Devil's Prize

by Jane Jackson

Genres: Historical Fiction; Romance; Action & Adventure Romance; Historical Romance

Synopsis

Cornish smuggler Devlin 'Devil' Varcoe braves winter weather and revenue men to fetch the contraband on which Porthinnis depends for survival.  Drawn to Jenefer Trevanion, whose father finances the smuggling operation, Devlin is seduced by beautiful wild-child Tamara Gillis.  When fire destroys her home, Jenefer is forced to work in the pilchard cellars. Meanwhile, craving Tamara for himself, Thomas Varcoe plots murder to rid himself of the brother he hates.  Rejected by Devlin, a pregnant Tamara is pressured to marry Thomas.  Finally recognising the love he never felt he deserved, Devlin is on his way home after successfully undertaking a secret mission when a once-in-a-lifetime storm faces him with a terrible choice.

Release date: October 17, 2013

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 264

Sample

Chapter One

‘For God’s sake, it’s not worth the risk!’

Devlin Varcoe glanced at his brother across the long slender form of the galley in its wooden cradle. He saw narrow sloping shoulders that the greatcoat’s four shoulder capes could not disguise, and guessed that the beaver hat’s narrow brim was the height of fashion. Irony twisted his mouth.

‘Concerned for my safety?’ Devlin hauled a filthy oilskin over his salt-stained blue jacket and thrust the ends of a knotted red neckerchief into the throat of his woollen shirt.

Thomas’s gaze flicked towards a hulking figure waiting beside the wide doorway of the vaulted cellar, water dripping off his oilskin to pool around his booted feet. ‘Wait outside,’ he ordered.

‘Round up the others, Jared,’ Devlin interrupted. ‘Fast as you can. I don’t want that crowd from Brague getting in first.’

With a nod the big man disappeared into the driving rain.

‘I don’t give a damn about your safety,’ Thomas snapped. ‘But you have a run to make tomorrow night –’

‘The schooner’s here now. Once I get a line aboard, she’s mine.’

‘Father would never have permitted –’

‘Father’s dead.’

‘Better if it had been you.’

Hardened to his brother’s hatred, Devlin ignored him and began lifting long oars from wooden pegs, laying them in the galley.

‘I’ve always thought it strange,’ Thomas said, ‘that no one else was killed.’

Devlin laid another oar in the galley. ‘Nothing strange about it. None of my crew had time to stand still. The sea was rough and we were carrying every stitch of canvas. I warned Father that the privateer would probably have a sniper in the foretop. But he refused to go below.’

Thomas bristled. ‘Naturally. Father was no coward.’

‘He was stubborn as a jackass.’

‘You’re glad he’s dead.’

‘I’m not sorry.’

‘I wouldn’t put it past you to have killed him yourself.’

Devlin straightened up. After a moment one corner of his mouth quirked in a half-smile that left his eyes cold. ‘You’ll never know, will you, Thomas?’ He saw his brother swallow.

‘No wonder they call you Devil.’

Devlin hefted another oar into the galley. ‘Ah, but without me you’d be right in the shit. You won’t take the money across to Uncle Hedley, and who else can you trust?’

‘I’m needed here.’ Thomas said quickly, his voice climbing. ‘The business doesn’t run itself.’

Devlin eyed him briefly. ‘You get seasick.’

‘Bastard,’ Thomas hissed. His chin jutted as he gathered his shredded dignity. ‘I’m calling on Colonel Trevanion tomorrow. It’s to be hoped –’

‘He’s sober?’

‘That he has the money for next month’s cargo.’

‘Bled him dry, have you?’

‘It’s a cut-throat business. You have no idea how complex …’

Devlin bared his teeth. ‘Seems plain enough to me. Uncle Hedley buys the goods in Roscoff to your order. Colonel Trevanion provides the finance. I pay our uncle, collect the cargo, land and store it until it’s distributed. I don’t have your book learning, Thomas. But I’m no fool. You’d do well to remember that.’

Thomas couldn’t hide his loathing. ‘We didn’t need you. Father could have hired another boat.’

Devlin eyed his brother in the wintry grey light that spilled through the open doorway. The rain had stopped but the wind howled and waves thundered against the sea wall, splintering into great plumes and fountains of spray.

‘He’d never have done that. Whatever he felt about me he’d never go outside the family. Besides, I’m the best skipper on this coast.’ He reached for his sou’wester.

