They found a family conference going on in the large dining room where sunlight streamed through the tall windows. Save for Della and Flo, who had been summarily banished from the proceedings and now were indignantly walking about the garden in the company of a nurse, the entire family was gathered around the long dining table which was heaped with confections and topped by a bride’s cake that must have weighed more than forty pounds. Fielding and Letitia were there, Aunt Pet was there. And surprisingly, Sandy Randolph was there.
Carolina walked past Aunt Pet, who sat back exhausted in her stained grey skirts, without speaking, and approached Sandy Randolph.
‘I want to thank you for saving Rye’s life,’ she said softly. ‘I know you did it for me.’
That face with colouring so startlingly like her own, hardened. ‘I did it on your mother’s behalf. To rid you of him,’ he said briefly.
‘Oh, surely you can’t believe - ’
‘There had been rumours just before I arrived in Tortuga that Kells had attacked an English ship,’ was Sandy’s terse response. ‘Once having met him, I was prone to believe him when he said he attacked none but the Spanish. But’ - his face hardened - ‘I would believe Petula against the world.’
Carolina swung around on Aunt Pet, who was now munching sweetmeats as if her life depended on it. ‘How can you be so sure the ship that attacked you was Kells’s ship?’ she demanded.
Petula chewed valiantly for a moment. Then, ‘I did not read the name Sea Wolf,’ she admitted, almost choking. ‘And I think it is really too bad of you, Carolina, not to greet me when I shortened my stay to come back for your wedding!’ She looked aggrieved.
Carolina hardened her heart. ‘You came back and spoiled my wedding!’ she said bitterly. ‘Why could you not have remained in your open boat rowing about at sea for a few minutes longer?’
Aunt Pet gasped. ‘Oh, for shame!’ she cried. ‘That you should wish such a thing!’
‘I do not really wish it. Aunt Pet,’ groaned Carolina. ‘And I am truly glad to see you. But how could you accuse Rye of such a thing? And you say yourself that you did not see the name Sea Wolf!'
‘No, but a crewman seated near me peered towards the pirate vessel as we rowed away and he said that in the light of the fire from the Ophelia he could make out the name Sea Wolf painted upon her hull.’
Again Carolina felt that light breath of cold caress her. ‘But Aunt Pet, anyone could paint a name on a ship!’ she cried, remembering that the real Sea Wolf now bore the name Sea Waif. ‘And what makes you so sure the captain was Kells?’
‘They called him Kells,’ said Petula flatly.
‘Perhaps you misunderstood. Perhaps it was Mells. Or Bells.’
‘Carolina, Petula has been through enough,’ reproved Letitia. ‘Do not bait her in this fashion.’
‘I am not baiting her!’ flashed Carolina. ‘This foolish old woman has just ruined my life and perhaps cost my lover his! Dare I not question her? Oh, Aunt Pet - ’ She sank down on the rug beside the older woman, unmindful of her bridal finery. Nor did Letitia reprove her this time as she clutched those travel-stained skirts. ‘Aunt Pet’ - her voice turned wistful - ‘I cannot believe that Rye would sink your ship. Or set you adrift. Indeed when I was his guest’ - she carefully did not say ‘prisoner’ - ‘on Tortuga, I know that he was most gracious to captured Spanish ladies - ’
‘Indeed! He married one,’ Letitia cut in ironically.
Carolina ignored that. ‘He returned them in style to Havana. Indeed it is possible that he suffers from too much gallantry towards women, that he would take such chances on their behalf. Is it not possible that you are mistaken? That the man you saw - in near darkness, you admit - was not Kells?’
The room was very silent. Still chewing, Aunt Pet considered.
‘No,’ she said at last, and there was finality in her tone. ‘It is true I did not see his face clearly or hear his voice, but he was of the same height, he had an arrogant bearing like your late’ - she sniffed - ‘bridegroom. And his men called him Kells. And you all freely admit that he was at sea at the time the poor little Ophelia was attacked - he had the opportunity and he took it!’
‘And the woman?’ Carolina heard herself ask.
‘The woman? Oh, you mean his wife? I could not see her clearly either. She was standing on Captain Kells’s other side, away from me as our longboat pulled away. But I saw her skirts blow and I saw her hair, which was pale blonde and piled up - fashionably, I thought, though rather windblown.’
