. When the neighbourhood was as much in thrall as Darkwater, concealment gave way to the convenience of visibility.

I saw the bulk of a ship on the horizon, surrounded by the gentle waves of the bay, glinting in the moonlight. The rowboats pulling away from the shore made smaller shadows. On the beach below us, men were active—at least thirty of them at a rough count. They pushed the small boats away, got hurdles ready to drag the goods up the beach and stood guard against anyone foolish enough to oppose them.

“Watch,” said Richard. I leaned my head on his shoulder and watched, as if it was an entertainment put on for us, the audience on the cliffs.

I saw the shadow of a small boat, not pulling out from this beach but from another cove, further along the bay. There seemed to be another behind it, but I couldn’t be sure.

The little vessel approached the ship, reaching it before the others did. It must have travelled a shorter distance or set off first.

Before it reached the ship, several tiny figures dived over the side of the boat. They headed for the small dot towed behind it, which must be a much smaller vessel, cut it free, and headed back to their cove. The larger boat in front was now unmanned. The smugglers’ rowboats were beginning to draw level with the ship, ready to unload the contraband, but as we watched, the night was rent by a low, ominous boom. On the ship, a great tongue of orange flame shot up to the sky. It caught on one of the sails, sent it up like a torch, spreading along the masts quicker than anything that could be done against it.

“Gervase is an excellent sailor,” Richard said. “All I had to do was set the explosive and show him where the slow match went.”

Tom dragged his eyes from the scene in front of him to stare at Richard incredulously. Up until now, he had seen Richard as a town dandy, a pretty boy who’d taken my fancy, but not any more. Richard met his astonished stare calmly, great satisfaction in his limpid gaze. “Did you really think I could let them run roughshod over your father and Lord Hareton? And me? They can’t profit from what they’ve done, I simply couldn’t allow it.” He turned back to the spectacle out at sea. “I’ve spoken to Cawnton, who seems a reasonable man for a criminal, and reminded him of the downfall of the Hawkhurst gang further up the coast. He’ll see sense. From what I’ve seen, Terry won’t.” His attention went back to the spectacle in front of us. “We’ll deal with him in due course.”

I didn’t care right now. Fatigue washed over me, and the scene in front seemed unreal, part of a dream. The ship was well alight. Its crew hurled themselves overboard in an attempt to reach the rowboats, heading back to land with all speed.

On the beach, all was chaos. Some men moved about, obviously directing the others, and they dragged the rowboats up the beach, giving no heed to the plight of the crew of the ship, trying to conceal the evidence of their presence now the run had been so obviously aborted.

Richard sighed in satisfaction and stood. “We should leave now. Some of those people may think of revenge, and we could do with a head start.”

Everyone looked up, waking as if they had just watched a particularly spellbinding theatrical performance. They started to get to their feet.

Richard turned to the eight men who had been recruited for the evening, presumably from the households hereabouts. I wondered how many dinner parties were a footman short tonight. “Thank you, gentlemen. You’ll receive your bonus in the usual way.” He shook hands with all of them and they left quietly, after collecting their weapons. One of them pulled the knife out of the back of the dead man, cleaned it on the grass and returned it. Richard took it with a smile of thanks and put it back in his pocket.