Caribee

by Christopher Nicole

  'What, Brian Connor, would you fight Englishmen?" Edward called out. 'Be sure you'll not have me to lead you.'

  'The devil take ye, Edward Warner,' Connor said. 'Aye, and your harem.' They fell to muttering amongst themselves, and

  Edward wondered if they'd try to settle matters by an assault at this moment. But by now the ships were furling their sails as their anchors plunged into the clear waters of Great Road, and the beach was clearly overseen from the decks.

  And soon the first boats were approaching the shore.

  Tony,' Susan yelled, and waded knee deep into the surf, for all her swollen belly.

  Hilton jumped overboard himself to sweep her into his arms. 'Sweetheart. By Christ, but I had feared.'

  ' Twas Edward,' she said. 'He saved our lives. He led us against the Dons, and drove them away.'

  'Edward.' Hilton came forward with outstretched hand. 1 never doubted you, lad. I but knew it would need something tremendous to draw you out. Well, Sir Thomas, you're a proud man this day, I'll wager.'

  Edward gazed past his friend to his father. No change, except a renewal of that confidence which had accompanied him on his first return from England. And a renewal of the velvet and lace he had sported on that occasion, too, with a new sword, and a jewelled hilt, and a feather in his hat, and a carefully trimmed beard, perhaps a trifle spotted with grey, but none the less suggesting active strength.

  'Sir Thomas?' he asked.

  Tom Warner smiled. ' Tis easy enough to say, Edward. Boy.' He took his eldest son in his arms, kissed him on the cheek. 'We had heard so many rumours. And when we saw the remains of the town . . . Philip. By Christ, but it is good to see you'

  'And you, sir,' Philip said. "What news of Sarah?’ Tom frowned. 'She ails. Yarico....'

  "War-nah. Is good.' But she made no move towards him.

  'And this is little Tom?" Tom swept his youngest son from the sand. 'By God, but you'll soon be a man. Meg Plummer? By Christ, what has happened here? And this lady?"

  'Mademoiselle Galante, Father,' Edward said

  'Mademoiselle? You have some explaining to do.'

  'As have you, Father, and all good, I swear. Sir Thomas Warner, by God. You've settled your differences with the King, then?’

  Once again the quick frown. 'Aye, well, in a manner of speaking. We'll talk about it. God's blood, you've armed the Irish?'

  ‘It was necessary, Father,' Philip said. 'They were all the army we possessed.'

  'And with that band of rascals you licked the Dons? By God. They'll grow fat on that in Europe. I'll hear the tale, lads. Day by day. Blow by blow. Brian Connor, quit your skulking and come here.'

  Connor advanced reluctantly, limping from the wound caused by Yarico's arrow, and taking off Ins helmet. ' 'Tis welcome ye are, Captain Warner.'

  'Sir Thomas Warner, you blackguard. But uniform suits you. We'll have to talk, we will. We'll have to talk.'

  'That we will.' Connor glanced at Edward.

  'But first.' Tom waved at another boat which had been rowing to and fro some distance from the shore. ‘I had but to make sure all was well here, you understand.'

  The boat approached, and the people on the shore stared, while a sudden band seemed to constrict around Edward's chest, and he glanced at Yarico. Was not this what he wanted? Or was it what he feared most of all?

  The woman sitting in the stem wore a dark blue silk gown, her skirt pinned up at both sides to show her taffeta petticoats; her bodice was deep-cut, but her breasts were concealed by a double lace falling band, and the cuffs on her wide sleeves were also of lace; her sash was of pale blue silk, and she wore a pearl necklace with a huge ruby brooch. These things were obvious even from a distance, and long before any judgment could be formed regarding her figure, on her face, which was in the shadow of her wide-brimmed hat. But there was a quality here none save perhaps Aline had ever previously known, and that Aline was aware of it was revealed by the way she slipped to the back of the crowd, and attempted to straighten her shift.

  The boat grounded in the shallows, and Tom himself stepped into the water to swing his wife ashore. 'Lady Warner, gentlemen,' he said. 'And ladies, of course.'

  She smiled at them. Which is to say, she arranged her features to widen her mouth and show her teeth. It was a small mouth, somewhat tightly lipped when in repose, and looked the smaller because her face itself was broad, and shaped like the most perfect heart, dwindling from a high, clear forehead to a pointed, thrusting chin. It was not a beautiful face, and not even a handsome face, but it possessed a great deal of strength, which in turn gave it a beauty of its own—Edward was reminded of what Sir Walter Raleigh had said of Queen Elizabeth. And if she was nervous she did not show it.

