Jack was on tenterhooks, wondering when he could decently make his departure during the afternoon, since he’d been invited for afternoon tea with the Boskellys, and Annie Boskelly was clearly more of an attraction than his family, however loved.
And rightly so, in Bess’s eyes. A man and woman who found one another out of the whole world and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, were fortunate indeed, so why should the rest of the world keep them apart?
‘I’m sure Ben and Morwen won’t mind if you go on back to Truro, Jack,’ she said finally, when she could stand his fidgeting no longer. ‘Give Annie our love, and say that we’d like ’ee to bring her to tea one Sunday. Do you think her father and uncle would care to come too, or wouldn’t we be posh enough for the Boskellys?’
His handsome face lit up as he smiled. He hugged Bess with rough affection.
‘You’re posh enough for anybody, Mammie, and I’d fight the man who says you ain’t!’
‘Don’t do that, Jack,’ Bess laughed. ‘Just ask the Boskellys for tea and leave it at that.’
She felt hot even as she spoke. Inviting the Boskellys to tea! What were the Tremaynes coming to, behaving so grand and proper?
She caught Hal smiling at her when Jack had gone, and knew that their thoughts were similar. But they could hold up their heads in any company now. The days were past when the idea of coming to Killigrew House would have thrown the whole family into a tizzy. This was her daughter’s home, and it was as warm and loving as the old cottage had ever been.
‘Will your father come downstairs this afternoon, Ben?’ She turned to him before she began to feel maudlin on this day when they had all decided to put other worries aside.
‘I fear not. Nurse Wilder suggested to Doctor Pender that we carry him down in a chair, but he couldn’t be bothered with all the noise. I know he’d be pleased to see you if you could spare him half an hour though. I said we’d go up at intervals.’
‘Of course I will!’ Bess rose at once, her one-time awe of Charles Killigrew completely gone. Who could fear such a poor old man whose roars had dwindled to no more than a whine?
* * *
By early evening, the children were nearly dropping with sleep. None of them had had their usual daily nap, and they made no protest when Bess and Morwen took them to bed. They left a low light burning safely in the nursery, and stood together in the doorway for a moment.
‘Our Sam would have blessed ’ee for caring so much for his babbies, Morwen,’ Bess said quietly. ‘No children could have wished for a more loving mother.’
‘It’s easy to love them, Mammie, and Ben and I truly feel we’re their parents now. This little one—’ she put her hand lightly on her swollen belly – ‘This one is the joy that we never expected, but Walter and Albert and Primmy will always hold their own special place in our family.’
The soft darkness seemed to make it easier to speak from her heart, and she felt her mother’s quick kiss on her cheek. They were not often a demonstrative family, and Morwen treasured the moment.
* * *
Such sweet moments seemed less frequent in the difficult days in which they were all concerned. Ben called a meeting of his Works Manager and his pit captains shortly after Christmas, and warned them that it seemed very likely that all but Clay One pit would have to be sold. He prayed that his face didn’t betray how desperately he hoped he would find a buyer. If he didn’t…
He spent long hours alone in his study, feeling more of a failure than ever. It was a feeling he hated and despised. He had always been able to rise above whatever misfortune life had dealt him, but this time he couldn’t see the end of it.
He couldn’t take an interest in any of the things he used to find stimulating. It was even an embarrassment for him to go to his own pits. He forced himself to make brief visits to the families who had suffered in the accident, and knew that they avoided any mention of the future.
Newspapers remained unread for days, where before he had immersed himself in them avidly, wanting to know full details of the Crimean war and how the two sides were faring.
The newspapers had said as fatuously as ever that it would all be over by Christmas, but Christmas had come and gone, and the turn of the year was on them already. It was 1856, and there was no real sign of an end to the war, nor to Ben Killigrew’s personal problems.
He could do nothing about the war, but several days into the new year Hal Tremayne came hammering on the door of Killigrew House with some news that was to change everything.
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘We’ve had news of our Matt, Morwen!’
