Suki, page 54
‘No, sir,’ she insisted. ‘’Tis as true as I stand here. Which this gentleman can confirm. Your slave master, sir, Mr Jack Daventry, and a kinsman of mine, as I daresay you will recall.’
Sir George flicked a limp hand towards the young man, who was standing politely waiting to be introduced, but he didn’t look at him. ‘Servant, sir!’ he muttered and continued to stare at his wife. ‘If ’twere true I should have known of it,’ he protested. ‘Frederick would have told me.’
‘Frederick knows nothing of it,’ Hermione told him. ‘I should have known nothing of it myself had it not been for Mr Daventry. He was the one who saw all and noted it, being your slave master.’ The fog of incomprehension began to clear. ‘My slave master ran mad,’ he said. ‘Stark staring raving mad. Sent to Bedlam, damme. Frederick told me so.’
‘No, sir,’ Hermione said. ‘Your slave master was sick of the fever and sent to Bedlam at the behest of your purser, that abominable creature, Mr Jedediah Smith, who, I might tell ’ee, sir, knew of the villainy and said nothing. How you ever came to employ such a man is beyond my comprehension. Howsomever, Mr Daventry could tell you more of this than I can, should you wish to hear it.’
‘Speak,’ Sir George said weakly. ‘’Twill all be iniquity, I do not doubt.’ And he sighed with the approaching misery of it.
So Jack told his tale, beginning with an account of how the surgeon chose the six strongest slaves, explaining what became of them and how they were discovered, and ending with a description of the secret hoard of cut cane that he and Blue had been shown by the slaves in the fields. ‘He purloins a tenth of your crop, sir, with every harvest. Your slaves were sure of it.’
Sir George listened with increasing anger, at first drumming his fists on the arms of his chair, then on his feet prowling and scowling but heavily attentive. By the time the full story was told, he had reached roaring point. ‘’Od’s bowels!’ he yelled. ‘The man’s an arrant knave, ’Od rot him. I never heard the like. Wants hanging, drawing and quartering, so he does. And I’m the man to see it done.’ It was time for decision and action. ‘I’ll go to Nevis myself on the first ship, damme.’ He rang the bell so furiously it was a wonder he didn’t pull it from the wall. ‘I’m obliged to ’ee, Mr Daventry, sir,’ he said, remembering his manners. ‘Uncommon grateful. There’ll be a bounty in it for ’ee, you have my word on’t.’
‘Well, as to that,’ Hermione said acidly, ‘you’d best think of paying him his wages first. He ain’t been given a penny piece by that rogue Smith.’
‘Is this true, sir?’ Sir George asked.
Jack looked him straight in the eye. ‘I fear so, sir.’
‘Not a penny piece?’
‘Not one, sir, though the purse was agreed upon before we sailed, as your brother will tell you. Fifty-one guineas, as I recall, to be divided between Mr Tomson and myself, he to take two-thirds.’
‘’Od’s blood!’ Sir George said to his wife, as Jessup materialised through the servants’ door. ‘I despair of human nature. We are into abomination here. All, Jessup. Pack up seven suits of clothes and so forth and lay out my travelling coat. I’m off to Nevis in the morning.’ He turned to Jack, and added casually, ‘You’d best come with me, young feller-me-lad, since you know the ins and outs of this affair.’
The order took everyone by surprise and, out on the landing, where she’d been standing right up against the door so as not to miss a word, Suki caught her breath so suddenly she was afraid they would have heard her and stepped back towards Ariadne’s empty room in case she had to hide in a hurry. Was she to lose him again so soon?
But Lady Bradbury was the mistress of any contingency. ‘Far be it from me to contradict you, my love,’ she said, taking breath to contradict him soundly, ‘but is this wise? I make this observation for your own good and the better accomplishment of your plans, which are too admirable to put to any hazard.’
Sir George’s brain lurched with annoyance and renewed incomprehension. ‘Hazard?’ he said. ‘I see no hazard. Mr Daventry will be invaluable, don’tcher know. Invaluable.’
