Virginian Lover

by Oliver, Marina

  Bella, still weary from the long marches and loss of sleep, made no demur. Obviously Adam would have to send her back to England, but that would not be difficult to arrange. She was for the moment too exhausted to worry about Edward or even the impending, necessary parting from Adam.

  She slept during the journey, and was considerably refreshed by the time they reached Fairmile. News of the attack and rescue had already reached the people there through the men who had made the journey earlier in the day, and Bella was congratulated many times on her escape. Smiling and laughing, she thanked them and eventually she and Adam reached the house where Meg had a meal waiting for them.

  *

  They were up early the following morning.

  'There's a wretched savage waiting to see you,' Meg announced disdainfully as she served breakfast. 'He came a couple of hours ago, and he would not go whatever I said to him.'

  'Do you know him?' Adam asked quickly.

  'I've seen him before, many a time. He says his name is Joshua.'

  'Joshua! Bring him straight in, Meg.'

  Joshua was grey with fatigue, Adam pulled a chair up to the fire and made him sit and eat some meat before he would listen to what he had to say.

  'Are you hurt?' he demanded, when the colour began to return to the old man's wrinkled cheeks.

  Joshua shook his head. 'Just tired. I learned of it when I got back to my village yesterday, and have been coming by secret ways all night to warn you of the trouble.'

  'Trouble? With the villagers who took the captives?' Adam asked.

  'With everyone. There is a plot to wipe out the white men, all of them. This morning, it is arranged, traders will come everywhere as if in peace, and then they will seize weapons and kill all they can. All along the river they plan this. I think the towns will be safe, they cannot attack them. Get to Jamestown! Go as fast as you can. Save yourselves.'

  Adam shook his head slowly.

  'You do not believe me! It is true. They are coming!'

  'I believe you, Joshua. You are my friend and we trust one another. The fact is there are not enough boats to take all the women and children, and I doubt if we would have time. We shall have to stay here. You must stay too. Bella, fetch everyone from the cottages into the house. It is the easiest building to defend and everyone can be together. I will collect everyone from the fields.'

  He was gone and Bella, her energy revived in the face of this new threat, ran hastily outside and shepherded all the women and children from the cottages, telling them to bring whatever guns they had, and food and blankets. By the time Adam returned she had them established upstairs, with the weapons assembled on the parlour table.

  Men were soon stationed at all the windows on both storeys, with guns loaded and waiting. If they could keep the Indians at a distance they would be safe. The Indians very rarely possessed guns, and Adam doubted if they would challenge such a well defended position. It was too late to send warnings to other plantations. He was thankful John had not yet set out for Jamestown, and was still there to help take charge.

  For some time there was an eerie silence, broken only by the soft voices of the watchers, or an occasional wail from one of the children, frustrated at being crowded together so strangely. Bella, helped by Alice and Meg and a couple more of the women, began to gather groups of children about them and told them stories of the early years in Virginia, or of life back in England, of the magnificent Queen Bess who had ruled when they were children and had defied the might of Spain and her invincible Armada.

  Outside the birds sang, the farm animals snuffled and grunted and rooted about for delicacies in places from which they were normally excluded. Rabbits grazed unhindered, and even a deer was seen speeding across the field which was being prepared for the young tobacco plants when they were transplanted from the sheltered beds in the forest.

  After the excitement of the preparations the waiting became tedious. For a couple of hours nothing happened and then, quietly and apparently normally, a couple of Indians loaded down with game and rolled mats walked out of the forest. They hesitated slightly when they found the fields deserted, but then walked on along the track towards the houses. Adam permitted them to come within range of the guns and fired a warning shot above their heads. They stopped, turned as if to run, and then looked back, puzzled.

  'Go in peace and you will be unharmed,' Adam called to them from the nearest window. They dropped their trading goods and spread wide their arms as if to show that they were weaponless.

  'How did they intend to kill us all?' Alice muttered.

