Circle of Pearls

by Rosalind Laker

  ‘I can’t think how he could have recalled a single face like mine in the crowd and again through just riding past us in St James’s Park.’

  ‘I do.’ He lowered his voice still further. ‘There is always the possibility that an invitation will come only for you.’

  She understood and her whisper was vehement. ‘I’d never accept.’

  He had known that would be her answer, but it pleased him to hear it just the same.

  During the evening she noticed that a number of people were wearing Pallister ribbons on their clothes. Fashion was taking a most frivolous turn in reaction against the Puritan years, and men and women vied with one another in the sumptuousness of fabrics, the splendour of lace and the abundance of ribbons. She knew that when the King was to be seen with Pallister ribbons on his hat or bunched at the top of his sleeves, her venture would really be crowned with success.

  It was not long after the banquet at Whitehall, when she and Adam were at Sotherleigh for a few days, estate matters needing his attention, that Anne handed over a letter that had come to her from the American colonies. ‘It’s about someone called Makepeace Walker,’ she said vaguely, it must be one of my relatives there, ‘but I don’t remember the name. Whatever money is forthcoming can be Patience’s dowry. I don’t need it.’

  Julia opened the letter to discover it was from a lawyer informing Anne that her husband, Makepeace Walker, along with other passengers who had sailed with a Captain Crowhurst, had been lost at sea when the ship carrying them to the colony had foundered on the rocky coast during a storm. Almost all the crew, including the Captain, were also missing and although some cargo and baggage had been salvaged, nothing belonging to him had been recovered. The lawyer explained that he had always handled Mr Walker’s American business interests, which was how he was aware of the Sotherleigh address, and now an offer had been made for the import warehouse his late client had owned. If Mr Walker had died intestate, for no will had been lodged with the writer, the monies from the sale would go to his next of kin. He awaited Mrs Walker’s reply and instructions.

  When she had read the letter Julia sat for a while before sharing its news with anyone. With all his faults she would never have wished such an end to Makepeace, although his demise removed for ever all threat to Patience’s future. His daughter would grow up at Sotherleigh free of the danger of his ever claiming her as he had threatened. It was not wholly surprising that he had gone to America, for they had known he had business interests there. Few men cared to die without leaving a son, but it was Makepeace’s misfortune never to know that the maidservant he had seduced at Sotherleigh had given birth to a boy in Norfolk. As for the Sotherleigh fortune, that now lay at the bottom of the sea.

  The next day she gave the letter to the family lawyer for him to deal with. Makepeace had not left a single one of his papers at Sotherleigh, having destroyed what he did not take with him and so, with his will also gone to the ocean bed, Anne would receive whatever was forthcoming from the American sale. Then there was the estate in Cumbria. When all was settled Patience should have a handsome dowry when the time came.

  *

  Adam was proved right as to their names going on to a priority guest list. They went to balls and gaming sessions, concerts, suppers and more banquets at Whitehall. It was a court of revelry with the inevitable scandals, intrigues and much drunkenness. Mr Samuel Pepys, with whom Adam was acquainted, remarked to him in private conversation that he would never have believed such a lewd and abandoned Court could have come into existence so quickly. But the King had been long starved of merry-making and, when not attending to state affairs, he wanted to laugh and enjoy himself amidst jovial company, which made him more lenient towards the conduct of many of his courtiers and their ladies than he might otherwise have been. He needed to banish for ever the melancholia that had afflicted him at dark periods during his exile and which he had hidden from all except those who had known him best. He was thankful his lot was unlike that of his cousin, Louis XIV, whose subjects regarded him with fear and awe, while he knew himself to be respected and well-loved by his people, who flocked to cheer him whenever he ventured out, and even those still his enemies had had to acknowledge his magnanimity.

