The Devil's Own

by Christopher Nicole

  'I should have thought the humiliation would lie in accepting your bed, Marguerite. There can be no member of this crew does not know of our relationship.'

  'Of your relationship, with Lilian Christianssen. Thus I stand already sufficiently humiliated, would you not say? What ails you, Kit? Would you be utterly faithful to your Danish lady? Can you swear that you will always be? I should have thought you of all men would know better than that. What shall I do, Kit? You know that no human finger has touched this body, saving my maids in my bath, since you left. And saving my own, of course. For be sure that I have torn at my own body, out of lonely desperation. Be sure that I have awakened in the middle of the night, and cried out for you, and sweated for want of you, and been called upon myself to atone for your absence, as Onan might have overlooked me and felt pity for me, in my needy turmoil. Must I humiliate myself further? Must I crawl on the deck at your feet? Must I weep, and beg? See, I do both of those things. You once said I consider myself a demigoddess. Well, so I do. So here stands before you a demigoddess, weeping and begging, willing to humble herself, before her demigod. Demand of me what you will. Be sure that I will grant your most ambitious, or your most debased wish. I ask only your love, Kit. I ask it even at second hand. As I have given you mine, at cost of fame, and family, and fortune, I ask only your kiss in return.'

  Could there ever be a woman so demanding, so insistent? If he could but believe that she acted out of passion, and not carefully calculated determination to achieve. But on that score he knew her a shade too well.

  Desperately he thrust her away. 'You are a temptress, madam. You seek to suborn me from my duty, and from my responsibility as a man. Had you been in the cabin of that ship with me perhaps you would have known better. I will not declare they were innocent men. Perhaps there are no such things on the face of this earth. But they were men, such as I, or your father, or any other that you may have known, and to those men I had pledged my word. To them, no less than to their people. And even had I not, they came to your father's ship in good faith and believing in his good faith. I had made them believe that there was a new era of peace and perhaps prosperity opening for both our peoples. And your father took that possibility, nay, that probability, and tore it into shreds with his hands, before my eyes. Should he not pay for it, our children will have to do so. I will have him do the paying, madam. Believe me, I do not seek to insult you or to hurt you. You remain, before God, the most beautiful and the most desirable female I have ever known, or can possibly hope to know. But while you support that evil, you are evil, and I will have no part of you. Come to me again when the trial is finished, and your father condemned, and we will speak again.'

  He freed her hands, and stepped for the door, and hesitated, expecting her to speak. But she said nothing, nor could he make himself turn to face her again.

  'Gentlemen.' Captain Holgate struggled to his feet, and swayed with the ship. He swayed thus at most meals, and it made little difference the state of the weather. So no doubt in a gale he was a very good fellow to have in command, as the trembling of the hull itself would have little effect upon his already trembling body. Now he watched the wine in his glass flowing to and fro, although the wind was light and the frigate did no more than roll in the swell. 'I give you the Queen, God bless her, Anne.'

  The men rose, Kit in the midst of the officers, and the toast was drunk. As usual, he found himself staring at Marguerite. As he sat on the Captain's left, and she on the Captain's right, at table were they in closest proximity. At least no questions had been asked by the courteous officers concerning his request for a separate cabin, although equally certainly this strange pair must be a fruitful source of gossip for the entire crew.

  Now, as ever, she smiled at him, her face a delightful mask concealing whatever anger seethed behind those brittle green eyes. But then, for her part, she seldom came on deck, and spent most of her time in her cabin.

  'The land rising on our port bow is Barbados,' Holgate declared. 'And by dusk we shall be anchored in Carlisle Bay. Now tell me truly, Mrs Hilton; has the voyage been so violent, so unpleasant?'

  Marguerite shook her head. 'I am sure that as sea voyages go, this has been as peaceful a venture as one could wish, Captain. But will we truly be on land by this evening?'

  'Indeed, Mrs Hilton. Unless the wind should entirely drop, and that is not its custom in these parts.'

