Tom Waggett drove and the other three men rode. It would have been more comfortable all round to take the carriage, but Perry thought that the curricle would attract less attention. It also meant, Laura suspected, that she was shrouded under the rug and he did not have to look at her until he had quite come to terms with seeing female legs on display.
Although, she mused as they bumped and rattled along the coast road, he has probably seen and appreciated a considerable number of pairs in his time. Just not those belonging to a female friend. Theo, too, had managed to look almost anywhere but at her as she scrambled under the rug but she had not missed how he had glanced at her when she walked into the hall, how hi
s lips had parted and how he had turned sharply away. He desired her. She should be shocked, but somehow she could not summon up any emotion other than a reciprocal yearning.
The two servants had politely averted their eyes and Pitkin had handed her the garments with his closed, of course, but to her surprise it was Will, who could normally blush with the best of them, who showed no reaction at all to having a scandalously-clad female wrapped around his legs.
‘Aren’t you shocked, Will?’ she asked after one particularly bad rut had wrested a curse from Waggett and had thrown Laura hard against Will’s knees.
‘You are decently, if unconventionally, clad,’ he replied. As far as she could tell under her blanket, he was vaguely amused. ‘In fact it seems a very rational type of clothing for females.’
‘It is wonderful,’ Laura agreed. ‘I have never tried breeches before, but all I can say is that women would be far better able to look after themselves without the handicap of skirts and er… Other garments.’ She’d been about to say corsets, but the sound of Waggett clearing his throat ominously made her think again.
She poked her head out from under the covers as the curricle turned sharply, halted for a moment and then drove up the coffin path to the porch. ‘Is it safe to come out?’
‘Haven’t seen a soul the entire way,’ Perry said, swinging down from the saddle. He seemed to have overcome his reluctance to so much as glance at her, Laura noted, but he still kept his gaze rather fixedly on her face.
‘The five-bar gate is as well oiled as the wicket gate,’ Theo remarked. ‘Is that usual?’
‘I’ve never noticed.’ Will frowned in concentration. ‘We do not spend much on maintaining the churchyard here, as you can see. There are not the funds for it. I let the churchwardens get on with the routine maintenance and they employ the gravedigger to scythe the grass and cut the hedges back twice a year. He doesn’t get much work just digging, because if we get one funeral every six months, that would be the most I would expect. Some families tidy up around their own plots, of course, but so long as the path to the porch and vestry doors are clear, and there’s a rough path right round the church, that’s all I ask.’
‘Oh, this is one of the main smugglers’ routes up from the beach,’ Laura said as Waggett helped Will down from the curricle and offered his arm.
‘Where do you want to be, Reverend?’
‘In the porch, if you please. I can sit there and watch what you are all doing at the tomb. But how do you know about the smugglers’ route, Laura?’
‘Yes, how do you?’ Theo demanded.
She shrugged. ‘I thought everyone did, it is common knowledge. Certainly the brandy that Uncle Swinburn acquires comes this way. I heard him talking about it to Giles once. The path goes up past the church.’ She gestured vaguely.
‘That probably explains why Swinburn is so prickly about me asking questions,’ Theo said. ‘Jed, you go and stand watch on the north side, there’s the best view of the surrounding country from there. Let us know immediately if you see anyone.’ He prowled around the tomb, peering under the overhang of the lid as the groom disappeared around the west end of the church. ‘No wonder we couldn’t shift this. It has some kind of iron bolts securing it. The ends show here and here.’ Perry came and crouched down beside him to look. ‘And they are all rusted solid. See?’
Perry said something short and vehement under his breath.
‘Quite. So if there is any way into this, it must be from the side.’
‘With that wide stone plinth under it there would be no marks of stones being dragged back over the turf.’ Laura joined them and knelt at one end. ‘Have you noticed how close the turf is scythed all round the tomb, not just on the side nearest the path?’
‘Which means that someone wanted to get at the back.’ Theo got up and moved round. ‘And the plinth slopes slightly away from the tomb on this side. Again, no drag-marks would be left if the side panel was pulled out.’
‘Seems as though someone was thinking this out carefully,’ Perry remarked. ‘Unless it is all a fairy tale we’re telling ourselves.’ Despite his dubious tone he removed his hat and coat and laid them on top of the tomb then stood back, cracking his knuckles. ‘Pity we can’t just hit it with a sledgehammer.’
Theo was crawling along the sloping plinth, tapping at the side with his gloved knuckles. ‘It sounds hollow, but then it would, even if it was perfectly genuine.’
The irritable fat cherubs on the corner seemed to glower at Laura and she stuck out her tongue in childish retaliation, then leaned in closer, her attention caught by a detail. ‘The cherub at the top has eyes, but this one only has holes.’ She pushed one finger into the staring eye socket and then the other. ‘Perry, see if it is the same your end and if it is, put your fingers in the holes. Something shifted when I pushed.’
He bent down. ‘Yes, holes here. I’ll just… Watch out!’
There was a grating sound and the entire long back panel of the tomb tilted out. Theo gave a startled yell, rolled away from underneath but managed to twist around to get both hands to it as Perry grabbed for the other end.
They laid it down on the grass and there was a jostling rush to peer inside, followed by Will who had the sense to fetch a lantern before walking cautiously down to join them.
‘It is empty,’ Laura said. ‘Thank goodness.’ She had not been looking forward to seeing a skull grinning back at them.
Then Will lit the lantern and handed it to Theo who held it at arm’s length into the cobwebbed interior. ‘It might not be unoccupied.’ A line of stone slabs edged the floor of the tomb, but in the centre was a grave-sized hole vanishing down into the darkness. ‘A vault,’ he said, his voice echoing back as he leaned in.
‘Riders coming,’ Jed called, coming round the corner of the church at a run. ‘Six of ’em and one’s Sir Walter.’ He skidded to a halt, panting. ‘They’re almost here, came up from some track I couldn’t see on the side of the hill.’