Morwen gasped, seeing that Hal could hardly contain himself as he was shown into the drawing-room, and she knew at once that Bess’s own sadness over her lost lamb had been as deeply felt by Hal all these years. He had rarely spoken of it, but the pain had been there all the same. But there was nothing but excitement in his eyes now.
Morwen’s heart beat so fast she thought she would faint. She clutched at her father’s arm, since he looked more than ready to do the same.
‘Sit down, Daddy, and tell me what’s happened. You look so dazed. Will you take some brandy?’
Hal laughed recklessly. ‘Why not? Yes, I’ll take some brandy, my love. We should all be taking brandy! Where’s that husband of yours? I want him to hear this news too.’
‘He’s taken the boys for a ride because they were so cross today – oh, Daddy, please tell me. Don’t make me wait until Ben comes back—’
Hal drew out several pieces of paper from the inside of his coat. There was also a large packet that he set down on the sofa beside them both. The letter had already been well-thumbed, and Morwen guessed that Bess would have wept over it. Hal handed it to her, his voice jerky with emotion.
‘The postal man delivered it to the cottage at first, and the neighbours told un there was no-one living there. He were about to take it away again, when somebody asked who ’twere for, since clay folk don’t get many letters sent to ’em. The man said ’twere for Hal Tremayne, so they sent un to the works, and then to the little house. ’Tis a wonder it reached us at all!’
He lapsed with exhaustion as Morwen handed him a glass of brandy from the decanter and sat down with Matt’s letter, glad to see he hadn’t skimped on it now he had finally got in touch with his family. In fact Matt had enjoyed the spasmodic schooling given to the clayworkers’ children, and he had always been the more eloquent of the two older Tremayne boys.
As she began to read quickly it became clear, too, that in the years since he’d been gone, Matt had lost his old country style of speech, and wrote an articulate letter. She wouldn’t have cared if he’d said no more than a few sentences. It was as though Matt stood beside her, speaking the words in her ear…
‘Dearest Mammie and Daddy and all my family,’ Matt wrote.
‘This is a hard letter for me to write, yet it’s been on my conscience to write to you for a very long time. I know how bad you must have thought me when I ran off to sea with Jude Pascoe, and in the early days I regretted it a hundred times.’
Morwen bit her lip at reading Jude Pascoe’s name, but at least Matt appeared to have seen him for what he was.
‘When we reached America after the weary weeks at sea, we got work at the docks in New York. America is a land of opportunity for those prepared to work hard, and I soon discovered that Jude and I had different ideas about that.
‘Eventually we parted company. He stayed in New York, and I joined what’s called a waggon-train, and travelled across the country to California. America is a vast land, and it took several months to arrive here. Most of the waggons contained families, and I was attached to a family called Wainwright, the parents and a small boy, and a girl about our Morwen’s age, called Louisa.
‘Mr Wainwright was a teacher, and they were travelling to the gold diggings to start a school in the new towns that were springing up. To pass the time when the waggon-train halted each night, he taught small groups of interes
ted people. I joined his classes, and so did Louisa, of course.’
Morwen glanced at her father. The brandy and the excitement had taken their toll, and he leaned his head back against the cushions and closed his eyes. Morwen read on, already with a faint premonition about her brother and Louisa Wainwright.
‘I won’t bore you with details of the journey, except to say that it was an exhausting time. Many folk gave up halfway across the country, and set up homesteads just where they were.
‘The rest of us reached California, and lived as best we could, though most were in little more than shacks at first. The conditions were terrible. Either it poured with rain and was cold and miserable, or it was blisteringly hot and we were bitten half to death by mosquitoes. I wonder any of us survived.
‘But we knew there was gold to be found, and Mammie – Daddy – I did find it! I had a big strike, where there was more gold than I ever dreamed existed.
‘I didn’t even know it was gold at first. I was grovelling in the mud with my shallow pan like everybody else, shaking the dirt and slime out of it in the hope of seeing the little gleaming golden specks. Sometimes somebody found a bigger piece, the size of a little finger or even bigger, and you knew he was going to be rich!
