‘Oh, Jo!’ This unexpected kindness brought the first tears to Juliet’s eyes.
‘Oh, Ju! You didn’t really think I’d let you languish in a debtors’ prison, did you? Remember, whatever you decide, you’re safe now. It’s I who am not.’ She turned and followed the man called Satan, who had been waiting to light her down the bluff.
‘What does she mean?’ Juliet asked Anne who had emerged from the house to see her mistress off.
‘Nothing good. She’s in a bad state, I’m afraid, my poor Josephine.’ She lapsed comfortably into French. ‘But we’ll talk of all that later, over supper, when we’ve got this pigsty of yours into some kind of order.’
Between them, she and Josephine seemed to have thought of everything. Curtains for the windows, cool linen sheets for the shabby bedsteads, oil for the lamp, and, best of all, food and wine. The battered old stove that had driven Juliet almost to distraction lit like an angel for Anne, who was soon cracking eggs into the skillet she had brought. ‘You make the salad,’ she instructed Juliet, in English now. ‘And mon dieu where did I put the tire-bouchon?’
‘It’s here.’ Juliet picked up the corkscrew. ‘But, Anne, wine?’
‘To drink his health,’ said Anne uncompromisingly. ‘And yours.’
Juliet almost admitted defeat, then and there. Later, gazing across the table at Anne, she asked the question that seemed basic to the whole extraordinary affair. ‘What’s the matter with my cousin, Anne?’
‘Nothing.’ Anne shrugged. ‘Everything. To give you an honest answer, I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s bad. She left Fontainebleau, you know, left home, soon after Napoleon escaped from Elba and you and your parents left. She went without a word, without a line. Poor madame, I think it helped to kill her. To lose everyone at once, like that. Those were bad times.’ She poured more wine for them both. ‘Best forgotten. But you need to know ... to understand. We thought she was with Napoleon, perhaps. As a gesture — tu comprends? Because his wife would not come to him, that Austrian bitch who fawned on him while he was happy and failed him when he needed her.’
‘Dear God!’ Juliet’s thoughts were of Josephine. ‘But he’s —’
‘Old enough to be her father? What has that to do with anything. And, mind you, this is all conjecture, your aunt’s and mine. We had nothing else to do, then, but imagine things. And wait. When she came back, after Waterloo, she told us nothing. She looked like death. It finished her mother. She hardly noticed; Josephine, I mean. She was mad, a little, I think, for a while then, cette pauvre Josephine. We were in Paris by then, you understand. Fontainebleau was not safe, with the enemy armies on the rampage. God knows, Paris was dangerous enough. And Josephine would go out, on purpose, to insult them, to throw things ... After her mother died ... What could I do? I had no authority. She laughed at me; a laugh like death. And then, God bless him. Mr. Purchis brought her back. I don’t know where he had found her; she never speaks of it, and nor does he. A good man that, Juliette; a saint almost. When she told me they were to marry I was almost mad with joy. And now —’
‘Yes, now.’ Juliet seized on it. ‘If he’s such a good man, this Mr. Purchis, how can you possibly suggest that I be a party to deceiving him?’
‘Because it’s the only hope,’ said Anne sombrely. ‘You don’t understand, ma petite, and nor, come to that, does he. Well, he may be a saint, but he’s a man, too, with a man’s blindness. Oh, I thought it would work, at first. Hoped it would.’ She sighed. ‘Hopeless. And her fault, mind you. He tried, oh, mon dieu, how I have watched him try. It was Paris of the occupation, you understand. Not easy. But he did everything to make it so.’
‘And she?’
‘Hated it all. And made no effort to hide it. I think it was despair, mainly, that decided him to come back here this spring. And she was eager to come. I don’t know ... I think, perhaps, already, this idea of rescuing Napoleon was growing in her. Of course, I knew nothing of that; not then. She has always been one to keep her own counsel, your cousin. But it seemed as if she was eager to come here. And then, when she arrived —’
‘Well?’
‘Disaster! She hates it so, poor child. Now, me, I find it a good enough sort of place. It is but to teach them a thing or two, those poor benighted servants of theirs. Mr Purchis’s learn gladly enough. Well, they love him, of course.’
‘Yes.’ Eagerly. ‘So, surely, the men who brought you here today. They won’t deceive him?’
