Where Seagulls Soar (4 page)

A little knot of jealousy formed in Tilda’s chest. ‘I see. I’ve never heard you mention Gabriel Tremayne before. Where did you meet him?’

Joanna’s smile faded as she said gently. ‘You’re turning this visit into an inquisition. Be happy for me, Tilda? I love Alex. That’s all that matters.’

Tilda’s heart melted. If it hadn’t been for Joanna, with her indomitable spirit and her courage, Tilda would have starved to death by now. ‘Of course I’m happy for you. I
must be turning into a shrew.’

‘You’d better not, else I’ll cut off your tail. Bring David over for dinner with us before you leave for Portland. I’m sure Alex will want to see you both.’

Toby began to fret and Joanna picked him up. ‘I’ll have to put him to the breast. You won’t mind, will you?’

‘I’m not quite as prissy as that, yet.’ But Tilda was forced to swallow her envy as the child was suckled, for she longed for an infant of her own.

Alex had been working too hard – now he was greeting his brother, who’d unexpectedly turned up. Oliver had just stepped ashore from a ship he’d worked his
passage on, and had come straight to the office.

Oliver Morcant was not the same man who’d gone to America to marry his sweetheart, Susannah. He was shabby and downtrodden and his face was seamed. With a growth of unkempt grey beard on
his chin, he looked older than his forty years.

The two men hugged each other. Alex said, ‘You’ll come and stay with me, won’t you?’

‘I promised to spend time with our mother when I arrived, since she raised the money to bail me out.’

Alex raised an eyebrow. ‘You can’t go to see her looking like a tramp. There’s some clothing at home that used to belonged to Tobias. I was supposed to get rid of it, but I
didn’t have the heart. You can have it if you like. And you can take a bath and have a shave, at least.’

Oliver nodded, shamefaced. ‘I never thought I’d come to this. God knows how I’ll ever pay mother back. All I have is what I stand up in.’

‘You might as well know, Oliver. That wasn’t mother’s money. She raised a loan by forging my signature and using company ships as security while I was absent.’ Alex tried
to prevent the worry he felt from creeping into his voice. ‘The Morcant Shipping Company is struggling to stay afloat at the moment. Our cargo will be servicing the loan for years to come,
and I’m working round the clock to keep on top of it. As it is, I’ve had to lay men off, and put the
Nightingale
up for sale. I’ll be surprised if we get a decent offer,
though. We’re in a bit of a slump, and the banks are being tight-fisted.’

Pouring himself a small brandy, Oliver turned to gaze out of the window into the dying afternoon light. The ships’ masts cast long pointing shadows across a river of pleated pewter. He
said sadly, ‘I was going to ask you for a job.’

‘I can’t afford to take you on,’ Alex said bluntly.

There was desperation in Oliver’s eyes when he turned. ‘I’ll work for nothing to start paying the loan back. I’ll do anything, even crew.’

‘Stop it, Oliver. You’re too highly qualified for that.’

‘How do you think I got home from America?’ Oliver said bitterly. ‘The tub I was on leaked like a sieve, the rigging was rotten and the captain was a whisky-soaked,
foul-mouthed scab. He spent the entire crossing humiliating me. When a man needs a meal in his stomach, he can’t afford to indulge in pride.’

Alex flung an arm around Oliver’s shoulder in a sympathetic squeeze. ‘Aye, you’re right, but you’re my brother, and everything I have is yours to share. You’ll feel
more human when you’ve had a bath and dinner. Come home with me and meet my son. Mother won’t know you’re home yet, so you can stay the night. Tomorrow, I’ll ask around and
see what there is going in the way of employment.’

‘You have a wife and son now?’ Oliver smiled for the first time. ‘No, don’t tell me. I’ll wager it’s the Darsham widow. Anyone could see that she’d
grabbed you by the balls.’

‘And hung on to them, for that hasn’t changed. First, though, she got it into her head to take off for Melbourne, and left me dangling on a string. I had to go after her on the
Joanna Rose.

‘You actually went to sea, and on the Australia run?’ The laugh Oliver gave was laced with incredulity. ‘How did Thaddeus take it, having you on board?’

‘He loved every moment of it, especially when it got rough. I’m not ashamed to admit that I turned out to be as lousy a sailor as I thought I’d be. Thaddeus has retired from
the company now. The
Joanna Rose
has been offered to Edward Staines, else you could have had command of her.
Charlotte May
is on the Australia run as well, now. At the moment
she’s heading southward with the former first mate at the helm. When she returns, we’ll see how she’s placed for officers.’

