Meridon (Wideacre Trilogy 3)

by Philippa Gregory

  Peregrine staggered into the room.

  I lay still and did not say a word. I half closed my eyes and watched him through my eyelashes. He took a half step inside the room and shut the door behind him.

  ‘Sssshhh,’ he said to himself; and giggled.

  I lay in silence, waiting for what would come next. The drunken repentance, the blustering explanation, the tears, the promises to reform.

  He stepped quietly over to my dressing-table and there was a sudden scuffle as he collided with the chair.

  ‘Careful!’ he cautioned himself loudly. ‘Not too much noise now! Don’t want to wake her up! She’s going to have a surprise in the morning!’

  I opened my eyes a little wider. I had not expected Perry to be joyful. I had thought he had come back for the last ten guineas, perhaps for my jewels.

  In the flickering light from the dying fire I saw him pulling something out of his pocket, pieces of paper, and then I heard the chink of coins.

  ‘Perry, what on earth are you doing?’ I demanded and sat upright in bed.

  He jumped like a deer.

  ‘Damme, Sarah! Don’t shout at me like that when I’m trying to give you a surprise!’ he said.

  ‘You’ve already given me one,’ I said tightly. ‘You’ve robbed me, Perry. There’s £33,000 in bills made out to me missing from that drawer, and I know you took them.’

  ‘These you mean?’ Perry said joyfully. I reached over for my candle and lit it. He was waving a sheaf of papers at me. I squinted against the sudden light. They were the same ones.

  ‘You brought them back?’ I asked in surprise. ‘You didn’t gamble?’

  ‘I won!’ Perry declared.

  He staggered over to the bed and caught at one of the bedposts. He pushed his hands deep into his pockets and shovelled out papers and coins. ‘I won and won and won!’ he said. He giggled delightedly and spilled coins and notes of hand over my bed.

  ‘I have an unbeatable system,’ he said. ‘An unbreakable system. I have an unbreatable system an unbeakable system a beakless system, a breathless system!’

  ‘How much?’ I asked, a gambler’s daughter again.

  Perry put my notes to one side and shovelled out the rest of his pockets and we made piles on the counterpane of coins, and notes of hand, and paper money.

  Altogether it came to something like £22,000.

  ‘Perry,’ I said, awed.

  He nodded, beaming at me. ‘Unbreatheable!’ he said, with satisfaction.

  We were silent for a moment.

  ‘You shouldn’t have taken my money,’ I said.

  He blinked at me. ‘I had to, Sarah,’ he said. ‘I’d have asked you, but you weren’t here. I had to. Mama was talking of wearing her diamonds to present you at Court – I had to have money.’

  I frowned. ‘What do your mama’s diamonds have to do with…’ then I broke off. ‘Have you lost them at play?’ I asked.

  ‘Pawned,’ he said gloomily. ‘I had to get them back, Sarah, or I’d have been really sunk. She keeps me on such a short allowance I can never manage to stay out of debt. And a little while ago I found the key to her strongbox. It was before the Season started and I knew she wouldn’t need them for months. So I prigged them, and pawned them.’

  He paused gloomy for a moment, but then his face brightened. ‘And now I’ll be able to get them back!’ he said delightedly.

  He glanced at my face. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’ he asked.

  ‘You’re a thief,’ I said. ‘A thief and a drunkard and a gambler.’

  Perry looked contrite. ‘I did win, though,’ he offered.

  ‘I’m no better,’ I said. ‘I was a thief and a card-sharper and a horse-trader. You are what you have to be, Perry. But don’t ever steal from me again.’

  His face brightened. ‘I’ll make a promise with you,’ he offered. ‘I will never steal from you again, I will never steal from Mama again, and I will never pawn anything of hers or yours again. It has been dreadful, Sarah, I thought I’d not be able to get them back and then she would have known!’

  I nodded. I could imagine how afraid Perry must have been.

  ‘All right,’ I said. ‘I hold you to your promise. You must never steal from me or your mama again. And I’ll never steal from you or cheat you.’

  He put out his long-fingered soft hand and we shook firmly.

  ‘Done,’ I said. ‘Now get your winnings off my bed, I need to sleep, I have a throat like charcoal.’

