Gus frowned and puffed furiously on his pipe. “And?” he prompted.
“This is just such another misunderstanding. We are on perfectly affable terms. The last thing Nye did was kiss my hand.”
Gus pondered this a moment, before breaking into a smile. “I won’t deny, you’ve got Nye panting on a chain for you, but you’ll have to admit Minnie dear, that you fight as much as you reconcile. That’s just the sort of couple you are.” He beamed at her. “It won’t be hard for folks to believe he drove you to it. Not a gently reared, respectable soul such as yourself.”
“Edna won’t believe it either,” Mina said, raising her chin.
“Edna Lumm’s thought an odd body in these parts,” he said mildly. “There’s not many will set much store by her ramblings,” he spread a piece of sacking over the barrel and sat back down on it again. “You’ve got to resign yourself to it, lass. There’s none will be the wiser for your untimely end. It’s a pity, but there it is. You’re a fine spirited lass after my own heart, but business is business, and none can get in its way. Started out as a wrecker I did when I was naught but a boy. You have to be utterly pitiless to succeed in that profession. You mustn’t think I’ll let my fondness for you stay my hand.”
Mina felt her blood run cold. Gus, a wrecker? The wicked men who deliberately lured ships with false lights so they were dashed on perilous coastlines and their cargo plundered. She had read accounts that had made her shudder, of poor victims washing up on the beach and being clubbed to death by the wreckers waiting there for any survivors who might tell the tale.
No, she could not depend on Gus showing her any mercy when the moment came to push her off the headland. As for Reuben, he heartily despised her. She would have to rely on her own wits to escape. If the time she had spent since leaving The Hill School had taught her anything, it was that she had a strong survival instinct and deep inner reserves of strength.
For some reason, Nye sprang uppermost to her mind. What would he do without her? Probably go to the devil completely she thought, without her to keep him in line! She shot a considering glance at Gus. He was garrulous and liked to while away the time with conversation. She would have to work with what she had.
“We are, I collect under the cellars at Vance House?” she mused. “Did you know this place was the reason Nye accepted our marriage?”
Gus looked amused. “Why bless your soul, Minnie of course I did!” he twinkled. “This place is vital to our operations. This here passage,” he said taking his pipe out of his mouth and pointing with it into the distance. “Extends all the way from the cellars of Vance house to the beach.”
“A secret passage?” Mina asked with a glimmer of interest despite herself.
“Oh aye,” Gus agreed. “None other.”
“I wonder that Nye did not throw out the tenants as soon as he had the deeds to the place. Surely it must have put you in danger of discovery?”
Gus shook his head. “The Tavistocks are an elderly couple who mostly only use the second floor of the house these days. Rheumaticky he is, and she’s deaf as a post. They retires early of an evening without fail and keeps no dogs. Precious little trouble we’ve had of ‘em this past five year.”
“I see,” Mina murmured. “Gus, will you tell me truthfully? How deep is Nye in this business?”
Gus shifted on his barrel into a more comfortable position. “Well, about as deep as he can be,” he admitted, shaking his head. “Now, I don’t say as it was his fault entirely. Old Jacob Nye as acted as his Pa, was up to his ears in the trade. In the end, there weren’t a drop he served that had paid any custom.” Gus chuckled as Mina took in the fact Nye had not chosen to become embroiled with smugglers.
“When Nye come back from Exeter, fair flummoxed he was to find his old man hand in glove with a pack of smugglers. In the five years he’d been gone, The Merry Harlot had been run into the ground, so it had. It weren’t used by any of the posting coaches to stop at no more. The stables were in disrepair, the teams of horses all sold. The old man had lost interest since his wife and died and his boy up and gone. He never showed it, but he had a heart under that stony exterior.”
Gus shook his head. “A mistake, I’d urge him against time and again, but he’d never listen. “You never raised any young ‘uns,” he’d say to me and I’d say, ‘No, I made sure to clear out long afore I got saddled with any brats!’” Mina watched his face and the subtle change it underwent again in the shadows when he showed his truly callous nature. It chilled her.
“So,” she said softly. “Nye returned and found he could not disentangle himself or The Merry Harlot?”
“Now, Mina,” Gus said reproachfully. “Don’t go deceiving yourself that man of yours is a saint. He objected at first, it’s true, but when he saw what a loss The Harlot was running at, and how locals shunned the place, he knew he had little choice but to throw his lot in with ours.” Mina pursed her lips. “Promised old Jacob he did, that he’d get the place back up on its feet.”
“They were reconciled?”
Gus sucked in his cheeks. “Well, they were never really what you’d call estranged,” he pointed out. “Nye had dreams of being a boxer, not a landlord. Jacob never objected, but he said it wasn’t a sport for any man passed his prime of life. You need something to fall back on, after you made your fame so to speak.”
“How about smuggling?” asked Mina with a touch of acerbity. “Is that a job suitable for a man passed his prime?”
Gus chortled. “Well, you has to leave the brunt of the more physical side of proceedings to the younger men, it’s true,” he reflected. “But when it comes to cunning, Mina,” he touched his nose. “Old dogs and foxes know best. Those young cubs and puppies don’t have nothing on us.” He gave a quick gesture for her to be quiet now, hearing Reuben’s footsteps approaching.
“Ah, here you are my lad,” he announced cheerfully, though Mina thought it was plain to see the younger man was still in a sulk. His cheek looked swollen from the blow Gus had struck him and he would barely look him in the eye. Mina wondered if there was some way, she could use their rift to her advantage, though nothing sprung immediately to mind.
“It’s growing darker out,” he muttered resentfully. “There’s a squall rising.”
Mina wondered how long she had really been missing from The Harlot. If it was growing dark, then it must be about six o’clock at least and it had not been long past lunch when she’d been struck on the head. She wondered how soon someone would raise the alarm that she was missing. She did not think the household would be complacent. After all, she had ventured little from the inn and had no friends or acquaintances in the village.
Then again, she had told Nye she wanted to start walking on the beach, but maybe that could work to her advantage? If they meant to drag her to a clifftop to throw her off, surely the one closest to the inn would be the most logical. She had escaped once to clamber down that cliff and the fact was well known. She had walked that cliff path with Nye only recently too. Perhaps they would be searching for her there, even now?