Chapter Four
“You should have fired another round when you had him in your sights!” Judson griped.
Talbot, the tallest of his men, disagreed. “He’s one of the duke’s men!”
Selkirk, a bull of a man and a former naval seaman, crossed his arms and braced his feet apart. “Did you forget the rumor that the duke and Ruan made a bargain to save O’Malley, the other duke’s man?”
“Aye,” Balfour, the youngest of Judson’s men, said. “In exchange for exposing the king’s double-dealing excise man.”
Judson paced in front of the group. The sound of the tide outside their hideout as it rushed to the shore reminded him they had a couple of hours before high tide would cut off their exit—the cave would be flooded by seven o’clock.
Plenty of time to hand out assignments and head for higher ground.
“Balfour, take the first shift. Flaherty’s body should wash up before the tide changes and goes back out to sea. ”
“Aye, Judson,” Balfour replied.
“Selkirk, you’re next, and Talbot will relieve you. Keep the rotation going until the bloody sea spits out that Irishman’s body! The replacement excise official arrives a fortnight from now, and we need to take advantage of that time.”
“Bloody hell!” Talbot grumbled.
“I thought we’d have longer,” Balfour said.
“The interim official didn’t arrive right away, and only lasted a few months. We’ve had a good haul since he departed these three months past,” Judson reminded his men.
“Aye,” Judson agreed. “The duke’s back in the Lake District, so he won’t be interfering again.
Never would have thought the duke would throw in with that French smuggler, Ruan.
My guess is that O’Malley won’t contact the duke yet.
He’ll want to verify that Flaherty is not missing but dead.
Even via special messenger, it will take time for him to receive the news.
By then we’ll have shifted the blame for the deed to one of the smugglers, who’ve managed to take a bigger slice of the pie with every cargo before we have a chance to claim it! ”
“Don’t you mean dispatch any survivors?” Talbot asked.
Judson ignored him.
Selkirk looked from one man to the other before asking, “Doonan?”
Judson nodded. “Aye, Doonan will be the next body washing ashore. It’ll have to be done before the king’s new officer arrives.”
“Once the excise men realize how profitable our trade is, they start asking questions. But like the others, they won’t try to stop us…they’ll line their own pockets,” Selkirk said.
“The last four excise men started out obeying the law, watching everyone in the village like a hawk. Once they see how much coin can be made smuggling”—Judson’s eyes took on a fanatical glow—“or wrecking, they start skimming a percentage off the top.”
Balfour stared at the others, shrugged, and changed the subject. “What a waste of a good storm last night was. Not a ship in sight.”
“When is Ruan’s next cargo expected?” Talbot asked.
“Two days,” Judson replied. “Even if the weather turns bad, no one will strike out at Ruan’s men.
I gave him my word that we’d never lure one of his ships onto the treacherous rocks along the coastline.
We will not board one of his vessels, nor dispatch with any survivors in order to claim and steal the cargo. ”
“Could have been rich as kings by now if you hadn’t,” Selkirk grumbled.
“There’ll be another ship next week,” Judson predicted.
“We’ll be lying in wait for it, and reap a substantial reward for our patience.
We need to keep our longstanding agreement with the Frenchman not to touch any of his ships.
And I bloody well need to know that Flaherty will stay dead!
We cannot afford to let him be a problem until the duke assigns his replacement to guard Penwith Tower. ”
Judson stared from one man to the next before asking, “Questions?” When no one spoke up, he nodded. “To your posts, men. We’ve a dead body to search for.”
*
O’Malley paced the length of the walkway atop the rebuilt curtain wall surrounding Penwith Tower. “Flaherty’s never this late.”
Kelly shrugged. “Thought for certain that he’d turn up by now.”
Simpson stared out at the powerful waves rumbling toward shore. “I could check at the Randy Cock and see if anyone’s seen or heard from him.”
O’Malley wondered what was keeping his cousin. It wasn’t like Flaherty. “Aye. Then stop at the Mermaid’s Glass, and see which of our contacts knows anything.”
Simpson and Kelly exchanged a look, and O’Malley groaned. “I knew it the first time Flaherty mentioned a woman with ink-black hair. She must be more than a passing fancy. What’s the name of the barmaid who has captured me cousin’s interest?”
“Eileen Doonan,” Kelly answered.
“The smuggler’s daughter?” O’Malley shook his head.