‘Lord bless you, child, of course they will. For the bribes she gives them? Besides, only Satan really saw you by daylight and he’s faithful as the grave. No, don’t deceive yourself, Juliette, this is a decision you have to make. I can’t help you. Not really. But I can tell you I think the only hope for your cousin’s marriage is for her to see Napoleon again, and see him for the old man he is.’
‘Oh …’ Now, at last, this made sense. ‘Oh, Anne —’
‘I know. It is not pleasant. But there are better sides to it, too. It is a good work to save the Emperor from that death in life on St. Helena. And it will do your cousin good to do it. And what harm, after all, can it do you?’
‘And afterwards?’
‘Oh, afterwards!’ She finished the last of the wine. ‘Let “afterwards” take care of itself. We have cares enough for today, you and I.’
Extraordinary to be tucked in, like a child, among cool sheets fragrant with a herb she did not recognise. She meant to lie awake, to think, to decide ... She slept, dreamlessly, the sleep of complete exhaustion, and woke to hear Anne busy in the next room, and smell the tantalising smell of fresh coffee.
‘You’re awake!’ Anne must have heard her stir. ‘Stay there, and I’ll bring your breakfast. You’re tired out, aren’t you, under that tan of yours. I shall tell madame you’re in no state to decide anything — not till you’ve got rid of those dark circles from under your eyes. You cry too easily, too.’ She brought the pillow from her own bed and plumped it up behind Juliet. ‘It’s more than madame does, but I’ve heard her in the night, just lately. There!’ The tray held a great mug of coffee, with freshly heated rolls to be dipped in it. ‘We’ll have you a bit more yourself before madame gets here, but I tell you, now whatever you decide, you’ll have to stay here a few days to get your strength back. I’d not risk you on the water as you are for anything, and so I shall tell madame. There are far too many fevers to be caught, here among the swamps.’
‘Nonsense.’ But it failed to sound convincing, and Juliet was glad enough to finish rolls and coffee, then drift back into a half-sleep that was full, now, of an extraordinary mixture of dream and memory. Sometimes she was nursing her father through his last illness, sometimes packing up, at frantic speed, to leave New Orleans, or, perhaps worst of all, trying to fend off the pushing curiosity of the women in the ladies’ cabin of the steamboat that had brought them up to Charleston.
It was all over now. All ended ... and she was alone, with her decision to make. She burrowed her face more deeply into the pillow, and slept. ‘I won’t wake her!’ Anne’s voice, saying this, did in fact wake her, and she sat up in bed to see afternoon sunshine flooding in through the window she had cleared of leaves.
‘I am awake!’ Her voice was still heavy with sleep.
‘That’s my girl!’ Josephine was more elegant than ever in a tailored riding-habit of dark green. ‘Hyde thinks I’m over here riding,’ she explained. ‘He keeps horses for me at Screven’s Ferry. Thank you, Anne.’ It was dismissal as well as thanks. And then, as the door closed with a little, disapproving click, ‘She thinks you’re not well.’
‘I’m a little tired.’
‘And no wonder. So the best thing you can do is stay here for a while. And if you want to amuse yourself by listening to Anne and me talk about Savannah society, so much the better. We can’t lose, can we, pet?’
***
So it was that without ever actually admitting to herself that she had decided to cooperate in this strange charade, Juliet found
herself, day after day, submissively listening as Josephine and Anne took it in turns to tell her about the plantation at Winchelsea and the town house the young architect William Jay had just finished for Hyde Purchis in one of Savannah’s squares.
‘That’s the one you’ll really need to know about,’ Josephine explained a week or so later when Anne had finally consented to let her patient get up and sit with her cousin under the shade of the big magnolia. ‘Getting away from Winchelsea is not so bad; Hyde’s busy on the plantation; we don’t have many guests; I can usually manage that. It’s when we’re at Savannah I shall really need you. Do you know —’ There was a new note in her voice today, a note of gaiety that took Juliet back to happier days. ‘I’ve enlisted my first troops!’
‘What?’
‘I thought that would surprise you! Well, to deal fairly with you, it did me a little.’ She looked down for a moment, playing with the ribbons of the big straw hat she carried. ‘I’d let it be known, you see, in the most careful possible way, that I would be glad to hear from French exiles up and down the coast.’
