CHAPTER 30

C HAPTER 30

I t was dusk when the Sea Swan deposited her passengers at the pier in a tiny fishing hamlet. As the cutter temporarily moored at the pier, Captain Jones said, “I’d meant to leave you near Brighton, but as you know, we needed to sail farther west.” He gestured at one of the hills that bracketed the small harbor. “This is at the western edge of Littlehampton. There’s a nice inn up the High Street, the King’s Arms. A good place to get dinner and spend the night. The owners can set you up with horses or a carriage tomorrow.”

“Thank you for getting us here, Captain,” Tam said as she gave him a bonus payment.

He glanced at the bills. “I should be paying you for keeping me and my ship from being captured by the French!”

“But you did get us here safely.” Cade smiled. “Perhaps we’ll meet again if we should need a talented smuggler in the future.”

Jones gave a booming laugh. “I’ll welcome that if it happens! But for now, I have customers in Cornwall waiting for my cargo.”

As the Swan set off to sea, Cade took Tamsyn’s carry bag and added it to his own. As the three of them walked along the pier to the shore, Tam said feelingly, “I’ll be glad to sleep in a proper bed tonight! A bunk bed is just not the same!” The mischievous slanting glance she gave Cade made him smile.

The narrow street that ran up the hill was lined with small, neatly kept stone cottages. There were no people in sight, but a snoozing hound in the street raised his head to study them, then went back to sleep.

The King’s Arms had a weathered signboard hanging out into the lane. As Cade and Tam and Andre approached, a well-dressed man emerged from the door and turned to look down toward the pier.

The man stopped dead in his tracks and the last rays of the setting sun illuminated his dark hair and familiar beloved face. Bran!