“Your idea to house them on the steerage deck was brilliant. Let’s hope they play nicely with our newest recruit.”
“I thought Mr. Holt was more like a hostage.” Amelia’s smile was sly, bordering on cheeky.
Diana had a smart retort perched on her lips, but Birdie landed on deck and offered them a curt nod before strolling along the rail to inspect the lines.
“What does Mr. Holt know about the voyage?” Diana asked carefully.
“That it’s a test run on the new triple-expansion engine,” Amelia replied. “We’re conducting exercises in Guernsey to assess its capabilities, then going on to La Rochelle for restocking and coaling.”
“Andthe cargo?”
“Birdie told him we were offering passage to a small group of papists as part of a passenger trial. Those nuns are convincing. Even I’d believe they’re headed on a pilgrimage.”
“The nuns always deliver. Must give Widow credit for that one.”
“There is some other news.” Amelia’s tone was too calm for it to be anything but good. “I decoded the message that you received from our source at the bordello. The cargo from Australia will arrive in five days. But it didn’t say where.”
“We’ll have to check all the drop sites in La Rochelle to confirm.” With Birdie’s crew all around them, Diana couldn’t risk asking Amelia if Widow had signaled anything about the emeralds. “Anything else I should know?”
“One of the passengers says someone followed her to the ship. She told our harbor guards, but no one found the man. Birdie’s team did an extra sweep to make sure he wasn’t on board before we left port. No one found anything, but that doesn’t mean they won’t follow.”
“Did we get a description of the man?”
“She said he was well-dressed. Older, didn’t wear a hat. He had gray hair.”
He fit the description of the man they’d spotted at the Swan’s Nest. Diana had hoped they could have bought more time before the Skinner’s Lane Lads tracked them.
Ian’s insistence that no one would follow him was, as they all believed, bravado. He was lying to himself if he thought he was clever enough to slip out of London unnoticed. That kind of cocky blindness was exactly why Diana had lured him onboard theEver Hart. If he continued acting like a lone wolf, he was going to get himself killed.
Somehow, she was going to have to convince him he needed her.
The contemptuous glare he’d given her confirmed he trusted her less than ever. Since they’d set sail, he’d peppered Virgil, Birdie, and other members of the crew with myriad questions about the ship’s layout. He didn’t bother to conceal that his aim onboard was to steal the necklace.
But Diana couldn’t suppress the budding hope that he had other motives for following her.
Despite the choppy weather, a woman appeared on deck. She carried a child whose crying was loud enough to rise over the roar of the waves. Several of the deckhands cringed at the sound.
When the rain started, Diana was surprised that the mother remained outside with the child. Perhaps she hoped the whipping wind and splashing mist would cool the baby’s temper.
A movement stirred from the starboard side of the deck, and a tall silhouette cut into the lamplight.
Diana wondered if Ian could identify her shadow as easily as she recognized his. Over the years, she’d memorized his shape: the breadth of his shoulders, the length of his torso descending into a trim waist.
His long legs treaded across the deck before he paused, pivoted, and retraced his steps. He marked neither Diana’s presence nor that of the mother and child. When he stalked closer to them, the woman cowered back. A muffled yelp rose above the wind.
Ian stopped dead in his tracks.
The child’s screaming cries—which had quieted—resumed in a piercing shriek.
Diana rushed between them. She gave the mother an assuring nod, then swung back to Ian and pointed her arm to the other end of the deck.
Thankfully, he didn’t hesitate long before he marched off in the opposite direction.
“He’s one of the crew,” Diana told the mother. “He’s here for everyone’s protection.”
The mother hugged the child closer.
Diana gestured to Birdie and the other nearby crew hands to assure the mother other women were looking out for her. “If anyone on this ship makes you feeluncomfortable, you only have to say the word and we’ll come running. We have a secure brig for troublemakers, and other means to defend ourselves.”