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“I don’t know just how much John knows about this end of things,” Sir Janus said slowly, and Katie felt that he was being cautious which worried her further because it had not occurred to her before to ask why it had been necessary for the old man to ring John in London and tell him about the snatch of conversation that Fran had overheard at the Kismet. “But anyway I wanted to let him know that Fran had been eavesdropping and had heard something. It was as well to put him in the picture.”

“Yes, of course,” she said, still uncertain in her heart; her uncertainty showing on her face so that Sir Janus leaned across and took her two hands in his, shaking his head, his eyes gentle as he looked at her.

“I can’t be as honest as I’d like with you, Katie, and I’m sorry, but I promise you that John will tell you everything there is to know as soon as he can.”

“Oh, I wish I could see him again!” She had not meant to be quite so outspoken, but it no longer seemed to matter that the old man knew how much his grandson’s safety meant to her, and she felt sure that he did know. He watched Fran and Jamie for a moment in silence before he spoke.

“Fran and Jamie are going into Sea Bar tonight to celebrate,” he said at last. “I know that they won’t ask you to go with them, not this time, so if you would like to stay here with me at Coral House until rather late, there’s a chance you may see John. Would you like to do that?”

“Oh, I would,” she said, her eyes shining at the prospect. “I can tell Aunt Cora that I’m staying on for a party or something.” She frowned momentarily. “That’s the thing I like least about all this, apart from the danger to John, the fact that I have to lie to Aunt Cora, but John said I must tell no one and I’ve kept my promise.”

“I know you have, my dear.” The old man patted her folded hands understandingly. “And I know it hasn’t been easy for you to deceive your aunt; I’m sorry that was necessary, but it was, believe me.”

“I know," Katie smiled ruefully, “and it was my own fault really, wasn’t it, for following John that night. I shouldn’t have been so inquisitive.” She raised her grey eyes and looked at him pleadingly. “It will soon be over, won’t it, Sir Janus?”

“Soon now,” he promised.

Katie did ring her aunt and told her that she was staying at Coral House for a while, in fact until quite late, but not to worry as someone would bring her home. Jamie and Fran expressed some curiosity when she stayed with their grandfather instead of going home as she usually did when they were not to be there, but they were so taken up with their own little world that their curiosity was short-lived.

It seemed an interminable time until midnight and there was no way of knowing how long after that it would be before John arrived, if he came at all. The house was so silent with only the two of them and the frankly curious Golly, who wandered between the two of them as if he suspected that something was afoot, settling finally at Katie’s feet, his great soulful eyes fixed on her enquiringly. He obviously felt that she was the one most in need of company and, if the truth were told, she had never felt lonelier in her life.

Sir Janus talked to her and did his best to keep her mind off what could be happening at Barlow’s landing, but all Katie could think of was that quiet secluded little beach where she had gone with John and where he was now in all probability unloading contraband. Smuggling no longer seemed the romantic adventure it had when she had dismissed it so lightly that night on the cliffs with John; it was frightening and she wished there was some way to prevent John ever being involved with it again.

She glanced at her watch for the thousandth time and checked it with the mantel clock, seeing Sir Janus half smile at the oft repeated gestures. “I’m sorry, Sir Janus,” she said, “I really don’t mean to be such bad company. Please forgive me.”

“Of course, my dear, I understand, and it shouldn’t be long now.”

“I wish I knew what was happening there,” she sighed. “I’m so frightened that something may go wrong and they’ll get caught or something awful. I wish I knew what it was all about.” Her grey eyes misted with tears. “I wish I knew what was happening!”

“You will,” the old man promised, and added softly as he looked at her misty eyes, “You love him, don’t you, Katie?”

She nodded miserably. “Yes, I love him, and it may be that he’ll never know if something happens to him tonight.”

“Nothing will,” he assured her, and glanced up as she did herself at the sound of a car engine. Golly sat up and whined softly, his tail almost moving, his ears alert. The engine ticked over for a moment then a door slammed and the sound moved away again. The old man got to his feet when the front door closed and Katie stood up herself, her hands clasped nervously together in front of her, watching the door, while Golly walked over to it, his tail beating a welcome, when John opened the door.

