A Game of Secrets (Hearts in Hazard Book 1) by M.A. Lee

Author:M.A. Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: smugglers, smuggling, French spies, English coast smugglers, escape from forced engagement
Publisher: M.A. Lee
Published: 2020-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Watched over by a slaty sky, Kate routed dry leaves and twigs out of the corner. She swept them into a heap then leaned on her broom to survey her work. Unable to banish Tony Farraday from her thoughts, she set to work outside. The sea wind had abated to a brief stir against her flushed cheeks. The air was as heavy as a befogged day. The weak sunlight no longer cast any warmth, but the path and step to the entry looked spruce. And Tony’s effect had ebbed to low tide.

Tom came with a box, and she swept the leaves and debris into it. “There. All this to your bonfire for Guy Fawkes. How is it coming along?”

“It’s started, just started.” He grinned, reminding her that he was not so far removed from childhood. “Come next week, it’ll be bigger than last year’s.”

The child in her offered her own eager grin. “Who lights it, Tom?”

“The blacksmith. You ain’t met him yet. I took Mr. Farraday’s big hunter to him yesterday. He had a loose shoe. Finest horse I’ve tended. Just me, I mean. That matched pair of the London ma’am, now those are good horses. Two bays, high-stepping and fast. And the phaeton, it’s like that chariot you described, the one that drives across the sky. I don’t tend the bays, you know. Her coachman does that, but I give `em their feed, and he lets me curry `em.”

She swept stray leaves into his box. Keeping her head down and striving for a casual tone, she asked, “The London ma’am? Is she the woman who left the day after Mrs. Gilson hired me? Does she come often?

“I can’t say her name. I can’t get my mouth around it. I wish she came more than she does.” He picked up the box. “She ain’t near as pretty as you, Miss Katie.”

“Go on with you, Tom, and stop trying to flatter me.”

Practicing a whistle, he headed for his bonfire.

She watched his jaunty step. Sometimes he seemed barely more than a child, and at others he seemed much older. Today he was the child, but she still remembered his accusing tone: “I saw you talking to that man.”

Kate didn’t know if Palmer retained his suspicions about her conversation with Sgt. Ranley. She didn’t know what Palmer suspected about Tony Farraday and herself. She didn’t know what he thought about Tony Farraday.

I don’t even know what I think about Tony Farraday.

He crossed from acquaintance to friend and from friend to companion, transitions that were so natural she could not even name the day they had occurred. For the past few nights he had watched for the barn lights from her attic room. Ostensibly he watched at her window while they talked in drowsy whispers. More often she leaned against his shoulder for warmth while he read a chapter of Scripture before their talks. He recounted his childhood following the drum, with many memories that she also shared. She had to smother laughter at his depictions of his early days in the regiment.

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