Robbie some of his clothes, and Robbie simply walked off the ship with him. No one pays much attention to boys. I did nearly have apoplexy when the customs officials said they were taking my baggage, but the sailor lad managed to get Robbie away while the men were searching the cargo. I thought all was well.”
“But?” I asked as Eden paused. “Why did you really look up Warrilow that night?”
“Because I saw him here in Wellclose Square. I met up with Robbie on the wharf and brought him to this house, which I’d leased a year or so ago, for Mrs. Davies. And there was Warrilow, walking into a house on the adjacent side of the square. Not terribly surprising, as there are only so many places in the area a man can lodge, but my bad luck again. I went to make certain that he hadn’t, in fact, seen Robbie, and also whether he’d be leaving London soon. But, as I say, he was in bed when I called. I’d planned to return the next day, but …” Eden threw open his hands.
“Then you never were found out,” Grenville said. “Why do you believe the customs agents will arrest you now?”
“Because Robbie has seen them flitting about near this house,” Eden said. “Tell them what you told me, lad.”
“I did see them,” Robbie said stoutly. “Wandering across the road near the church. I remember them from when they came down to search the hold. I had to hide until they were busy looking through the boxes, and then Jacko—he’s the one what gave me his clothes—led me off and showed me where to wait for the major.”
Robbie’s words put things together in my mind, all that I’d debated with myself whenever I pondered Eden’s problem, and what I’d been trying to sort out this morning.
“What else did you observe while you were in the hold, Robbie?” I asked. “When the agents were there?”
“The fat man giving them money,” Robbie said promptly.
“Fitzgerald,” I said.
“Precisely what I thought when Robbie told me all this today,” Eden said. “I imagine he’s the villain after all.”
I leaned to Robbie, trying to use my kindest voice, though my heart was beating swiftly in excitement. “What did the agents you saw across the road look like?”
Robbie considered. “There’s three of them. Two are ordinary—I saw them in the belly of the ship. The other was tall and very thin. Like that missionary chap.”
Well, well. I turned to Eden. “Why do you suppose they had anything to do with you? They might be searching for the gun smugglers.”
Robbie shook his head. “They were staring straight at this house. Watching it, like.”
Mrs. Davies’ hand trembled as she set down her cup. “Can they come and take him from me? My Robbie?”
Grenville, master at soothing troubled waters, answered. “I shouldn’t think so. Slavery is illegal by the laws of England and the acts abolishing the international slave trade, so the boy should be free on this soil, which presumably was Eden’s thinking. No, I’m wondering if they aren’t afraid of what Robbie might have seen in the hold. They probably thought him of no consequence if they glimpsed him there, but if they ever saw you with him, Eden …”
“My thinking too, Mr. Grenville,” Brewster said. “Someone likely followed you here, Major, maybe caught sight of young Robbie, and worked it all out. What with you always down in the hold, they might think you saw other things too. If the customs agents were taking bribes, they’d not want anyone to find that out.”
“They are clearing up loose ends, you mean,” Eden said in alarm.
“Warrilow was a loose end,” I said, surprisingly calm. “He knew, with his way of ferreting out men’s secrets and berating them, about the smuggling and the bribery. I still make him out to be a blackmailer, but he was a threat.”
“Jove.” Eden swallowed. “Laybourne was a threat too, wasn’t he? Poor fellow. I imagine he only wished to retire, as he said.”
“And they killed him for it,” Brewster put in. “He knew too much about the goings on.”
I glanced at Mrs. Davies, who’d followed the conversation without surprise.
“Oh, I’ve told her all,” Eden said, catching my look. “She had it out of me after Warrilow was killed, and I came to her, so very upset.”
“It was a terrible thing,” Mrs. Davies said. “Even if Mr. Warrilow was a very bad man. I wager you are right that Mr. Warrilow took money for