Oliver tried to hide his disappointment as he nodded, making light of Alex’s news. ‘You weren’t tempted to return to naval school and earn your ticket after the Australian run,
then?’

‘Hell no! Joanna would make a better seaman then me. I wasn’t born with saltwater instead of blood in my veins, like you. I puked my guts up most of the way to Australia and most of
the way back. To be honest, I still haven’t settled back to normal, and I’ve been on dry land for over a week. My stomach still hurts, and sometimes I suffer from queasiness.’

‘It’ll pass.’

The brothers smiled fondly at each other and a lump formed in Alex’s throat as he said gruffly, ‘It’s damned good to see you again, Oliver. I’m sorry your marriage
didn’t turn out to be what you expected.’

‘I was a fool to trust Susannah, or her father. I sincerely hope you fare better.’

‘If nothing else, I have a feeling my life with Joanna will be damned interesting.’

With that said, the pair of them headed for the door, jostling each other like young boys, to cover the emotion of the moment.

Joanna flew from the drawing room into the hall, and threw herself into Alex’s arms. ‘You’re home early! How wonderful.’ She soundly kissed him, then
gazed up at him, her eyes sparkling, to scold, ‘How tired you look, my love. You’re working much too hard . . . Oh! There’s somebody with you.’

Flustered, Joanna smoothed her skirts and, trying not to grin at being observed by a stranger in a moment of intimacy with her husband, straightened up. But then he moved out of the shadows.
She’d met this man on occasion before, even though he looked ill-used at the moment with his shabby clothes and beard. ‘It’s Captain Morcant, isn’t it?’

He gave a rather self-effacing smile. ‘Nobody’s addressed me that formally for quite a while. Please call me Oliver.’

‘I’m surprised you recognized him,’ Alex drawled. ‘He needs a bath and some clean clothing. I thought he could have those suits and shirts Tobias left behind.’

‘You make it sound as though Tobias went off on an adventure instead of—’ Oliver suddenly looked awkward. ‘I’m sorry, Joanna, I’d forgotten you were once
married to Tobias. I hope I didn’t distress you.’

Alex exchanged a glance with her. She said, ‘You don’t have to apologize, Oliver. You knew Tobias Darsham much longer than I did, so it’s natural that you’d talk about
him with Alex. I don’t mind, since it helps me know him a little better, too. And perhaps his departure from our midst
was
an adventure for him.’

‘Of course.’

‘Now, I’ll go and sort out those clothes. They’re stored in the closet of one of the spare bedrooms. I’ll put some kettles and buckets of water on to boil. You can help
me carry them up when they’re hot enough, Alex.’

‘I’ll do that,’ Oliver said, ‘I can’t have you waiting on me.’

‘Nonsense.’ Halfway across the hall she remembered her brother-in-law’s troubles and turned back to give him a hug. ‘I’m so pleased you’ve come to us, Oliver.
You must stay for a while. It won’t take me long to prepare a room.’

‘That’s kind of you, Joanna. I’ll stay tonight, at least. Thank you.’

Alex said, ‘Where’s Toby?’

‘In the kitchen with Mrs Bates. He fell asleep in his carriage, but I imagine he’s awake by now, and probably being a pest.’

‘I’ll get him. You go into the drawing room and help yourself to a drink, Oliver. I’ll be with you in a moment to show off my son.’

Our
son, thought Joanna.

Following after her, Alex slipped his arm around her waist and turned her round to face him when they reached the privacy of a shadowy little passage to the kitchen. There, he kissed her.
‘Thanks for not minding about Oliver.’

‘Why should I mind? I like him.’ She touched her finger against his cheek. ‘How bad is the situation with the company?’

‘It’s a nightmare. Some of our oldest clients have got wind of what’s been going on, and are wary about shipping with us. I can’t afford to lower the rates, this time,
and our rivals are beginning to move in.’

‘We could sell the house, buy something smaller.’

‘It wouldn’t be enough.’

‘Well, I have my mother’s jewellery to sell. It’s in the safe keeping of my grandmother.’

‘That’s yours, Joanna. I’d never dream of asking you to sell it. And we must remember to guard our tongues in front of Oliver, for he knows nothing about your true identity,
nor that your father is still alive.’