  Peregrine gathered up his papers and crammed them back into his pockets. My bank bills he counted out carefully on to my dressing-table and he added to them the guineas he had borrowed from me.

  Then he came to the bedside again and leaned over me. I could feel his warm brandy-sweet breath on my face as he leaned over.

  ‘Good-night Sarah,’ he said softly and kissed me on the cheek. ‘Good-night, my best of friends.’

  I cat-napped after he left me; once, I turned and was wideawake and found I was chuckling, thinking of Perry coming into my room, his pockets bursting as if he had been sharping cards all night. Then I heard the clock strike seven and I got up, splashed cold water on my face, and slipped into my riding habit.

  Only then did I remember that it was Thursday, and Will was coming to ride with me today.

  I brushed my hair in a hurry and coiled it up on my head, then I pinned on my hat and went to the door. I ran down the stairs pulling on my gloves and the kitchenmaid met me at the front door, her face all grimy and her hands black with soot from the fires.

  ‘Beg pardon, m’m,’ she said, dipping a curtsey.

  I nodded to her and opened the door myself and slipped out. There was a figure of a man, holding two horses waiting in the street opposite the front door. But it was not Gerry the groom there, waiting for me holding his horse and Sea. It was Will, standing with the reins of his bay horse in one hand, and Sea’s reins in the other.

  ‘Oh Will!’ I said and I beamed at him.

  ‘I’m freezing,’ he said crossly. ‘I’ve been waiting here for half an hour, Sarah, and that softy maid of yours wouldn’t find you and tell you I was here.’

  I chuckled and ran down the steps and took the reins. ‘You’re a weakling,’ I said. ‘This is just bracing.’

  ‘Bracing!’ Will said under his breath. He cupped his hands and threw me ungently up into the saddle. Sea sidled and I patted his neck.

  ‘Yes,’ I said provocatively. ‘If you had lived in a wagon like I did you’d count this good weather. But you’re a soft gorgio you are, Will Tyacke.’

  Will scowled and swung into his own saddle and then his brown face crumpled and he laughed aloud. ‘Why are you so damned full of chirp?’ he asked. ‘What have you got to be so glad about?’

  ‘Precious little,’ I said. The horses fell into step side by side and I turned and smiled at Will. ‘I’ve had some trouble, I waked all night. But it’s come all right now, and I’m glad to be out of that house, and with you. I’m so glad to see you.’

  His glance at me was warm. ‘I’d wait all night in a snowstorm to see you and count myself lucky,’ he said. ‘I rode up in darkness last night to make sure I’d be here in time. Sarah, you’re the first thing worth seeing this week.’

  I put my hand out to him in a swift instinctive gesture, and he did not kiss it like a lover but took it in a firm gentle clasp, as if we were shaking on a deal. Then his horse shifted and we let go.

  ‘What’s your trouble?’ he asked.

  ‘Tell me about Wideacre first,’ I said. ‘And how did your meeting of the corporations go?’

  ‘All’s well on Wideacre,’ he said. ‘The oats and barley is sown, we’re setting to the hedging and ditching. The root crops are coming up. All’s well. I’m bid send you people’s love and to tell you that we all want you home.’ He straightened a little in the saddle as we came down the road towards the park. ‘They elected me chairman of the National Association of Corporations,’ he said. ‘I was proud. I’m honoure
d to be asked to serve.’

  ‘Oh, well done!’ I said. Then I paused. ‘What does it mean?’ I asked.

  Will smiled. ‘Oh, little enough,’ he said. ‘We will meet every two months or so for debate and discussion, but we have more than enough trouble with spies and the government to want to do more than that.’

  ‘Spies?’ I asked blankly.

  Will nodded. ‘They think they see traitors and Boney’s agents in every bush,’ he said. ‘It’s the way of this government – aye and others! They can’t bear to think that they might be in the wrong. They can’t bear to think that another Englishman might disagree with them. So they will only believe that if you disagree with them you have to be a paid spy, or a foreigner.’ He paused for a moment. ‘They think they own the world,’ he said simply. ‘The landlords and those in power. They think they own what it is to be an Englishman. If you think differently from them they make you feel like you don’t belong in their country. It’s not their country, but they won’t hear a word of dissent.’