‘What I’m trying to tell you, my dearest family that I miss so much, is that I’m now one of those rich men. I have a fine house and men working for me at the gold diggings, and a lovely wife called Louisa, née Wainwright. And in the spring there will be a new Tremayne babby on the other side of the world.’
Morwen felt too choked to go on reading until she had wiped her eyes. Matt was rich and married, and his wife was expecting a baby at about the same time as she was. And for all his grand new status, Matt didn’t forget his roots. He, too, would hold a babby in his arms…
Hal was watching her now, and she smiled tremulously as she neared the end of the letter.
‘I can’t quite believe all this,’ she said shakily.
‘Read to the end, my love,’ he told her, his voice as thick as hers.
Dutifully, Morwen did so. ‘I never forgot any of you back in Cornwall. I love Louisa more than life, but I still miss my family. I miss the scent of the moors and the little cottage where we all lived. The thought of Mammie’s cooking still makes my mouth water, and I miss sparring with Sam and Jack. And I bet our Morwen’s the prettiest girl in the county by now, and Freddie’s still as troublesome.
‘Mammie and Daddy, I hope you can forgive me at last, and that you’ll accept what I’m sending you. Not as charity, but because I love you all, and I want to share what I have. It’s my dearest wish that one day I can bring my wife and child home to Cornwall to visit you. Until that day, if any of you care to write to us, it will be the happiest day of my life. I long for news of home.
‘Your loving son, Matt.’
* * *
Morwen swallowed back the tears. The last paragraph tore at her heart. Dear, sweet Matt, clearly still homesick for the place of his birth. For the cottage that was no longer theirs; for his family, his sister and brothers… not even knowing that Sam was dead. Nor that she had married Ben Killigrew or that all his family’s lives had changed so dramatically since that day he had taken his chance to start a new life across the ocean.
She blew her nose hard, and Hal patted her back. He and Bess would already have shed their tears of happiness that Matt had come back into their lives again.
‘I can’t express what I feel, Daddy—’
‘No more can I, my love.’
She managed to smile through her tears. ‘What did Matt send you? Was it a nice gift?’
Hal picked up the packet at his side and handed it to her without saying a word. Mystified, Morwen opened it. There was a letter from a lawyer in California, explaining that the sealed packet enclosed was to be taken immediately to a reputable lawyer of Mr Hal Tremayne’s choosing, to be opened and read in the presence of witnesses. Morwen frowned.
‘I don’t understand—’
‘Nor I, but Ben will know what to do. I’ve had no dealings with lawyers, but I’m mazed with curiosity. Should he be back soon?’
‘He’s here now,’ Morwen said with relief as she heard the noisy chattering of the two little boys. When they came in, she instructed them to run at once to the kitchen for some lemonade, and to ask Fanny to take them to the nursery to play with them.
She ignored all their howls of protest, and after one look at her and Hal, Ben insisted that they did as their mother said. As soon as the three adults were alone, he asked what had happened. Morwen ran to his side, hugging his arms.
‘Oh, Ben, ’tis a letter from our Matt. He’s married and his wife’s having a baby, and he’s rich from the gold diggings! Can you believe it all!’
She couldn’t stop laughing and crying at the same time, and at his incredulous face, Hal affirmed that what Morwen said was true. He thrust the letter under Ben’s nose, who scanned it quickly.
‘This is wonderful news,’ he said. ‘I know how badly you’ve all ached for news of Matt. I’m so happy for you all, Hal, and Bess must be overjoyed.’
‘That she is,’ Hal said softly. ‘But there’s still this other business. Perhaps you’d put me right on it all.’
Ben read the official letter. ‘You must get this attended to straight away, Hal—’
‘I don’t understand lawyers, but I’d prefer it if that Mr Carrick were to see to it for me. At least I don’t feel too uneasy in his company.’
‘As a matter of fact he’s coming here tomorrow,’ Ben said, wishing he didn’t have to think of his reasons for asking Richard to Killigrew House. The likely closure of three of his pits was not going to be a happy day. But he didn’t want to dispel the joy of these two with his own troubles.
