Ghost of the Thames Read Online Free PDF Page B

long
and short of it, sir . . . she’s banned from coming into the Oar.
Indeed, now ye understand why she’d be saying such things. Anything
to be bringing me trouble.” He shook his head forlornly. “And me, a
poor citizen, just trying to keep the wolves from the
door.”
    This was nothing more than what Edward
had expected. Another dead end.
    He tossed another shilling on the
desk. “I’ll be looking about the village for a while. Find me if
you think of anything else.”
    “My pleasure, to be sure, sir,” the
man said, brightening up. “And if ye see something ye’d like and
decide to be staying an hour or fer the night, ye just let me
know.”
    Moments later, Edward was glad to be
breathing in the damp air outside. Foul as it was and heavy with
the smell of the river, it was still more to his liking than the
air of the Broken Oar.
    At the upper end of the way, he knew
his carriage was waiting for him. Perhaps this is all a waste of
time, he thought, listening to the muffled noise of the taproom
behind the shuttered windows. He looked up at the three-quarter
moon above and shook his head.
    As he started up the lane, he heard
the soft cries of a struggling woman mingled with grunting of a
man. The sound was coming from a narrow alley next to the Broken
Oar. At the end of the alley, Edward saw a wharf in a clearing. It
was not difficult to imagine a women being taken by force there. He
made a quick decision and went quietly down the alley. Beyond the
wharf, the short mast and patched sail of a boat were visible,
bobbing up and down at the end of a rickety dock. The scene
unfolding in the open yard, however, made him freeze momentarily in
his tracks.
    A cloaked woman—wielding an oar that
was longer than she was tall—strode to where a grunting ox of a man
had his struggling victim pinned beneath him. Edward moved quickly
across the littered yard. Before he could reach them, however, the
woman swung the oar, striking the attacker on the side of the head
with enough force to knock the man unconscious.
    The assailant lay slumped over his
victim. And as the woman with the oar raised it again, Edward
recognized her in the light of the moon.
    “Sophy!” he said. She whirled to face
him. “What the devil are you doing here?”
     

CHAPTER 5
     
     
    “Captain Seymour?” Sophy would never
have recognized him if he hadn’t spoken.
    “Bloody hell,” he growled, moving
briskly toward her. “Did you just kill this man?”
    “I certainly hope so,” she replied,
looking down at the breathless woman, still struggling to free
herself from the dead weight of her attacker. Grabbing the man’s
hair, Sophy yanked his head back. He slid to the ground in a heap.
“No. He’s breathing. Too bad.”
    The victim was young, a tiny thing,
and she was shivering violently. Tears were pouring down her face,
reflecting streams of moonlight on her dark skin, and Sophy pointed
to a shadowy corner against the building.
    “ Over there, where you
won’t be seen.” The woman seemed to understand, and she quickly
moved into the shadows.
    “What are you doing here, Sophy?” he
asked, more sharply. “I was told you were still at Urania
Cottage.”
    “ I am still at the
Cottage,” she said quietly. “Three men have just gone into that
long shed attached to the tavern with the other women they have
brought. Do you have your pistol with you, Captain?”
    He frowned and nodded. She stretched
out her hand. “May I borrow it?”
    “Are you mad?”
    “I shall only need it for a short
time.”
    His hands landed heavily on her
shoulders. He turned her around until she had no choice but to look
up at him. “You will explain yourself right now.”
    She pointed toward the shed door.
“Those men are bound to come out any time now. I saw them force at
least a dozen women and children in there. This one. . . . ” She
kicked the body at her feet. “This one decided to give that poor
creature a lesson in proper behavior before going in. I