Pengarron Dynasty

by Pengarron Dynasty (retail) (epub)

  On reaching the horses, Luke ignored Alicia. To Jack, he whispered, ‘See to it that your wife does not reveal to my father why she hates Bartholomew so much. I suppose you are staying here for the present? I should like to speak to you later – alone.’

  Wanting to explain his actions to Luke, but wisely holding his peace until they had this private talk, Jack held his young master’s horse while he mounted. He watched sadly as Luke rode off without a backward glance, holding himself erect and aggrieved in the saddle.

  Jack’s next thought was for Alicia’s welfare. She had endured a long ride, taken at a fast pace for a woman nearly eight months’ pregnant. She was grimacing and massaging her back with both hands. He shivered. She was staring at Bartholomew with utter malice, her lips moving silently, ill-wishing him again.

  He guided Alicia to her pony. ‘This is a happy day. Miss Cordelia and Morgan Kinver will be wed and able to live in peace, and at last Sir Oliver and her ladyship are back together. Now it’s our duty not to delay in going home.’

  Thirty-Nine

  ‘What’s this?’ Jack asked, looking at the document Luke put before him. Many of the words were made up of more than six or seven letters and made no sense to him.

  The two men were up in the tower room. Drops of rain were beating a scattered threat against the windows. A rapid change in the weather saw looming dark clouds forming out to sea. Candle flames were bending in a draught coming from an undetermined source. By midnight a storm would lash the coast.

  ‘It’s my signature to hand over to you the sum of five hundred pounds.’ Luke eyed him darkly across his desk. ‘It’s a gift to you and Alicia – who no longer needs my protection – to enable you both to do as you please from now on. I’m releasing you, Jack, from my service and from any obligation you feel you have towards me.’

  ‘Luke, I can’t take this! I don’t want it.’ Jack dropped the paper on the desk as if it was burning his fingers.

  Leaning back in his chair, Luke smiled sarcastically. ‘Of course you don’t, pious, honourable Jack Rosevear. Mustn’t offend your principles, must I? Why are you not sitting with me like you always do?’ Luke smashed his fist down on the wood. ‘Why do you think I’m giving you this money? As some kind of petulant bid to buy you off? To ease my conscience in some way? I am not in a strop and neither am I feeling guilty, but I am absolutely furious with you and deeply hurt by your actions over Cordelia and Morgan Kinver. After Alicia chastized me about my lack of showing true friendship to you, I’ve sought to redress my behaviour. I took you as a guest into my father’s house. Yet you saw fit to whip Cordelia away in secret. How do you think that made me feel?’ Luke was shouting now. ‘You are a sanctimonious bastard, Jack! Every bit as shallow in treating people like dirt as I am, apparently.’

  Jack stood reeling at the extent of his wrath. ‘Luke, I was going to explain. I had to act quickly, and I couldn’t tell you about it because you would’ve stopped at nothing to prevent Miss Cordelia going away.’

  ‘What gives you and Alicia the right to say who she should marry? Kinver might be ill-treating her this very minute.’

  ‘As your steward I’ve come to know the villagers well, and I like and admire Morgan Kinver,’ Jack spoke calmly, hoping to take the sting out of Luke’s temper. ‘And I saw how happy Miss Cordelia was when Alicia talked to her about him. I’m sorry it made me act disloyally to you. I just did what I thought was right.’

  ‘Right? Oh, you think you know a lot about doing what’s right, Jack Rosevear. Well, I will have to manage without my cousin from now on and I can also manage without you.’

  ‘I’ll leave if that’s what you want,’ Jack said coolly, ‘but I’ll not take your money.’

  Luke slashed at the money order with the back of his hand. ‘Take it for Alicia’s sake! Or are you so selfish you’d deny her a comfortable life in order to keep your sanctimoniousness? Go when she is fit to travel. You are no longer a Pengarron servant or a friend of mine.’

  ‘I accept I’ve hurt your feelings over Miss Cordelia’s elopement, but I don’t deserve this much spite from you. I thought that you and I were friends, but I realize I never knew you at all. My wife and I will leave here tomorrow. I’m sorry, sir, that things have ended this way.’

  The door crashed open and Jack was nearly knocked off his feet.

  ‘Jack, sir, come quick! Come quick!’ Amy Curnow came bursting in, flushed and flapping her hands, so agitated she had not taken in the raised voices. ‘She’s in labour! Mrs Jack’s pains are so bad, it’ll be all over ’fore the hour’s up. You have to come right now.’

  Jack froze. From the floor below there came the sound of a loud groan of pain.

  Luke grabbed his shoulder. ‘Move, Jack!’

  The two men shoved Amy Curnow aside and clattered down the spiral staircase and sprinted into Jack’s bedroom.

  Alicia was on the bed, propped up by pillows, knees drawn up, face twisted horribly as she endured a strong contraction. Mabena, her own pregnancy clearly showing, was holding her hand. Another of the maids was anxiously laying out the things put aside for this event.

  ‘Ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhhhh!’ Alicia clutched the pillows.

  ‘Right, right,’ Luke said, white-faced. ‘You stay with Alicia, Jack, and I’ll fetch Dr Leane.’

  ‘What do I do?’ Jack panicked, staring wide-eyed at his wife, who was now blowing out through her mouth as the pain subsided. ‘It’s coming too early, will it be all right?’

  ‘You can get out the room, both of you.’ Amy Curnow hurried in after them, rolling up her sleeves. ‘There’s no time to get that old fool from Gwithian. I’ll see t’ this, I’ve done it afore. Don’t worry about the earliness of it, my maid was born two month too soon an’ she survived. Go on, get! And open up all the doors and windows.’

  Jack and Luke exchanged terrified glances.

  ‘Are you sure there’s no time to get the doctor?’ Luke demanded.