  While that she would be worth possessing was no longer to be doubted. Even the huge falling band could not entirely conceal the swelling flesh beneath, no doubt thrust upwards by her corsets, for her waist was sucked flat, and her complexion was as clear as Aline's had ever been. Her hair was dressed in the fashionable ringlets from the bun on the back of her head.

  'My eldest son, Edward,' Tom was saying.

  Again the quick smile. She extended her hand. ‘I have heard so much about you, Edward.'

  He held the pale blue lad glove, gazed into her eyes with stupefaction.

  'You'll have a kiss for your new mother,' she suggested, and presented her cheek.

  His lips touched the soft flesh, and he was enveloped in a perfume he had not experienced since Aline.

  ‘You have few words,' Lady Warner remarked. ‘I like a man of few words. My name is Anne, Edward. I'd not have you call me mother. I doubt there is more than five years between us. And this will be Philip.'

  'Ma'am,' Philip said.

  ‘I'd have recognized you anywhere.'

  'Susan Hilton, M'am. I am Mr Hilton's wife.'

  Anne Warner inspected the Irish girl. 'You should be confined, my dear.'

  'Yarico,' Tom said. 'You'll remember, Yarico.'

  Anne Warner smiled at the Indian girl's naked body. ‘I must thank you, princess, for looking after my husband in his hour of need. And this is your son?" Her gaze drooped to little Tom for the briefest of seconds. ‘You are to be congratulated.' She glanced at Aline, who had flushed the colour of a beetroot.

  'Mademoiselle Aline Galante,' Edward said. 'She is the only survivor of the French colony.'

  ‘Indeed,' Anne Warner said. ‘I wonder she has managed to make ends meet.'

  ‘I would hear about these French and their treachery,' Tom said.

  Anne Warner was regarding the Irishmen. 'And these?’

  'Our Irish lads. Presently playing soldiers.'

  'And intending nothing less, Captain Warner,' Connor said.

  'By God,' Tom said. 'Mutiny? You have twenty-four cannon directed at you, Brian. You'd do well to brood on that. But well have a discussion, soon enough.'

  Anne Warner had walked up the beach to look at the blackened timbers of the town. ‘I had not suspected such total destruction, Sir Thomas.'

  ‘It seems every time I leave this place it falls apart,' Tom grumbled. ‘I shall not do so again. This time I am home to die, eh, sweet?’

  'Not for a few years, Sir Thomas, I do trust,' she said, continuing to inspect the wreckage. 'But I wonder you have the desire to start again.'

  ‘I have that, sweet. This is our land. Warner land. Well build again, by God. For our children and grandchildren. Oh, aye, there's much to be done.' He stamped back down the beach to where the first of the horses were being disembarked, whinnying and squealing.

  'Horses?' Edward asked in amazement.

  'And why not? They're a sight better than humans, when it comes to labour. Because we're going to have a road, boy. I've planned it. A road from Sandy Point across to Windward. No more surprises from that quarter.' He glanced at his son. 'Well sit down to a conference, when the heat leaves the sun. We've much to discuss.'

  It took place on the beach, as all of their conferences had alway
s taken place on the beach. Tom sat with his wife on his right hand, and Major Harry Judge on his left. 'Harry has been a soldier all his life, by God,' he announced at large. 'He'll know how to help us here, to hold and to build. He knows discipline, by God.'

  Beyond Judge sat Tony Hilton and his wife, and then Edward and Philip, while completing the circle, between Philip and Anne Warner, was the Reverend Sweeting.

  'Not you, Brian Connor, not you,' Tom had cried as the Irishman would have taken his place.

  ‘I've a right to speak my mind,' Connor growled.

  'Aye,' Edward said. They have a part to play, and not as servants.'

  ‘Indeed?" Tom demanded. ‘I have heard too much about the part they have played. I'll call on you, Connor. When the time comes.'

  Connor retired, muttering, to join his fellows; they still wore their armour and clutched their weapons. But they were aware just how futile was this gesture. Although the sun was setting low into the western horizon, cutting across the calm sea like a gigantic beacon, the work went on in Great Road. Men and women and children, horses and dogs, goats and pigs, barrels and boxes; St Kitts had returned to life.

