A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,126
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?
The next passage of time crawled interminably. Gus and Reuben moved out of her range of hearing, though she could hear snatches of their murmured discussions, none of it was intelligible. They spent some time shifting cases or barrels from one area to another. She could only suppose they were expecting a new shipment of goods at some point.
Mina closed her eyes and tried to relax to ease her throbbing head, but it was hard. Her ribs hurt, though she no longer believed they were broken, and she could not get comfortable on the hard floor. She had just managed to achieve a light doze when she felt her side nudged with a boot.
“Sit up,” said Reuben harshly, though she little knew why he