When Liam broke the news to him, the old Catholic priest was deeply upset.
‘It’s a terrible thing that he had to end his days so far from Ireland and all his friends,’ he said, with tears streaming down his cheeks. ‘He was loved by his people as few men have been.’
Liam remembered the pleasure the old politician had gained from his roses in the garden of the little house in Paris, and he reminded the priest.
‘You are right, Liam. We must be grateful that the Lord found a way to reward Eugene for his years of toil. There are few things more beautiful than a flower when a man has time to look at it. I will be saying a Mass for Eugene on Sunday. You’ll be there, of course?’
Liam said he would, and Father Clery thanked him for bringing the sad news.
‘Perhaps it is all for the best,’ he added. ‘Eugene was too old to have to accept another change in his way of life.’
When Liam pressed him for an explanation, the priest told him that his Bishop had close links with the Church in France. He had heard that the people there were very discontented, and strong rumours were spreading that King Louis-Philippe was to be deposed.
The news gave Liam something else to worry about, and he was not helped when he received a letter from Caroline. The news had reached her of Sir Richard Dudley’s death, and she wrote to Liam in an agony of remorse, taking the blame for his death upon herself. It was the letter of a sick woman.
Liam wrote back to Caroline immediately, but it was only the beginning of a series of letters that did nothing but frustrate both of them. They left questions unanswered and caused misunderstandings and confusion.
It seemed to Liam that Sir Richard Dudley’s death, far from solving their problems, had actually added to them. While he lived each letter was filled with their longing for the next meeting. Now nothing was straightforward. The future stretched uncertainly before them, waiting for Liam and Caroline to take up its challenge. For different reasons, each of them was reluctant to accept the invitation, and the knowledge of the uncertainty made them both unhappy.
Then, on 22 February 1848, the people of France deposed King Louis-Philippe in a bloodless revolution that excited Ireland. If France could throw off the yoke of an unwanted monarch without bloodshed, then why could they not do the same?
Nathan Brock and the other All-Ireland Association MPs returned home to damp down the fervour of their younger followers, and Liam was asked to help.
He was grateful for something else to occupy his mind and for almost a month he went from meeting to meeting succeeding in persuading all but a handful of would-be revolutionaries.
The break proved to be the turning-point for Liam and Caroline. Once again hopes for the future crept into their letters. Caroline returned to Paris from the south coast of France and hinted that it might not be long before her doctor would allow her to make the long journey to Ireland.
For his part, Liam worked hard as spring gave way to summer. He fished from dawn to dusk, putting to sea in weather that kept the curraghs leaning against cottage walls, sheltered from the wind. All the fish he caught went by cart to Gorey.
It was no longer necessary for the fishermen to donate a huge part of their catch to starving cottiers. The unfortunate cottiers had relieved the burden on those who had been caring for them by the simple expediency of dying.
Then more rumours about France began to circulate.
The first warning came from London in a carefully worded note from Nathan Brock. The new MP for County Wexford had struck up a most unlikely friendship with Lord Palmerston, the Whig Foreign Minister. The tough old Minister remembered Nathan well from his fighting days – and his interest boded well for Nathan Brock’s political future. Lord Palmerston disclosed that the French Socialists were plotting another uprising, this time against the weak revolutionary government that struggled to rule France. It was feared in England that such a revolution would be accompanied by much bloodshed.
When a similar warning came from Father Clery only a few days later, Liam became extremely concerned about Caroline. He tried to tell himself that the Earl of Inch would be aware of the unrest and had probably already taken Caroline from Paris. But then Liam received a letter from her. The Earl had gone to Italy with some of his friends, leaving her behind. He was not expected to return until August. The letter made no mention of the troubles in France, and Caroline seemed unaware of impending danger.
Liam knew he could wait no longer. He must go to France and bring Caroline home to Ireland.
Norah McCabe took the news of his decision in tight-lipped silence. She was fond of Caroline and approved of Liam going to her aid – but she knew matters would not end with Caroline’s safe return to Ireland. It would be merely the beginning of a very difficult and unhappy time for Liam.
Norah McCabe was well aware of Liam’s feeling for the Earl of Inch’s sister, and she did not doubt that Caroline loved him in return, but she could see no happiness ahead for them. It was unthinkable that Caroline should become a fisherman’s wife. It was equally unlikely that Liam would allow Caroline to keep him. Then there was Caroline’s own family to consider….
She thought of all these things, but voiced none of them to her son. Liam had problems enough on his mind.
Liam had no difficulty in finding Kilmar men willing to work the McCabe boat on a profit-sharing basis while he was away. It was an exceptionally good fishing year and a wooden boat could bring home many times the catch of a curragh. By nightfall on the day he received Caroline’s letter, Liam was on his way.
Two days later he arrived in London where he immediately sought out Nathan Brock.
Liam found his friend at a late and noisy sitting of the House of Commons – but this was a very different man from the penniless ex-prizefighter who had arrived in Kilmar in rags, his family supported by parish charity in a County Wicklow poor-house. Nathan Brock wore new clothes and showed them off to advantage. Tall and broad-shouldered, he carried himself with all the confidence of a successful man.
