Another Life

by Sara MacDonald

  ‘I will think about it, Charlie. Thank you.’

  She reached up to kiss his cheek. ‘Take care.’

  Then she moved quickly to wards Elan and Nell in the yard.

  Chapter 79

  ‘He has your eyes,’ I say in wonder, hardly daring to touch my tiny son.

  ‘But he has your hair.’

  ‘And both his parents’ foolhardiness, I shouldn’t wonder,’ Lisette says, pretending crossness, but her eyes tell me she is feeling no such thing. ‘I am going to my bed. Do not keep Isabella from her sleep, Tom.’

  She pauses. ‘Take care when you leave.’

  I look up. ‘Is there something I should know, Lisette?’

  Lisette sighs. ‘I am uneasy but cannot say why. It may be only that I am old-fashioned and nervous about the impropriety of you being here, Tom.’

  ‘I will leave like a shadow, Lisette.’

  We lie on the bed with the baby between us. I am silent and Isabella asks, ‘What is it, Tom?’

  ‘I, too, am uneasy. I do not like creeping round like a guilty lover. Isabella, we cannot stay here and I am afraid you have grown fond of the place and of the people.’

  ‘I have. But Tom, I am not a child, we cannot remain here under Richard’s nose, it would be cruel and impossible. This house and this village will always be here. It is a house we can return to with our children. I will arrange for it to be rented out so that it will not remain empty and fall into disrepair.’

  I smile, surprised. ‘I can see that you have thought about this carefully.’

  ‘I have. I wanted to know there was always a place to return to and that my children might also know this. Not my father’s house or my husband’s, but my own. A piece of my heart will always remain here.’

  I sit up and take her hand. ‘Isabella, do you feel the same sense of urgency to be gone as I do?’

  ‘I do, Tom. That is why I have tried to put my affairs in order and have spoken to my father and to my solicitor with instructions. Tom, it means so much to me to be reunited with my father. He seems suddenly old and gentler and somehow it has made me feel safer. Oh, I have so much to tell you …’

  I laugh. ‘We are going to have a whole lifetime of talking, my beautiful and clever Isabella …’

  How she has changed in only a few months. The girl is gone. This is a woman who can think for herself, for our child and for me. It is instinct, I think, like a mother in the wild with her cubs, who thinks ahead in order to survive. I worry less now about taking her to an unknown and strange destination.

  ‘I have obtained work in Prince Edward Island and a place for us to live. But I have also accepted work in Newfoundland for a few months. Even in summer it is a very bleak place. It comes with lodgings, but it may be better for you to wait for me in Prince Edward Island … I am worried that this new life will be strange for you and lonely.’

  I feel suddenly anxious, unsure that I am doing the right thing. Maybe we should stay in England …

  Isabella lifts the baby to her shoulder for he is grizzling and she pats him gently.

  ‘Tom. You know I have always wanted to travel and see foreign places. Why, I have hardly been out of Cornwall … But I do not want to be parted from you ever again. I want to come with you to New-found-land. I will be content anywhere as long as you are with me.’

  I lie back on the bed in relief. Isabella gets up and goes to the small nursing chair by the window and starts to feed our baby. I place my arms behind my head and watch her as she croons to him. I am consumed with love and pride and desire.

  All I want is here in this room and I long to carry them off to safety across the sea to begin our lives together.

  I say, ‘I made inquiries for passages to New England from Calais. It is a larger port and therefore easier to mix with the crowds. We will just be one more family seeking their fortune.’

  ‘And how shall we travel there, Tom?’

  ‘As yet I am unsure. We cannot take passage here in St Piran or from Falmouth, but I have friends in Penzance and Newlyn. I am afraid it will be another uncomfortable journey for you …’

  Isabella smiles and changes the baby to her other breast.

  ‘Do not think to dissuade me from an uncomfortable life with you, Tom, for I am afraid Thomas and I are going to accompany you everywhere.’

