The Twisted Sword (37 page)

'I suspicion that Dwight has been the matchmaker,' said Demelza.

'I'm not guiltless. But in this company ... It is likely that Caroline and I would never have come together again if it had not been for that man's interference.'

'It's too long ago,' said Ross. 'I deny responsibility. But if it comes to matchmaking, Demelza is in the forefront of us all.'

'Well,' said Demelza, and blew a cherry stone genteelly into her fist, 'that's as maybe. But d'you know, the one I regret was the match I didn't make. Betwixt my brother Sam and Emma Tregirls, as she then was. There was such a gap - Sam's religion, you know - so I suggested they should part for a year .. . Emma went to Tehidy. But before the year was up she married the footman there, Hartnell, and so it was too late for Sam's happiness.'

'He's happy married now,' said Ross. 'So is Emma. I do not think it could ever have worked ... But seriously, Dwight, if you think well of Music Thomas, I wish you might find time to call and see Zacky and Mrs Zacky. They would take greater notice of what you said, and it might set their minds more easy.'

'I will. I would take Music with me, but I know he would be so sweatily nervous that he would show to the worst advantage.'

'If ee please, mum,' said Betsy Maria Martin, of that ilk, coming in. 'Henry d'say you promised to go up and tell him goodnight.'

'So I did,' said Demelza. 'I'll come in five minutes.'

Supper was all but over, but they stayed round the table chatting in the desultory way that Demelza so enjoyed. Caroline had sent her two daughters to an expensive school in Newton Abbot but she was not satisfied with it and was considering keeping them at home again and employing a teacher-governess.

'We want someone like your Mrs Kemp,' said Caroline.

'Someone with a rod, if not of iron, at least of birch, to stop Dwight spoiling them.'

'Oh Mrs Kemp was wonderful in Paris,' said Demelza.

'She was a rock. But do not suppose that she is so highly educated that she would suit for Sophie and Meliora. Have you asked Mrs Pelham's advice?'

'Oh my dear darling aunt is at last showing signs of age, and although she loves to have us all there I do not think she would willingly undertake the semi-permanent custody of my two lanky brats.'

'I wasn't thinking that. I was thinking she might know someone. You need someone more like Morwenna, who was so good with Geoffrey Charles.'

They sipped their port. Then Demelza rose.

'Well, I suppose I must not keep Henry waiting.'

"The future Sir Harry,' said Caroline. Yes, that's so.'

'Though I trust a long way in the future. And always I suppose subject to whether Cuby's child is a boy or a girl.'

'Oh?' said Demelza. 'Oh, yes.'

'Have you heard from Cuby?' Dwight asked Ross.

'I think she plans to come down next month.'

IV

In bed that night Demelza said: Is that true, what Caroline said about Cuby's baby?'

'What was that?'

"That if it should be a boy, he would inherit the title, not Henry.'

'Yes, I suppose so. Does it matter?'

Demelza thought it over. Ross said: 'It is of little moment to me that I should have a title to pass on. Do you care?'

'I'm not sure, Ross. I think I do. I certainly care that you . have a title, as you know. And Cuby's son is your grandson, and it would be well enough if he inherited. But... I think that Henry is your son, and it would be more proper for him to have it.'

'Maybe. I hadn't thought. It is not important. Anyway nature will make up its own mind.'

The window was open on the warm night, and a moth flew in. It began to make perilous circuitous reconnaissance's round the candle.

'Old Maggie Dawe used to call 'em meggyhowlers,' said Demelza.

'What? Oh, did she? That's a name even Jud didn't know.'

'Have you seen him since you came home?'

'No. I must go tomorrow.'

'I went early on, but it was in the first shock and I do not suppose I was as attentive to their complaints as usual.'

After a pause Ross said: 'Did you know that Cuby was in Cornwall?'

'No! Is she coming here?'

'I avoided a direct answer when Caroline asked. Cuby promised to come here for the birth of her child, but that is three months off. She is staying at Caerhays with her family.'

'Oh.'

'She did not mention it when I left her. Perhaps there has been a change of plan.'

'Who told you?'

'I saw John-Evelyn Boscawen in Truro yesterday. He knew Jeremy well, of course. They were of an age. He assumed I knew about Cuby.'

Demelza thought this over too. 'I think she might have written.'

'Perhaps she will.'

'She was some nice to me when I was in Brussels.'

'She may feel a few weeks at home will be good for her first. She was still in a state of shock.'

'We all are.'

'Indeed.'

'Shall you go over and see her, Ross?'

