Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [122]
To Tabitha, this sounded as good as an admission of Kendall’s presence, so she was forthcoming with her identity. “I’m Tabitha Eckles, the local midwife in Seabourne.” She smiled. “That has nothing to do with Mayor Kendall, though. I was simply here visiting a patient and knew he was supposed to be in Norfolk, so thought I’d look him up.”
“Indeed.” The landlord narrowed his eyes. “Would he expect you to call on him?”
“Mayor Kendall and I are on friendly terms, sir.” Tabitha bowed her head as she recalled the previous inn experience. “Not inappropriately friendly. We have mutual concerns about the safety and well-being of the inhabitants of our village, and there’s sad news—”
“He knows.” The landlord covered his mouth with his hand and coughed. “That is to say, word has gotten here already.”
“Of course.” Tabitha smiled. “So has Mayor Kendall been here since Thursday? I mean, you’ve seen him?”
“For every meal, ma’am. I expect him for his dinner soon. Would you care to wait?”
Tension uncoiling inside her, Tabitha hesitated as though thinking, then shook her head. “No, thank you. If he already knows what’s happened, I’ll wait to speak with him when he returns home.” She started for the door, then paused to glance back. “Who brought him the news?”
“A gentleman rode in early yesterday.”
A gentleman? Unable to think how to ask for a description of this gentleman, but suspecting who, Tabitha nodded and departed.
“Mr. Wilkins were here calling on the mayor,” Patience told Tabitha at the wagon. “I went around to the kitchen to get some water and got to talking.”
“Good girl.” Tabitha patted the maid’s hand. “Let’s be on our way home then. I’m finished here.”
She wanted to get home. She wanted to see Dominick and tell him he must be mistaken, or else Kendall had another accomplice. Either situation was possible. The paper from the study seemed incriminating, yet a number of people could have hidden it there, especially if—
Tabitha’s blood ran cold. Someone might have hidden it there because he suspected someone would search the study. Someone like Dominick.
The snake could have killed Dominick as easily as her. Maybe both of them were disposable, both of them a danger to the man at whom they should point their fingers.
Tabitha turned her thoughts over and over on the journey back to Seabourne. Never had the twenty miles felt so long, so dull, so stifling. She wanted to jump out of the wagon and run all the way home. When they reached her cottage by the sea, she went into the house just long enough to set down her bag before going into the garden and out the back gate.
She was halfway to the village before she thought better of her actions. Darkness had fallen at least a half hour ago. She couldn’t walk up to Mayor Kendall’s house and ask to see Dominick. All too likely, he was secured for the night. All of them might be asleep for the night. Her request would cause a disruption and unwanted attention.
Feet dragging, she turned back toward home.
She caught the scent a heartbeat before an arm coiled around her waist and cold steel pressed against her throat. “This is a reminder to mind your own affairs, midwife.”
Searing pain scored her shoulder. The arm released her. She reeled, fell to her knees on the sand, fumbled to find her kerchief to staunch the flow of blood oozing down her chest. It was merely a scratch. It wouldn’t kill her. If she remained conscious so the incoming tide didn’t drown her—
A rush of air swooped behind her. She ducked. Not fast enough to avoid the blow, but fast enough to roll away from the tide line before the second blow struck.
As darkness claimed her, she identified the smell from her garden, from Sally’s room, from the house of one of her patients.
31
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“Can you swim?” Raleigh asked Donald Parks sometime after the evening dogwatch rang through the ship. “And when I say swim, I mean really manage to stay afloat in the water and move.”
“I grew up in Seabourne. My father made me learn.” Parks sounded weary, discouraged. “But what good