“I think he has plans for you.”
“Plans?”
“He is attracted to you in some way. He is easily attracted to women.”
“He had better begin to look elsewhere.”
“You would seem different to him.”
“The simple girl up from the country—” I said. She was talking to me as Harriet had done, patronizingly, faintly amused by my unworldliness. Well, if I was unworldly at least I had found more happiness than either she or Harriet. I had lost my husband, it was true, but I had my dear little son to comfort me.
“Oh, more than that,” she went on seriously. “You have a strong will. He would like that. You have turned against him. He would like that too. He never wanted easy conquests.”
“You had better tell him that this is one citadel which will remain unconquered.”
“That would only increase his ardour.”
“Ardour! An odd word to use.”
“He would like to offer you marriage. He sees that as the perfect solution. If you married him he would be your son’s guardian and the care and management of Eversleigh would remain in his hands, as it does now. At this time Lord Eversleigh leaves everything in his hands. He managed the estate during the difficult years, so it is only natural that he should go on doing so now. There is one impediment. He is already married to me.”
“I am thankful to say it is an unsurmountable one.”
“If I were to die …”
“You … die. You are young.”
“Look at me.”
“You are at the moment suffering from a minor indisposition. You will soon recover from that.”
She lay back and said nothing.
I went on: “This is a strange conversation. Tell me what you fancy to eat and I will have it sent to you.”
“Yes,” she said, “a strange conversation, but I am glad we have had it. I think you ought to know …”
There was a dreamy look in her eyes and I wondered whether she was in a fever. Fevers filled the mind with odd fancies.
I went to the bed and touched her hand. It was quite cold.
“Perhaps a little soup and a capon to follow. I will go and see about it.”
Her eyes followed me to the door. I heard her whisper: “Take care, Arabella. Take care of yourself … and your son.”
I went downstairs feeling very uneasy.
The next day Barbary was very much better, and seemed to revert to her old character, which was one of cynical sophistication. I wondered whether she regretted her confidence, for she seemed to avoid me and a few days after that she left for London.
Sally Nullens shook her head over her and was unaccustomedly confidential.
“I’ve always felt rather sorry for Mistress Barbary,” she said. “She was flung into this when she was nothing more than a child, and I don’t think Master Carleton did anything much to help her.”
I felt my lips tighten. I couldn’t forget what Barbary had suggested about his thinking of marrying me if he could find some way of removing her. The second marriage of convenience, I thought. Not for me, Master Carleton. I couldn’t help feeling a satisfaction that he was for the second time cheated of what he wanted “more than anything.”
At the same time I found the prospect a little sinister. “He is a man who won’t rest until he’s got what he wants.”
“She never took care of herself,” went on Sally. “Master Carleton always said so. A serious illness, he said, and she’d snuff out like a candle.”
“He said that?”
“Oh, yes, more than once.”
“But she is young and strong and I believe leads a very active life in London.”
“You could call it that,” said Sally Nullens. “Master Carleton’s right though. She’s not strong and ought to take more care of herself. A silly girl … the life she leads. Like a moth fluttering round the candle.”
“You seem to have candles on your mind, Sally. I hope you keep them away from the children.”
“Now, Mistress Arabella, do you think I’d be so foolish as not to?”
“I know you are wonderful with the children, Sally. I’m grateful.”
“Oh, you’re nothing but a girl yourself. As for the boys, I couldn’t get them in to their dinner today. They didn’t want to leave the kites you brought them. Master Leigh’s must go higher than Master Edwin’s and then Master Edwin’s higher than Master Leigh’s. Always got to go one better. I don’t know.”
She was good, Sally was, and devoted to the children. At that moment I thought: I wish they needn’t grow up. I wish Carleton would go to London and stay there. I didn’t want to think of him or what might be in his devious mind.
But my encounter with Barbary had started up uneasy trains of thought in my mind because of the dreams I was having.
Silly dreams about kites and popguns. I remember one in which Edwin was flying his kite, and as it went up into the sky, I could see that painted on it was a picture of Eversleigh Court. As I watched, it grew bigger and bigger and there were people on the lawns so that it was no longer a picture. Then I saw Carleton running towards Edwin and trying to snatch the kite away from him. Edwin would not release it and started to shout: “Be careful, Mama. Be careful!” Then I saw the clay pellets from the popgun scattered everywhere … and I was frightened.
Silly, stupid dreams but an indication of an uneasy mind. I wished Barbary had not put such thoughts into my head, but if they were in hers it was as well for me to know.
It was round about Christmas time of that year 1664. The boys were thinking of their fifth birthdays which closely followed Christmas. It was a cold snowy afternoon, with the flakes fluttering down and great fires roaring in every room.
The boys were kneeling on the schoolroom window seat, looking out at the snow, when Leigh shouted: “Someone’s coming.”
Edwin cried: “I can see a man. He’s riding into the courtyard.”
“Some travellers,” I said to Sally. “Someone who finds the weather too bad to go on. We shall doubtless have a visitor today. I will go down and see who it is.”
The children came with me.
Charlotte was already in the hall. When the bell started to clang, she opened the door and a man stepped in.
