Free Saint Or Sinner by Christina Kendal

Chapter 1
     
     
     Sarah sat bolt upright in bed, her palms clammy, her pulse
racing. The bad dream had returned several nights in a row now and yet still
she couldn’t recall the details, just the leering face of their ageing benefactor,
echoes of his malevolent laughter still reverberating inside her head. An icy
shiver trickled down her spine, and she sucked in a deep calming breath and
released it slowly. The nightmare made no sense: Sir Horace had been the soul
of generosity, taking her and her father in when they had nowhere else to go.
Her body still thrumming with tension, she scrabbled around in the darkness and
finally managed to light a candle, despite the trembling of her hands.
    Flickering shadows danced over the walls as she rose from
the bed and wandered over to the open window, throwing back the heavy drapes and
filling her lungs with cool night air. The heady scent of roses wafted up from
the garden below and she took comfort in the reassuring familiarity of the
scene, her gaze lingering over the long sweep of perfectly manicured lawn which
tapered elegantly down towards the private cove. It was a beautifully clear
summer’s night, the trees and bushes standing out starkly in the moonlight, the
vast expanse of the ocean glittering far away on the horizon. She could hear
the sound of distant surf crashing against the rocks and smell the salt spray
on the light breeze.
    And then she saw it. A light blinking somewhere far out at
sea, a series of three flashes with a brief pause in between, the same pattern repeated
several times over. Her heart began to pound erratically in her chest.
Smugglers! But making use of Sir Horace’s private cove?She found that extremely
difficult to believe. Guessing it must be well past midnight, she dressed
swiftly and made her way on tiptoe down the back staircase and out of the
house, feeling a heady mix of excitement and trepidation at the prospect of
what she might discover. She knew it was reckless but as long as she remained
hidden what harm could befall her? And if she happened to spy a face she
recognised, so much the better.
    Abandoning the relative safety of the grounds she wound her
way cautiously down the familiar path to the cove, pausing to drink in the heavenly
beauty of the Milky Way spread out like a fine gossamer veil across the velvet blue
of the night sky. The unexpected sound of a gruff male voice somewhere nearby
jolted her out of her reverie and she shrank gratefully down behind a rock, her
heart hammering in her chest. Just in the nick of time it seemed: seconds later
a group of men passed within mere feet of her hiding place, seemingly
unconcerned about the amount of commotion they were creating. Probably bribed
the local Excise men to turn a blind eye, she decided. She caught a glimpse of
several faces, their profiles brought into stark prominence by the moonlight,
but none of them looked even remotely familiar.
    When she was confident it was safe once more she rose on slightly
shaky legs and began to cautiously retrace her steps, taking care not to lose
her footing. She was just wending her way through a patch of scrubby brush at
the top of the cliff when she was seized roughly from behind, a large calloused
hand covering her mouth to cut off her scream as she fought unsuccessfully
against her attacker.
             “Well, well, and what have we here? A lass wandering
about on her own at this late hour?”
    The accent was local, and a gravelly voice off to the left replied.
             “Take her to the Saint, he can decide how to deal
with her.”
    A gag of some kind was thrust roughly into her mouth and
then she was manhandled back down the path, kicking and struggling for all she
was worth, until finally they reached the beach and rounded a craggy outcrop,
halting outside the narrow entrance to a cave hidden within the towering cliff
face. A couple of lanterns illuminated the dim interior and as she was dragged
within she could make