  His face was dark. ‘It’s a nuisance,’ he said. ‘I have all my letters opened and read before I ever see them, and it makes them late. Since the last meeting there were two men prowling around Wideacre asking people in the village if I was a rick-burner!’ Will snorted. ‘Damn fools,’ he said.

  ‘I never knew,’ I said. The enemies of my childhood had been the thief-takers and the gamekeepers. I did not know there were gamekeepers of ideas too.

  ‘They make little difference,’ Will said. ‘They sit by the door and every single thing you say they scribble down in their little books and then they run off and copy it all out fair for their masters to read. Everyone makes sure they speak civil and say not a word against the government or the king. And I never write if I can send a message.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said blankly.

  ‘But it was a good meeting,’ Will said. ‘There were some northern gentlemen there who are planning experimental farms in the north. One of them took me out to dine afterwards. We talked till late into the night. He wants to set up an experimental farm outside his potteries for the workers. I was telling him about the children’s school on Wideacre, and about how we farm. He’s coming down to see it when he’s next in the south. He seemed a likely man.’

  I nodded. I was dimly aware of a world outside my knowledge, outside my understanding, where neither a gypsy brat nor a pretty young lady would be of much account, and for a moment I envied Will his contact with a weightier world.

  ‘That’s enough of me,’ Will said abruptly. ‘What of you? You look a bit pale, Sarah. And what of this trouble of yours?’

  ‘Not my trouble,’ I said. ‘It’s Perry. You were right about his drinking, he does take too much. But the fool must needs think he can gamble, too. He stole some bank bills of mine, and as if that weren’t bad enough he won handsomely with them. He was in my bedroom last night scattering gold on my bed as if I were a princess. It’s all right now, he’s brought my money back, and he’s won enough to keep himself for months. But I’ll never be able to teach him not to gamble if he’s a lucky one!’

  Will pulled his horse up so sharply that it gave a little half-rear. ‘He did what?’ he demanded, his face white with shock, his brown eyes blazing.

  I lost my smile. ‘Took some money of mine, and then won with it,’ I said lightly.

  We said nothing for a moment and then Will loosened his reins and let his horse go forward.

  ‘Don’t you mind?’ he asked me. I could hear the anger behind his voice but he was keeping his tone steady until I told him more.

  I chuckled. ‘Oh for God’s sake, Will, remember where I came from!’ I said. ‘I’ve lived among gamblers and thieves all my life. I’m angry that he should steal from me, but I had the money back within the day…and I can’t help but find it funny that he should win so well! Thousands and thousands, Will! He was shovelling money out of his pocket all over my counterpane.’

  ‘You were in bed?’ Will asked sharply.

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘This all happened last night when he came home from gambling.’

  ‘And he just walked into your room?’ he demanded.

  I pulled Sea up and faced him. ‘We are to be married,’ I said reasonably. ‘He didn’t come in to see me, he came to put the money back. I happened to be awake.’ I remembered Perry crashing into the chair and warning himself to be quiet and I smiled.

  Will saw the smile and it fired his anger. ‘Goddammit, Sarah, you must be mad!’ he said loudly. ‘You are still talking about this damned marriage as if you meant it! If you go on down this road you will find yourself married in very truth and unable to get out of it.

  ‘For God’s sake, Sarah, tell me that you see now the crew you’re among. Lord Peregrine is a drunkard and a gamester and a thief into the bargain. His ma can do nothing more with him and so she lets him drink himself to death and damnation as quick as he can, and neither of those sluts his sisters are worthy to tie your laces. He’s cheated you, and he’s used your money to pay for his gambling, and you’re not even wed yet!’

  Will’s voice had risen to a shout, and he shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts and then he said tightly, ‘You’d be a damn fool to go further with this, Sarah, and you know it. Promise me now that you’ll go back and tell Lady Clara that he’s stolen from you and that you are withdrawing from the betrothal. Write to Mr Fortescue and tell him what’s to do, and then order out the carriage and come home. I’ll wait to escort you. Stay any longer in London and you’ll be robbed blind.’

  I shook my head. ‘You don’t understand,’ I said. ‘You’ve never understood me.’