His eyes went first to Katie and she saw a glint of something that could have been surprise before he frowned. “What are you doing here?” he asked, and she almost laughed her relief to see him so normal, so impatient as he always was. Sir Janus answered for her, his own smile one of sheer relief.

“I asked Katie if she’d like to stay with me,” he told his grandson, “and that’s not a very welcoming speech, John.”

“Sorry,” he apologised abruptly, and Katie noticed for the first time how tired he looked. His eyes had a dull blankness that she had never seen there before and there was an unfamiliar bleakness about his features that made him look hard and ruthless.

“How was it?” the old man asked, and John laughed shortly and without humour.

“Not very pleasant,” he said, “but it’s all over now, thank heaven.”

Sir Janus sighed deeply and put a hand on his shoulder. “I know,” he said quietly, “but it had to happen, John, and you can’t be blamed, you know.” He smothered a yawn politely and walked to the door. “You said you’d be going to your own place to sleep, so I’ll leave you to see Katie home. Goodnight, John. Goodnight, Katie.”

As the door closed behind him John turned and looked at her again. “Did Janus ask you to stay with him or was it your idea?” he asked bluntly.

“It was Sir Janus’s,” she said. “He knew I was worried about—about what might be happening.” She looked up at him, suddenly shy when she remembered what she had admitted to Sir Janus only minutes before he came in. “What did happen, John?”

He crooked a smile at her and she knew that she had told his grandfather no more than the truth when she said she loved him. “Shall we say it’s all over,” he told her, “and leave it at that?”

“What about Eleanor Barlow?”

The blank look appeared again for a moment in his eyes.

“What about her?” he asked, deliberately obtuse, she suspected.

“Well, now that it’s all over as you say, what’s going to happen to her?”

“She’ll spend several years behind bars,” he said, and though the words sounded callous she suspected that they covered a very genuine regret. She felt her heart turn somersaults as she realised the meaning of what he had said.

“Prison?” she asked, her breath short and her eyes wide as she looked at him. “But—but what about you?” He raised his eyebrows mockingly, but she was glad to see that the hardness he had shown when he came in had vanished. “Do you insist on me going to prison as well?”

“No, of course not!” she said hastily. “But—”

“I shan’t have to go to prison, Katie, let that be enough for now,” he said shortly. “And now I’d better see about getting you away from here before Fran and Jamie get back and start raising eyebrows at us.”

“But—” He ignored her protest and took her arm firmly.

“We’ll have to walk,” he told her, “but that won’t worry you, will it? We must try and get you home without alarming your aunt. Where does she imagine you are, by the way?”

“I told her I was staying late for a party,” she said. “But John, I want to know—”

“Not now,” he interrupted her again, and putting an arm round her shoulders pulled her towards the door followed by a hopeful Golly who was shooed back when they went out into the moonlight night and the fresh breeze that blew in from the sea.

He said nothing as they walked down the quay and round Quay Road and Webber Road. His arm still rested on her shoulders, but he looked set-faced and rather grim and she felt as if he was not with her except in body. Being in love with John Miller, she told herself, was not going to be easy, and she sighed in self-pity.

It was difficult to restrain all the questions that tumbled over themselves in her mind, but the adamant silence of her companion discouraged questions and she was still unbelievably relieved that he had come out of whatever had happened at Barlow’s landing apparently a free man, though how he had managed it she could not guess. When they reached Smuggler’s Rest he opened the gate for her and waited for her to go in. “Goodnight, Katie.”

“Goodnight,” she said, making little pretence of hiding her disappointment. It seemed that now he was safe from Eleanor Barlow’s wrath he no longer needed her co-operation or her good will. “John!” He turned, reluctantly it seemed to her and looked at her enquiringly. “Oh, nothing!” she said crossly, quelled by his aloofness, and went into the house.

She made no mention to Aunt Cora next morning as to why she had stayed late the night before, but she had seen the old lady eyeing her curiously, and when the bell rang, quite early, Aunt Cora answered it herself.