  'Then I hope you will excuse me now, as I should prepare myself.' Her chair scraped as she stood up, and the assembled officers hastily got to their feet. 'Pray be seated, gentlemen. I would not interfere with your port.' Her gaze swept them all, and came to rest upon Kit. 'I would be obliged if you would attend me, for a moment, dear one. It is a matter of some importance.'

  It was the first time on the voyage she had made such a request in front of the assembled afterguard.

  'Gentlemen.' Kit went round the table and opened the door for her. She swept past him in a cloud of scent, and snapped her fingers at Patience Jane. 'You may return later to complete the packing, girl.'

  'Yes'm.' Patience Jane gave Kit a hasty, anxious glance, and hurried out of the cabin. Kit closed the door, but remained standing by it.

  Marguerite sank on to the seat beneath the great stern window. 'Cannot you now have done with humiliating me? Can any woman have suffered the outrageous gossip of these last few days? I cannot even command my husband to my bed? Oh, perhaps I went about it in error. I assumed, as I am a woman, a woman you once loved, that I had but to approach you in that guise to regain your love. I had forgot the inconsistency of man.'

  'Did you summon me to hear a tirade, madam?' he asked. 'You yourself commanded me from your bed, if I would not cease opposing your father. Any further relationship between us can only come under the guise of corruption, at least until this affair is concluded.'

  'Then sit down,' she said. 'I beg of you, dear Kit. Be sure that I shall keep my distance, on this side of the cabin. I but wish to have this conversation with you, as it is a matter which so greatly affects us all, and be sure that this will be the last occasion on which we shall discuss it, if you will not admit me to your love.'

  Kit sat down, on the far side of the cabin. He gazed at his wife, so strangely uncertain of herself, as her fingers plucked at the cushion beside her, so unutterably beautiful.

  'I ask you now,' she said, 'without coquetry or subterfuge, but as your wife and as Philip Warner's daughter, to abandon this peculiar vendetta against my father. Hear me out, Kit, please. In your eyes he has committed an abominable crime, and you have taken all possible action against him. He has been removed from his position as Deputy Governor of Antigua, a misfortune which affects him keenly. I have read his letters to Aunt Celestine. Nor is he likely to be reinstated, whatever the outcome of this trial. In addition, his fame has been dragged in the dust, as this event has been discussed wherever civilized men get together. He has been pilloried before the English public, and now is returned to Barbados, a place where he has never attained much popularity, to be tried like a common malefactor. This is the man whose father founded these colonies, who bears a proud name, a name which will surely ring as long as these islands remain above water. Be sure that Philip Warner's will ever remain associated with the death of that Carib monster. So, I ask you, what more can he suffer? Yet would you hound him to his death. But he is already past his middle age. I doubt he has more than ten years left before him, at the best of things. Is that, then, too long for you to wait?'

  Kit sighed. 'I understand your plea, Marguerite, and I respect it. No man could wish for more devotion from his daughter. Yet must I follow this path, because there is too much at stake. I do not speak of my good name, my reputation. God knows, that was sufficiently compromised long before I ever set foot in Antigua. But these colonies which are your, and my, pride and joy, do we not hope and expect to see them grow, and become even wealthier, and of more importance in the world? Do we not hope and trust that they will spread, to take in St Lucia and
St Vincent and indeed all the Windwards, perhaps even Dominica itself? Must we be subjected always to the taint that there go a band of coldblooded murderers? Why, the acceptance of your father's deed brands us as worse than the Dons, and they at least were always actuated by mindless religious fervour. Where was your father's fervour? Only a certainty that he had already wronged his brother and the Princess Yarico so grievously that his stomach rebelled against accepting them in friendship.'

  'The Princess Yarico,' she said contemptuously. 'Aye, I have heard tales enough of that whore. So you visited her hammock. Was her body sweeter than mine?'

  'I had supposed we intended to conduct this conversation in a civilized fashion,' Kit said.

  Marguerite's turn to sigh. 'I apologize. I will retain my temper, I do promise you.'

  'Well, then, let it be certain that a great deal depends upon justice being done in this sad event, and even more, a great deal rests upon justice being seen to be done. Or who, be he Carib or Frenchman, Dutchman or Don, will ever attend a conference with us again?'

