Rapscallion

CHAPTER 20

Pepper had been watching the farmhouse for a good fifteen minutes before there was any noticeable sign of movement. Letting the reins of his horse hang loose, he raised the telescope to his right eye.

A slight figure was making its way to the back door. Pepper recognized Thomas Gadd. There was no mistaking that limping gait. He wondered what was in the sack. It was bulging, so there was something wrapped within its folds. Game of some description, most likely. Pepper could see the gun in Gadd's hand.

He saw the dog get to its feet. Its tail began to wag and he watched as Gadd ruffled the animal's fur and led it into the house. The dog had been Pepper's main concern. He'd remembered it wasn't in the first flush of youth, but that didn't mean its sense of smell wasn't acute. Pepper and his men had taken pains to conceal themselves downwind, but breezes were fickle. They could change direction at any moment.

'What are we waiting for?' Seth Tyler spat into the dirt and fingered the butt of the pistol in his belt. 'Are we going down there or not?'

'We go when I say we go,' Pepper said, without moving the glass from his eye.

Tyler flushed at the put-down, made more potent by Pepper not even bothering to lower the telescope, but he knew better than to answer back.

The wounds on Tyler's face still pained him. Some of the shallower cuts had turned into scabs; the deeper ones remained tender and sore to the touch. Tyler's explanation that he'd sustained the scratches after falling into a patch of briars on his way back from the Duke's Head had been generally accepted, given his reputation as a man who liked a drink. He'd used the same story with Ezekiel Morgan and Cephus Pepper when he'd gone to pass on information about the two men Morgan was looking for.

Tyler's rage had been simmering since the day he'd been run off the farm, and his bitch of a sister-in-law had threatened to take the gun to him if he set foot on her land again. Who did she think she was? Leading him on with her sly glances and then turning all coy when he made his move. She wanted him; he knew she did. And she'd have to be craving it; her husband in the ground these past three years. The way Tyler saw it, he was doing her a favour. She ought to be bloody grateful. Instead, she'd come on all contrary and rejected him. And it was probably her doing that Annie had started acting up every time he tried to get her interested. He suspected Jessie was trying to turn her sister against him, and the thought of that made Tyler angrier still. She'd pay for all the trouble she'd caused him; he'd see to that.

And then came word that Ezekiel Morgan was willing to pay good money for information leading to the apprehension of two men. It had been the men's descriptions that had caused Tyler to sit up and take notice, for they matched those of the duo who'd given him a drubbing at Jess Flynn's farm. A chance meeting with Asa Higgs over a pint at the Blind Hog had revealed to Tyler that they were indeed the same men who'd been transported from the Flynn farm to the Haunt a few days previous. At this point, Tyler's ears had perked up. With those two on the run, Jess Flynn would be on her own at the farm.

Still smarting, and fortified by several measures of grog, Tyler had decided it was time to teach the cow a lesson. This time there would be no interference. But when he got there, he'd discovered Jess Flynn wasn't alone. The men were back. Or at least one of them was; the one who'd attacked him in the kitchen; the one with the accent. His companion, the tall one who'd wielded the besom to such murderous effect, was nowhere in sight. That didn't mean he wasn't around, but he'd not shown himself once during the time Tyler had stood spying on the farm from his vantage point at the edge of the wood. And then he'd watched Jess Flynn and the other man embrace, and the plot that had been fermenting in his brain reached fruition.

All it would take was one word to Morgan or Pepper and he'd be in Morgan's good books, he'd make himself some money, he'd have his revenge on at least one of his attackers, and he'd get the Widow Flynn all to himself.

And with McTurk and Croker out of the picture, Morgan would be looking for a new lieutenant. Tyler's opportunities were expanding by the minute. He hadn't been able to get to the Haunt quickly enough.

He heard Pepper sigh beside him. Tyler looked down towards the house. A man was leaving hurriedly by the back door.

Pepper peered through the glass.

'Well?' Tyler said, unable to keep the eagerness out of his voice. 'Was I right or was I right?' He knew the answer already. It was the other bastard. He'd been at the farm all along.

The jangle of harness and the sound of teeth snapping down on bits came from the riders on either side of him. The others were growing restless; the horses as well.

A faint breeze touched the back of Pepper's neck. Not what we need, he thought, knowing what it meant.

Pepper watched the Runner pause and look back towards the top of the slope. He saw the dog raise its head. When he saw Hawkwood spin back towards the house, Pepper collapsed the telescope against his thigh. He consigned the spyglass to an inner pocket, took up the reins and urged his horse forward.

'Now,' he said.

The dog's barking had already alerted the others, but it didn't prevent them from exhibiting varying degrees of disbelief as

Hawkwood stepped quickly back into the kitchen, dragging the dog by the scruff of the neck. The muzzle of the fowling piece wavered alarmingly. 'What -?' Gadd began.

Hawkwood slammed the door shut and released the dog. 'It's Pepper,' he said. 'They've found us.'

He watched the shock explode across Lasseur's face. The privateer rose swiftly to his feet, drawing Jess Flynn to his side. She did not resist and neither Hawkwood nor Gadd moved to intercede.

'How many?' Lasseur asked.

'Eight, maybe ten,' Hawkwood told them.

Lasseur absorbed the news. He looked thoughtful.

'Are you with us?' Hawkwood asked.

'The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Matthew. Don't you know the saying?' There was no humour this time.

Hawkwood nodded. 'So be it.'

'Bloody hell!' Gadd said suddenly from the window. 'It's Seth Tyler.'

Jess Flynn's head came up. She gripped Lasseur's arm.

'I knew I should have killed him,' Lasseur murmured. 'Ten against two? Not good.'

'Worse if we don't have any bloody weapons,' Hawkwood said. He eyed the fowling piece. It wasn't enough.

'Ten against three,' Gadd said, turning from the window and brandishing the gun. 'Though I reckon having Seth Tyler on their side will be the same as them losing two good men.' The seaman grinned. The scar made him look positively demonic.

'It's my fight too,' Jess Flynn said.

Hawkwood shook his head. 'It's not you Morgan wants.'

'If Seth is out there, then it is my fight,' Jess Flynn said. 'HELLO, THE HOUSE!'

The shout came from the front.

'That's Pepper,' Gadd said. 'Reckon he must be vexed. He doesn't usually raise his voice. Sounds like they want to parley.'

Hawkwood peered through the window, careful to stand sheltered by the wall at an angle to the glass.

The riders were arranged in a semi-circle twenty paces from the door.

Hawkwood turned to Lasseur. 'Do you still have Croker's pistol?'

Lasseur nodded. 'It's not loaded.'

'They don't know that,' Hawkwood said. 'Hold on to the dog.'

When he opened the door he did so cautiously, the pistol cocked and extended in front of him. Several of the men sat up straight in their saddles. Tyler was at the end of the line; Pepper was in the centre. Hawkwood stayed in the doorway and aimed the pistol at Pepper's chest. Pepper looked unconcerned by the imminent threat. Unarmed, he walked his horse forward a couple of paces.

'Constable,' he said evenly.

'You're all under arrest,' Hawkwood said. 'If you get down from your horses and surrender your weapons,