Fashionably . . . windblown . . . Carolina moistened her lips. ‘And you say she was his wife?'
‘How do I know whether she was his wife or no?’ burst out Aunt Pet, aggrieved that Carolina, who had always been her favourite among Letty’s daughters, would talk to her thus. ‘I remember, I was so distracted, I thought at first she was one of our passengers being detained for who knew what purpose, and I called out to one of the pirate crew, “There is room for that woman too in our boat!” And he called back in very surly fashion, “She doesn’t go with you. She’s Captain Kells’s wife.”’
Not his woman - his wife. But of course Kells was known to have married her on Tortuga, so an impersonator would have found some blonde woman to impersonate her too.
‘Aunt Pet,’ Carolina said sadly. ‘I hope you realize that you have ruined my life by bringing these charges against Rye.’
‘Ruined your life?’ Aunt Pet was so indignant that she threw down her sweetmeat and glared at Carolina. ‘It was my life that was in jeopardy! I am shocked to hear that you would consort with buccaneers on Tortuga - but to have brought one home with you!’ She rolled her eyes to the ceiling as if seeking celestial aid.
‘I did not bring him home - he brought me!' Carolina corrected her sharply. ‘And I met him in Essex - not Tortuga.’ But it was on Tortuga that I found him again, so in a way it was Tortuga that gave my life meaning . . .
‘He is a terrible man!’ cried Aunt Pet. ‘His men swarmed aboard and took all our rings, our jewels, the provisions we had on board - even our luggage!’ Her voice grew waspish.
Nearby Virginia muttered, ‘They got the silver chamber pot!’ And was silenced as Letitia gave her a dangerous look.
‘They “got” the amethyst and pearl pin my mother gave me!’ cried Aunt Pet in a passion, for she had heard Virginia’s aside to Carolina.
‘Well, I must go.’ Sandy rose with a sigh. ‘I only stayed to explain what I know of the man and why I think you would do well to lock your daughter up.’ He looked straight at Letitia. ‘She will try to find him again - I am sure of it.’
Carolina scrambled to her feet, uncaring that she heard a rip in her handsome white satin gown. ‘I will see you to your barge, sir!’ she flashed. ‘And you can tell me to my face what it is that you have been telling my mother behind my back!’
Letitia groaned. All of a sudden her dark blue eyes focused with burning intensity on the great cake dominating the table, dominating the room - so patently a wedding cake, mocking them all.
‘Sandy,’ she said between her teeth. ‘Give me that sword-cane of yours - blade out.’
He gave her a startled look, but he flicked out the sharp blade and surrendered the sword-cane to Letitia.
‘The sight of that enormous cake is driving me mad!’ she cried with sudden vehemence. And brought the blade of the sword-cane down upon the cake, splitting it in half. And down again.
The cake lay in ruins.
Virginia stared at it in awe.
‘Thank you, Sandy.’ As if suddenly drained, Letitia handed him the sword-cane and sank back down upon her chair.
Sandy Randolph stood looking down on it in a bemused way as he cleaned the cake from the blade, dipping a napkin in wine to do the job. ‘Blood I might have thought to clean away, but never did I dream it would be cake!’ he muttered.
And then he bowed and departed, with Carolina following him out to the hall, to the front door, her wedding gown trailing.
&nb
sp; ‘You didn’t really mean any of that, did you?’ she asked him anxiously. ‘You were just talking for effect? Oh, Sandy, take me with you. Please, please - help me find Rye again.’
He turned and took hold of her wrist. The grip of his fingers felt like steel and the countenance she looked up into was a wintry one. ‘You would be wise to forget Kells,’ he told her. ‘For it is unlikely that he will cross your path again. And if he does, I will deem it my duty to remove him from it. With this.’ He patted his sword-cane. ‘Or a pistol.’
She recoiled from him. ‘I can’t believe that you would - ’
His voice came from between clenched teeth and rubbed her nerves raw. ‘Can’t you take it in, Carolina, that you have been deceived, duped by this buccaneer - no, by God, this pirate! He’s unworthy to be called a buccaneer! Setting a woman like Petula adrift in an open boat!’
‘Rye didn’t do that!’
‘That’s what you say, because you are enamoured of him - but the facts show otherwise.’