‘Yes?’ Had Josephine stopped out of nervousness, or to whet her curiosity?
‘So — yesterday, when I was riding down the drive at Winchelsea, a man suddenly appeared from the direction of the sea. A Frenchman. He pretended to be a beggar at first, but as soon as he was sure of me, he told me who he was. One of Napoleon’s Old Guard, Ju! And there are more of them. Down on an island below Tybee somewhere, just waiting for a chance: their chance, our chance ... When I told him I had money to buy a boat, he cried ... Imagine, one of the Old Guard crying like a child! He says he can collect enough men for a rescue party, if I can but provide the ship!’
‘Yes?’ Juliet was afraid she could see where this was leading.
‘Yes. Of course I can’t hire one round here. That really would be unfair to poor Hyde. Just suppose the attempt failed — I won’t believe it, but one must think of everything — in that case, there must be nothing to connect him with it. I shall have to go up to Norfolk, I think, and hire one of the Baltimore Clippers everyone speaks of so highly. All the best pirates use them, I understand. So if anything should go wrong, it will be easy to wash one’s hands of the whole affair. Specially if I’m known to have been safe at home in Savannah the whole time.’
‘But, Jo —’
‘Too late for buts now, pet. I’ve given my word. My God, if you could have seen his face when he realised I meant it. And as for you, no need to pull such a long one. There’s oceans of time, still, before we need do anything. He’s only got the nucleus of a force, my Captain Froche — Not his real name I have no doubt. But what matters that?’
‘And he knows yours?’
‘Inevitable, I’m afraid. But don’t you see —’ If her heart leapt up at this sign of her cousin’s cooperation, she took care to conceal it. ‘That’s where the strength of my position lies. What’s the use of anyone trying to involve me, when I’ve you to protect me?’
It was Rubicon, and crossed so quietly that Juliet hardly noticed. Only, from the other side, she asked, ‘When will you go?’
‘Oh, not for ages yet. I’ve a friend in Norfolk: I’ve written him to keep his eyes open for me. No need to go until he has something for me to look at. There’s no rush, after all. We can’t possibly act until spring. But at least, now, he will have hope for company, down there on St Helena.’
‘You’ve written?’
‘Yes. By a safe hand: I hope! It will go by a roundabout enough route, I fear, but he should have it before Christmas. And now, to your lesson, Ju. Our house is called the Purchis House, and it stands in —’
‘Oglethorpe Square,’ said Juliet obediently. ‘On the Bay side, just round the corner from the house Mr. Jay built for his sister’s brother-in-law Mr. Richardson. His wife and I do not get on very well, but bow when we meet in the square.’
Josephine laughed. ‘You could say that of any of the good ladies of Savannah, pet. That’s the strength of our position. I’ve made no friends, and don’t intend to. Now, take me into the house and upstairs to your bedroom, and don’t forget which servants you’ll meet on the way. No, stop! Much better to begin from the wharf. After all, it stands to reason you’ll come by water. Which wharf, Ju?’
‘The third from the end, down towards Fort Wayne. The carriages will be waiting — it seems lunatic to get out the horses for that tiny distance, Jo? It can’t be half a mile.’
‘You won’t say that when you’ve walked a hundred yards over the sandhills they call streets in Savannah. Oh, they’ve made some effort at paving the squares, but the streets are pure Sahara. So, you greet Jem the coachman, and drive up over the bluff —’ she paused expectantly.
‘And across the Bay, which is a street, of all things, and Broughton Street, bowing to anyone who seems to recognise me, down Abercorn Street, and you can’t mistake the house.’ Her accent now, was so exact an imitation of her cousin’s that Anne, joining them, was not sure whether tutor or pupil was speaking. She sat down and began meticulously darning a sheet, occasionally interjecting a correction when her mistress struck her as drawing too long a bow. ‘Non, madame, Mr. Updyke, Mr. Purchis’s agent is not ugly as sin, he is merely not very well-bred, with a habit of striped waistcoats, and — ugh —’ she made an expressive face — ‘you must watch out for your skirts, Juliette!’
‘Spits, does he?’ Juliet had grown used to this deplorable American habit in New Orleans. ‘Well, thank goodness Mr. Purchis sees him always in his study.’