Katie heard John’s voice and her aunt’s and seconds later the door of the lounge opened and he came in alone, closing the door quietly behind him. “Your aunt is very discreet,” he said by way of greeting.

“Yes,” Katie agreed, her heart beating alarmingly hard against her ribs, “curiosity isn’t rampant in all the females in our family.”

He smiled slowly, shaking his head. “I have a feeling I’m about to be cross-examined,” he said dryly. “May I sit down for the inquisition?”

“Yes, of course,” she apologised hastily. “I’m sorry I should have asked you to.”

He seated himself in an armchair facing her, his blue eyes less chilling than they had been last night “Right,” he said wryly, “I’m ready. I can’t promise to give you all the answers, but as many as I can.”

“You make me sound terrible,” she said defensively. “I’m not as bad as all that, am I, John?”

“You’re not bad at all,” he told her, “and I don’t mind in the least if you ask me questions. You have a right to know what it’s all about after the way you took me on trust and kept silent when I asked you.”

Katie frowned. “I am worried about Doctor Barlow,” she said slowly. “He seemed such a nice person, not a bit like his daughter; he wasn’t involved in that business last night, was he?”

He shook his head. “No. He knew nothing about any of Eleanor’s activities at all.”

She smiled. “I’m glad, because I liked him. But Eleanor—” she shook her head. “Those mysterious packages that Kuran Bey passed to her.”

“Money,” he said shortly. “Payment.”

“I see.” She wished she did not see, and she wished too that she knew why Eleanor Barlow was to go to prison while John was still apparently scot free. Not that she objected to the idea, of course, but it was certainly puzzling.

“Now what’s worrying you?” he asked lightly, and sounded amused. “You have that puzzled look on your face again. What’s causing it?”

“John—” She rose from her chair, unable to sit there and talk as if nothing had happened. Seeing her get up he stood, too, facing her, apparently untroubled by anything that lay before him. “What about you?”

“What about me? Katie,” he pulled her into his arms, “haven’t you realised yet? Are you so determined to give me a criminal record that you can’t see the truth when it’s staring at you?”

She gazed at him for a moment or two and then realisation flooded through her like a warm glow of relief; her grey eyes were wide as she shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, “but I was so afraid that you would be caught that I couldn’t think of anything else. You told me you were a smuggler!” she added accusingly.

He shook his head, the vivid blue eyes bright with laughter.
“You
told
me
,” he pointed out. “I've never admitted to being anything of the sort that I remember.”

“But all that secrecy about not letting Eleanor know,” she protested, “and you weren’t a member of the gang at all, were you, not even pretending to be, except to me?”

“No,” he admitted. “But as I said, Eleanor did have ideas about me and it was dangerous for her to know that I felt—well—the way I do about you. You’re no match for a woman like that, Katie, and having put your pretty nose into the affair by following me that night, I had to make sure that nothing happened to you, and you were apparently quite happy to protect a crook.”

“Not happy,” she denied, “but I was prepared to as long as it was necessary.” She tilted her head to one side and looked at him thoughtfully. “So you’re a policeman?” she said, considering the idea.

“Special Branch,” he admitted, and smiled at her. “It was all very hush-hush and not for general broadcast.”

“The man on the cliff that night was—”

“A contact,” he said hastily.

“The same one you were talking to on the shingle that day when you said I was imagining things,” she accused, and saw him smile. “And that means that Clay Pengarth knows too, because he went to a lot of trouble to stop me raising the alarm.”

“You’re very astute,” he said dryly. “I shall have to be very careful, I can see that.”

“Fran and Jamie don’t know about—your job?”

“No; as long as I said I was in some business or other they didn’t ask questions.” She pulled a face at him. “Janus does, of course, and that’s why he tipped me off about last night. At least Fran did that much to help when she overheard that conversation and told you all about it. It enabled us to finish the job much sooner than we hoped.” He smiled at her in a way he had never done before and she felt a glow inside her that compensated for any worry she had endured last night.

“And now I know what you really are,” she smiled. “Do you mind?” he asked a little anxiously.