  We hear an owl out in the dark and smile at each other. We are warm inside and we are together. Isabella puts Thomas back in his crib and lies beside me on the bed. We lie entwined sleepily for a while, silent in the dark, but I cannot relax. I gently disentangle myself and kiss her forehead.

  ‘I must leave you to sleep, Isabella. I want to be up early to arrange things. If you do not see me tomorrow, do not worry, it is only that I am about my business …’ I go back to kiss her once more, then shut the door quietly.

  I am just about to open the door at the back of the house and slide out when I feel a hand on my arm. I jump and stifle a shout.

  ‘Ssh!’ Lisette says and draws me down the passage and into the kitchen. My father sits at the table where a single candle burns, looking grim.

  I can feel my chest tighten with anxiety. ‘What is it, Pa?’

  ‘Thy sister’s husband, John, is being paid by Sir Richard to spy on this house. He will know thou art back.’

  ‘How do you know this?’

  ‘Mr Vyvyan called me to his house earlier. He had overheard a conversation which worried him and then thy stupid brother-in-law was flashing money about in the public house. I followed him; he watches the house till dusk and returns at daybreak, but he is out there now, across the road, under the trees at the front. He is watching Isabella’s room.’

  ‘I have seen him too once or twice on the road but thought nothing of it, only that he was keeping out of Ada’s way on the route to the public house,’ Lisette says.

  I sit down heavily on a kitchen chair. ‘What does this mean?’

  ‘Mr Vyvyan thinks Sir Richard might be going to drag Isabella through the London Courts, ruin her reputation to get custody of the child.’

  ‘But the child is not his!’ I cry. ‘Why would he want another man’s child?’

  ‘Because he has no heir,’ my father says. ‘Mr Vyvyan can think of no other reason for him having the house watched.’

  ‘I do not think anyone saw me come here,’ I say. ‘I did not come by the road and I came in the back door. It was dark when Lisette let me in.’

  ‘Good,’ my father replies. ‘Mr Vyvyan is arranging a boat to France. Thou must be ready at dusk tomorrow, Tom. Lisette will get Isabella up to the house.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘John will know Isabella’s routine. I dare not wake her now in case he is still out there. But the baby is due his next feed just before sunrise,’ Lisette says. ‘A light is always on in her room at this time and I can prepare her to move quickly.’

  ‘John always returns to Ada’s bed some time in the night and he likes his breakfast. Isabella must leave the house then.’

  ‘One of the maids is the same size as Isabella. She will take her place for the rest of the day in and around the garden.’

  I stand up, shaken.

  ‘There is no fool like an old fool, Tom. Let me check John has gone, then get thysen back home and I will follow.’

  A few hours later Lisette touched Isabella in the half-light, trying not to startle her. She put a hand to her lips and Isabella sat up, instantly awake. The baby still slept and Isabella, trembling, started to take things out of drawers and place them on the bed. She knew she could take little.

  She took her private letters and the deeds to the house and placed them in her bag to give to her father, then she pulled a drawer out of the little carved chest of drawers and placed Tom’s letters and the grass ring between the back of the drawer and the base. She paused and abruptly went to her desk, wrote one more letter and placed that behind the drawer with the others.

  Hanna, the little maid, came in and put on one of Isabella’s dre
sses. Lisette had made a bundle of a doll for her to rock and croon to. The house was full of a sense of urgency which must remain within the walls.

  Isabella threw Hanna’s cloak around her with shaking hands and announced she was ready. Then come the worst moment: leaving Lisette.

  ‘Miss Isabella, do not say goodbye to me. I will come to your father’s house late this afternoon, but I must keep to my routine. I will visit Anna as usual with my bundle, and then I will make my way to you. We have always known this day would come … now you must go.’

  Isabella and Bridget, the other maid, slipped out of the back door. The day was still misty and they were glad of it. They linked arms with small Thomas hidden beneath Isabella’s cloak and made their way round the house and gained the path to the road. This was the one place any watcher from the front would see them, and they turned along the coastal path which would join the bottom of Daniel Vyvyan’s garden.

