Whispering

by Jane Aiken Hodge

  ‘It surprises you?’

  ‘Yes, it does a little. I’m not quite sure why. Something about the way they speak of each other. Call it woman’s instinct, if you like, but don’t laugh at it.’ She pulled her veil close around her face. ‘I have been away as long as I dare. Do, please, for my sake, be very careful. I’d never forgive myself. Luiz is –’ she paused, thought about it, ‘dangerous. You’ll speak to Wellington the minute he gets here?’

  ‘Just as soon as I can. I’ve not been much help so far, but, Caterina, I promise you can count on me. Trust me for that. Whatever happens.’

  ‘Thank you, I do.’ She rose, genuflected to the altar, and left him.

  Chapter 15

  The cathedral was quiet now, the service over, and the dim light getting dimmer. Jeremy sat where he was for a while, trying to make sense of it all. Why was it so hard to think clearly, dispassionately? He knew, really. It was because of Caterina and this unknown Luiz. It was not the threat of danger that sent the blood racing furiously through his veins; it was their relationship. They had been lovers, she and this young Portuguese traitor. It put her beyond the pale; an outcast from society.

  And who was he to think so? He who had dangled after Rachel Emerson, let her lead him by the nose so ignominiously. He could suddenly not bear to sit still a moment longer, but rose to his feet and hurried out of the cathedral into the gathering dusk. And yet he must be quiet, must think it all out. He should have stayed in the cathedral, the only peaceful place now that the Ware house was so full of activity. Something twitched in his mind about the Ware house. The party? What had Caterina said about the party? She seemed to think Luiz’s plans revolved around it. That he might not act till then. No, that was not it. Niggling at the back of his mind were all the postponements. It had been the recurrent theme of his early days with the Wares. Mrs Ware announcing that the wine had not come, the party must be put off again, the floors were not ready … And then, suddenly, it had been fixed for next Tuesday.

  And all the time, part of his mind had been on Wellington, trying to decide how to approach him, how much to tell him. He had never met either of the two powerful Wellesley brothers, and very much wished now that he knew more about them. It was absurd that he had been given no contact here in Oporto, and because of his own ambiguous position he had no useful friend in the British establishment here. The best thing he could do was to go straight to the top, to talk to Wellington himself, and not just about Caterina. But how?

  And that was another thing, restless at the back of his mind. Had the news of the Very important guest’ come before or after the moment when Mrs Ware finally fixed the date for her party? He rather thought he had heard it after, but then Mrs Ware might easily have had earlier information. He knew her for the spider at the heart of the British colony’s web of gossip. It had certainly all come very much at the same time: the party and the very important guest and the hope that he would find his way from the dinner at the English Factory to the festivities down the road. Well, of course, tuft-hunting Mrs Ware would want this hero for her party. Nothing odd about that.

  Hardly noticing what he was doing he had climbed to the height above the cathedral that Wellington’s troops had stormed two years before so as to retake Oporto. He stopped by the ruined seminary to look at the sunset blazing out to sea. Was he actually beginning to think again? He felt his mind clear, as if after an illness. What had they done to him, Rachel Emerson’s subtle hands? What kind of hypnotic trickery had she practised on him? Never mind that. She would be gone tomorrow: it was over. And this was not the moment to be brooding about the past. The sense of urgency was strong upon him. It was time he started to behave like a sensible man.

  The house doors swung open as Caterina’s sedan chair stopped in the courtyard, and Tonio hurried out to greet her. ‘Thank the good God you are back at last, minha senhora. Your father has been asking for you; he has a caller; it’s the old lady from across the valley, would you believe it, the Senhora Fonsa herself. She came in her carriage; they could not believe their eyes in the stable yard. Her servants carried her in, as if she were a queen. She made Senhor Gomez send Father Pedro away, said she must talk to him alone. They’ve been at it half an hour. And now he wants you.’

  ‘What did you tell him?’

  ‘What you said. That you had gone to the cathedral to pray for guidance. He said you were to join them the very minute you got back.’

  ‘Then I had best do so. Thank you, Tonio.’