  'St Kitts?' Tom Warner asked. 'Now there is a ridiculous title.'

  'Merwar's Hope was unlucky,' Hilton said bluntly. 'Maybe it was. Maybe ... St Kitts. By God, it comes easily off the tongue, would you not say, sweet?’ ' Tis your colony, Sir Thomas.'

  ‘Why, by God, so it is. Now then, well deal with first things first. You’ll understand that Hal Ashton and Will Jarring and the Reverend Mailing regained England without loss, or at least, without such loss as can always be expected in a journey of that sort. They made no good report of you, Edward.'

  'Am I then on trial?’

  'Only in a manner of speaking. I was then fitting out, and asked them to return with me, and they refused. They had had enough of beachcombing, they said. Beachcombing, by God. It was not long after that Tony himself dropped anchor in Plymouth. And he had a different tale to tell of how Hal's tyranny and Mailing's downright popery had driven you to despair. Word against word. But Tony was willing to fit and return with us. And indeed, he was easily secured in the governorship of Nevis, so winningly did he present himself to His Majesty. So I must needs reserve judgement. Now I would have you tell me straight, what happened in my absence.'

  Edward glanced at Hilton, who was gazing into his wine cup, and then at Philip, who had flushed scarlet. 'Why, to say the absolute truth, Father, my resentment at having been excluded from the governorship grew until I sought to seize what I thought had been denied me.'

  'By God,' Tom said. 'You admit to mutiny? By God, sir....'

  'Hear the boy out, I beg of you, Sir Thomas,' Anne Warner said, softly.

  ‘I thank you, madam,' Edward said. 'My conception was of taking the leadership by force, Father, as I knew of the discontent in Sandy Point, and I had no wish to watch Hal Ashton attempting to cope with a revolution. I desired no bloodshed, nor would I have any. When it was obvious that the majority of the population would not support me I surrendered myself, after negotiating for the release of Tony and his people.'

  This does not tally with your tale, Tony,' Tom remarked.

  'Before we left I was granted a full pardon by the acting governor.' But Hilton's face was angry.

  'Ashton admitted that. It would appear that every word he spoke was nothing more than the truth. And we parted on bad terms because I supposed he was but presenting his side of the matter. Truly, I am sometimes distressed at the deceit with which I am surrounded. Well, boy, you surrendered at discretion. Have you any reason to offer why I should not hang you on the instant?"

  'Sir Thomas,' Anne Warner exclaimed.

  ' Tis the authorized punishment for mutiny.'

  'But you cannot, Father,' Philip protested. "You do not know the whole of the matter.'

  ‘I’ll conduct my own defence, Philip,' Edward said. ‘If you will be good enough to act as my witness. Aye, Father, I surrendered at discretion. But when the French fleet arrived, Hal was quick enough to resign the governorship, which he placed on my shoulders. He then elected to evacuate the colony, leaving it entirely to Monsieur Belain. I chose to remain, with Philip and my stout Irishmen over there, to make sure that Warner's land remained in the possession of the Warners. And when the Dons came, and Belain left in a hurry, it was those very Irishmen and ourselves who fought them and made this island too uncomfortable for them to stay.'

  'By God,' Tom said. 'By God.'

  'And this is why I say, whatever our differences, and there have been many, those Irish have deserved the right to be treated as better than slaves.'

  'By God,' Tom said again. 'Brian Connor, you'll have been listening, I have no doubt.'

  The Irishman approached. ‘I have, your honour, and Master Edward has spoke nothing but the truth. We fought for ye, sir. At the least, we fought for your son. And now ye have your colony back. And more than one of me friends have died for that. Terry Yeats and...' he glanced at Yarico. 'Paddy O'Reilly.'

  'Yet it is still a problem. Not of labour. I have made other arrangements for that. But we cannot have papists and the like running free to disrupt the life of the colony.'

  Then give us a ship, Sir Thomas,' Connor said.

  'What? To go pirating?'

  'No, sir,' Connor said. 'We want nothing more than that overgrown pinnace ye have there. It will take us to Montserrat.'

  'Montserrat? By God, man, you'll be wanting to make a Carib feast?"

