Calloway took up his hat. "Then I take it we are finished, sir."
"With the matter of the watch, Captain, we are." Mr. Trevisa hesitated. He looked old and troubled and very much out of his depth. "As to the other matter—the words this young man says he saw you speak last night, and just now—I hardly know what to say. It is not evidence I know how to weigh. I cannot detain a vessel that has been cleared by His Majesty's Customs on the strength of what a deaf ostler has read upon a gentleman's lips. It is not within my commission. If there is anything in it, it is a matter for the Collector."
"Then it shall be laid before him," said Marian.
She had not known she was going to stand up until she was standing. Everyone turned to look at her. Crispin had gone very still.
"I am the principal owner of the brig Constant, Mr. Trevisa," she said. "I signed her charter, and her outfit, and the order on the cooper. If she has been fitted out for the slave trade, then she has been fitted out with my money and under my hand, and I will answer for that wherever I am asked to. But I will not have it said afterward that I sat in this room and knew and said nothing." She drew a breath. "I am going to the Custom House now. I shall ask them to search her before she sails."
"Aunt Marian," said Crispin, very softly. "Think."
"I have thought, Crispin. All night. It is the only thing I have done."
He looked at her for a long moment. Then he bowed—a small, tight, furious bow—and picked up his hat, and went out of the room without another word. She heard his boots on the rectory path, going fast.
Captain Calloway did not hurry. He settled his hat on his head and pulled on his gloves, and paused in front of her on his way to the door.
"You'll find nothing, madam," he said quietly. "And when you've found it, you'll have made yourself the talk of every counting-house in Bristol, and your ostler will still be deaf, and the trade will still go on. I hope it keeps you warm."
"Good morning, Captain," said Marian.
*