“Good day!” he cried. “A merry good day. What weather. Still I’m glad to be home!”
He looked at me with astonishment and then grinned at Charlotte.
“Now which one of you would be my niece, Charlotte?” he asked.
Charlotte stepped forward.
He seized her and kissed her.
“Is your father at home?”
Charlotte said: “Yes. I’ll send for him. You must be …”
“Your Uncle Tobias, Niece. Uncle Toby that is. Home from Virginia. Looking for a welcome warmer than the weather.”
Matilda Eversleigh was standing at the top of the staircase. He went towards her. “Matilda, my dear sister. Where’s John?”
“Why,” cried Matilda. “You must be …”
“Don’t you know me? Well, it’s been some years. A lot has happened since I went away, eh?” Lord Eversleigh had appeared behind his wife.
“Why—Tobias!” he cried. “Welcome home, Toby. I thought you were dead these many years.”
“Not me, brother. Alive and kicking as they say. Well, I thought I’d give you all a surprise. I want to hear all the news and I want to give you mine.”
“First,” said Matilda, “you must eat and drink and we’ll have a room made ready. Charlotte …”
“I’ll see to that, Mama.”
“My dear Toby … After all these years. We thought …”
“That I was dead. Yes, I know, John has just told me. No, there’s life in the old dog yet, Sister. Well, it’s good to be home. Eversleigh has not changed much. Been through hard times, I hear. But all’s well with the world now, I believe. The King’s come back, so I thought it was time Toby Eversleigh did the same.”
“It’s a wonde
rful surprise,” said Lord Eversleigh. “We have new additions to the family. This is Edwin’s wife.”
“What, young Edwin with a wife! And where is he …?”
There was a short silence and then Lord Eversleigh said: “I should have said Edwin’s widow.”
“Oh!”
The children had run down into the hall and were gazing with bewilderment at the newcomer.
“My grandson,” said Lord Eversleigh proudly. “Come Edwin and say good day to your Great-Uncle Toby.”
“Great-uncle,” said Edwin, looking upwards with awe.
“Yes, boy, I’m your great-uncle. I hope you’re going to be my friend.”
“I will,” said Edwin.
“So will I,” cried Leigh pushing forward.
“Another nephew for me?” asked Tobias.
“No … Leigh is an adopted child.”
“There’s much I have to hear, I doubt not,” said Tobias.
“First something to eat and drink,” said Matilda.
“It’s good to be home,” replied Tobias warmly.
So that was Edwin’s Uncle Toby. The family had been so convinced that he was dead that they had never mentioned him to me. I gathered that he came between Edwin’s and Carleton’s fathers and could only have been Lord Eversleigh’s junior by about two years, but his bronzed complexion and his rather plentiful hair made him look much the younger.
He was a colourful addition to the household, and it was soon clear that he intended to settle there. Being very convivial he was extremely popular. His weakness was a love of wine and he would sit at the table after dinner and consume quantities of it while his mood grew more and more mellow and he more and more talkative.
He was rich and had made a fortune in Virginia from tobacco. He had wanted to come home for years but feeling no affinity with the Puritan state, had waited until he heard the King was back.
“Mind you,” he said, wagging a finger at me as though I was about to contradict him, “there was much to be done. I couldn’t just up and off … not with my business activities … oh, dear me, no. I had to find managers … people I could trust. I didn’t want to give up my interest out there. Why, if the Roundheads came back, I’d be off again. Wouldn’t live under them, I promise you that.”
“They will never come back,” Lord Eversleigh assured him. “The people have had their fill of them.”
“Then I’ll rest me here … as long as you’ll have me.”
“My dear Toby,” said his brother, “this is your home as much as mine.”
Toby nodded, his eyes slightly misty. “What is it about old places like this?” he asked. “They get under your skin … they get in your blood. You never forget them, however far you roam. And if you’re in line for them … well, then, there’s something special.” He looked at me steadily. “Why, do you know if it wasn’t for young Master Edwin I’d be the heir to this place, that’s so, eh, Brother?”
Lord Eversleigh said it was indeed the case.
“Mind you,” replied Toby with his booming laugh, “you’re going to outlive me by the look of it. I’m more fond of the bottle, brother, than you, and they say that while a little of it is good, for your stomach’s sake, too much is likely to rot the gut. There, I’m shocking the ladies. Forgive. I’ve got a bit rough on my travels. And what about Harry’s boy?”
“Carleton,” said Matilda. “Oh, he is still here. I daresay he will be coming back soon. He moves between here and London.”
“I remember Carleton. He must have been about two when I went away. What an upstanding little fellow, eh! I can see him strutting around. He owned the place already. Of course then we thought you’d not get a son and I was off to the wilds and that meant everyone had decided I’d be eaten by sharks or Indians. Young Carleton was very sure of himself. I’ve just thought of it. He’ll take a step back, won’t he? … Not that it matters. We have our young Edwin. What a fine little man, eh? Madam, I congratulate you on giving us such a grand little heir.”
And so he talked, and I have to admit to slight and unworthy elation because Carleton had had to take another step backwards.