He greeted Liam warmly, delighted to see him, but when Liam explained his reason for passing through London Nathan Brock’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
‘You mean you haven’t seen Lady Caroline yet? Did you not receive my letter …? But no, you will have been on your way when it reached Kilmar. She is here…. Lady Caroline is in London.’
Now it was Liam’s turn to show surprise.
‘How …? When …? Did her brother bring her here after all? Is she all right …?’
Nathan Brock took Liam’s arm. ‘We’ll take a cab to the house where she is staying. On the way I will tell you all I know. I must admit, I am relieved to see you in London so quickly. Lady Caroline has had a bad time and was fortunate to make her escape. The mobs are roaming the streets of Paris and decent people are frightened to venture from their houses. Thousands of the wealthiest families in France are fleeing to England, paying a fortune for a passage across the Channel. It is said that any man with a boat can grow rich by putting into Boulogne or Calais and bringing out French families.’
Outside the building, Nathan Brock called a hackney carriage from the nearby rank, and when he and Liam were settled in their seats he told what he knew of Caroline’s escape from France.
She had been in her brother’s house in Paris when the revolution began. At first it was no more than a series of noisy demonstrations through the streets in the centre of the city. Then, when the authorities made no move to restore order, the mob became bolder and began to loot shops and houses. The belated half-hearted attempt by the Army to restore order only served to convince the mob of their own invincibility. The country was lacking strong and decisive leadership, and the lawlessness flourished. The mob spilled out from the heart of Paris and commenced ransacking the houses of the rich on the outskirts of the capital.
The house owned by the Earl of Inch was one of the first to receive attention. When the mob began attacking the entrance gates Caroline was in the house accomp
anied by only one maid-servant, the other servants having fled at the approach of the rioters.
Wearing a servant’s cape, Caroline escaped through the tradesmen’s gate at the rear of the house and, after a nightmare journey, arrived exhausted and penniless at Boulogne. Here a hard-pressed British consul had obtained a berth for her on an English packet bound for Dover, from whence she made her way to London.
‘… Such an experience would have tested the strength of the healthiest woman to the full,’ ended Nathan Brock. ‘And Lady Caroline is still far from strong.’
While Nathan Brock related the story of Caroline’s escape from Paris, Liam had been looking out of the carriage window. As they passed through the noisy cheerful streets, his imagination followed Caroline’s desperate flight through the riot-torn city no more than two hundred miles away. Now something in Nathan Brock’s voice caused him to look quickly at his companion.
‘Caroline is ill again?’
Nathan Brock’s grave expression gave Liam the answer to his question.
‘Is it her heart?’
‘I have not been told the details, Liam. She is staying at the home of one of her friends and they are saying nothing. However, I fear it will be a long time before she sets foot in Ireland again.’
Chapter Fifty-Four
After the urgency of Liam’s journey from Kilmar, his arrival at the house where Caroline was staying came as a frustrating anti-climax. Caroline’s friend was a large and determined lady who informed him firmly that Caroline was sleeping. Until she woke, not even the Queen herself would be allowed to visit the room where she lay.
It was clear to Liam that Caroline’s friend disapproved of him but, because Caroline was expecting him, a room had been prepared for him in the house.
Nathan Brock did not stay – he wanted to hear the end of the debate in the House of Commons – and as Liam sank into the comfort of a soft chair in the quiet of the house the weariness of two days and nights of travelling overtook him. Despite his concern for Caroline, he fell asleep.
Liam woke when the warm sun flooded through the window and touched his face. The street noises outside told him it was late and, moments later, a servant entered the room and informed him that Lady Caroline was awake and that he might visit her.
Liam followed the servant filled with a confused mixture of excitement and apprehension. It was many months since he and Caroline had last met. The anxiety of the last few days had served to remind him how much she meant to him – but would her feelings toward him still be the same?
Caroline lay in a huge bed, propped up against a pile of pillows. She was very pale and had lost a great deal of weight, but the loss only served to emphasise the fine lines of her face and neck, giving her beauty a delicate, almost fragile quality.
‘Liam …!’ She held her arms out to him, and suddenly all doubts were gone. He crossed the room to the bed and the next moment was holding her to him. Now he became even more aware of her frailty. He felt that if he were careless she would snap in two like a brittle twig.
Liam stayed with Caroline until her doctor arrived and ordered him from the room, grumbling disapprovingly about visitors tiring his patient.
Liam waited outside the room, and when the doctor left questioned him about Caroline’s condition.
‘She has undergone a frightening experience,’ said the doctor guardedly. ‘She is as well as might be expected in the circumstances.’
‘But is her heart strong? Will she be well enough to make the journey to Ireland soon?’
‘Ask me about that when she has had a few weeks of rest,’ replied the doctor, ‘For the moment we will think no farther ahead than that. In the meantime, you must stay away from her until this evening. She has had too much excitement, and I have given her something to make her sleep for a while.’
It was the beginning of a pattern that was to be repeated over the next few days. The doctor came every day, and Liam was allowed to visit Caroline morning and evening.