‘You!’ Thomas’s face contorted. ‘If it hadn’t been for you she’d still be alive. Everything was wonderful with just the three of us. Then you came. No wonder he hated you. It wasn’t just his life you wrecked. I was only seven –’

‘Jesus Christ!’ Devlin exploded. ‘Listen to yourself. Your life was wrecked? You went to a decent school. He wouldn’t pay for me. While you were studying accountancy and attending assemblies up in Truro I was out in the North Sea fishing for herring on Arf Sweet’s boat. Father needed me in the business, but he made you a partner. When he put money into the lugger so I could make the runs faster, he charged me interest until I’d paid him back.’ His laugh was brief and harsh. ‘And you want sympathy?’

Thomas smirked. Having provoked a reaction he was relishing the illusion of power.

The anger that balled Devlin’s fists was directed at himself. He should know better. He let it go and uncurled his fingers. ‘Go home, Thomas. You’re in my way.’

‘You’re mad to go out in this weather.’

Devlin’s wolfish grin held amusement and brief satisfaction. ‘Worried, brother? You should be. Now father’s gone you’re on your own. Just remember, you need me more than I need you.’

Jenefer Trevanion laid her pen beside the accounts book and pulled her paisley shawl closer as a flurry of hail splattered against the window. A wood fire crackled in the grate but the warmth hadn’t reached as far as her writing desk.

Once again the columns showed a drop in profit. She had checked her totals twice. Something was wrong, and it wasn’t her addition. But convincing her father that Thomas Varcoe was cheating him would be impossible without some sort of proof. How and where was she to find that?

‘People are gathering at the top of the beach,’ Betsy said as she swung the long glass on a tripod that spared her the effort of holding it steady. ‘It won’t be long – Oh!’

The shock in her sister’s voice made Jenefer look round. ‘What?’

‘There’s a galley pulling out of the harbour. It’s Devil Varcoe.’

Jenefer bolted from her chair to Betsy’s side and peered through the window down the sloping garden to the cliff edge and the sea beyond.

The house was situated on a narrow headland separating the village, harbour, and beach on one side from a series of rocky coves and inlets on the other. But while Betsy always had something of interest to look at, the position of the house meant they were visited with annoying regularity by the Riding Officer.

Jenefer found his barely concealed scepticism in the face of her denials infuriating. Particularly as in this instance she was speaking the truth. Did Lieutenant Crocker really think her father stupid enough to allow contraband to be hidden in the house?

She gazed down at the galley, the turmoil in her mind echoed in her stomach. Her fingers strayed to the fine gold chain about her neck. But the instant she touched the tiny painted miniature of Martin suspended from it she jumped as if it had burned her.

If only she hadn’t accepted his proposal. But there had been so many pressures: grief, anxiety, guilt, and a relief that made her ashamed. If she hadn’t gone for a walk instead of accompanying her mother and Betsy, she would have been in the carriage as well. She might now be dead like her mother, or crippled like her sister.

After the accident her father had been obsessed with arranging a match for her, and this one promised a solution to so many problems, not least where she and Betsy would live after his death, for the house was entailed to a male cousin. Martin’s promise that Betsy would be welcome to share their home was very generous and Jenefer had felt the net tightening around her.

She knew she should be grateful. In so many ways Martin was ideal. He was 27, came from a good family, was well-educated, enjoyed a private income from his French grandmother, and his diplomatic career was flourishing.

Nor could she offer the excuse that her heart was engaged elsewhere. For though she had enjoyed several flirtations none had been serious. So, hoping that where liking existed love would follow, she had accepted.

But since their Easter betrothal, the war had kept Martin busy and away from Cornwall, she had met Devlin Varcoe, and now every waking moment was an exhausting battle between her duty to her family and to Martin, and foolish yearning. At least Devlin didn’t know. Doubtless she had already slipped from his memory. Yet the thought that she might have made no impression on him pricked like a thorn.

‘He’s mad,’ Betsy whispered. ‘The water is seething down there. They’ll never get out past the point, let alone close enough to throw a line.’

Jenefer wrapped her shawl tighter as she gazed through small windowpanes misted with salt. The gale had whipped the sea into heaping waves. Dirty grey clouds with ragged edges raced low over broken crests and spindrift. But even from this distance she recognised him. He must have lost his sou’wester and his dark curly hair lay flat against his scalp. Seated in the stern he wrestled the tiller with both hands as he steered the galley through wild water that bounced off jutting outcrops and surged back to meet the incoming rollers.

Facing him, their backs to the rearing waves, eight men strained at the long oars and another crouched in the bow, ducking his head against drenching spray. Forcing her gaze from the galley she glanced towards its target, a helplessly wallowing schooner.

