Beth sucked in a breath. “He’d hired him. I found Johnnie poking about in Piper’s Hole on St. Mary’s, and he admitted he’d been hired by an incomer to find Mucknell’s treasure. I thought at first the Scofields had hired him behind my back and was a bit put out—I wrote a rather heated letter to Emily’s father.” She shook her head. “If I could undo that, I would. But after the . . . misunderstanding about the Prince Rupert box, I was quick to suspect foul motives on their part. Regardless, Johnnie went to the cave that night, and he must have told his contact something that displeased him. Perhaps about me—perhaps knowing there was a rival looking for the same treasure angered him, I don’t know. But the morning after Johnnie’s death, someone left a note at my cottage that said, ‘Find the silver or you’re next.’”

Sheridan sank back against the bookshelves. “I never would have condoned such tactics.”

“Did you forbid it?” Beth drilled him with a glare as cold and sharp as an icicle. “Did you tell them to work together or not at all?”

“Well, ah . . . no.” He looked away, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck. “I didn’t think to, at first. That is, at first I didn’t even realize Lorne had come here. Then, when he sent a report . . . well, sometimes competition works to one’s advantage, you know.”

“And sometimes people end up dead.” Beth’s voice cracked. “Poor Johnnie didn’t deserve that.”

Casek pushed away from the table, not seeming to be calmed much by the hand Mabena rested on his arm. “Which of them did it? This Lorne bloke or the Scofields?”

Beth shook her head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there that night, I just—I knew he’d set up a meeting. And then . . .” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I didn’t know if they’d come after me next. But I knew I didn’t have what they wanted, and they seemed willing to make me pay for that. So I left, and I sent the rest of my rental money to a barrister in Cornwall to set up couriers for the remaining information that the Scofields would be sending to me. They were researching in London, trying to discover what could be in the treasure we’re looking for. What was on the ships Mucknell took.”

She blinked her eyes open again and turned to Libby. “I didn’t mean to get you involved, Lady Elizabeth.”

“What?” Bram straightened again. “What do you mean, get Libby involved?”

Libby cleared her throat. “These couriers thought I was her. I’ve been . . . receiving her post, more or less. My cottage had been hers.”