‘Say what you mean,’ she panted. ‘Call me “his woman”! For that I will continue to be!’
Sandy considered his rebellious daughter, standing there furious in white satin - the very picture of himself. His expression was grim.
‘And you may not be his only woman,’ he told her evenly. ‘Have you never asked yourself why they call Kells the “Petticoat Buccaneer”?’
‘I did not know he was called that!’ cried Carolina, trying to wrest her arm away. ‘Indeed I do not believe he is!’
Sandy Randolph sighed. ‘No, I suppose none would care to call Kells that in his hearing - or in yours, lest you might tell him and he wreak vengeance upon them. His reputation for gallantry - which you were so quick to defend - is well known. Still you must have noticed the unusual flag he runs up his masthead when he is about to assault a Spanish vessel?’
‘I have never been with him in a sea battle!’
Sandy passed a hand across his forehead. ‘No, of course you have not. I had forgot you are a woman. It is well known that while other buccaneers may run up a skull and crossbones or a plain red or black flag to make known what they are, Kells runs up a woman’s petticoat.’
‘A - a petticoat?’ she faltered.
‘Yes. It is of heavy black silk, very rich. And when Kells attacks the ships of Spain he flies no other flag. Dare you ask yourself why?’
And Spanish ladies were given to wearing heavy rustling black silk petticoats . . .
‘There was a Spanish girl once, he told me.’
‘A Spanish wife by his own admission - did he tell you that as well?’
Carolina’s suddenly flushed face told Sandy he had not. ‘I thought it was a surprise to you,’ he said drily. ‘And hardly a welcome one.’
Carolina felt humiliated. Why had not Kells told her? ‘But - but that was long ago,’ she protested.
‘Or maybe not so long ago. And maybe not one Spanish girl but a dozen! You hardly know this man, Carolina!’
‘I know him!’ flushed Carolina, bent on defending Rye. ‘I have looked into his eyes and I have read there the truth!’
‘Bah!’ said Sandy Randolph disgustedly. ‘You are young, you know little of truth - and nothing at all of the world!’
‘No, but I am learning!’ she cried. ‘And from such men as you! I would not have thought it of you, to lie about him!’
‘Lie?’ Sandy gave her a look of such amazement that she knew he must have been telling her the truth as he knew it. ‘I have no reason to lie to you! The truth speaks for itself. Kells has had another wife - he said so.’
‘A dead wife!’
There was a look of complete cynicism that she had sometimes seen on Sandy Randolph’s handsome unhappy countenance. He was wearing it now.
‘Or perhaps a living one?’ he suggested softly.
‘Damn you!’ cried Carolina violently. ‘I will not listen to you!’ A sob broke from her lips and she fought to tear her arm away, but still it was firmly held.
‘Letty,’ he called. ‘Look to your daughter!’
Her mother appeared, frowning, and escorted Carolina back to the dining room where Aunt Pet was still eating ravenously. Carolina did not look back at Sandy Randolph’s departing form. Her eyes were filled with tears. Sandy had been - so briefly - a real father to her, but now that he believed Rye capable of doing terrible things, now that he had threatened Rye’s life, he had sunk back into the pack so far as she was concerned. Let him go back to Tower Oaks - or to hell! She would not seek him out again!
‘Carolina, you must apologize to Petula,’ said her mother as they reached the dining room door.
‘I will apologize to no one!’ gasped Carolina. ‘I am going upstairs to my room and rid myself of this - this awful dress! I should never have come back here, never!’
She turned and ran.
Her mother’s gaze was speculative as she watched her go.
12
Later that afternoon Virginia came up to inform Carolina cheerfully that Aunt Pet had eaten so much she had developed a stomachache and had gone off to bed, and that Fielding and Letitia were holding a counsel of war downstairs.
‘Care for some wedding cake?’ she asked Carolina, taking a small bite of one of the pieces she had brought up on a plate.
‘It would choke me,’ said Carolina bitterly.
‘It’s very good,’ Virginia observed tranquilly. ‘And there are some forty pounds of it going to waste on the dining room table. Along with hams and what have you. I suppose Mother felt that if people ate before going it would be too much like a wake!’
‘I’m going downstairs and get a slice of ham and some Sally Lunn,’ said Carolina, rising.