Broken spars and tangled rigging were snarled around a jagged stump that had once been the foremast. Somehow the schooner’s crew had managed to drop the huge gaff mainsail. But the main topmast had gone and shredded canvas flapped uselessly on the mizzen. The heaving deck was crowded with people clinging to the lashed boom and any other handhold they could find. They were flung first one way then another by the wild gyrations of the stricken vessel as the howling wind hurled it shoreward.

‘There’s a woman by the companionway hatch,’ Betsy said. ‘Why doesn’t she use both hands? She’ll be swept overboard if she’s not careful. That bundle can’t be worth her life.’

Unable to see details without the aid of the long-glass, Jenefer glanced instead at the beach where, on either side of glistening sand and grey shingle, the ebbing tide revealed fingers of black rock that jutted out of the cold foaming water like broken teeth.

Switching her gaze to the galley once more her breath caught as the long slender craft climbed the vertical face of a giant roller and disappeared over the top. Seconds later the comber crashed onto the beach with a thunderous roar that rattled the windows and made the house vibrate. The galley was already climbing the face of the next wave whose crest was breaking and curling. It would swallow them.

‘They’ll never survive.’ It was only when she heard her own voice sharp with fear that she realised she’d spoken. She dreaded seeing the galley flipped over to be smashed to splinters, the men pulped by the avalanche of water. Yet she could not look away.

‘Of course they will.’ Betsy was fierce, using both hands to hold the long-glass steady as she leaned forward in her wheeled chair. ‘Devil Varcoe has the best crew in West Cornwall. They’ve faced worse than this. They’ve done it,’ she breathed. ‘They’re out past the point. Pull, Jared. Pull,’ she whispered.

‘Pull, you bastards!’ Devlin bellowed above the roar of a wind that slashed his exposed skin like a gutting knife. Braced in the stern he fought to keep the galley heading into the waves. Kicking like a wild horse, the tiller demanded every ounce of his strength to hold it steady. The crew’s oilskins were shiny with spray, their weather-beaten faces contorted with effort as they bent and hauled in unison born of familiarity and practice. Despite the roar of wind and waves Devlin heard their grunts as they dragged the long sweeps through wild foaming water and the rasp of in-drawn breath as they reached for the next stroke.

He looked ahead. As the gap between the galley and the crippled schooner narrowed he could hear terrified yells begging them to hurry. Back on the beach the crowd was swelling as more people arrived. The spume and spray made it impossible to see clearly. But he knew most would be carrying a hatchet, crowbar, ropes and every container they could grab. They stood and watched in silence, waiting.

Careful to keep the galley upwind of the schooner, Devlin signalled to Charlie Grose who reached for the coils of rope. Rising to his feet, instinctively adjusting to the pitch and roll, Charlie flung them high toward the figures waving desperately from the schooner’s side. His aim was true but a gust caused the vessel to lurch wildly, forcing those waiting to grab a handhold or risk being hurled into the raging sea. The arcing rope fell into the water.

Quickly Charlie retrieved it. But his numbed hands were clumsy and the sodden coils awkward to handle. The schooner was now only yards from the rocks.

Devlin knew this would be the last chance for all of them. He clamped his teeth together, fighting the urge to shout instructions. Charlie knew what to do.

Balancing the heavy rope, Charlie judged his moment and threw. The bow of the galley reared on a breaking wave, forcing him to his knees as he grabbed the gunwales.

The rope arced over the broken foremast and men rushed to haul it in and make it fast.

Devlin raised a clenched fist. ‘Right on, Charlie! We’ve got her, lads,’ he roared. Quickly checking that the towrope was securely lashed to the reinforced seat in front of him he pushed the tiller over and the men redoubled their efforts. As the slack was taken up the rope sprang tight and the dead weight of the schooner dragged at the galley and her labouring crew.

Devlin knew he couldn’t prevent the stricken ship from beaching. But if they could tow her away from the rocks so that she grounded on sand, she’d be easier to salvage if the waiting crowd could be persuaded to respect salvor’s rights. The pistol’s cold steel was hard against his side. It would help. But it wasn’t enough. He hoped some of his landsmen were among the watching crowd. He sensed the villagers’ anger. They were willing him to fail.

 For a few moments the crew’s valiant efforts seemed to be paying off. Then, hit by a breaking wave, the schooner tossed her head violently. The sharp crack of wood fracturing near Devlin’s feet was as loud and potentially lethal as a musket shot. His heart clenched and the crew froze momentarily on a collective intake of breath. They watched him. Cut or continue?

