A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,123

a few feet.

Cold crept over Mina as it sunk in that they weren’t holding her to ransom or the promise of her return over Nye’s head. They genuinely thought to find her husband more manageable with her out of the way. Up until a certain point, she had had the vague idea of throwing herself on Gus’s mercy, but after she saw that wicked expression on his face, she had banished that notion completely. For all his bluff, Gus was clearly senior to Reuben in the smuggler’s chain of command

She pulled the woolen blanket closer about her, as her mind groped for some way out of her predicament. Now why was it that Gus had looked so irritated with Reuben for a moment, she tried to recall. Reuben had appealed for him to quieten his voice in case the Tavistocks heard, she thought slowly. The Tavistocks. Now where had she heard that name before?

She wracked her brain and took another gulp of the water Gus had left with her. Suddenly it came to her. Nye telling her about Vance House, the reason he had married her in the first place. A fine Queen Anne residence he’d said, with ten acres and its own private beach. His father the fourth viscount had left it to him on his deathbed but had not included it in his will. Jeremy had only made the deeds over to him when he had married her. The Tavistocks he had mentioned were the elderly current tenants.

Keep your voice down you fool! Do you want the Tavistocks to hear you? What else could Reuben have meant other than they were somehow concealed somewhere at Vance House. She frowned. Could this be the cellar? But no, it looked far too roughhewn for that. Perhaps a cave on the private beach, she conjectured. But if that were so, why would the Tavistocks overhear them, unless they happened to be on the beach itself?

She stole a sidelong look at Reuben, knowing he was in fact the weaker link than cunning old Gus.

“How interesting,” she said aloud. “I’ve always been curious about Vance House.”

He wheeled around and regarded her with narrow eyes. “No doubt you’re thinking that Vance House is the ideal place for a fine lady such as yourself,” he said with a pronounced sneer. “But let me assure you, woman, you’ll never get your hands on it. Over Nye’s dead body. So, don’t even think it!”

Meaning to rile him, she cast a look of disdain his way. “I assure you, that as his lawful wedded wife, that would be the one condition whereby I would get my hands on it.” she pointed out. “Any property of his would then come to me by law. But in any case, Nye has told me we shall retire here to Vance House, so I shall certainly be mistress here someday, whatever you say, Reuben.”

He balled his fists and took a hasty step toward her as Mina heard Gus’s approaching footfalls draw closer. “Let her alone, lad,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re not her equal for verbal sparring. She’ll run rings around ye, so she will.”

“I’ll give her a split lip if she keeps testing me,” Reuben said sullenly.

“Ah no,” Gus scolded him. “That’s no way to talk about a lady.”

Reuben spat on the ground. “For two pins I’d cut her throat now,” he snarled.

“Nay lad,” Gus said, shaking his head. “When we dispose of her, she’ll go over the cliff with not a mark on her. “She’s threatened to jump before and that’ll be what folk thinks happened this time.”

“I have never threatened to jump from a cliff!” Mina said indignantly.

“Have you not?” Gus stroked his chin. “But to be sure, that’s what they’re all muttering in the village for weeks now. You told Nye you would sooner go over the cliff than mind his shameful ways and that’s how you bought him in line.”

“I did no such thing!”

“Well, Minnie girl.” He shrugged and spread his palms wide. “You can appreciate how these rumors get started. Now you can’t deny, you did run up to those cliffs very dramatical that time.”

“I wanted to get away from the inn, not fling myself off!” Mina disputed hotly.

“Aye well, there’s always a grain of truth to such rumors but often not much more than that,” Gus admitted with a grin. “Reuben said you and Nye had just had a dust up about that Ivy’s disappearance. He’ll blame himself no doubt for being too sharp