  Of all the entertainments at Whitehall, Charles and Julia shared, quite independently, a particular liking for masques. For these a stage was erected with a very ornate proscenium arch in the Banqueting House, and unlike the theatres where the scenery for the opening scene could be viewed upon entry, a scarlet curtain hung over a rail behind the arch would be dropped to the stage and then whipped away by attendants as the performance began. The surprise impact of spectacular scenery and gloriously arrayed masquers never failed to bring a burst of applause from the equally splendidly dressed audience, Julia always clapping enthusiastically.

  Court ladies and gentlemen took part in the plays that were enacted. Professional actors in grotesque masks filled the roles of Disorder, Vice or Murder, which it would not have been etiquette for the nobility to play. Always the emphasis was on spectacle, gods and goddesses descending on clouds, a volcano erupting and once a great Roman procession in which two hundred actors or more took part. Towards the end of the masque, the Court players would descend into the audience and lead people back on to the stage with them for dancing, thus involving everyone in the masque. Once the King, being drawn from his seat by a cherub played by a child actor, took Julia by the hand. Then as the cherub pranced around them he and Julia danced together.

  After that she was, now and again, invited to act in a masque, those at Court usually taking turns. She fitted in rehearsals with everything else she had to do and more than once, when the masque was Elizabethan, she wore Elizabeth’s gown complete with ruff and farthingale. These were always the times when she felt she gave her best performance whether she had to sing, act or dance.

  Through the name of Warrender being on the priority list, two seats were allotted to Adam and her for the Coronation in Westminster Abbey, which took place just a year after the Restoration. Julia was overjoyed to be going. Adam, entertained by her excitement, was glad that the flattering attention she received at Court, including the times the King singled her out for a special few words of conversation, had not turned her head in any way.

  On the day itself they had an unimpeded view of the ancient and dignified ceremony and heard all of the superb singing of the choir to the thunderous notes of the organ. The King was in cloth of gold with a mantle of crimson velvet lined with ermine, towering in his splendid height in golden shoes, the bows of which were Pallister ribbons of ivory silk, executed in satin stitch. The design, incorporating the English rose, the Scottish thistle, the Welsh daffodil and the Irish shamrock, had been embroidered by Anne herself, for it had been such a special commission and a design that she had created quite a while ago when she had had the King’s father in mind.

  As the dramatic moment approached for the Archbishop of Canterbury to place the sparkling crown on the monarch’s head, Julia hoped fervently that Charles’s future would be brighter than the past months since his restoration had been. He had lost, through smallpox, his brother Harry, who had ridden with him on Restoration Day, and he had seen his most beloved sister married to the homosexual brother of Louis XIV, and his first attempts to bring about religious tolerance among his subjects had not met with any success to date.

  ‘God save the King!’

  He was crowned. The whole of the Abbey in its scarlet draperies rang with the shout from many throats. Outside in the streets the crowd took it up. Trumpets resounded. There followed a banquet of forty courses in Westminster Hall after which the King returned to Whitehall in a ceremonial barge. Specially minted coins were thrown to the crowd, having Charles II’s head on one side and an acorn, symbol of a new beginning and linked with his escape by hiding in that most English of trees, was on the reverse side. Nell, twelve years old and already nubile, dived through legs and snatched up a coin from the ground. She grinned at h
er success as she looked at the profile of the King. His was a dear face. It had cast a spell over everyone on Restoration Day, but she thought it must have had special strength when it settled on her, even though he had not noticed her perched on a wall to get a view over the heads of the crowd. There was surely no other explanation for why she often rose early to go to St James’s Park just to see him taking a gallop on his shining horse. Sometimes on cold wintry mornings, her feet warm in the woollen socks that a link-boy had given her, for her mother drank the money for such things, she had held her breath as the thunder of hooves approached through the swirling mist. Then out of it he would come, his black hair flying, and he was past and away in seconds, never noticing her and taking her young heart with him.

  She kissed his likeness on the coin before she put it safely away in her pocket. This was one that should not be turned into strong water for her mother. She would keep it for good luck and never part with it in all her life.

