I nodded and showed him a crooked, sheepish smile. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t mention this to anyone.”
“Mention what?” He appeared genuinely puzzled.
“Nothing. Thank you, Angus.”
He merely gripped the oars and set both shoulders to the task of turning us about and heading landward. Need I say I nearly had to bite my tongue to keep from asking him to head over to Rose Island instead, so I could see what Winty’s companions had tossed in the water.
A small voice inside me asked why it mattered, what business was it of mine what Winthrop Rutherfurd did? But his connection to my cousin made it my business.
Might Winthrop have been marking a spot for a later rendezvous to secrete Consuelo off Aquidneck Island, perhaps a signal for where a boat should put in? Her mother dreaded the idea of their eloping, but that would certainly save her daughter from her unwanted marriage to the Duke. Good heavens, it made sense. Why, even now she might be holed up in the lighthouse, awaiting her chance to escape. And Mr. and Mrs. Curtis were conveniently away.
I had to return to Rose Island, but now wasn’t the time, not in full sunlight when someone might see me. Later then, once darkness fell, I’d go alone. At night the Rose Light would shine its beams out across the water, deepening the shadows directly below it, shadows that would safely conceal me.
If Aunt Alice, or anyone in society for that matter, could have seen me later that night, the shock waves would have been felt from one end of New England to the other. Yet I thanked my deceased aunt Sadie once again as I pulled on her old work trousers, button-down shirt, boots, and corduroy workman’s coat. Aunt Sadie had always said a single woman—as she had been by choice—had work to do, and she’d be damned if she went about sowing her garden or mending the house shingles in petticoats and lace.
A tweed cap stuffed with my hair and pulled low over my brow completed my look for the evening. I even smeared a bit of coal dust across my chin to give the illusion of beard stubble should anyone peer too closely as I drove beneath a streetlamp. Satisfied, I turned away from my mirror.
“Well?”
From her perch at the foot of my bed, Nanny surveyed me with a pout. “It’s not a good idea, you know.”
“Yes, well, it’s been more than twenty-four hours and I still haven’t found Consuelo. If my suspicions are correct, I can’t let this opportunity slip away. Or she might slip away.”
“Then let Jesse handle it.”
“I can’t, Nanny. I promised Aunt Alva complete secrecy. Calling in the police is a last resort.” My promise, however, weighed heavily on me. What if Consuelo hadn’t run off voluntarily? What if . . . but I refused to entertain the notion that she’d come to harm.
“Send Brady,” Nanny suggested next.
“Have you lost your wits? Brady? Oh, he’s the soul of discretion, all right. No, Nanny, I have to go, and don’t you dare breathe a word to him about this. I promise I’ll be careful. One hint of danger and I’ll turn right around and row back to the harbor.”
“Someone might recognize you.”
I glanced again in the mirror. “I doubt that.”
“Someone might recognize Barney and the carriage.”
This made me pause and sent my bottom lip between my teeth. I’d been so engaged in making sure I’d be unidentifiable that I hadn’t given a thought to my means of transportation. I glanced at the clock; it read nine forty-five. “Well, it’s late. Most locals are either getting ready for bed or they’re sitting in a tavern already beginning to see double. It’s the social set that will be traveling the streets now and they aren’t likely to spare me a glance. Besides, at night Barney could be any brown horse and the rig any black carriage. It’s not as if there’s a shiny gold crest on the side panel proclaiming my identity.”
“And what if the McPaddens’ rowboat isn’t where you’re expecting it to be? For all we know, the thing rotted away years ago,” Nanny persisted. “What then? Are you going to swim out to Rose Island?”
I snapped my hands to my hips. “You’re making me regret ever telling you my plans. You know that, don’t you? If the McPaddens’ rowboat isn’t docked behind their house, I’ll find another. This is the Point we’re talking about. Every house on the water has a boat.”
“Why is this your obligation, Emma?” Nanny asked so quietly I had to prick my ears to hear her.
“I just told you. I promised Aunt Alva—”
“No, Emma. The question I’m asking isn’t what you promised, but why you made the promise. Why do you think it’s your responsibility to put yourself at risk to find Consuelo?”