‘Mother told me to watch you,’ sighed Virginia. ‘She thinks you’ll run away.’
‘I won’t run away,’ Carolina said resentfully. ‘But only because I don’t know where to run!’
‘I told her that.’ Virginia shrugged and continued to munch. She was gaining weight and with it her old personality was coming back.
But food was not Carolina’s real reason for going downstairs. Promising Virginia to return shortly, Carolina slipped off her shoes and padded down in her stocking feet towards the library - that was where Fielding and Letitia usually had their family conferences. A servant had just left with a tray and the door was ever so slightly ajar. Carolina inclined her ear to that door.
‘. . . get her married to anyone who will take her,’ Fielding was saying angrily. ‘And as soon as possible.’
‘We must not lose our heads,’ Letitia said on an acid note.
‘Lose our heads? We have already lost what little reputation we had left!’ snarled Fielding. ‘You with Randolph’s brat, fighting his battles for him with the Bramways! And now she - ’
‘Fielding,’ Letitia cut in coldly, ‘I will pretend I did not hear that remark about “Randolph’s brat”. Whatever you may think, if we are to continue living together as man and wife, we cannot have that between us.’
‘Oh, God.’ Fielding bent his head and groaned.
‘The situation is easily rectified,’ his wife said soothingly. ‘This man Kells - or Rye Evistock, if that is truly his name - is lost to Carolina. He will never come back. But Ned Shackleford has always wanted her - you saw how he pursued her at the Fairfield ball. And Ned is not married yet. True, he has only a modest fortune and cannot give her the emeralds of the Incas or the gold of Mexico lifted from Spanish galleons. He cannot give her the life of adventure, living always on the brink, which she seems to desire - ’
‘You desired such a life once!’ he interrupted hoarsely.
‘Yes - well, I was young and foolish then,’ was the cool response. ‘But in his favour, Ned Shackleford does have an aunt in England. He and Carolina could be married here and sail for England and ride out this scandal. And when it is forgotten - ’
‘Forgotten?’ rasped Fielding. ‘It will never be forgotten! She is a scandal throughout the Tidewater.’
&nb
sp; "We have been a scandal throughout the Tidewater before,’ his wife reminded him serenely (Letitia was always at her best in a crisis). ‘And yet we have always managed to get through it!’
‘But not like this,’ he grumbled.
‘Nonsense! Carolina is a young girl. She has made a mistake - as young girls often do. But it has not sullied her beauty nor made her old before her time. Indeed, in certain quarters this “scandal”, as you call it, may have added to her lustre! Everyone was talking about her emeralds - and she still has them. A handsome dowry in themselves.’
‘I cannot believe you would take it so lightly,’ croaked her husband.
‘I do not take it lightly, Fielding!’ Letitia rebuked him. ‘I am facing the facts - as you doubtless will, presently.’
Outside, listening, Carolina found herself leaning against the wall in horror. She was facing the facts too. And those facts had made her forehead and her palms damp. They were calmly planning to marry her off to someone else, those two, just as if Rye did not exist! She pressed her hands to her temples where pressure was building up. Oh, she must do something - now!
When she went back upstairs, Virginia had gone, presumably back to her own room. Glad to be alone, Carolina sat there glaring at the chair where her wedding gown reposed - her mother’s creation, not her own. She had been wed in an ice-blue gown on the deck of a buccaneer ship in Cayona Bay - wed in her heart, wed forever!
But as she sat there, unbidden she began to shiver. I had a wife. But she is dead in Spain . . . The words drifted aimlessly through her mind. Rye had never admitted he had a wife. What else had he not told her?
And then, sitting there on the blue and white coverlet of her big canopied bed with her hands clenched, she pushed that thought away from her as unworthy. The main point was, had Rye got away? All else could be sorted out later.
She sat there for a very long time. The sounds of the household changed, became evening sounds. Virginia stopped by to ask her if she would not come down to dinner. She told Virginia moodily that she did not care to.
‘I think you might,’ Virginia said with an owlish look. ‘They are deciding your future down there. And I was right,’ she added. ‘They did get the silver chamber pot.’ She laughed. ‘Poor Aunt Pet, she had managed to smuggle it through Customs long ago, but when the pirates attacked the ship she didn’t have the presence of mind to hide it under her skirts again!’
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