  *

  The King did not grant titles lavishly, but some were forthcoming on the occasion of his coronation. A knighthood went to Adam in recognition of his having supported General Monck and playing a part in the Restoration. Adam was convinced there was an additional reason.

  ‘It’s for you, too,’ he said to Julia. ‘By your becoming Lady Warrender through my title the King is also acknowledging what your father did for him.’

  ‘If it is as you say, the King couldn’t have done anything more gracious for us.’ Julia linked her arm through his and rested her head against his shoulder. There was so much in Adam that had become dear to her. ‘More and more I believe our marriage was destined.’

  It did not escape him that she had said marriage and not love.

  Julia felt very proud of Adam when she watched him kneel to be knighted by their sovereign. If he should ask her after this day to live with him now at Warrender Hall, she would not be able to refuse, no matter that her aversion to the house had not changed. He had done so much for her, even seeing the award of his knighthood as something to be shared with her.

  It was odd that the plain bricks and beams of Warrender Hall could have taken on so much that had been black in her life, for apart from her fondness for Adam she also greatly liked his sister, Meg, both of whom had been born there. Meg always came to call whenever she and Adam were at Sotherleigh, and in their absence always spent a great deal of time with Anne, becoming a friend to her as well as to Mary.

  Julia thought it fortunate that since her mother’s confused condition could not be changed, it was merciful that she appeared to have shut out everything that had been upsetting to her in her life, which included not only her relationship with Makepeace but all the distress and fright she had suffered from Colonel Warrender and the Roundheads. Most people chose to put the bad things from their minds and remember only the good and in Anne the practice had reached exaggerated limits.

  Meg often brought her youngest children with her when she spent a whole day at Sotherleigh. That was always a jolly time for Patience, who loved having others to play with her. She was a sturdy three-year-old with curly dark hair like soft silk, and her gowns were as be-ribboned as Julia’s used to be in childhood, the ribbons getting as torn and bedraggled in play in the same way.

  ‘I like my darling to look pretty,’ Anne would say, tying yet again the hair ribbons that forever slipped from the silky tresses.

  Mary, who was at her best with children, was a splendid organizer of games when Patience had young company or if there were parties for them at the Hall. Adam had given Anne a sedan chair as a birthday gift and she was carried there to save her the effort of walking by the short cut he had created between the two properties.

  Meg, who had been primed by Adam about Julia’s feelings with regard to the Hall, was always tactful when it came into the conversation. Never once did she refer to the future when Julia would be living there, even though she did not attempt to hide her fondness for the house where she and Adam were born.

  ‘It’s wonderful to be back in Sussex again,’ she said many times as if still scarcely able to believe that such a miracle had happened. She made sure that any invitation she issued to Julia did not involve visiting the Hall. Instead it would be an invitation to a play or concert being performed locally with supper afterwards at a hostelry renowned for its good food. In the summer she gave lavish picnics out in the countryside that were evening affairs for adult guests with servants to wait on them and musicians playing in a nearby grove, the whole scene illuminated by flares. Daytime picnics were simpler, family occasions centred on the children and no less enjoyable for that, except that Julia never failed to experience the familiar pang that she still had no child of her own.

  Although she waited almost daily for Adam to voice something about its being high time they moved from Sotherleigh to live at the Hall, nothing was said. So during the long periods when Parliament was not sitting, he concentrated on the husbandry of his estate and that of Sotherleigh. It meant he went daily to the Hall, but always on his own.

  *

  Julia’s commemorative royal ribbons, which she had had to supply in large quantities right up to the Coronation, were in demand once more the following year as soon as the King’s betrothal to Catherine of Braganza was announced. Shopkeepers put in their orders again on the same day, wanting to lay in a good supply in time for the marriage. These days she supplied small round boxes in the Pallister colours of cream and crimson for sale when a customer wished to make a gift of the purchase. She had them made by a box-maker in Chichester, whose prices were lower than those in London, and this unusual novelty added to the prestige of her wares. Normally they were topped by a bow of striped ribbon, but for the forthcoming wedding she was adding a small bell that tinkled.