Cursing in fury and frustration Devlin reached for the small razor-sharp axe stowed beneath the sternsheets. With two swift strokes he severed the taut towrope.

Free from the burden that would have dragged them to their deaths, the galley leapt forward. Screams of renewed terror erupted aboard the helpless schooner. Devlin ignored them. He’d done his best. Braving the storm had been a calculated risk. Trying to maintain the tow would be foolhardy. Losing the salvage was bad enough. He had no intention of sacrificing the galley or his crew.

He pushed the tiller, turning the galley towards the beach. Though they had lost the vessel as salvage, the men had a right to pick up whatever they could.

They headed shoreward, surfing the curling breakers and using the long sweeps for balance. But the urgency had gone and their disappointment was palpable.

Devlin heard the grating splintering crash as the schooner was dashed onto the rocks. It was followed a heartbeat later by an animal roar. Presented with this gift by the storm the villagers had become a ravening mob. Desperate to seize anything they could use or sell, men, women, and children surged down the beach.

As the galley reached the shallows the crew shipped their oars, jumped over the side and carried the boat to a spot beneath the cliff well away from the wreck. It would be safe there. No villager was stupid enough to touch anything belonging to Devil Varcoe.

‘Jared, stay with me. The rest of you look to the crew and any passengers.’

‘You want ’em brung up ‘ere, skipper?’ Charlie Grose shouted above the noise.

‘Then can we go?’ Danny asked, clearly anxious for a share of the spoils.

‘What time tomorrow night, skip?’

‘Eight. With a fair wind we’ll reach Roscoff by dawn.’ He turned away. Anyone missing or turning up drunk would be off the crew for good. Not a man among them would take that chance.

With Jared Sweet lumbering along at his side, Devlin started running down the beach. Already some men from the village were braving the frothing surf and wet slippery rocks, determined to be first to reach the tilted schooner, drawn like flies to carrion. Starving and desperate since the copper mines started closing, the tinners were always first to reach any wreck, and the most dangerous.

Looking past the yelling crowd already squabbling amongst themselves as they scrambled across the rocks and floundered through the bone-chilling water, Devlin could see a bare-headed man in a dark blue coat standing defiant on the schooner’s slanting deck, his hands raised to repel the raiders.

‘Daft bugger,’ Jared growled.

Behind the captain, able-bodied crew helped their injured and bloodstained mates over the side while two well-dressed men, who Devlin guessed were passengers, demanded assistance.

A few feet from the captain another younger man, also in a blue coat, was trying to control a violently struggling woman.

As Devlin and Jared fought their way through the melee, villagers whirled, snarling as they raised axe or crowbar to smash aside anyone trying to stop them. But as they recognised Devlin and Jared, murderous glares dropped and they resumed their race to reach the hatches and holds.

‘Captain,’ Devlin bellowed through cupped hands. ‘Get off the ship.’

‘I can’t. The cargo is government stores –’

‘What are you carrying?’ As the words left his lips, Devlin caught a waft of heavy burnt-sugar sweetness and heard the frenzied roar.

Devlin and Jared exchanged a glance. Spirits inevitably meant some of the howling mob would not live to see daybreak. How many would be found broken on the rocks or trapped and drowned in the wreckage? How many children would be left without one or both parents?

‘Rum.’ The captain confirmed. His weathered face was grey and etched with strain. Exhaustion had sunk red-rimmed eyes deep into their sockets. How long had he been fighting the storm, nursing the schooner towards home and safety? He looked as if he hadn’t slept for days. ‘And 30 casks of flour.’

 ‘Stay aboard and you’ll be killed,’ Devlin was brusque. ‘Is it worth your life?’

‘Surely they wouldn’t –’

‘They would. They will.’ Devlin said grimly.

‘Can’t you help?’

‘What the hell do you think I’m doing?’ Devlin retorted. The captain began to sway. With agility surprising in a man of his height and bulk, Jared leapt for the gunwale, swung himself up and immediately leaned down to haul Devlin on board. ‘Take him up the beach,’ Devlin murmured as he reached the deck.

Releasing Devlin’s hand, Jared grabbed the captain and, before the exhausted man could utter a word of protest, swung him overboard and immediately followed.

Frantic now, uncaring of the damage to their elegant coats, pale pantaloons, and polished boots, the two passengers had scrambled down and were stumbling across rocks through waves that one moment were thigh-deep, and the next retreated, gurgling and hissing, into dark fissures.