‘Look, you and Bess come here in the afternoon,’ Ben said. ‘I know she’ll be bursting with curiosity to know what the packet contains, and she can see her grandchildren at the same time. We’ll get your business settled before Richard and I get down to mine. Does that suit you, Hal?’
* * *
Bess and Hal were there promptly the following afternoon. The children were kept strictly out of the way, and the Tremaynes waited anxiously with Morwen and Ben for Richard Carrick to arrive. When he did, he looked surprised to see so many people awaiting him, but readily agreed to deal with the Tremayne business first.
It was like reading a Will, Morwen thought. Not that she had ever attended a formal Will reading, but she’d heard that this was how it happened for grand folk. The lawyer on one side of the desk, the hopeful recipients on the other.
In this case Richard sat in one of their easy arm-chairs; Ben lounged against the piano, while the others sat like a row of peas on the sofa. She heard Richard Carrick give a sudden exclamation and look up sharply at Hal.
‘My dear Mr Tremayne, had you any idea of what this packet contained?’
Hal shrugged. ‘A gift from my son in America.’ Morwen noted how he said the words now with unconscious pride.
Richard smiled slightly. ‘Some of my clients would sell their soul to the devil for such a gift! This is an authorisation to pay into a bank the sum of ten thousand dollars for your use, Sir. May I offer you my sincere best wishes and congratulations, Mr Tremayne, and ask that you’ll allow me to act as your lawyer and adviser?’
None of the three people on the sofa said a word. They were pleased and stunned. Besides that, the amount of money meant less to them than to those who had dealings with such sums. Neither did they understand the value of dollars.
Ben Killigrew did. He gave a smothered gasp, his mouth dropping open, and Morwen knew by his reaction that this was riches indeed.
‘Can you explain what this American money means to my family, Mr Carrick? Is it of use here in Cornwall?’ Morwen said hurriedly, as her parents seemed devoid of speech.
She blushed at seeming so stupid before this educated man. Truly, she had no more idea of the value of dollars than Hal and Bess, but it was main
ly for their benefit that she asked, since they both looked totally bemused.
‘Yes, my dear Morwen, it most certainly is of use. Ten thousand dollars can be converted by any bank into our own currency, and the amount your brother sent would buy you half of Cornwall if you wished!’
Richard spoke jocularly to break the tension this news evoked. The Tremaynes seemed more baffled by their sudden wealth than anyone he had ever seen, and seemingly unaware of what it would mean to them. He spoke more kindly to Hal.
‘You’ll need time to get used to the idea, Mr Tremayne. If you would like me to come and see you at your home when you’ve had a few days to think things over, I can advise you on the best ways of investing your money.’
Morwen saw her mother put her hand on Hal’s. She whispered quickly in his ear. They looked at one another, and each gave a small nod. Hal’s voice was more resolute.
‘We don’t need time, Mr Carrick. Both Bess and me know where we want the money to go to be put to best use—’
‘No!’ Ben said angrily. ‘I know what you’re thinking, Hal, and I won’t take a cent of it. This is your money. Matt sent it to you with love, and it was never intended to get me out of my difficulties!’
Swiftly Morwen moved across to him, linking her hand through his arm, as though to stand by whatever he said. Richard sat back, while they sorted out the matter among themselves. He couldn’t deny that the thought had immediately occurred to him too. He also knew that Ben had far too much pride to accept this money out of hand.
Hal spoke roughly. ‘What do we want with all these dollars or cents, whatever they are? Bess and me have everything we want. Your family have been more than generous to ours, so why shouldn’t we invest in the clay works instead of any other business that we don’t care a damn about?’
‘Mr Tremayne has a point, Ben—’ Richard said quietly.
‘Ben, please don’t turn us down without considering it,’ Bess put in, her voice shaky. ‘You’ll be used to handling such big sums, but I tell ’ee it will be more of a worry to Hal and me than a blessing. Take it with our love, and build your new railway and set the town to rights.’
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