‘Indubitably,’ Hermione agreed. ‘To arrive with a witness in hand would certainly add strength to your case. Howsomever, to be seen arriving with Mr Daventry might warn your factor that his conduct is to be investigated and in that eventuality you might find — indeed, I dare swear you will find — that all evidence would be destroyed or hidden before you could bring it to light. ’Tis a matter you will doubtless wish to consider.’
‘Aye!’ Sir George admitted. ‘’Tis true, deuce take it. But if such is the case, what is to be done?’
‘I could offer advice, my love, should you wish it,’ Hermione said, adding modestly, ‘such as it is.’
He waved a weak hand towards her. ‘Pray do.’
The plan she outlined was neat, simple and entirely to her purpose. Mr Daventry would mark the position of the slave compound and the illicit sugar store on one of Sir George’s maps. Sir George could then carry his evidence with him secretly and would be free to travel with a trusty servant, who being unknown upon the island would give no cause for alarm to its dishonest inhabitants, ‘until you burst upon ’em sword in hand.’
Sir George was stunned by its practicality and its self-enhancing drama. ‘Capital!’ he roared. ‘Upon me life! Couldn’t have planned it better myself.’
Jack cleared his throat discreetly and prepared to put in his own happy penn’orth. ‘If I may make a suggestion, sir?’ he offered. And when permission was granted with a lordly wave, ‘It seems to me, sir, that the ideal companion for your adventure stands in this very room before us. I refer, of course, to Mr Jessup. I know from Lady Bradbury that he has been her most loyal servant these many years but now that all her children are — um — settled, there will be less for him to do. Is that not so, my lady? Consequently…’ And he looked at the butler with a triumphant, insolent boldness, daring him to argue or refuse.
The two men bristled at one another, Jack cool with revenge, Jessup dark-faced with suppressed anger, while Hermione watched them and Sir George roared that it was ‘Capital! Capital!’ and declared that Jessup was ‘just the man.’ Eventually the butler dropped his eyes and Jack permitted himself a smile and the matter seemed to be settled.
‘You’ll need to pack two trunks, what,’ Sir George said jovially as Jessup frowned from the room. He beamed at Jack and Hermione. ‘Now for the maps, Mr Daventry. We’ll see to ’em here and now, what. No time like the present.’
Hermione held out her hand to prevent Jack from rising. ‘There is still the matter of the bounty,’ she said.
Sir George had lost interest in such matters. ‘’Twill wait till my return I daresay,’ he said vaguely.
But Hermione insisted. ‘I’d not wish you to travel with a bad conscience, my love,’ she said, ‘there being no worse companion on any journey than a pricking conscience.’
‘I’ll give ’ee my note of hand,’ Sir George suggested.
She persisted, as Jack and Suki listened with rapt attention. ‘I believe we could do better than a mere note of hand,’ she said. ‘I believe we could make this a matter of property.’
Suki caught her breath, Jack’s heart was racing, Sir George looked interested. ‘How so?’
‘You will remember the manor farm at Appleton, my love. You have always intended it for a stud farm, have you not? Very well, then. How if you were to offer the property to Mr Daventry in lieu of capital and by way of bounty? ’Tis in bad repair, I’ll grant you. The house is past rescue. But there’s a deal of good land attached and with hard work and a new owner — a man of bottom and enthusiasm, a good judge of horses, and a gentleman you could trust, I need hardly add — ’twould soon be brought to profitable order. In a year or two I dare swear ’twill be a model of self-sufficiency and outshine all stud farms in the country. How say you to that?’
It seemed an admirable plan. ‘Would you be agreeable, sir?’ Sir George asked. ‘Could ’ee take to the farming life, think ’ee?’ Land of my own, Jack thought, flushed with surprise and pleasure, a home, property, a new life as a gentleman, the very thing I’ve always known should be my portion. He understood little of farming, but none need know it. He could learn, and quickly, as he’d learned to be a slave master. And if ’twere to be a stud farm, he would be working with horses for the most part, which would be sheer reward. He might even breed another Beau. Oh yes indeed, he would be most agreeable.
‘Then the business is concluded,’ Sir George said. ‘Now perhaps we may proceed to our cartography.’
He reached the door so quickly that Suki only just had time to avoid him, skipping into Ariadne’s room as his first broad foot splayed out on to the landing, and she’d barely reached the servants’ door before Lady Bradbury was in the room and signalling to her to stand still and say nothing.