  It was a good three miles and Isabella could not believe how heavy a small baby felt after a short distance. When they were well on their way along the lonely path Bridget took the baby from Isabella, keeping him hidden. The girl was stronger than Isabella, and Isabella realized she had not yet got her strength back.

  Charlotte was waiting for them by the small hidden gate the family used to get to the cliffs. She was in gardening clothes, though certainly not gardening but watching for them, and was very relieved to see Isabella. She took the child and they hurried up to the house.

  Her father greeted her at the door. ‘Come in, come in, Isabella. Come, you must breakfast, then we must talk. You are very pale.’

  Isabella turned to Charlotte. ‘Will you take care of Bridget, Charlotte? Do you not think it better that she return with Lisette later?’

  ‘I do. Come, Bridget, I will take you to the kitchen.’

  Her father poured Isabella her tea and she saw that his hand was not quite steady. She looked around the breakfast room. She had not been here since she was fourteen years old and yet it was much as she remembered it.

  ‘Papa, what is it that you heard that so concerns you?’

  Daniel sighed and drank his tea. ‘I have thought for a while that Richard has not been himself. Allowing for his distress over your … all this business, Isabella, he has been behaving most oddly of late. He consults with me less often, that too is understandable in the circumstances, but some of his decisions have been uncharacteristically rash.

  ‘At the board meetings, when shareholders start to question his judgement, which has always been sound, he grows most obstinate and rude. Men are beginning to withdraw their money, after all it is not just Richard’s money that may be lost over an inadvisable investment.’

  Charlotte came back into the room, followed by a maid with thin slices of bread and a pot of honey for Isabella.

  ‘Thank you, Charlotte. Is my baby …?’

  ‘He is safe on Cook’s knee. I will return him to you as soon as you have breakfasted.’

  Daniel went on. ‘I really do believe your husband to be quite irrational at present, Isabella. Whether this is due to drink or grief, I do not know. I am not the only one of his friends who has come to this conclusion. It was Trathan who gave me warning, Isabella.’

  ‘Mr Trathan! Why, he has been with Richard since his naval days. He is a loyal servant and devoted to Richard.’

  ‘That is why I took note of what he had to say. He told me the Summer House was being watched and that Sir Richard had been behaving out of character, and that he did not know how or for what reason, but he believed you to be in danger. He told me it was with profound sadness he came to me but he genuinely believes Sir Richard is about to do something he will deeply regret while he is not of a sound mind. That is why he came. And I consider that a loyal servant.’

  ‘I, too, Papa. So I have driven Richard to act …’

  ‘No, Isabella. I have seen lately what I could not have known before. Richard’s family have a long history running a small empire. He is used to control and totally unused to not having his way. I also see him as something of an obsessive. He cannot come to terms with what has happened.’

  ‘Papa, he used to be one of the kindest men I knew.’

  ‘But a jealous one?’

  ‘Very, Papa.’

  ‘And there you have it, Isabella. Will you rest for half an hour while I see to the day’s business? I want to check … I will talk to you later. I will leave you with Charlotte.’

  He squeezed his wife’s shoulder and was gone.

  ‘Charlotte, I know it is silly, but I need Thomas within sight of me.’

  ‘I am not surprised. Come, we will go upstairs and then I will bring him to you.’

  She took Isabella’s arm. ‘I thought you might like to rest in your mama’s old room.’

  Helena’s rooms had been redecorated beautifully, the colour of primroses. And the piano was in the same place. When Charlotte had gone, Isabella lifted the lid and ran her fingers along the keys, and the ghost of her childhood and Helena’s voice filled the room. Isabella wept and realized she was weeping for the thing she had done to Richard. The terrible, irreparable hurt that would lie side by side with her happiness with Tom.

  Thomas was brought to her and she lay with him on Helena’s bed with her eyes closed, not sleeping but listening to the movements of a once familiar house which had not changed much and which comforted her. She tried to still her heart, which would not be still until Tom was there, until they were both gone from St Piran to their new life.