  'The plan was to take whatever weapons were to hand,' Joshua, who was sitting beside the kitchen fire, explained. 'White men would have been suspicious if they had carried clubs and bows, but there are always weapons to be seized when the opponent is unwary.'

  The men outside had not moved and Adam called to them again.

  'We do not care to trade today. Go back.'

  As he spoke he saw there were several more Indians emerging from the forest. Leaving John to guard that window he made a swift survey of the other windows, and saw two other Indians approaching from the direction of the river. Again he shot to warn them, and repeated his order. They vanished behind one of the cottages and reappeared some time later making towards their companions at the back. A hurried consultation took place, then the Indians fanned out, and using whatever cover they could began to creep towards the house.

  'Shoot to wound, they must be driven off.' Adam passed the order round and his men swiftly obeyed, firing spasmodically when they had an opportunity of aiming at one of the attackers. Two Indians appeared to receive minor wounds, for they could be seen being helped away from the vicinity of the house and out of range, but it was some time before the rest, about ten of them, drew away.

  After another hurried consultation they dispersed, and Bella cried out in anger when she saw two of them with hatchets chopping down the young fruit trees in which Adam took such pride. Others could be seen further away hacking at the young vines, and those animals which were penned in were soon squealing as the Indians cut their throats.

  'Adam, we must attack them, drive them off,' John protested.

  'To what avail?' Adam replied, grim faced. 'We cannot protect the entire boundary, we would only put ourselves in worse danger. If we spread out they could attack us singly, while we could not prevent more than a tenth of what they are doing!'

  'But it's the work of years they are ruining!'

  'A fortune is not easily made,' Adam replied, shrugging.

  'Look!' shrieked one of the women suddenly.

  Smoke was pouring from one of the cottages. As the watchers looked on, helpless, more smoke poured from several other cottages, and then the barn which still had last year's tobacco harvest in it, burst into flames.

  It was as much as Adam, John, and the cooler-headed men could do to restrain some of the others from rushing out in vain attempts to save what represented their worldly wealth.

  'It's useless!' Bella pleaded with one woman, struggling to get past as she screamed that her home was destroyed. 'You'll be killed yourself. See, they are shooting arrows towards the house to prevent us from leaving it!'

  Weeping hysterically, the woman was led away and Alice went with her, but another, more cunning, flung herself out of one of the downstairs windows, her sudden push unbalancing the man stationed there with his gun. She ran across to one of the further cottages, and Adam had to prevent her husband by force from following her.

  'Stay! She'll come back when she realizes how hopeless it is,' Adam tried to reassure him, but at the moment a howl of triumph rose from the throats of the savages, and Adam saw them pounce on her.

  *

  They fired warning shots, but the Indians dragged her, screaming in terror, behind one of the cottages. Suddenly the screams were cut off short, and in a few moments they saw the woman, held between two of the Indians, being dragged out of the range of the guns. Then it was Adam who had to be
restrained from rushing after them, and it took Daniel, John and three other men to prevent him from hurling himself out of the house.

  Safely out of range the Indians threw the woman to the ground and, while the others danced around her and chanted in horrible glee, took it in turns to rape her. When they had finished their vile sport, watched in helpless fury by Adam and the others, they used one of the hatchets to cut off her head, and after setting it up on a pole, finally disappeared amongst the trees of the forest.

  Adam turned from the window and sank onto a stool, groaning.

  'We should have gone after them!' he exclaimed.

  'They could have held us off, there was nought you could do,' Bella declared, kneeling beside him and putting her arms about his waist, hiding her own tearstained face against his chest.

  'It was her own fault, she was told not to go out,' Alice said bracingly. 'Master Adam, there's no point in repining, it was not your fault. But for you we'd most of us have been killed. Here, drink this.'

  She had poured out a generous helping of a potent drink which was brewed from maize, and Bella took some and persuaded Adam to drink it. He had recovered himself within minutes, and went round talking to the others, reassuring them that they would soon be able to rebuild the houses and replace the trees and the vines.