  She found the old lady enthroned in her father’s own great chair, with Carlotta in attendance beside her, smelling salts in hand. Gomez, deprived of his normal seat, was pacing up and down the room, livid with rage. ‘There you are at last, Caterina. What in the world possessed you to go jaunting off to the cathedral without a word to anyone?’

  ‘Harriet and the servants knew where I was, father.’ She went forward to kiss the old lady on her wrinkled cheek. ‘Dear madam, it was good of you to come.’

  ‘Of course I came! And I am enjoying my visit, too, whatever you say.’ This to Carlotta, who looked racked with anxiety. ‘I shall sleep tonight for a change. And if coming out should chance to kill me, as you seem to expect, Carlotta, well you could call that a good sleep too. But I don’t mean it to. I have too much to do; this is the beginning of a whole new life for me. I am come to invite you and your friend, whatever her name is, to live with me,’ she told Caterina. ‘The whole town is shocked at this talk of the silent sisters, and so I have told your father. If I had been consulted three years ago, you would have married my grandson. Now you are to be my grand-daughter. I have been telling your fool of a father how things stand in my family. The Fonsa money has always been mine, to do with as I please. I meant it for Luiz, but when he disgraced himself and us by joining the French two years ago I had to think again. He’ll never touch a scudo of mine, and neither shall that hopeless father of his. So, child, here is my offer. Pack up your traps, come across the valley to brighten an old lady’s house, and, if we suit, you shall be my heir.’

  ‘I’m overwhelmed.’ It was true. How gravely she had misjudged old Madame Fonsa, and how she admired the speed with which she had grasped and taken advantage of the new situation.

  ‘One stipulation, mind you.’ The old lady’s dark-rimmed eyes held Caterina’s. ‘This idiotic engagement your father speaks of, to some invalid of an Englishman; that must be broken off before I receive you. I’ll have no hangers-on.’

  Odd that it should grate on her nerves to hear Jeremy Craddock so summarily dismissed. But, ‘That’s not a problem,’ she said coolly. ‘Mr Craddock only proposed to me out of the kindness of his heart, because he knew how intolerably I was placed. He will be glad enough to be released. But Miss Brown has a hanger-on,’ she smiled at the old lady now. ‘Harriet has engaged herself to young Mr Ware, just this morning, and I doubt he will give her up so easily.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t mind Mr Ware,’ said the old lady graciously. That’s settled then. You will dispose of this Mr Craddock.’

  She turned a sharp glance on Senhor Gomez who had looked increasingly foolish as he listened helplessly to the arrangements being made. ‘I take it you will admit the poor young fellow to your house so that your daughter can put paid to his pretensions?’ She left no time for Gomez to answer, but turned back to Caterina. ‘I shall need to make a few changes in my household before you arrive. You will deal with young Craddock while I do that, and then, on Wednesday, with this ridiculous party safe over, come to me, you and Miss Brown, instead of to the silent sisters. You can hardly object to that.’ The dark eyes flashed back to Gomez. ‘She will not need a scudo from you; it can all go to Father Pedro’s friars, if that is really what you wish. And the name of Gomez gone for good.’ Her claw of a hand reached out to clutch Caterina’s. ‘I mean to ask you to change your name to Fonsa when I rewrite my will. You won’t mind that?’

  ‘No.’ Caterina met her father’s angry eyes squarely. ‘I won’t mind that at al
l, dear madam.’

  ‘If I had only known she was so clever.’ Caterina was telling Harriet about the interview. ‘It takes care of everything, don’t you see? Presently we will bring over little Lewis, child of a secret marriage, I suppose. England is a long way off. And he will be a Fonsa like me.’

  ‘And the old lady will then leave everything to him,’ warned Harriet.

  ‘I am sure you are right, but why should I mind that? Lewis will never let his mother starve. Oh, Harriet, how soon do you think we will be able to get him here?’

  ‘With that formidable old lady behind you? Pretty soon, I would think. I must say I quite long to meet her.’ She paused. ‘Now all you have to do is dispose of poor Jeremy Craddock. And the sooner and the more publicly the better, don’t you think? To remove the threat from Luiz? I take it your father made no objection?’