They waited until they heard the library door open and shut. Then Lady Bradbury gave rapid instructions.
‘You will have heard all, I do not doubt,’ she said. And when Suki nodded. ‘You are to make ready to travel to Appleton with Mr Daventry and master William within the week. The tailor is ordered for tomorrow morning but I doubt if Mr Daventry’s new clothes will be ready much before five days. Possibly more. Tailors are uncommon tardy. You will take one maid servant to assist you — Bessie would do well, I think — and Barnaby shall drive the carriage and look to the horses. He is a dolt when it comes to curtains, I fear, but he has some sense with horses and should do well in a stable. You will stay at Appleton until Mr Daventry’s new house is ready. I will send a letter to that effect to Mr Norris. Nothing need be rushed, you understand.’
Suki dropped a curtsey and murmured, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ but her mind was in such a turmoil she felt as if her brain was boiling.
‘Be of good cheer,’ the lady advised, nodding her powdered head. ‘All will be well. ’Tain’t the best of all possible worlds, in all conscience, but we must make what good of it we can. Ask Mrs Sparepenny to attend me directly.’ And she swept from the room, straight of spine and determined.
The buzz of gossip in the kitchen was so loud that when Suki stepped through the door it was like walking into a hive. Not surprisingly, William was very much awake, but perfectly happy, sitting on Bessie’s lap beside the table, chewing a sugar plum. He turned as Suki swished towards him and held out his arms to her, calling ‘Mamma-Sue! Mamma-Sue!’ but she barely had time to pick him up before she was surrounded by every servant in the place, all eager for the latest news.
‘Is it true the masters off to Nevis?’, ‘Have ’ee met the young gentleman? He come here with jest a blanket round him, half in a swoon he was. Do ’ee know who he is?’, ‘Mr Jessup’s got a face like a thunder cloud and won’t tell us a thing.’
No matter what may become of me now, Suki thought, as she held her baby’s lovely warm familiar body close and safe in her arms, even if Jack don’t remember me, an’ ain’t like to wed, an’ is come home changed to a distant stranger I barely know, I still have you, don’t I my little love, an’ that’s a deal to be thankful for. And your life’s safe an’ provided for now. You shall have fine clothes and good food an’ grow to be a gentleman, with rich toys to play with an’ money in your pocket an’ a pony to ride an’ all. She could just see him on a pony. He’d be a fine rider. Like his father. And she suddenly remembered the splendid sight Jack made astride that great horse of his. But of course, she thought: Beau. There’s still Beau. He haven’t been told a word about Beau. He don’t know I’ve a-rescued un, and kept un safe. A deal of good could come of that. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? I must write to Farmer Lambton and tell him we shall be in Twerton as soon as may be and promise him that he’ll be paid at last.
But meantime there was milady’s message to deliver to Mrs Sparepenny, and after that the pressure of all those questions to answer, which she did as well as she could, prevaricating a little and ignoring those that had to be avoided. And then the chores of the day carried her along and there was no time for hope or regret or even thought. When she finally fell into bed at a little after midnight, she was so tired she slept as soon as her head touched the pillow.
Chapter 38
Sir George left for Nevis early the next morning with a great hullabaloo and the promise to return in triumph ‘as soon as I have apprehended all villainy, what!’
His wife waited for an hour in order to be quite sure he was clear of the house and then, suitably attired in a new and splendid day gown, attended by a new and superior lady’s maid, and with enough clothes to sustain even the most anxious three days, she set off for a well-earned visit to her cousin, Sir Francis. Before she left, she handed Jack his earnings, paid in full and in gold coin, with the instruction that he was to take the second coach and four to Appleton when he was ready and meantime was to provide himself with clothing suitable for his new position. ‘Do not stint yourself,’ she instructed. ‘Appearances are so important.’