  Her shoulders rose and fell. 'You persist in seeing life in these large canvasses. I can see only the figure of my father, on trial for his life. Tell me this, Kit. Do you despise me for attempting to defend him?'

  'Rather do I honour you for that, Meg.'

  'Well, then, would you not do die same for your own father, regardless of the crime he had committed?'

  'No doubt I should.'

  'And suppose I could convince you that this is a family affair, for you as well.'

  He stared at her, Yarico's words bubbling in his brain.

  'Aye,' she said. 'You have thought on that score, Kit. I can see it in your face. But does it not occur to you every time you use a mirror?'

  'Then would we have sinned beyond measure,' he said.

  'What nonsense. If indeed Edward Warner coupled too successfully with Susan Hilton, as is generally accepted, then your father was my first cousin. But you cannot be more than my second cousin.'

  'Still too close. I shudder for our children.'

  'I still say, nonsense,' Marguerite insisted. 'Do not kings and queens marry within such constrained limits? I would declare before any court in the world, that knowing this as I did, when first I elected to pick you from that ditch in which you lay, I yet had not the slightest doubt that it was you I should take to my heart and my bed. What, marry anyone other than a Warner? There was the crime, so to weaken the blood.'

  Kit's shoulders were hunched. 'So there is more drawing us together than either love or lust. I never doubted that, Meg. Yet are we now burst further apart than you can have imagined possible. So Philip is my great-uncle, as he is your father. Yet must I send him to the gallows if I can. For do you not realize, that if indeed he is my uncle, then so was Indian Tom?'

  'That ... that bastard?'

  Are you not a bastard? And am I not descended from one, certainly?'

  Her eyes shrouded him, and he remembered the sparkling angry determination with which she had looked at Philip himself on the day she had announced her intention of marrying. Oh, God, he thought, to turn back the clock that far and exorcize all of this bitterness, all of this hate.

  Knuckles drummed on the door, and still she stared at him. He was glad to turn away, and open it. A midshipman waited there. 'Begging your pardon, Captain Hilton, but Captain Holgate presents his compliments, and says the Careenage is now in full sight.'

  'I will be there in a moment,' Kit said. And frowned. 'There is more?'

  'The Captain begs me to inform you, sir, and the lady, that there appears to have been some misfortune. The signals flying from the fort indicate that we are again at war with France.'

  'By God,' Kit said. 'That was a brief interlude.' 'War,' Marguerite said softly.

  He turned to her. 'You think this will make a difference?'

  She smiled at him, and held a handkerchief to her nose. She seemed to have caught a slight cold. 'Wars make men more aware of reality, and less of abstract notions. Will you stand there the day, boy?'

  'I beg your pardon, madam.' The midshipman hastily withdrew. Kit closed the door.

  'Then is your father perhaps fortunate,' he said.

  'Yet your duty remains clear.'

  'More than ever.'

  'And nothing I can say or do or beg or promise will alter your resolution?'

  'Nothing,' Kit said. 'For me to turn aside now, for fear of punishment or in hopes of reward, for love or for hate, would be to make myself a party to that crime. I will not do that, Marguerite. I am sorry. More sorry than you know, perhaps.'

  She stood up. 'Then be sorry, Kit Hilton,' she said. 'And suffer. For be sure you will find in me an enemy you shall fear.'

  'I trust these lodgings will prove satisfactory, Captain Hilton.' Mr Sergeant Pratt could not speak without apparently considering himself in a court of law. Now he held the lapels of his coat, one in each hand, and peered around the bedchamber with a censorious frown.

  'They will do very nicely, sir, thank you.' Kit went to the window, looked out at the palm-trees and the beach. Barbados was indeed remarkably like Antigua, lacking mountains or volcanic springs and being entirely devoted to cane-growing. Even the little town of Bridgetown was reminiscent of St John's. But there was no true harbour here, and no protecting ring of islands. Barbados was exposed, lonely in the Atlantic swell.