  Some of the men ventured out when all the Indians had vanished, to see whether they could douse the fires. Only two cottages were completely destroyed, and three others had partially lost walls and roofs. When it was considered safe work was begun in transferring the undamaged possessions into other cottages or Adam's house, and after organizing a strong patrol for the rest of the day and night, everyone sat down for a belated dinner.

  That night it was Bella who sought to comfort Adam with her body, holding him in her arms as he berated himself for not having saved the woman and more of the plantation.

  'You did all you could,' she insisted. 'Even her husband said so. You cannot be blamed for someone who disobeys you and acts foolishly.'

  Gradually she persuaded him to forget, and with a primitive, instinctive skill, roused the fierce passion which always lay dormant in him. Kissing him, her lips soft and inviting, withdrawing so that he followed her to seek their comfort again, and then becoming fiery and demanding, she tantalized him into forgetfulness. Soon she was able to entice him, with murmured words and gentle caresses, into oblivion as he held her closely, forgetting all the anguish in her loving acceptance of him.

  As he lay afterwards, spent and peacefully asleep, Bella knew she felt more than gratitude towards him, more than mere physical delight in his love-making. No longer did she wish to think of their liaison as a means of achieving security for herself, of using a man as they had used her. She knew it was something far deeper.

  'Adam, I love you,' she whispered in quiet, happy wonderment and fell asleep.

  Early on the following morning they were awoken by a frantic hammering on the bedroom door. Adam was instantly awake and out of the bed with a robe about him while Bella was struggling into consciousness.

  Adam opened the door and revealed Alice, her hair awry and a puzzled yet anxious expression on her face.

  'What is it? More trouble?' Adam asked swiftly.

  'Trouble? Aye, I've no doubt! You're needed. The men are bringing in some poor devil they found on the banks of the river. He's badly wounded, they think left for dead in a canoe which beached just above our landing stage.'

  'Bring him into the kitchen. Bella, find bandages and salves. I'll get a pallet.'

  Bella had pulled a robe over her nakedness and was finding strips of linen for bandages when she heard them bring the wounded man into the house. She ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. The man, naked apart from a badly torn shirt, was covered in blood oozing from a dozen different wounds. One leg lay crookedly, and a fearful hole in his side made her catch her breath in horror. Then she looked at Adam staring down at him with a blank look in his eyes, and she gazed herself into the injured man's face.

  His eyes were open and he was conscious, although his mouth was twisted in pain. It brought into sharp relief the scar across his left cheek, a pale streak across darker, bruised and bloodstained skin. Bella stared down at him and then looked slowly at Adam.

  'It is Edward Sutton,' she whispered, holding out her hand to him blindly and stumbling slightly so that Adam put his hand about her to hold her. 'Edward! What is he doing here?'

  Chapter 11

  During the whole of that day, after Bella and Adam had tended Edward's wounds, washing and bandaging the cuts, and Daniel had set the broken leg between a pair of narrow boards, news and fugitives trickled in from the other plantations. The Indians had struck everywhere at the same time, and very few places had been prepared. 'They had traded with me the day before, and came back early, sitting down to breakfast with my family,' one man recounted indignantly. 'Then suddenly they took up the knives and threatened us. Some of us managed to hide or to escape to the forest, but they killed two of my servants and set fire to the house.'

  'We were out in the fields and they fell upon us,' another said. 'I was the only one to escape. They killed all the animals too!'

  'I hid in the branches of a tree, and watched them as they cut the bodies to pieces and threw them in the river, then set fire to the crops,' a young lad reported, still shaking with horror.

  Meg provided them all with food, but they would stay only a short time.

  'Jamestown was spared. It is the only safe place. They might come back!' they explained as they hurried nervously away.