  We have talked with the Indian women, sir,' Connor said. 'Montserrat is not inhabited. And we have looked at those green peaks too often from here. But allow us to go, and take the three girls with us, sir, and we'll trouble you no more.'

  'Will the girls go with you, Brian?' Edward asked. ‘I'd not force them.'

  'Nor would we, Ted. But they followed Yarico and yourself because it is their nature to accept authority. Now there's naught for them here. We'd offer them a good life. Why, sir, grant us the permission and well acknowledge ourselves to be a colony of St Kitts, subject to your ultimate jurisdiction, so long as we can practise our religion in peace.'

  'By God,' Tom said. ‘It would not be approved in Whitehall.'

  'And yet, Father, it is the dream you first possessed,' Edward said.

  'And of spreading across these islands, by God. Brian, you've fought for my land; I’ll give you yours. And I'll lend the weight of my authority to your right arm, because by God you'll need it, if I understand those rapscallions at your back.'

  'Aye, sir,' Connor said. ‘I’ll lick them into shape, Sir Thomas.'

  'Be sure that you do.' Tom stood up. 'Mr Connor is your leader,' he said to the Irish, who had assembled in a group just beyond the fire. 'Appointed by me, by God, and answerable only to me. My magistrate... no, by God, my deputy, in Montserrat. Brian Connor, you'll be just deputy governor of Montserrat. Take your people and the girls, and depart as you are ready. But mark me well. You'll work for yourselves, but you'll work, by God. I'll have an inspector over there every six months, and I’ll want to see tobacco growing and houses building. You understand me, Brian?"

  ‘I understand ye, sir.' Connor turned to Iris people. 'We're free, boys. Freer than ever before in our lives. Who’ll give three cheers for the Governor, now?"

  They responded with a will, and the beach echoed with their shouts.

  'So I am grateful to you,' Tom said. 'Now be about your preparations and leave us to our affairs.' He sat down.

  ‘You'd have them grow tobacco, Tom?" Judge asked.

  ‘It would be best. They have neither the labour nor the knowledge for sugar.'

  'Sugar?' Edward asked.

  'Sugar cane. Oh, tobacco is all very well. But it requires too much area to return but a small profit and each crop has to be replanted. Now cane, boy, why, 'tis in the first place planted closer together, and in the second, each plant throws off little shoots, called ratoons, which can be used time and again, maybe up to a dozen or more years
. Why, 'tis said that the Dons have taken sixteen ratoons from a single plant'

  The Dons?’

  They have introduced it in Cuba and in places on the mainland. And it thrives in this climate.' 'And there is a market for this sugar?"

  'Tis this new drink which is spreading across the world. Coffee. You'll not have sampled it. It is dark, and strong smelling, and strong tasting, too, and of a similarly strong substance. It needs sweetening. A drop of honey but merely loses itself in so powerful a concentration. But the juice of this plant, when suitably crystallized... mind you, 'tis a deal of work. The juice must be extracted by crushing, and then it must be boiled into granules. We shall need special equipment, rollers and vats. But I have an expert. Major Judge has seen it done when a prisoner of the Dons in Cuba.'

  'And it also needs a vast amount of heavy labour,' Judge said. Too heavy for white men, it is considered, at least in this climate. Thus you’ll see that we are happy to have seen the last of your wild Irish.'

  ‘I’ll have to confess I do not understand you at all,' Edward said. 'We need more labour than ever before for this cane, you say, yet you are happy to let our only labour go?’

  We shall replace them,' Tom said. ‘I have made arrangements for a shipload of Negro slaves to be brought here. John Painton, you remember John Painton, Edward? He's now turned to slaving. Oh, 'tis a thriving business for those who can stand the stench. He’ll be bringing them here within the six month. By then we must have the land cleared and the factory built.'

  'Negro slaves? Philip asked.

  'Well, they'd not come any other way. But you see the point, lad. We buy these people, and they are not cheap, I’ll tell you that, and then they are ours. No ten-year term.' 'Ours to work to death,' Edward said.

  'No one said anything about death,' Tom insisted, ‘Indeed, it would be unprofitable. The point I am making is that these people wall be here for the term of their natural lives, and they will understand this. Thus there will be no cause for revolts or thoughts of revolts, or even for insubordination. And there will be women as well as men, so they will be a self-perpetuating labour force. Oh, we are thinking here not of ourselves alone, but of the future. Of generations of cane-planters and their people.'