"I had no idea. I thought you were a London swell-that all you ever did was waltz around ballrooms and charm ladies."
"I do that, too, but one has to have something to do to while away the days."
"Humph." She shot him a measuring glance. "So this interest of yours in a cattle stud is quite genuine?"
"Given I've now got the land, it seems a pity not to use it, and establishing a stud seems the farming equivalent of being a collector."
"I hadn't thought of it in quite those terms, but I suppose that's true." Phyllida looked ahead.
Then she gripped his arm. "Stop!"
Drawing on the reins, Lucifer looked at her. "What?"
She'd swiveled around on the seat, staring back along the road. Reins tight, Lucifer shifted and also looked back. A tinker was ambling along, heading into Exeter.
"The hat!" Phyllida swung to face him, eyes wide. "That tinker's got the hat!"
He turned the horses and set them trotting back along the road. "Quiet," he warned Phyllida as they drew level with the tinker. She stared hard at the man-at his hat-but didn't argue. Lucifer drove a hundred yards farther on, then turned the curricle again. He drove back, almost to where the tinker slogged along, then drew rein.
"Good day."
The tinker stopped and touched the brim of the hat-the hat that even the most cursory glance declared was not his.
"Good day to you, sir. Ma'am."
"That hat," Phyllida said. "Have you had it long?"
A wary look passed through the tinker's eyes. "I found it, fair and square. I didn't steal it."
"I didn't think you had." Phyllida smiled reassuringly. "We were just wondering where you found it."
"Along the coast a ways."
"How far back? Before Sidmouth?"
"Aye-it was a ways before. I'd left Axmouth and decided to go inland a bit. There's a sleepy little village there, name of Colyton."
"We know it," Lucifer said.
"I sharpen knives." The tinker gestured to the packs on his back. "After I finished in the village, I headed on, west, then northwest-there's a path leads on to Honiton, which was my next port o'call. I found the hat along the way, a bit out of Colyton."
Phyllida nodded. "You must have gone up the lane, past the church and the forge-up the hill-"
"Aye, that's right."
"And then there's a bit of a dip, a shallow valley, you eventually get to the next ridge-stop me when I get to where you found the hat-and then there's tall gateposts, and then the lane narrows, and winds down and around toward the sea-"
"That's it! That's where I found it. It was rolling along at the bottom of the hedge just short of where that seaward leg ends. I picked it up, dusted it off-wasn't no name in it. I looked around, but there was no house or hut for miles. Then I walked but a few yards on and the lane turned into a path and swung northwest for Honiton."
The tinker beamed at Phyllida; she beamed back.
"Here." Lucifer held out two guineas. "One for the hat, one for your help. You'll be able to buy yourself a good cap, find a comfortable room, and have a good dinner and a few drinks on us."
The tinker's eyes, fixed on the largesse, gleamed. "My lucky day-the day I found that hat." He handed it to Phyllida.
Lucifer handed over the coins. "And which day was that-the day you found the hat?"
The tinker screwed up his face. "I left Axmouth on a Monday, and spent a day between there and in and about Colyton. I slept in the lych-gate and set out for Honiton early the next morn-that was when I found the hat."