  'I will have one of my own blacks attend you, of course,' the lawyer said. 'And you shall be the guest of my wife and myself once the trial is concluded. I but wish we could similarly express ourselves to your good lady, but I understand that is not possible.'

  'We maintain separate positions in this affair,' Kit said.

  'And yet you came to Bridgetown in the same vessel.'

  'In separate cabins, Mr Pratt. Nor do I see that our domestic differences are any concern of yours, or the court's.'

  'Indeed, sir, I wish to agree with you, were this whole affair not a domestic one. Brother against brother. Niece against uncle and husband. Husband against wife and father-in-law. Oh, Her Majesty's Commissioners did this island no great favour when they commanded the trial to be held here. But justice will be done, Captain Hilton. You may rest assured of that.'

  'I have no doubt of that, Mr Pratt. What of the man Bale?'

  'Ah.' Pratt took a turn up and down the room, his hands clasped beneath the tails of his coat. 'We have had no fortune there, I am sorry to say. We have hunted for him in Jamaica, and in the Caymans, and even as far afield as the Virgins. Most know of him in those parts, but none have seen him in these past four weeks, it seems. There is the problem with relying upon a pirate as a witness. Yet we shall be permitted to read his deposition, I do assure you of that, Captain. And we have Hamblyn.'

  'Now, there is good news,' Kit cried. 'He was present at the conference in St John's when our plans were agreed. There was also a Captain England.'

  'Aye. Pirates all. But England has himself vanished. 'Tis said that he seeks a fortune in the Indian Ocean, sailing out of Madagascar, and endeavouring to follow in the footsteps of that rogue Avery. We shall not have him back from there, and must do our best with this Hamblyn. However, these are but corroboratory witnesses, Captain. We may liken them to the icing upon the cake which is your case. The substance, sir, the substance stands before me. You have no doubts?'

  'Should I have?'

  'I assume that pressure has been brought to bear upon you, in Antigua, from your family no less than your friends, to withdraw.'

  'I cannot very well do that, Mr Pratt, having been served with a subpoena.'

  'Indeed. Indeed. But there will be other pressures to withstand, even here. There are some gentlemen now waiting to see you.'

  Kit frowned. 'Why did you not say so sooner?'

  'I wished to have this talk with you myself, first. It is a matter of some importance, you know, Captain Hilton. As the eyes of the West Indies will be upon our courtroom here in Bridgetown, be sure that the eyes of the world will be upon this sma
ll island of ours. I would have us receive nothing but praise for the way we handle this unfortunate affair. Now, do you wish to receive these gentlemen?'

  'Should I not, as I must live in their midst these coming weeks?'

  'Oh, indeed, sir. Indeed. Then, if you will permit me, I will take my leave now, and make my way out by the back door. It would not be good for us to be found together at this juncture. I will see you in court, Captain Hilton. Until then, may I wish you Godspeed.'

  'I thank you Mr Pratt.' The Attorney General was frightened, he thought. But surely the affair could not so concern the Barbadians? They had but to supplv judge and jury. He went downstairs, and was greeted with a nervous smile by the young woman who managed the hotel for her father.

  'I hope your chambers are satisfactory, Captain.'

  'Indeed they are,' Kit agreed. 'I was informed that there are some gentlemen waiting to see me.'

  'Oh, yes, sir,' Miss Blaine said. 'They are in the parlour.'

  Her face was pale, and her lip trembled. Kit smiled at her. 'Then show me the way.'

  'Yes, sir. Through here, sir.' She hurried in front of him, opened the door. 'Captain Hilton, gentlemen.'

  The three men turned to face him. They were obviously planters from their dress, and straight from the fields, although he noticed that they wore swords for this visit to Bridgetown.

  'Good morning, gentlemen,' Kit said. 'It is good of you to call. I am Christopher Hilton, of Antigua.'

  'The pleasure is ours, sir,' said the first of the men, the smallest of the three, with swarthy features and a large belly. 'Rodney Alleyne, at your service.'

  'Percival Browne, Captain Hilton.' This man was taller than Alleyne, fair, and with blunt, friendly features, now severely composed.