'Oh no. I think the decision to communicate with us must come from her. We must give her time.'

'Time,' said Demelza. Yes, I suppose we all have lots of time...'

In the warm night you could hear the thunder of the sea on the beach. It was there almost all the time but only on quiet nights did it penetrate to one's consciousness. 'Rum-a-dum-dum,'' said Ross to himself. 'Rum-a-dumdum.' Pray God that sound would never be heard again.

'What were you muttering?' Demelza asked.

'I was cursing under my breath.'

'What for?'

'Because I have to get up and push your meggyhowler out of the window. Its suicidal tendencies will prevent me from going to sleep.'

'Put out the candle.'

'Then it will flutter round our faces in the dark.'

'Looking for another flame,' said Demelza.

Moses was a good mount. He was mettlesome and took some controlling at first but after a week or so he took to his new owner. Stephen was not the easiest of riders: he didn't really know how to gentle a horse along, persuading him instead of ordering him, he didn't talk to him enough. (When Clowance, the unloquacious, rode with Nero alone she talked to him all the time.) But they came to understand each other. It is probable that Moses' former owner, if he was a cavalry officer as well as a huntsman, had treated his horse well, ridden it hard, and lacked finesse. If so Moses, who had a hard mouth, recognized a new and similar-minded master. 'Geldings always make the best jumpers,' Stephen said. He was delighted. He was noticeable on this horse wherever he went. He temporarily neglected his shipping interests and galloped each morning with Clowance over the moors west of Falmouth. He couldn't wait for the next hunting season to begin. He couldn't wait to show his horse to Harriet. An opportunity for this occurred earlier than he had expected. Sid Bunt had put in to Penryn, and after reporting and checking his stores he was off with the Lady Clowance like the delivery van he was, to complete a half dozen commissions up the Fal. Most of these were workaday, but the big house at

Trelissick had ordered a harp and two paintings, two late Opies - the painter had been dead several years but his work was becoming still more prized. Stephen was interested enough to see that these all travelled well, and in the ordinary course of events, if he had been free of his other vessels, he would have sailed with the Lady Clowance as far as King Harry Ferry for the off-loading. This time, because he was so proud of his horse, he rode overland to meet the Lady Clowance there. He superintended the landing of the cargo and met the owner of the house and took a glass of sherry with him before he started for home, full of the satisfaction of having made one more influential acquaintance.

Trelissick is not far from Cardew but it is separated from it by the Carnon Stream. Having dropped down to stream level and crossed by the old bridge, he let Moses amble along at his own pace enjoying the sunshine and the warm air. On impulse he turned into Carnon Wood, remembering the hunt had once taken them through there, and the hair-raising ride - almost literally hair-raising - they had had among the low branches. The wood was not above twenty acres in extent but it had only one decent path through it and a clearing with a workman's hut, part ruined, in the middle. At an earlier season the ground was ablaze with bluebells and wild daffodils. Rabbits abounded and lots of game -- hares, badgers, woodcock, snipe. As he came into the clearing he saw a woman pacing cautiously round the perimeter. She was tall and well dressed, in a purple riding cap and waistcoat with nankeen coloured skirt, worn short enough to show purple shoes and embroidered stockings. It was Lady Harriet Warleggan. Her rich black hair was in a queue. She carried a riding crop.

'Harriet!' called Stephen in surprise. She stopped and looked at him, scowling into the sun. At first she did not look well pleased as he rode up and dismounted, taking off his hat.

'Well, well, so it is our conquering hero!'

'What a vastly agreeable surprise!' he said, taking her gloved hand. 'I had not hoped to meet you here - and out walking in your He hesitated. Because she was tall and well built, her figure only just showed the child she carried.

'In my present condition, you were going to say?'

'Well, me dear, maybe I should just say I'm gratified to find ye out walking.'

'I shall be out walking for some time yet. Being in whelp is not so disabling as I supposed it was going to be. But do not be concerned: Nankivell is at the edge of the wood, holding Dundee for me. Also Castor and Pollux. I am well mounted and well escorted.'

It was not in Stephen's nature ever to feel awkward - it was one of his charms - and he explained his presence here and what he had been doing this morning and asked her what she was seeking in the wood.

'Foxes,' she said simply. 'We cannot hunt 'em for two months yet, and by then, God dammit, I shall be too far on to participate. But I can still keep an eye on 'em, see what cubs they have. Even if you can't catch 'em at play you can usually tell by the billet they leave. You've spoiled my quest, Master Carrington.'

'I'm not sure I follow.'