‘Can’t you trust him, then?’

‘I think so, but he might let it slip out, and the fewer people who know about former events, the better. I wouldn’t like my mother to find out.’

‘Neither would I.’ Joanna refrained from making further comment but her mouth tightened. Previous encounters had left Joanna despising Clara Nash, and the feeling was reciprocated.
She hoped they would never have to meet again.

At dinner Oliver Morcant seemed more like the man Joanna remembered. Although still pleasant, however, there was a general air of disillusionment about him now. She was sorry
he’d been taken advantage of, since he was a kind man who didn’t deserve it.

When the men began to discuss the London sewerage system over dinner, Joanna grinned, recalling being chastised by her grandmother for doing the very same thing.

The men had forgotten her presence, she thought, and she enjoyed watching the brotherly interaction between them and listening to them talk.

‘If they hadn’t ruled that houses had to be drained into sewers, the river wouldn’t be in the state it’s in now,’ Alex said. ‘From the sewer pipes, the
effluent is conveyed straight into it.’

‘Are you saying the cesspits were a better method of disposal?’ Oliver answered.

‘Certainly not. When the river backed up, they flooded into the houses.’

Joanna transferred her gaze from the apple pie she was serving to the two men. ‘That’s because the streets are below the level of the river at high tide. The problem will no longer
exist when Joseph Bazalgette’s new pumping system is completed. Would you like custard on your pie, Oliver?’

When both men stared at her in astonishment, Joanna shrugged. ‘I read it in an engineering journal, somewhere.’ Exasperated she gazed from one brother to the other. ‘Custard
anyone?’

‘Thank you.’ Oliver exchanged a grin with Alexander. ‘Perhaps we should change the conversation.’

Her eyes widened in consternation. ‘Forgive me, I found it interesting, and didn’t intend to interrupt.’

‘It isn’t a subject for the dinner table, anyway,’ Alex said casually. ‘And women certainly shouldn’t concern themselves with such things.’

‘Pish! Why shouldn’t they be concerned when their children die from diseases that could be prevented by better hygiene?’

‘Like Oliver said, we should change the conversation. What have you been up to, today, Joanna?’

She bit down on her retort. ‘Tilda visited. We went for a walk with the children. She and David will be leaving in a few days time, going back to Portland. I’ll miss her.’

‘No doubt you’ll make other friends.’

Joanna doubted it. She didn’t really fit into London’s merchant class, and resented the loss of freedom that came with it. Being caged in crinoline hoops was a stupid fashion, and
she didn’t like having to watch every word she uttered, lest she offend. There was a false gentility about the women she’d met here. Although they might disapprove or complain about the
dirt, they wouldn’t roll up their sleeves and help clean it up, preferring to tread daintily through it, their noses in the air, pretending it didn’t exist.

Joanna had thought she’d never want to go back to Portland, but a twinge of envy surfaced for Tilda. At least the air was clean there. Life on the island had been uncomplicated on the
whole, and distance had made her regard it with a certain nostalgia. Here in London she had no place to stand and stare, to dream.

If she’d been given the choice she would have stayed in Melbourne, for there was a sense of adventure and purpose there that she’d never come across anywhere else. However, once Alex
had made his intentions clear there had been no choice for herself or her son but to return. Toby needed to grow up knowing his father, and Alex’s life was here, in this dirty city, doing
what he’d been brought up to do. As if he’d never had a choice, her husband lived and breathed the Morcant Shipping Company. It was his heart and his soul. Sometimes, Joanna feared his
intensity and sense of purpose, for it excluded her.

Oliver’s voice jerked her out of her reverie. ‘You have a beautiful son, Joanna.’

‘He favours Alex,’ she said, and her husband turned his dark eyes her way, to smile in a manner that melted her heart and banished her small moment of melancholy.

‘I’m taking Oliver along to my club this evening,’ he said.

‘You look as though you need to rest.’

Alex had eaten very little and there were lines of strain about his mouth. Brushing away her concerns he kissed the top of her head as he rose from the table, saying a trifle curtly, ‘Stop
fussing, Joanna, and don’t bother waiting up for us.’

An arrow of hurt drove into her heart.

The club was crowded with engineers. The talk was mostly about the virtues of steam power, with the same arguments being batted back and forth. Normally, Alex would have joined
in, but he had Oliver in tow, and there was only one ship owner there.