Soon there was a noticeable improvement in Caroline’s condition, and as he sat by her bedside one evening she said, ‘You must not worry about me, Liam. I am almost well again now. Since my fever I have been so pampered that I was unprepared for the events of those last few days in Paris. I will soon be strong enough to return to Ireland with you. In the meantime, we must enjoy being together again and begin to make plans for the future.’
‘How do you see the future, Caroline – for us?’
‘Does it matter as long as we are together, Liam? And we can be together, now. I am no longer a married woman. I am a widow….’
Liam stood up abruptly and began pacing the room.
‘Yes, you are a widow. A titled and wealthy widow. I am still a fisherman. I own a boat, a horse and cart, and the cottage where I live with my mother. Can you see yourself sharing that life, Caroline? You … a fisherman’s wife?’
‘No fisherman has yet asked me to marry him,’ said Caroline quietly. ‘You don’t have to, Liam. I am not asking for marriage. I only know that without you I am not a complete woman. I need you so much, Liam.’
Caroline suddenly burst into tears, and Liam sat on the edge of the bed beside her and took her hands in his. ‘I want you, too, Caroline – with all my being. But it must be more than a bedroom affair for us. I want to marry you more than anything in the whole world, yet I can seen no way for such a marriage to succeed. I cannot change my background, nor you yours. I am Liam McCabe, a Kilmar fisherman. You are Lady Caroline Dudley, sister of the Earl of Inch. People would say that I married you for your money. They would sneer at you for marrying so far beneath you. I don’t think I could take that, Caroline.’
To Liam’s surprise, when Caroline looked up at him she was smiling through her tears.
‘Oh Liam! Do you realise that was practically a proposal – in spite of your protestations that such a marriage could never work?’
Suddenly excited, she struggled to sit up, and Liam helped her by placing more pillows behind her back.
‘There is a way for us to build a future together, Liam. Start a new life where I can be Caroline McCabe and you can continue to do the things you enjoy. You can fish, own as many boats as you can manage and build up a thriving business for us.’
The idea sounded too much like one of Liam’s own dreams and he looked closely at Caroline, fearing she might be delirious.
‘There is not a place in Ireland where our past would not catch up with us, sooner or later.’
‘That is quite true, Liam – but Ireland is not the only country in the world. There are other lands full of wonderful opportunities just waiting for people like us. I am talking in particular about America. Liam, why don’t we go to America? Every day its people are pushing their borders farther and farther westward. Soon it will be the greatest nation in the world. Why not go there and become a part of all it has to offer? All the things we have ever wanted for ourselves could be ours – in America.’
It was a staggeringly bold idea and, as it sank home, Liam’s thoughts raced ahead, knocking down the barriers of his earlier doubts and breaking out into the brightness of a real and lasting future together. But there was one major obstacle to overcome.
‘Your brother, the Earl. He would never allow you to marry me.’
‘He could do nothing to stop us – but he will raise no objection, Liam. You see, Richard’s death left me very wealthy. With the Paris house in ruins and his latest gambling debts awaiting settlement, Edward will be in desperate need of money.
‘You look surprised, Liam? I can assure you it is perfectly true. This will not be the first occasion on which I have put up money to settle Edward’s debts. He and I have always been close, and we are very fond of each other, but I am not blind to his weaknesses. He gambles too heavily and spends more money than he has. I will give him all the money I inherited from Richard and we will set sail for America with his blessing.’
‘I couldn’t ask you to do that….’
�
��It was Richard’s money. Do you really think I have any right to it?’
Caroline looked at Liam anxiously. Was he seeking a way to say he did not want to go to America?
‘I know there are many difficulties, Liam. You will need to consider the idea carefully—’
Liam interrupted her by suddenly hugging her to him. ‘I have done all the considering that is necessary.’
She pushed away from him to see his face. ‘And …?’
‘I think you are a beautiful, scheming woman – and I love you. Lady Caroline Dudley, will you give up this idle life, become Mrs Liam McCabe and come to America with me to found a new family fortune?’
‘Liam, my love. I will go with you anywhere and live on lumper potatoes in a sod cabin, if need be.’
For a week, Liam and Caroline made their plans for the future and Liam wrote to his mother to tell her the news.
They would return to Ireland together, and after she had settled her affairs Caroline would marry Liam in Father Clery’s little church in Kilmar. Then they would go to America as soon as a comfortable passage could be arranged.
Caroline suggested that Liam might persuade his mother to go to America with them, but Liam doubted whether she would ever leave the village where she had spent the whole of her life. He would make sure she was well provided for, and there would always be a steady income from the wooden boat.
It was a happy time for both of them, and there was such an improvement in Caroline that by the end of the week her doctor allowed her to take a carriage ride with Liam.
Nathan Brock was delighted to witness the happiness they both shared. He had always been concerned about their association, but was now ready to accept he had been wrong.
Yet it was Nathan Brock who brought the news that broke up their brief period of happiness.
He hurried into the house much earlier than usual, and it was evident from his expression that something was seriously wrong.
‘The Government has just received a message from Ireland. The country has risen against the English and the All-Ireland Association is thought to be behind the move. Men are on the march from Bantry to Dublin. Lord Russell has ordered thousands of troops from their barracks to restore order.’
The Music Makers Page 47