  Adam himself, after giving instructions about the patrol that was to be maintained, had gone with Ned and Walter to Jamestown. He had not referred to Edward, apart from instructing Daniel to do what he could for the man. When he returned late that night Edward was delirious, having been unable to tell anyone what had happened.

  'It was a concerted attack all along the river,' Adam reported. 'A few people had warning and were able to reach Jamestown in safety.'

  'Will they return?'

  'Perhaps. These isolated habitations are impossible to defend properly. Those who have survived are to go to the towns. We have not yet heard from Henrico or the further plantations near the Falls, so we cannot estimate the losses there.'

  'We must all go to Jamestown?'

  'Yes. I am sending the women early tomorrow, then the boats can come back for the men. Preparations are being made for our housing. It will be crowded, but the Governor considers that better than risking other attacks.'

  'But that will leave all the plantations and the stores for the Indians to take or destroy!'

  'Until we have a better method of protecting ourselves, or can rely on peace with the Indians, it is safest. Some of the cattle are being driven into the town already. Will you be ready to leave at dawn?'

  'You are sending me? Can I not stay with you?'

  'You must attend to your husband.'

  'Edward! But Adam, I cannot! You could not force me to go back to him!'

  'We must, Bella. In Jamestown we cannot defy the law as we have done here. With your husband injured they would never forgive you for remaining with me. Besides, who else is to care for him? I met one of his neighbours who said everyone else on his plantation had been killed. Don't be afraid. He's in no state now to harm you.'

  He was tired of her. There was no other explanation, Bella thought wearily. This was merely a convenient pretence to be rid of her. That night, for the first time since she had given herself to him, she turned away and pretended to be asleep when he came to bed. Adam shielded the candle flame and looked down at her thoughtfully. She had changed from the moment she had seen her husband.

  Shocked, as she would have been at the sight of any man with such ghastly wounds, she had subtly withdrawn. What did she feel for Edward Sutton? Could she, despite what she had told him, still have any soft feelings for him? The very fact she had now turned her back indicated some reluctance or embarrassment at remainin
g in Adam's bed while her husband lay in another room in the same house.

  If that were so he could not bring himself to make love to her now, on what might be the last opportunity for them. Edward was severely injured but Daniel reported he was not likely to die. Many men had recovered from much worse wounds. In Jamestown Bella could not be with him, but she would be safe for the moment with her husband where there were many people to whom she could turn for help. Edward would not be in a position to illtreat her as he had done before. When he recovered Adam could see him and make his own threats known, and he thought Edward would pay heed to them. If Edward died it would be another matter.

  Adam could not, however, permit himself to dwell upon the possibility of his own gain through another man's death. If it came that was fate, but he must not begin to wish for it since that would be as bad as trying to bring it about. He lay beside Bella, resisting the urge to taste her sweetness just once more, and rose quietly the next morning before she was awake.

  *

  Edward, who seemed to be rather better, was sent off in one of the first boats and Bella, cool and unsmiling, prepared to accompany him. On the journey she eased his discomforts as well as she could, and when they arrived in Jamestown followed the men who carried his improvised stretcher towards a small, one-roomed house that had been obtained for them by Adam the day before. Alice and Toby soon joined them.

  'Some of Mr Tarrant's people are in the next house,' Alice informed Bella. 'They will give help whenever we need it.'

  For several days all was confusion, both in Jamestown and in Bella's emotions. The people who had escaped the massacre on the settlements along the river poured into Jamestown with their news. Thomas Wray had been killed near the Falls, and so had the Bidwells who had been living near the ironworks. Mary Bolton's husband had died on his plantation. Mary herself had been visiting friends and had thus escaped. Bella soon saw her in Jamestown, ostensibly mourning her husband but gleeful, Bella was sure, that as a widow there was a real chance of capturing Adam's affection. Some of John Porlock's men had escaped, and he and Adam were fully occupied in travelling up and down the river searching for survivors who might be hiding in the forests or the ruins of houses. A further gruesome task was that of burying the dead and often mutilated bodes they found.