“Don’t you tell her!” said an angry voice, she recognized at once as Reuben the stable hand from The Harlot. A memory surfaced of turning to see Reuben with a rock in his hand. With incredulity, she realized he must have struck her head with it.
“Now lad,” Gus said with reproach. “There’s no need to take on so. Mrs. Nye won’t be informing on us, will she?”
“Gus?” Mina blinked up at the fluffy white-haired old gentleman.
“Aye, it’s me,” he told her encouragingly. “Right glad I am your brains weren’t dashed out, girl. Our Reuben was a touch over-zealous, I’m afraid. I only told him to stun you, not to try and stave your skull in.”
“You told Reuben to stun me?” she repeated through lips that felt numb.
“I’m afraid so,” he said with a gusty sigh. “Needs must, you see. You’ve had a most unfortunate effect on Nye.” He tutted. “Never would have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it with me own eyes.”
Mina gazed up at him uncertainly. “I’m not sure I follow,” she faltered, drawing her knees up to her chest.
“Pass that blanket here, Reuben. For she’s trembling, either from the shock or the cold, one or the other.”
“Damned if I will!” retorted Reuben angrily. “Where’s the sense, when the plan is to throw her off the headland in any case?”
Mina’s heart contracted as Gus sent the younger man a reproachful look. “There’s no need to be churlish, Reuben! And nightfall’s not for a few hours yet.” He reached across for a green plaid blanket and draped it about Mina’s shoulders. “How’s that, my dear?”
“Yes, much better, thank you.” She squinted at the dim light thrown out by a single hurricane lamp on the floor. It looked like they were in a subterraneous cavern of some sort. “I don’t understand. Where are we?” she repeated, her mouth felt dry and dusty and when she reached a tentative hand to the back of her head she could feel a matted patch of hair that was likely dried blood and a throbbing bump from where she had been struck.
Noticing her discomfort Gus looked about. “Where’s that flask?” he asked Reuben who glared back at him. “Not the whisky, you needn’t worry. I mean the water.”
“I still say we shouldn’t waste it on her,” Reuben muttered.
Gus gave an exclamation and stooped to pick something up. “Here, take a drop of this, Mina. It’ll clear your head for certain.”
She took it from him but was unable to unscrew it, so weak did she feel.
Gus took it back from her. “Stupid fellow that I am!” he reproached himself. “Here now, I’ve removed the cap for you.”
She took a sip of the water, then another, before easing back against a packing case and taking a third. It refreshed her, and she clutched it to her chest as Gus removed a hip flask from his coat and took a pull of spirits. He held it out for Reuben who scowled and shook his head.
“Why am I here?” she asked in a rusty voice. “How long have I been here?”
“Only a couple of hours,” Gus said soothingly. “Reuben bundled you in the back of a passing cart and he bought you here.” He winked at her. “‘Course, the carter was an associate of ours, if you know what I mean.” He tapped his nose and laughed uproariously.
Reuben twitched with annoyance. “Keep your voice down you fool! Do you want the Tavistocks to hear you?” he asked in a furious undertone.
For a second, Mina thought she saw a spurt of annoyance pass over Gus’s features, then almost immediately it was gone, and his face settled back into its habitually amiable expression.
“Nay, lad don’t be daft. I never could resist a pretty woman, they’ve been my downfall all my life,” said Gus wistfully. “I misdoubt I’ll be cured of that in my advanced years.”
“Old fool,” Reuben muttered. “A pretty pass if the guvnor hears you’ve been spilling your guts to the likes of her!”
Mina watched a sudden expression of cunning steal over Gus’s face and it horrified her. It contorted his round cherubic countenance into something quite different and full of malice. For some reason, Reuben’s words filled him with an unholy sort of amusement. It seemed to be some sort of private joke, for when Reuben glanced back at him again, Gus’s face relaxed back into his usual semblance of geniality.
It didn’t make sense to Mina, but it frightened her all the same. Reuben was half Gus’s age and of a stout, strong build. But Gus was far from scared of him. Her head hurt too much for her to fathom what was going on, but she felt all the same that Gus was the real threat for all Reuben’s apparent menace.
“Have I been kidnapped?” she asked hollowly.
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Gus agreed cautiously. He stroked his fluffy sideburns. “Though, we’re not holding you to ransom. Not but what I expect that man of yours would pay any price for your safe return!” He chuckled. “He’s that smitten with you. It would be funny how hard Nye’s fallen, if it weren’t so damned inconvenient.”
Mina winced, trying to piece his meaning together through the fog of her head. “Inconvenient?”
Gus sighed, and plunked himself down on a nearby barrel. “We’re land smugglers, you see Mina. When the boats deliver the goods, we collect and distribute the booty all around hereabouts. We’re a tidy organized bunch, a goodly number, and none of us know above one or two other members by name.”
“Except the guvnor,” Reuben growled.
“Oh-ho yes!” said Gus richly. “Save for the guvnor, who is the mastermind of our little group, so to speak.”
“And Nye? He’s one of your number?” Mina asked with a gulp.
“Oh, yes. A most
