“No wonder Scraggan and Rogan have been so determined to capture you.” Hugo shook his head, studying the list of names, dates and places that filled so many gaps in their investigation, astounded.
Jemima took the opportunity of the momentary silence within the room to explain the contents of the papers she and Eliza had spent months protecting.
“They list the names of the ships, the dates and times of arrival, along with codes and contacts.” Jemima didn’t need to look at the papers to know what was in them. She had committed their contents to memory a long time ago. “One of the sheet has the codes, giving exact details of what each shipment entails, along with cargo lists and buyers. These are details of the French spies they have smuggled into the country; who the spies are meeting, where and when, etcetera. You now have all of the details of the exact cargo Scraggan has been handling, along with his contacts. It is information on his entire network up to the point we left Padstow.”
“Where in the hell did you get all of this?” Hugo demanded. As he stared down at the sheet of paper, he knew she was telling him the truth and he was holding nothing less than gold dust in his hands. Dates and ships he knew from the Star Elite’s own informants were clearly listed alongside ships he had heard of but never considered to be involved. The enormity of the information held on those three sheets of paper was not lost on him, and he now fully understood why Scraggan was so determined to kill Jemima and Eliza.
Jemima shifted uncomfortably on her seat, lost for words. She would have to have her fingernails pulled out before she told him that.
When silence met his question, Hugo turned to stare at her, clearly waiting for an answer.
With a huge sigh, Jemima glanced at Peter, before turning to Hugo with a shake of her head.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that.”
Hugo studied her carefully. “We can protect them.”
Jemima snorted inelegantly and arched a frosty brow back at him. “Like you did me?” She didn’t need to turn her head to know that Peter was watching her, but for the life of her couldn’t meet his gaze either. She could hold out against Hugo, a veritable stranger, but knew all Peter had to do was ask, and she would most probably tell him anything and everythi
ng!
“You are alive, aren’t you?” Hugo challenged, his tone argumentative.
“But look what you put her through. If you knew she wasn’t going to be hanged, why didn’t you just spare us all the bloody misery and tell us it was a sham?” Peter spat, his own anger rising at the unnecessary pain and suffering they had all been put through.
“Because we didn’t know whether Scraggan had men on the inside of the gaol providing him with information. We had to make it look as realistic as possible.”
“Did Mr Simpson know it was all a ruse?” Dominic asked, remembering the intent conversation he had interrupted when he had returned to Simpson’s office.
Hugo nodded. “Let me explain.” He sighed and took the seat directly opposite Jemima. He hadn’t let her off the hook just yet, and wasn’t going to until she had told him what he needed to know.
“I think you had better,” Peter’s voice held a note of warning.
“We had two men following Jemima and Eliza. One man was undercover at the inn where Eliza worked.” He ignored Edward’s gasp, and shot him a pointed look. “Yes, we knew when you left with her, and although we didn’t know where you were headed, we did have men on alert in Padstow in case you turned up unannounced so to speak.”
“She was nearly killed for God’s sake,” Edward spat, thinking of the numerous men who had challenged not only himself, but had almost taken the lives of his brothers and Peter.
“The Star Elite is a relatively small group of men. We do have a few others working for us, but the main group is not that big. It is what makes us so good at what we do, but it also does stretch us occasionally. We know your background, Edward, and believed that, if anyone could keep her alive, you could.”
“What about Jemima?” Peter asked, wondering if they had planned to just abandon her to her fate.
“We knew she was at more risk. Her father had informed us that she helped with the papers and knew as much as he did. So we pooled the few resources we didn’t have undercover and made our own arrangements to thwart Scraggan’s plans officially.”
Peter felt somewhat mollified as he understood that Hugo and his men really did have the ladies’ survival as one of their goals.
“We know she was set up when one of our men heard about her being arrested for murdering the mayor. It didn’t take much for us to make enough enquiries to surmise what had happened. We know she didn’t do anything, and Scraggan had set her up, along with the others in the group who were found nearby.”
“Who were they?” Jemima asked, thinking of the morose group of downtrodden men with whom she had shared the condemned cell.
“They had been working for Scraggan at some point, either collecting information or taking part in criminal activities.” At Jemima’s look of shock, Hugo sighed knowing he wouldn’t get away with only half an explanation.
“They had taken part in a few thefts that had resulted in people dying. Two of them had murdered associates of Scraggan several months back. We knew they were guilty but just couldn’t get to them. Apparently they had done something Scraggan wasn’t pleased about, and had been thrown out of the smuggling ring. They were sent to Derby, ostensibly to find you, but once there found themselves set up by Rogan, under Scraggan’s orders. Each one of the men you were arrested with was guilty of serious crimes, Jemima, and would have gone to the gallows anyway, which is why we made no attempt to save them.”
Although Jemima nodded slowly, she would never understand why anyone had to be put to death in such a gruesome fashion for any crimes they had committed.
“Rogan had quite a large amount of money with him, and was able to buy people to do a lot of the dirty work for him, gathering information etc., so the victim wouldn’t suspect he was close by. When you were in gaol, we couldn’t take the risk that Rogan had bought one of the gaolers to provide him with information about your activities.”
“He wanted confirmation she was in the condemned cell, and going to be hanged,” Peter added, shaking his head and reaching out to hold Jemima’s hand.