“Leave it to the last of the Flahertys—and his Garahan and O’Malley cousins—to fall for a woman whose father earns his coin breaking the law.
I had better head to the village meself, then.
I may be able to finesse more information out of Eileen, as Flaherty’s related to me. ”
Kelly and Simpson shared a telling look and O’Malley frowned.
“Let’s have it. What has me eedjit of a cousin done now?
Started a fight over the lass? Made calf eyes at her?
Said something inappropriate? How many times have I told him to think before he speaks—especially down at the Mermaid’s Glass!
” It wouldn’t be the first time Flaherty’s mouth had gotten him into trouble.
Or into a fight that had the lasses who worked in the tavern arguing over him.
Women always fought over Flaherty—not the other way around.
“Flaherty has been known to raise his voice to be heard over the crowd when it’s late at night,” Kelly reminded him.
“Please tell me that me cousin’s big mouth hasn’t got him into trouble with Doonan lass, or her da.”
Simpson elbowed Kelly. “You tell him. You were there.”
Irritation had O’Malley curling his hands into fists, then relaxing them. “Well, Kelly?”
“If you’ve met Eileen, you’d understand why a man’s thoughts would go where Flaherty’s did.
” When O’Malley didn’t speak, Kelly shook his head.
“Your cousin took it into his head that because the fair lass paid him no mind, but would lean over the bar displaying her…uh… attributes with a smile when she served others, that she…” Kelly trailed off and shrugged.
“She what?” O’Malley demanded.
“Was free with her favors,” Simpson answered.
O’Malley wanted to find his cousin and beat the ever-living shite out of him.
Whether or not the lass did was not the issue here.
Speaking ill about a woman was wrong and went against the unspoken code they stood for.
They protected women—all women! “Did he say as much in front of others in the tavern?”
“Aye,” Kelly admitted.
“And what did the lass do?”
“Not a thing.” Kelly’s shoulders slumped. “I turned my head in time to see the shock turn her face pale, and tears well in her eyes. His insinuation devastated her. Only an innocent lass would react that way.”
“Doonan has kept a tight rein and close watch over his daughter since her mother passed,” Simpson added.
“What the feck is wrong with Flaherty?” Though O’Malley had a good idea what his cousin’s problem was.
He’d been interested in Doonan’s daughter, but expected her to fawn all over him.
Obviously she had turned her attention to someone else, ignoring his cousin’s legendary charm, igniting Flaherty’s formidable temper.
Add in his cousin’s propensity to speak before his brain was fully engaged, and you had a recipe for trouble.
O’Malley was about to speak when it hit him that of all the men in the duke’s guard, Flaherty was the only one not married.
Working for the duke, one had little free time, and when they did have it, most often their time was spent patching up their wounds or falling into bed to sleep like the dead.
“Flaherty’s the only one of us who has not wed.
Nights must seem long and cold when ye’re sleeping alone. ”
Simpson agreed. “He was taken with Eileen the first time we walked into the Mermaid’s Glass together.
The woman has curves that would have a man forgetting his own name, and the height of a goddess—not that I’d be interested.
My wife is the only woman I’d look at the way your cousin was looking at Doonan’s daughter. ”
It took all of O’Malley’s control not to curl his hands into fists again. As soon as he found Flaherty, he’d remind his cousin to keep his gob shut! Needing to be sure he had not misunderstood the men, he asked, “And just how was me cousin looking at Miss Doonan?”
“As if she were ripe for the taking.” Kelly hesitated, then added, “Like she were the last drop of water, and he was dying of thirst.”
“I’ll break his jaw to guarantee that he remembers to think before opening it again!
” O’Malley raked a hand through his hair, but did not give in to the urge to yank on it.
“Does he not realize who her father is? Doonan has a small band of men who would give their lives for him. Insulting Doonan’s daughter isn’t just stupid, ’tis dangerous!
We need to keep the allies we have in the village, not alienate them! ”
The men were silent, leaving O’Malley to wonder if there was more they hadn’t told him. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’ll go to the village. Ye two stand guard until I return. I’ll find Flaherty and bring him back, kicking and screaming if need be, then we can rotate shifts.”
“Aye,” Simpson agreed.
“Go easy on Flaherty,” Kelly said. “Once he realizes that he’s mistaken about Eileen—or her father finds out that he was the one who inadvertently started the rumors—he’ll bend over backward to apologize.”