'Simple enough. Why else do I leave my escort a quarter of a mile away? It is not the exercise of walking that I so much enjoy. But I had hopes I might see one or two of my little friends and gauge their health and numbers. That is not best done in the company of two clumping horses and a brace of boarhounds.'

Stephen laughed. 'Well, since I've spoiled a part of your quest, can I not help ye with the other part of it?'

'What is that?'

'Counting the droppings.'

She smiled at this. He tethered Moses to a suitable tree.

'A fine horse,' she said.

'Aye,' said Stephen, bridling. 'I wished for ye to see him. Something I bought last week in St Erme. He is quite a special animal.'

'A bit heavy in the hindquarters, do you not think?'

'Nay, 'tis the breed, Harriet. And he has a fair weight to carry.'

They moved towards the hut, but Harriet turned off sharply to where there was a rift in the ground and a couple of gorse bushes, still in semi-flower.

"You see, there's an earth here. Badgers have made it but foxes are living in it. I'll lay a curse there's a handsome lot of cubs in there. I was hoping to catch 'em at play.'

'I'm in disgrace, eh?'

'No matter.' She allowed the gorse bush to fall back into place and brushed some prickles off her gloves. 'We'll look in this hut and then be done.'

They walked across the clearing.

'How is Clowance?'

'Well and fine, thank ee.'

'She must have been much upset by her brother's death.'

'Oh she was. So was I.Jeremy was a sterling fellow.'

'I gather that while he was fighting Napoleon you were fighting the French in a more profitable way.'

He glanced at her and laughed. 'You speak the truth. I had me narrow escapes, I can vow. But, thanks to you, I got the opportunity to make the venture.'

'Thanks to me?'

'Well, ye must know that Sir George and I fell out - or maybe it is more true to say that he soured of me for some reason and threatened to withdraw all credit. I was as good as a ruined man. Then, for some other reason, he changed his mind and allowed me to continue to function on restricted credit. 'Twas that that brought me to a situation where I had to go for all or nothing as a privateer.'

'Indeed,' said Harriet at the entrance of the hut, 'so that's how it was.'

'That's how it was. And I have you to thank for it.'

'I am at a loss to know why you should think so.'

'I b'lieve Clowance told ye something of our straits and that ye intervened with Sir George on my behalf.'

'What a quaint thought!' She led the way into the hut. It was a wooden structure, with part of the roof gone and the door fallen in. Inside there was a lot of etiolated grass, a few brambles, some small bones, ashes from a fire. Harriet stirred the grass with her foot. 'Some tramp has been sharing it with the foxes.'

'Foxes?'

'Oh, they'll come in places like this, especially if their earths have been stopped. We have been led this way more than once and the scent has gone cold. I wonder

'I mind once last year,' said Stephen, 'last December, we came this way, dashing through the wood. I nearly came off! As usual, you was in the front.'

'Dundee is very surefooted. And we've been together a long time; since before I married George. We don't often make mistakes in the field.'

'Was your first husband a great hunter?'

'Oh yes, he lived for it. He was Master for a time, not of this pack, of course, but in North Devon. Nearly ruined himself - and in the end broke his neck at a gate. Well, God rest his soul, it was as good a way as any to go.'

Stephen had not been alone with this cool, articulate, downright woman in quite this way before. She was physically very attractive; pregnancy had given her an extra bloom. She had never spoken so openly and personally. It excited him. She was stooping, stirring over the bones with her crop. He bent beside her, aware of her perfume, of her queue of black hair, of the flush in her normally sallow cheek.

'Do you see anything?'

These rabbit bones are new. And these are chicken bones and something bigger. Mme Vixen has been sharing her vittles with someone else.' She straightened up, and he straightened up beside her.

'Harriet.'

"Yes?'

"Twas your doing, was it not, keeping George from bankrupting me? Don't deny it. I have to thank ye.'

'Is it not better to forget it all? Or why do you not give George the credit?'

'Because it is yours and I have to thank ye.'

She had her back near the wall, and he put a hand on the wall each side of her, imprisoning her. The wooden shack creaked under the weight of his hands. She looked at him coldly, great eyes very calm. He kissed her, first on the cheek and then on the lips. It was a long kiss. Then she put hands on both his shoulders and pushed him away. It was slow but firm; she had strong arms.

She took out a handkerchief and dabbed her lips. Then she picked up her crop, which she had dropped and stooped to turn over the bones again.

'I heard a parson once in the pulpit,' she said, 'state that man was the only creature that killed for pleasure. Damned nonsense. A fox will kill anything that moves, that flutters, that shows signs of life. So will a cat. So will a leopard. Foxes are nasty little brutes, but I love 'em.'

