Page 40 of The Cornish Widow

With an enormous effort, she hauled herself over the rails of the ship and went sprawling onto the hard wooden deckboards, fighting to draw air back into her battered body. At least she wasn’t in the water.

For a few long moments, she lay where she’d fallen, still gasping and expecting at any moment to be surrounded by angry smugglers. But no one came. Not even Theo. A little insulted that no one, not even a smuggler, had emerged to pick her up and check she was all right, she pushed herself upright. Ouch. She’d banged her elbow and both knees and her ribs felt bruised. She rubbed her sore spots as she regained her feet.

Now what?

“Theo? Where are you?” She kept her voice barely above a whisper. If she’d made it so far without alerting the ship’s crew, then she should take advantage of that.

The hemisphere of the moon, which had briefly hidden itself shyly behind a cloud, peeped out, illuminating the ship’s deck. Midway down it, situated halfway between each side, lay a wooden hatch, partly pushed to one side. From inside came the unmistakeable glow of a light. Aha.

She crossed to the hatch and peered down into it. “Theo! What on earth do you think you’re doing?”

Theo, caught in the act, stared up at her from not far below, his eyes shadowy black holes in the glimmer of his oil lamp. “Mama!”

She kept her voice to an angry whisper. “You have to come up here right now, before someone catches you. Someone other than me, that is. I don’t know what you think you’re playing at here. This isn’t your ship, and you’ve no right to be poking around in it.”

“It’s Cap’n Jack’s ship,” Theo said, showing no inclination to do as he was told and not keeping his voice down. “There’s no one here but you and me, so you don’t need to worry. He showed it to me this evening, but he didn’t show me the hold, so I came back to take a look for myself. He said it was none of my business, but I wanted to see…” His voice trailed off. “Because, if you want to know the truth, I think he might be a smuggler, and I want to be one too, when I’m older.” He patted a shadowy shape. “I think these must be his smuggled goods. It smells like the tobacco Papa used to smoke.”

The thought sent a shiver down Harriet’s back, and not just because of the threat of being caught by desperate smugglers. “Well,” she hissed. “If they are smugglers, then you’d best get out of there quickly before they come back. Come up this ladder. Now.”

Theo’s light swayed back and forth. “Must I? It’s a big hold and I haven’t seen all of it yet. There might be other things… like treasure.”

“You’re mixing up smugglers with pirates. Smugglers don’t carry treasure. Now come up here now before I get really angry.”

She would have said more, but just then a flash of light drew Harriet’s attention. On the cliff path above their heads, lights were swaying, making dark silhouettes of the overhanging vegetation.

Oh no. Had Theo not been present she might have used one of the words Ben had been wont to utter in anger whenever he perceived things as not going his way, which was often.

Who was that? The crew, most likely and not some innocent passersby in the middle of the night. Wherever the crew had been, they must be back. And they were about to catch her and Theo in what would look very much like spying, something she’d suspected Fitz of wanting to do. She swung round and slithered down the wooden hold ladder, landing with a thud next to Theo in the cramped space. All right for him, as he was so short, but she couldn’t stand up straight. “The sailors are coming back, and we mustn’t let them catch us. Put out your light. Quickly. Let’s hope they’ll only stay a short while and go off back to their homes and beds.”

Theo extinguished his light, and she took it from him, standing it on the wooden boards. Without it, the entire hold was too dark to see anything. “We need to hide.” Instinct had her pushing Theo toward where she thought the back of the hold must lie, her hand feeling along the soft bales of tobacco to her left. She came to a gap between the bales and pushed Theo into it, then crammed herself in after him and sat down. “Now keep quiet and hope they soon go away.”

“They wo—” Theo began, but she put her hand over his mouth. He wriggled for a moment then went still. As she clutched him to her, she could feel his heart hammering in time to her own. Oh, please let them be quick on board and then go away again so she could get Theo home. How attractive her own cosy bed seemed right at this moment.

Muffled voices sounded from on deck, the ropes creaked, and the ship rocked gently on the swell. Heavy footsteps moved back and forth as though a lot of people had boarded. Theo lay quiet in her arms, his curly hair tickling her chin. She sat motionless, trying to steady her breathing in case anyone ventured down the ladder into the hold. But no one came.

The ship rocked a bit more, bumping against the rocky jetty. Soft calls sounded up on deck, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. More creaking. The sound of the sea grew louder.

Was that the flap of sails?

Were they at sea?

Harriet clutched Theo closer to her body and shrank between the bales of contraband goods. Whatever was she going to do when they found her?