‘“Hyde”, pet, if you love me, remember to call him “Hyde”!’
Juliet looked at her sombrely. ‘I think I must love you, Jo, to have embarked on this madness.’
***
Chill November wind ruffled the water. The boatman were singing their strange song, over and over again:
‘Jenny shake her toe at me
Jenny gone away …’
Juliet shivered. Where was Josephine by now? There had only been time for a few quick, last moment instructions before the hired carriage had arrived from Charleston to take her cousin back there. Had Josephine planned it that way? So that there would, simply, be no time for second thoughts?
‘You’re cold, madame?’ Anne’s voice was at once a comfort and a warning. Josephine had managed to get the men who had brought their picnic ashore, that first day, moved to field work. Of this group, only Satan, who was giving time to the rowers, had ever seen the two cousins together by daylight; Josephine had taken good care of that. So far as the others were concerned, they had merely brought this mistress up from Winchelsea, dropped her for a moment near Ruffton and were now taking her home to Savannah.
‘You can see the lights now, upstream at Screven’s Ferry.’ Anne provided this useful piece of information casually, as she draped a shawl round Juliet’s shoulders. No: round Josephine’s! She must think of herself all the time, while the charade lasted, as Josephine, as Mrs. Hyde Purchis. Now it was an internal shudder that ran through her. In an hour or so she would doubtless be meeting her ‘husband’. She had been mad ... mad ... mad.
‘Hurray, Miss Susie oh,
Jenny gone away!’
The lights of Savannah were very near now, high upon the bluff. Easier to arrive in dusk like this. Doubtless Josephine had planned that too. But was there anything easy about this folly in which she had involved herself?
‘Anne, I don’t feel well.’ She remembered to make her voice a languid imitation of Josephine’s. ‘I think I shall go to bed the minute I get home.’
‘Mr. Purchis will be disappointed, madame. When he gets back from the Club.’ Anne let disapproval show. ‘He so looks forward to your return from Winchelsea. And besides, there will be a million things to discuss about this party for the opening of the new theatre next week. You know how highly Mr. Purchis thinks of Mr. Jay. He will want everything of the very best!’
***
For once, back there, Josephine had seemed distracted. ‘It would hap
pen now! We’ve this party, next week, for Mr. Jay who built our house. It’s the opening of the new theatre he’s built. It’s only round a couple of corners from us. Everyone’s coming. Well, of course they are! When Purchis of Winchelsea gives a party, everyone does come. And now ... now ... now —’ She had prowled about the chilly bluff like a tigress — ‘My friend in Norfolk writes that he has the very clipper for me. If I can snap her up fast enough. There are plenty of uses for a ship like her. Ju, you’ll have to!’
‘Jo! A party? I can’t!’ But here she was, sitting in the surprisingly comfortable boat, wearing Josephine’s clothes, which fitted her exactly now. ‘You’ve lost weight, and no wonder,’ Anne had remarked, buttoning her up. ‘And her colour, to a tee.’ Grumbling, recalcitrant, Juliet had kept, all autumn, out of the sunshine she loved. Now her hands and face were as lady-white as anyone could wish. She looked down at her hands, with dislike, and was aware that Anne was watching her anxiously.
‘Oh, pshaw!’ It was Josephine’s tone exactly. ‘I had clean forgot Mr. Jay and his party. Very well, Anne, I shall not go to bed, but I shall not be at home to anyone.’
‘Very good, madame.’ If Anne heaved a sigh of relief, she did so silently.
Yamacraw bluff loomed dark above them. The third wharf up from Fort Wayne. She let Satan help her ashore ... The carriage waiting ... ‘How are you, Jem?’ Suppose it was not Jem? Suppose he was ill and one of the other servants had come for her? Stupid: Anne would have contrived to warn her.
‘Purely, ma’am.’ Jem’s accent was thicker than Satan’s; Josephine had said she often found it hard to understand him.
Juliet stepped languidly into the little carriage, then turned back for a moment to the men, busy tying up the boat. ‘Thank you, Satan. Thank you all.’ Something in Anne’s disapproving air as she followed her into the carriage told her that this had been out of character, but she refused to care. And, after all, Satan at least deserved to be thanked. He was deceiving a good master for her sake, or, rather for Josephine, and money.
All for Love Page 3