For the next five days, Jack Daventry lived between luxury and terror. By day he was treated like a lord, with abundant food to eat, a tailor to provide obsequious service, tradesmen to offer new wigs, buckled shoes and fine linen, and Blue to wait upon him hand and foot. By night he fell into a sleep hag-ridden by nightmare, where fierce women thrashed the child he had been, and asylum keepers threw the man he had become against walls and gratings and tied him in a straitjacket so that he could barely breathe. He was tossed into the sea to be eaten by sharks and crocodiles. Muskets beat his face. Cannonballs tore off his limbs. He woke groaning, with the sweat running down his spine and falling from his eyebrows, so that he had to shake it from him like a clog, and was glad of Blue’s comforting presence to call him back to the day.
In the afternoon he and Blue took a stroll in the gardens at the centre of the square and Blue told him how he had found the Llandoger Trow and travelled to London with Quin Cutpurse, and how they had held up coaches and robbed all manner of gentry and finally how the Spider had taken him to Bedlam, ‘Because I ask and ask. He say, “You come back to Seven Dials after. We got gentleman for you to meet.” But I find you, so I do not go back.’
That information made Jack suspicious, knowing how Quin liked to operate. ‘What sort of gentleman was that? Do ’ee know?’
‘He got cats,’ Blue reported. ‘He is…’ He struggled to remember the name. ‘Cat burglar.’
‘I have saved you from a life of crime,’ Jack said, ruffling the boy’s woolly hair. ‘And not a minute too soon.’
‘What is lifacrime?’ Blue asked.
But he never got an answer because at that moment Suki came out of the house leading her toddling William by the hand and, at the sight of her, Jack took flight and headed off for the opposite end of the garden to avoid her. There was something about her red cheeks and those bright eyes that triggered the most uncomfortable memory, and as he couldn’t determine whether it was a nightmare he was recalling or some actual and painful occasion, he simply removed himself from the pressure of it.
So when his last new jacket had been delivered and his journey was finally about to begin, he was very much put out to discover that she and the child were to travel in the carriage with him. He stood with one foot on the step, uncertain how to proceed.
‘Do you go far?’ he asked, wary but making an effort to be polite. But when she told him they were to travel all the way to Appleton together, he forgot his manners completely and rushed back into the house to find himself a book to occupy him on the road. The thought of sitting opposite those bold blue eyes for such a long journey was so disquieting that he had to have a barrier that could be held up between them whenever need arose.
His deliberately averted eyes made Suki ache with sadness. She felt rejected, especially after days when it had been painfully clear that he was going out of his way to avoid her. But she tried to cheer herself by observing that he looked a deal better than he’d been when she saw him in Bedlam-in-Moorfields and reminding herself that she would soon be reuniting him with his horse. He was immaculately dressed, in a brocade coat very similar to the one he’d worn on that first love-dazed summer of theirs — what an age ago that was! — the cut on his lip had almost healed, his bruises were fading, his skin was a healthier colour and his head was covered with the thick dark stubble of returning hair. It only needed his memory to return and all might yet be well. ’Twas foolish to blame him for unkindness if he could not remember her. Meantime she had taken pains to be well prepared for the journey, with one basket packed with bread, cold meats, beer and pickles to sustain them on the first leg of their journey and another full of toys to keep William amused. And she’d written to Farmer Lambton to warn him of their arrival.
It had been a difficult letter to compose, for she had to let him know that the Captain was returned without allowing him to think that they were already married or even like to be. She pondered for more than a day until she found the diplomatic words she needed, but when they were written she knew she’d done well and was pleased by her delicacy.
‘Captain jack,’ she’d said, ‘has been uncommon ill and is still a deal too weak to plan his future or even talk of it. ’Twill cheer him to see his horse again, but we must be mindful of his feelings which are a deal too tender at the moment. I would be obliged if you would say as little to him as you may and if you would advise my parents that I hopes they will do likewise.’
Now it was simply a matter of waiting and hoping.
Her letter to Ariadne, on the other hand, had been an easier task altogether. She had written to her at length and freely, recounting everything that had happened and describing her feelings in detail, from the shock of seeing her beloved as a lunatic in Bedlam, through the amazement of Lady Bradbury’s story of his birth — ‘which must be a secret atween us for I have given my word not to tell it to a living soul’ — to the relief of knowing William’s position was ensured and the embarrassment of being forgotten and unrecognised ‘which do break my heart I can tell ’ee, having loved him so long and so true.’