That left only the man Devlin guessed was the mate, and the woman whose struggles had grown weaker and more erratic.

‘What are you waiting for?’ he snapped.

‘She won’t – I can’t –’

‘Oh, for Christ’s sake,’ Devlin muttered, and strode up the slanting deck. ‘Come on, Miss –’

‘Mrs,’ the mate rasped. ‘She’s my wife.’

Meeting the man’s eyes, Devlin’s angry response died on his tongue. He’d never seen such devastation. His gaze flicked to the bedraggled woman clasped in her husband’s arms, trembling as if racked with fever.

‘Is she ill?’

The mate’s head moved once, a brief negative. ‘Our baby –’

‘Where is it?’

‘He.’ The mate’s chin lifted in painful dignity. ‘My son. James Henry Vanson. He –’ a spasm crossed his face and he swallowed audibly. ‘My wife was holding him while I helped with your line. Then the wave – Mary fell. The deck was awash and –’ he swallowed again, his mouth quivering. ‘He’s only three months old.’

Jesus.

‘Why?’ Vanson’s voice was as raw as a wound. ‘In God’s name, why did you cut the tow?’

Devlin didn’t reply. To give reasons would be pointless and to offer sympathy an insult. He looked towards the beach. Two of his men, Sam Clemmow and Ben Tozer, both teetotallers and armed with heavy staves, fended off would-be thieves as they shepherded the survivors up the beach. Without protection the schooner’s people, injured and able-bodied alike, would be set-upon, stripped, and left naked and helpless. Any alive after that would not last a night of bitter wind and squalls of icy rain.

Already the afternoon light was fading to dusk. Here and there a flickering light glimmered. Using a lantern, even a shaded one, was a calculated risk. It might reduce the chances of falling into a rocky gulley and breaking a limb. But it also betrayed the holder’s presence.

By now news of the stricken schooner would surely have reached Lieutenant Crocker. As one of his duties was to prevent the looting of wrecks he would call out the dragoons. But it would take them at least an hour to get here. Given the speed at which night was approaching it would be dark by the time they arrived.

As he was due to bring back a cargo in the next few days, the Riding Officer was the last person Devlin wanted to see. He turned back to the mate. ‘Leave the ship now or you’ll die.’

The mate shook his head. ‘The baby’s things – I have to –’

‘Forget it,’ Devlin snapped. ‘Can’t you hear? They’ve broached the casks.’

‘But it’s all we have left –’

‘Do you want to see your wife used like some dockyard whore? Fought over by men mad with drink? Do you know what she’ll look like when they’ve finished?’ He did. He and Jared, eighteen years old, had been part of a salvage team. The brig was carrying cognac and they arrived too late. They found the crew spread in bloody pieces over the beach and the captain, out of his senses, crooning to what was left of his wife.

Seared into his memory the image had haunted him for weeks. Now, nine years later, he saw it only in the occasional nightmare.  

Vanson recoiled, eyes wide, his mouth working as if he were about to vomit. ‘No –’

‘Then get over the side. I’ll pass her down to you.’ Putting his arm around the young woman’s shaking shoulders, Devlin felt the wet chill of her saturated clothes. She stiffened and let out a shriek of such despair that the hair on the back of Devlin’s neck rose.

‘Go on,’ he shouted roughly as the mate hesitated.

 Vanson hoisted himself over the gunwale.

‘No, no! My baby! I can’t – Jamie, where are you?’ Peering wildly round, Mary Vanson lashed out with feet and fists, struggling to free herself.

It was like trying to hold onto an eel. Grimly aware he was bruising her, but not daring to loosen his grip, Devlin half-dragged, half-carried her to the ship’s side. Sweeping her off her feet, jerking his head back to try and avoid some of the blows, he dropped her into her husband’s arms, then jumped down himself. ‘Here, give her to me. Mind where you put your feet. The rocks are slippery.’

Vanson seemed dazed. ‘Where should we – ?’

‘Over towards the harbour, as fast as you can.’

Jared and the captain were halfway across. Ahead of them the rest of the schooner’s crew limped and stumbled.

Hearing screams and shouting, Devlin glanced over his shoulder. Two men lurched across the deck, arms swinging wildly as they fought. Others pushed past, their arms full of blankets, casks of flour, and lengths of wood. Still more were dragging the wooden chests that held the crew’s belongings. Women and children formed chains passing buckets, pans, jars, and even pewter chamber pots filled with rum down to others waiting on the rocks.

Turning his back on the destruction he saw a figure running down the cliff path. The wind had whipped back the hood of her dark woo. . .