'I can kill things that flutter,' said Stephen. He followed her out of the hut.

'I think we will rejoin Nankivell.'

Stephen unhitched Moses and followed the tall smart woman through the trees. They came out into the field beyond, where the little groom was waiting with two horses and two dogs. Nankivell got to his feet, taking off his hat; the two big boarhounds rose and stretched and made whining noises. Harriet did not have to bend in order to rub their ears.

'Nankivell, take the dogs back by the road. It will do them good to trot with you. Mr Carrington and I will canter back across country.'

"S, m'lady.'

Harriet put out a hand and Nankivell helped her mount. The two horses, Dundee and Moses, eyed each other. Harriet gathered her reins, adjusted her cap. She had not looked at Stephen since they came out of the hut.

'Well, be off with you.'

"S, m'lady. Beg pardon, m'lady, but Sir George did tell me to see as ee did not go cross-country galloping. He says to me, Sir George he says, mind you see her leddyship don't do any jumping or galloping--'

'Never mind what Sir George said. It is what I say. Mr Carrington will see me home.'

'Willingly,' said Stephen.

'That's if he can keep up with me.'

In silence they watched Nankivell mount and trot reluctantly off, with Castor and Pollux on long leads behind. It was obviously a routine the dogs were used to. Stephen was still standing beside his horse, but now he essayed to mount. Harriet watched with a critical eye as he struggled into the saddle. It was not so warm out here. The wind was picking up from the east, and they were not sheltered by the trees. But Stephen was warm. Harriet said: 'If you wish to know, I did influence Sir George in his decision not to withdraw banking credit from you. But I did it for Clowance, not for you. To suppose that I am in any way interested in you as a man is an unwarranted assumption. I have a debt of friendship and gratitude towards Clowance, which I discharged. That is all.'

Stephen patted his horse's neck. 'Maybe I've a debt of friendship and gratitude towards you just the same. Maybe once in a while you'll let me show it.'

Harriet said: 'Your horse is heavy in the haunches. If you're not careful he'll grow fat. I know the type.'

'I reckon he's a wonderful horse,' said Stephen stiffly.

'Every bit so good as yours.'

Harriet tightened her reins and looked across the smiling summer countryside. She said after a long pause: 'When you married Clowance, it was a big thing for you, Stephen. Be content with it. I do not think it time for you to consider moving farther up-stream. Good-day to you.'

She turned and went off at a fair pace, which soon turned into a gallop.

'C'mon, me lad,' said Stephen angrily. 'We'll catch her.'

He set Moses to the task, and for a short period gained on her. It was uphill and the bigger horse made ground. Then Harriet took a low hedge very gracefully and Stephen followed. Now it was level ground and the two horses galloped at about the same rate, Moses some three lengths behind.

Another hedge, a Cornish wall this, not higher but much broader. Over went Dundee. Moses dislodged a stone as he followed. Harriet looked behind and laughed. Stephen dug in his heels and whacked the hindquarters of his horse with his crop. It was lovely open country, between wooded slopes and tall individual trees. They were galloping now at a thunderous pace. He knew she should not be galloping like this, and knew that if he halted she would probably slow down. But he could not bring himself to check his horse. Harriet's words had bitten into him like a serpent, the poison seeping and spreading. She had even sneered at his horse. He knew he must overtake her soon and then, having caught her, he could slow her down and be magnanimous. His horse was bigger than hers and must have more staying power; besides, a woman, unless she is a daredevil, cannot ride side-saddle at the speed of a man. Harriet was a daredevil. She bobbed up and down, her queue of hair streaming behind her. Now for the first time she used her whip. They were coming to the next obstacle. Woods on either side narrowed to a gap protected by a high fence. Beyond it was a deep ditch. Harriet half checked, then slapped Dundee's neck; the horse took a sort of double stammer of hooves and took the obstacle in huge style. He just landed in the rubble and stones on the far side, stumbled and came to his feet as Stephen prepared to take off. Stephen had been nearer Harriet than he thought; their hesitation, which had really been only a gathering of muscle and determination for the leap, became in him a real hesitation; then he forced Moses forward with a stinging crack of his whip and the great horse took off half a stride early. He made a tremendous effort, cleared the fence by the narrowest margin. But both front feet landed just in the ditch and he fell. It was a great weight of animal to fall, and Stephen was flung off him, clear off him, and landed with a heavy crunch among the rubble and stones. Thereafter the world went black.