  ‘My father knew he had not a leg to stand on. I have to say, Harriet, that it was a great pleasure to see him so completely at a stand. That was a masterstroke of Madame Fonsa’s about wanting me to change my name. It went deep. I almost felt sorry for him.’

  ‘Not quite, I hope.’

  ‘Oh, no, not quite. Harriet, sometimes I think of what it must have been like for my poor mother … Will you be as glad to get out of this house as I shall?’

  ‘Yes, I am afraid so. But, Cat, should you not be summoning Mr Craddock? I do think the sooner you let him off the hook the better.’

  ‘You are absolutely right. I’ll send at once, though it’s too late for him to come today. I do hope Madame Fonsa is none the worse for being out in the evening air. I could see that Carlotta, her maid, was worried to death about her.’

  ‘I wonder what it will be like living there?’

  ‘Better than here, I am sure.’

  ‘How sad that is.’

  Jeremy had dined at the English Factory and did not get Caterina’s note until very late indeed. Whatever it was that made her want to see him so urgently, and with her father’s permission too, would have to wait until morning. He had meant to be down at the quay to watch the Emersons safe on board the Washington, was glad to have a reason for avoiding this. He was sure they meant to go. In fact, Rachel Emerson’s obvious eagerness to be gone before the party was yet another cause for anxiety. She had explained it by talk of the threat of war between England and America, but this seemed an unlikely enough story in retrospect. He had mentioned the possibility of war, casually, over dinner at the Factory the night before and it had been greeted with gales of dismissive laughter by the military men of the party.

  He was thinking about this as he crossed the marketplace. Had Rachel Emerson gone on deceiving him to the end? It seemed all too likely. He stopped. A hand was tugging at his coat. He turned back, surprised, and recognised the haggard old woman from whom he had bought fruit the day before. She was selling little tight bouquets of flowers today. ‘Buy one for your pretty lady, senhor?’

  Well, why not? It was his first visit to his ‘fiancée’ after all, though it was disconcerting that the old woman seemed to know this. ‘Thank you, mother.’ He took the flowers and handed her a lavish handful of small coins.

  ‘God bless you, senhor.’ She smiled gap-toothed at him. ‘It is dry today, the sun is shining, but there will be a storm on Tuesday, St Bruxa’s Eve. Best stay home that day, you and the pretty lady together.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ But she had turned her back on him to cajole another possible customer.

  He arrived at the Gomez house very thoughtful, but for the moment Caterina’s news drove everything else from his head. ‘You mean to go and live there?’ He could not believe his ears. ‘And what in the world will your Luiz think of that?’

  ‘Not my Luiz,’ she said. ‘And Madame Fonsa and I could hardly discuss him in front of my father. I mean to call on her today, ostensibly to tell her that I have done her bidding and you and I are no longer engaged. That will give us a chance to talk. But I haven’t thanked you properly.’ She held out an impulsive hand. ‘I am more grateful to you than I can say.’

  He took and held it, resisting a strong urge to kiss it. ‘Are you sure you will be happy there? It seems a rash enough move to me. Should you not rather let me take you back to your English grandmother?’

  Now she wished she had told him about little Lewis. But this was not the moment for that revelation. ‘Old Lady Trellgarten is poor as a church mouse,’ she told him. ‘I would only be a burden on her. And I like Madame Fonsa. I can be happy with her, I think.’

  ‘And her grandson?’ He had just realised that the curious feeling that plagued him was jealousy. How ridiculous.

  ‘Poor Luiz,’ she said, making it worse. ‘God knows what is going to happen to him. You must tell everyone at once that I have broken off our engagement because of my father’s objections. I won’t breathe easy until I am sure that Luiz knows. Lord, I will be glad when that party of Mrs Ware’s is safely over.’

  ‘We are going to cut a couple of fairly ludicrous figures at it, I am afraid, you and I.’

  ‘Yes, aren’t we,’ she said cheerfully. ‘If that is the worst of it! Are those for me?’

  ‘Of course. Stupid of me.’ He had dropped the flowers on a garden table when she broke her news to him. ‘They were for my fiancée,’ he said wryly. ‘Take them as a dear friend, Caterina. But they come with a warning.’ He described his two encounters with the old woman. ‘What should I think about that?’