The children were fascinated by Uncle Toby. Being a great talker—fond, Charlotte commented, of his own voice—there was nothing he liked more than an appreciative audience. In the morning his talk was fascinating; in the evenings it was likely to get a little slurred; but of course it was in the mornings when the children heard him. They would desert their kites and their popguns and trumpets to sit at his feet and listen to his tales. I would join them too. He was always talking about Captain Smith who was his hero and whom he called the founder of Virginia.
“Named, my hearties, after the Virgin Queen by a man named Walter Raleigh.” Then he would tell them about Walter Raleigh and how he became the Queen’s favourite by spreading his cloak over the mud when she stepped from her carriage, thus preventing her from getting her pretty shoes dirty.
Raleigh brought tobacco to England, and tobacco was what grew in Virginia and it was tobacco that had made him a rich man.
I can see them now, their little faces alight with interest, and every now and then if the adventures grew horrific they would squeal with delight. Chastity came to join them. She was as fervent an admirer of Uncle Toby as the boys were.
What tales he had to tell of Captain John Smith who knew when he was a boy that he was going to be a great adventurer.
“I’m going to be a great adventurer,” cried Leigh jumping up, his eyes shining so that he looked remarkably like his mother. I remembered what she had said about having to adventure for the good things of life if they did not fall naturally into one’s lap.
Edwin said that he was, too, but he would have to stay at home most of the time to look after Eversleigh.
So he knew already. He must have listened to talk.
Uncle Toby patted his head. “Ah, yes, boy,” he said. “You’ll keep this place as it should be, and that’s another kind of adventure.”
“I shall go but to Virginia,” boasted Leigh. “Then I’ll come back and … and … I’ll tell you all about it.”
“In the meantime,” I said, “let’s listen to Uncle Toby.”
That was what everyone wanted to do, so we heard how Captain Smith joined the Christian army and went out to fight the Turks and defeated three of them in single combat and how later he became the prisoner of a wicked Timor and had a heavy iron yoke about his neck; how he slew the Timor and escaped, overcoming every difficulty, and how finally he landed up in Virginia where his life was saved by the beautiful Indian Princess Pocahontas.
So many stories he had to tell that the children were completely entranced. They played new games now. Leigh wanted to be John Smith but so did Edwin. Edwin, I noticed, almost always gave way and played the Timor. Then in the Pocahontas story Chastity was Pocahontas, Leigh, John Smith and Edwin, the Indian chief who was going to kill John.
I said to Edwin: “You should not let Leigh always play the best parts.”
Edwin looked at me with his serene and beautiful smile and explained: “But, Mama, he wouldn’t play unless he could have them and I like to play.”
I kissed him, but I did think Leigh was growing more and more like his mother.
It was not to be expected that Toby, who had lived so adventurously, would stay all the time at Eversleigh Court. He wanted to know what was happening in the country, and therefore he must go to Court. There were many people there who would be interested to hear his accounts of his travels and his brother said he must be presented to the King and Queen.
Carleton came to Eversleigh. I wished I had been present when he was confronted by Uncle Toby. I wondered what his immediate reactions were. When I saw them together he had had time to overcome his surprise and, I imagine, chagrin.
Once when we were riding Carleton was beside me and I asked him how he felt about his uncle’s return.
“It is always interesting to discover members of the family.”
“I
t’s odd that I never heard him mentioned.”
“We thought he was dead. The ship we presumed he had sailed in floundered. Uncle Toby has always had amazing luck. He took another ship right at the last moment so his doting family were under the impression that he was gone forever.”
“So all those years, until you reached your tenth birthday, you were strutting around imagining yourself to be the heir of Eversleigh, when the real heir was making his fortune in Virginia!”
“In absolute innocence! But what did it matter? Edwin was soon there to step in front of Tobias, and now you have provided us with another Edwin to do the same.”
“Uncle Toby comes before you though.”
“Neither of us comes anywhere while we have precious Edwin.”
“Toby is very fond of him.”
“Who would not be fond of that perfect child?”
“And you?”
He looked at me sardonically.
“Fond of Edwin? What a question. You know I dote on him. Mind you, I think at the moment he is inclined to cower behind Mama’s skirts and those of his nurse, while he allows young Master Leigh to be lord of the nursery. That should be changed.”
“How?”
He leaned towards me. “Very soon, dear Cousin, I am going to help you make a man of Edwin.”
“I will have no interference,” I said sharply.
He laughed. “For the good of Eversleigh,” he cried and then he galloped off.
When Uncle Toby went to London with Carleton and Lord Eversleigh, we missed him very much and the children were constantly asking when he was coming back. The two boys were very much absorbed at this time with their ponies, and Jasper used to take them out each day. I insisted that they should be on the leading rein except in the home fields. Even then I used to suffer agonies when I saw Edwin galloping round.
Jasper said: “Master Carleton be right, mistress. You’re too careful of the boy. You’re putting him in a glass case.”
“He is very young yet, Jasper,” I retorted.
Jasper grunted. He was a most surly man and I never could like him. I knew he would like to take us back to the days when it was considered a sin to smile. One thing I was sure of, his daughter Chastity was happier now than she had been before the Restoration.
Lament for a Lost Lover Page 23