  Catherine of Braganza landed at Portsmouth and she and Charles were married in the Cathedral there after meeting for the first time. Julia was charmed by the Portuguese custom of the ribbons being cut from the bridal gown after the ceremony to be distributed in as many pieces as possible.

  Catherine’s rich dowry included among other valuable assets the port of Tangier. Christopher, now Dr Wren since taking his Doctorate of Civil Law, was invited by the King, who knew of his great abilities, to convert Tangier into a naval base. He regretted having to decline this prestigious commission, but he knew from experience that heat and dust, quite apart from sand blowing in the wind, would affect his weak chest. Whenever he was unwell he would recall Julia’s prediction that he would live to a great age, while his wheezing chest warned him that it could be otherwise.

  Since becoming the Savilian professor of Astronomy he had stopped lecturing at Gresham College, but he still came to London regularly to attend the weekly meetings of the society that he and his circle of old friends had formed. Their aim was to promote, consult and debate physico-mathematical experimental learning. The King, interested in the sciences, had recently granted the society a charter. It was as a member of this Royal Society that Christopher had spent the afternoon before coming to take supper with Adam and Julia at their home as he had done on previous, although infrequent, occasions.

  He was one of a dozen guests that evening. Adam, at the head of the table, looked down the length of damask and silver and shining crystal at Julia, seated at the end, and observed her abundant happiness as she talked to Christopher at her left hand. Jealousy churned in him. There was always something especially deep and warm in her eyes when she looked at Christopher. Later in the evening, after she had sung for the company, accompanying herself on the lute that was a replacement for the one Makepeace had smashed, she sat back on a cushioned seat beside Christopher while someone else played the spinet. Adam, happening to glance across at her, clenched his jaw involuntarily. Julia, holding her companion’s hand, had leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

  In their bedchamber after the guests had gone, she spoke of what Christopher had granted her. ‘He’s given me permission to have constructed a loom for weaving half a dozen
ribbons at the same time instead of only four or five, which is all any other looms can do. He designed it years ago, and I saw the diagram when I was at Bletchingdon. When I asked if I could show it to Mama, he gave me a copy to keep.’ She was removing her pearl necklet in front of her mirror and she twisted on the cushioned stool where she sat to look up at Adam, her expression jubilant. ‘Just think what this will mean! I shall be able to employ more embroiderers.’

  ‘I take it that your indiscreet kissing of him during Mr Kirby’s recital on the spinet was your expression of gratitude.’

  He had spoken so harshly that the pleasure faded from her face. Her eyes flashed. ‘Would you have preferred me to have kissed him behind your back?’ she challenged with spirit.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ he exclaimed in the same hard tones as before, ‘It should never have taken place at all. The time has come to end these displays of affection towards him. Our other guests would have supposed you were making a cuckold of me if they had seen that kiss!’

  ‘That’s grossly unfair! Nobody who knows me as well as those that were here this evening would consider such a possibility. In any case I checked that they were — ’ Her voice trailed off and she bit deep into her lower lip.

  Furiously he finished the sentence for her. ‘ — watching as well as listening to Mr Kirby. None had eyes in your direction! You didn’t bargain on my glancing across at you at that precise moment.’

  ‘Why should I mind that? You know that Christopher and I have been friends since my childhood.’ She drew in a shuddering breath. ‘I can see that I’ve upset you very much. That was never my intention and I regret it more than I can ever say. It won’t happen again.’

  He made no comment, his anger raw. Her actions might be without fault from now on, but she did not know of that revealing quality in her expressive eyes. He wanted to explain that it was more than a putting away of shows of affection for Christopher that he wanted from her, but that curious paralysis of speech which could affect a couple intimate in every other way had descended upon him. He was too full of hurt to be able to talk it out with her, perhaps because he knew there was no solution as yet. He would not have cared about any left-over attachments from her girlhood if she would only stop holding her heart back from him.