  ‘Don’t understand!’ Will was thunderingly angry now. ‘Do you think I’m blind or as stupid as your pretty lordling? I’ve seen the quarterly accounts, I’ve seen the allowance you have! I’ve seen the bills come in! And while we’re mending and making do on Wideacre with broken ploughshares spliced and used again, season after season, and while we have old carthorses pulling heavy loads and no new stock at all this year, you’re preening before a glass to go out dancing with a gamester!’

  ‘Nonsense!’ I said heatedly. ‘I’ve spent very little!’

  But Will would not listen. ‘You’re a damned parasite!’ he said roundly. ‘And he’s a worse one. He’s not even bedded you and the pizzle has hold of your money while you sit up there, on your horse, and tell me you’re not coming home! By God if I could pull you off the horse and make you walk home I would!’

  ‘Don’t you threaten me, Will Tyacke!’ I said as angry as he. ‘I’m not one of your alehouse drabs. I didn’t come to you for help, I can manage my own affairs. I don’t overspend and I don’t listen to a bawling from any man, least of all you.’

  ‘You don’t listen to anything!’ Will said. ‘You don’t listen to Mr Fortescue when he warned you off them, you don’t listen to me. You don’t even listen to your own common sense when the man has robbed you before marriage and you know his whole family will rob you later. Any woman with anything in her head but vanity and wind would call off the wedding and run for her life away from such a band.’

  ‘The wedding’s to be brought forward!’ I said, as angry as he and picking on the one piece of news which would make him angrier. ‘We’re to wed and be home on Wideacre by Christmas! So there, Will Tyacke, and don’t you dare try to tell me what to do!’

  ‘Brought the wedding forward?’ Will looked at me open-mouthed. Then he leaned forward and put his hand on Sea’s reins and drew the horse closer to his own.

  ‘Sarah, by God, I don’t know what game you’re playing,’ he said low-voiced. ‘I thought you’d taken up with them so they would take you into society, then I thought you were tied to him because you’d given up on yourself and you didn’t care what happened to you. Now you tell me he’s creeping into your bedroom and you’ve brought the wedding forward…’ he broke off. Then he suddenly dropped Sea’s reins as if they had burned him. ‘You whore!’ he suddenly yelled. ‘You stupid litt
le whore! He’s bedded you, and you’re handing over your money and your land to the first man who’s ever looked twice at you!’

  I gasped. ‘How dare you!’ I started but Will interrupted me.

  ‘Thank God I’ll not be there to see it,’ he said. ‘I promised myself I’d stay and see you safe in your home even if you went through with this whore’s deal. I thought you’d need a manager, I thought you’d need advice. I thought you might need help against him, if he raised a hand to you or started robbing you.’ Will scowled. ‘The more fool me!’ he said bitterly. ‘I’ve met your sort before. They like a fool in the bedchamber, and they don’t care what he does to them. They’ve no pride and no sense. I’ll leave you to your flirting and your ruin. I’ll be gone, and I’ll never see Wideacre again.

  ‘There’ve been Tyackes on Wideacre since it had that name. A damn sight longer than the cursed Laceys, but you’ve won now. I give you joy of it. Little Lord Perry will have it mortgaged and lost within a year, mark my words. And then you’ll be Lady Sarah of No-Acre, and see how he looks to you then!’

  ‘Where would you go?’ I demanded. ‘Who’d have you manage them into bankruptcy, to teach their workers your sort of manners? Don’t come to me for a character for I’ll give you none!’

  Will snorted with rage. ‘You know so little!’ he said witheringly. ‘And you think yourself so clever! I’ll go where I’m wanted, to Mr Norris’s estate in the north. And I’ll take a woman with me. I’ll take Becky, Becky and the children with me, I’ll wed her, and we’ll settle there. And if I don’t see you till you rot in hell it’ll be too soon for me.’

  ‘Becky?’

  Will turned and his smile was mean. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Becky. The woman your mama in-law flung out of her cottage half-starved with three bairns. She’s my lover, didn’t you know? She lives with me with her bairns. I’ll marry her and take her with me. I was a fool not to do so at the first. She’s a lovely girl, warm and full of love to give.’ His cold eyes raked over me, over my rich green riding habit, my white face under the hat. ‘She’s a proud girl,’ he said. ‘She deserves the best and she knows it. She loves me, she adores my touch. She wants to give me a son. I’ll be happy with her in a way I would never be with anyone else. And she is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever had in my bed, or ever seen.’