  ‘It confirms all my instincts,’ she said. ‘Something is going to happen at that party.’

  ‘I think so too. All the British colony will be gathered under one roof.’

  ‘And Lord Wellington,’ she reminded him.

  ‘Yes, and that’s a funny thing. All those postponements. Can you remember whether the news of Wellington’s visit came before Mrs Ware finally fixed the date for that party?’

  ‘No.’ She thought about it. ‘But it was very much at the same time. But you cannot suspect Mrs Ware?’

  ‘She’s a very silly woman. And, by the sound of her, Madame Feuillide a very clever one. You don’t think that perhaps some mixture of blandishment with a touch of blackmail …?’

  ‘Oh dear, yes I do. Did you know that Madame Feuillide plans to spend the night of the party at Mrs Ware’s house? That surprised me when she told me, but of course it would make sense if she has some kind of hold over her. And I am afraid we are none of us heroines to our dressmakers. I can easily imagine some silly secret of poor Mrs Ware’s that she would rather die than have exposed to public scorn.’

  ‘Or let someone else die?’

  ‘I don’t think she has much imagination,’ said Caterina. ‘What are we going to do? Should we not go to the authorities?’

  ‘Which? Portuguese or English? I wish your bishop was here. We could trust him. Or Colonel Trant, but the acting governor is an entirely unknown quantity. For all I know he might be implicated in a move against the unpopular British, if that is really what is afoot. And the last thing we want to do is exacerbate the feeling against us. Just imagine how delighted the French would be to see the Portuguese and the English at each other’s throats.’

  ‘That’s it, of course,’ she said. ‘That’s what Madame Feuillide is planning. She is using Luiz just as she is Mrs Ware.’

  ‘And we have to stop her without seeming to. Could you make Luiz understand that, do you think?’

  ‘Not a chance. He thinks women are to be played with, not listened to. But there must be someone you know who would believe you.’

  ‘I feel such a fool.’ He came out with it at last. ‘It is more than time I told you. I am here on false pretences, have been all along. I’m not here for my health; there’s nothing wrong with that, it was merely a cover. I was sent as a spy, to find out who was leaking information to the French. I used you, as a cover Caterina, you and Harriet. Forgive me?’

  ‘You were very useful to us on the way out.’ She smiled at him. ‘I confess I had wondered a little about your health
, but it was no business of mine. And you found your spy, I take it, in Rachel Emerson. Poor Mr Craddock.’

  ‘And her husband,’ he said savagely. And looked at his watch. ‘They will be on board ship by now, thank God, and good riddance. And my report goes to England on Monday’s ship.’

  ‘To England?’

  ‘Yes, that’s the devil of it. I was given no contact here, told I was entirely on my own and would be disowned if I should get into any kind of trouble.’

  ‘How very stupid of your employers. It does leave us rather at a stand, does it not?’

  He could have kissed her for that ‘us’. ‘I think it has to be Wellington himself,’ he said. ‘I hope to God he gets here in good time before the party. And that I can find some means of getting to talk to him at once. I’ve been racking my brains about that. I had counted on Major Dickson to put me in touch, but he has gone upriver to meet the general.’

  ‘I’m sure Frank Ware could help you about that,’ she said. ‘Did you know that he and Harriet are engaged? That is one good thing that has come out of my father’s threats.’

  ‘I wonder what Mrs Ware will think about that.’

  ‘So do I, but I cannot say that I care.’

  Chapter 16

  Harriet, too, had written a note the night before, and while Caterina entertained Jeremy on the sunlit terrace, she was closeted with Frank in the library. ‘So you see,’ she said at last, ‘our problems are all to be solved by this good fairy of a Madame Fonsa. She has rolled up Senhor Gomez horse, foot and guns and we are spared the Little Sisters of St Seraphina. So, if you please, Mr Ware, we will pretend yesterday’s events did not happen. I shall never forget your kindness in my hour of need, but it is over, and that must be an end to our engagement. You have had time to think about it; you must know that I am right. Please, dear Frank, make it easy for me, and let this be goodbye.’