  The rest of the day was spent signing things for her father, giving him powers to send her money on to her. To oversee the Summer House as part of his estate. Sensibly he asked her to sign a will in order that Thomas might be financially safe, for his estate would eventually go to his grandson.

  ‘I am unsure of the law, Isabella. If you remain legally married to Richard, if he will never grant you a divorce, your money must be safeguarded for you and your children. As you know, Charlotte has no children so all I have will come to you.’

  ‘Papa, we will not leave England forever, my heart is in the Summer House and my children will come there and their children. It is a place of happiness …’

  Her father smiled. ‘And illicit love, it seems.’

  Isabella blushed. ‘Papa, I love Tom so much. He is my whole life. I could love no other, no other at all.’

  Her face was alive with her happiness and Daniel Vyvyan said gently, ‘I have the greatest respect for Ben and I do not doubt Tom is like his father. I have no fear for you.’

  ‘Thank you, Papa.’

  ‘Tonight I have arranged a vessel into the cove. The tide is right and although it is not ideal I cannot risk any harbour or port this side of the coast. But you will have to be rowed out, no schooner can come beyond the rocks and there are the neap tides. She will sail to a small port in France … where I have bought three passenger tickets on a schooner to Newfoundland.’

  He smiled at his daughter. ‘The schooner is the safest one I know for you to travel on. I have just bought her for a great sum of money. You will be three or more weeks at sea, Isabella, and it will not be an easy voyage, but you will be free to lead a life you have chosen and I denied you …’

  His voice broke and Isabella went to him. ‘Oh, Papa …’

  He held her for a moment and then kissed her forehead. ‘Go and rest, feed your baby and then prepare for your journey.’

  At the door, Isabella said suddenly, ‘Three passenger tickets, Papa?’

  ‘Did you think Lisette would let you and young Thomas leave without her? You are a Mr and Mrs Foye travelling with your baby and nursemaid.’

  At midnight a little procession slipped out of the small gate and crossed to the coastal path, dangerous in the dark, until they reached the cove. Charlotte and Daniel held Isabella’s arms as they stumbled down the steep stony path to the cove. Two servants held lights to guide them as they descended. Isabella was afraid of falling with the baby but would not let any
one else carry him.

  There was a rowing boat swinging gently on the black slate sea and a moon so rapidly come from the clouds they did not need their lights and extinguished them. Standing by the rowing boat were Anna, Lisette and two seamen.

  Isabella embraced Ben and Anna, Charlotte and her father, and then the baby was handed to Lisette in the boat. Tom lifted Isabella in and climbed in himself.

  ‘God go with thee,’ Ben whispered.

  ‘God be with you this day and always,’ Daniel echoed.

  The sailors pushed the boat away and jumped in. Isabella watched the four people on the shore who seemed to move closer together for comfort. The night was silent except for the slap of the oars in the water. She stared and stared back at them, in sudden anguish for the loss of a father she had only just found again, and for Ben and Anna who were losing Tom and their grandson.

  She felt suddenly afraid and cut off from all she knew. Her father, her home, her place of safety. But she made no sound. This was just the beginning. Her life was with Tom. She was with Tom, and all would be well.

  Chapter 80

  Josh visited Marika before he left for his posting in Germany.

  ‘Did you have a good holiday?’

  ‘I would have preferred to go with you. Two blokes do different things. But I loved Turkey.’

  They were silent, looking at each other.

  ‘What did you do?’ Josh asked.

  ‘I worked in Marks and Spencer’s and was very miserable.’

  Another silence.

  ‘Marika, I don’t want it to be like this. I don’t want something my mother did to come between us.’

  ‘But it is not your mother coming between us, Josh. It is a thing in you I do not understand, and which makes me afraid because you are so totally inflexible in your first judgement. And even when you have had time to think you remain immovable.’

  ‘Don’t you see that you too are obstinate, Marika? If I’m judging my mother, you are judging me. I thought when you loved someone you supported them whatever your own feelings were?’