  ‘Oww-ah! I need to push,’ Alicia shrieked, ‘I need to push!’

  ‘’Twill be all right, m’dear,’ Amy Curnow was at the bed, pushing up Alicia’s nightdress.

  Jack and Luke fled to opposite ends of the corridor. Jack gazed, unseeing, towards Porthcarne. Luke gazed, unseeing, towards Navax Point. Both were praying and both were shaking.

  Alicia was making mighty strange noises which reduced the two men to utter helplessness. They turned and faced each other.

  ‘Why do we have to open all the doors and windows?’ Luke asked, suddenly afraid he was omitting to do something vital.

  ‘I don’t know!’ Jack was frantic. ‘Wait! It’s to make sure it’ll be an easy birth.’

  They opened all the windows and doors down the corridor until they were outside the labour room. Alicia screamed again, a terrible sound, which seemed to go on and on. Then there was silence. Worried beyond belief, Jack and Luke closed in on each other.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Jack whispered, very scared.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Luke whispered back.

  They put their ears close to the door, and heard the sound of a baby’s cry. With exclamations of delight they shook hands, their eyes met and they fell into an elated hug.

  ‘How long should we wait?’ Jack was back to whispering.

  ‘You should have stayed in there,’ Luke said sympathetically. ‘Remember how my father wouldn’t allow the midwives to turn him out while my mama was giving birth to Samuel? Or any of us, apparently.’

  ‘It’s still crying. I hope Alicia’s all right.’

  Luke listened. ‘She is, that was her voice.’

  ‘I wonder what it is.’

  ‘They could at least shout through the door. You’ve got the right to know if you have a son or a daughter, Jack.’

  ‘She had backache all day. I should’ve thought—’

  ‘Shhh, someone’s coming.’

  The two men quickly smoothed back their hair and fiddled with their coats. They were standing tall and straight when Ma
bena opened the door.

  ‘Well?’ they said together into her chirpy face.

  ‘’Tes a little maid. All’s well. We’ve rubbed her foot with ta rabbit’s foot, so she’ll have good luck all her life. She’s a brave enough size considerin’, an’ poor Mrs Jack had a hard job bringin’ her out. She’ll be more an’ a bit sore with the quickness of it. Mrs Curnow says t’ give her ten minutes then ’ee can come in.’ Mabena bobbed a cheeky curtsey and closed the door.

  Jack looked at Luke. ‘A girl.’

  ‘Yes, a girl.’

  ‘A girl!’

  ‘You’ve got a daughter, Jack.’ Luke slapped him on the back. ‘Congratulations. I’m so glad this happened before I leave for London.’ Luke held out his hand, ‘About just now…’

  ‘Can we just forget it?’

  They grasped hands.

  Luke leant back against the wall. ‘If your little girl had chosen twenty-four hours later to make her appearance, Jack…’

  ‘There’s no need to think about that now. We can all settle down and enjoy life from now on.’

  When Jack went in to see his daughter, he took Luke with him.

  Forty

  Around the Cornish peninsula on the south coast, heavy rain had fallen all night. It eased off at dawn, leaving the sky unsullied, the air hushed and fresh.

  The shingle and rocks of Trelynne Cove were drying out at mid-morning when Kerensa and Oliver looked down on them. They were in a pensive mood, worried that there might come another crisis to rock their newly recovered world. Both had good reason to be feeling this way.

  ‘Shall we go down?’ Oliver said softly.

  ‘I’ll lead the way,’ Kerensa replied, taking Kernick forward.

  The black granite cliffs of the empty cove had a dramatic shape, like that of a horse shoe, the steep rocky path leading down to it wound in a figure three. Over the years, hardly a week had gone by when Kerensa had not come here, yet this was to be the most poignant, the most painful journey she would ever make down to the place where she had been born and raised in her grandfather’s tiny cob-walled cottage.

  The cottage was long gone, as were Old Tom Trelynne’s neglected rowing boat and worn-out crab pots. Old Tom had been scrawny, cunning, and more wicked than Kerensa would ever have believed. He had hidden contraband and stolen goods in a heavily concealed shallow cave. It was where he had died at the vengeful hands of a tinner, for committing a Cornishman’s most grievous sin; betraying a smuggling run to the Revenue men. It seemed part of another life to Kerensa now.

  Leaving Kernick, she crunched over the shingle to the shore. This was the beach where she had walked and held hands with Clem in their youth, and where, two years ago, they should have said goodbye, in their hearts, for all time. Tears stung her eyes. Clem would soon know she had let him down again; Timothy or Jessica would write with the news that she and Oliver were once more a loving couple. How many times could Clem bear it?

  Was he miserable without her at home on his farm? He had something she did not, a granddaughter. Matthias Renfree had told her of the event, written in a letter from Kenver to Rosie, of Rebekah Trenchard’s birth. She prayed Rebekah was making Clem happy.

  ‘This is where it all started for us,’ Oliver said, at her side, his words carried across the cove by the ever-present winds. ‘I accept that my agreement to Old Tom’s outrageous proposition that I marry you to claim the cove back as Pengarron land, was wrong. But, my love, as I’ve said here once before, I’ve never regretted taking you as my wife.’

  Kerensa took him by the hand. ‘Come with me, there’s something I must show you, something I must do. I pray you’ll understand, but I believe our love is strong enough for there to be no more secrets between us.’

  As they walked they looked down at the pebbles, hands held tight, hearts heavy, for both had something that must be told.

  Kerensa stopped under a part of the cliff known as Mother Clarry’s Rock, a smooth-shaped spur which jutted out and formed the seat of a mythical witch, who was said to have sat there on nights when there was a full moon to plot her evil misdeeds. Had Mother Clarry cast a spell over the inhabitants of the cove, dooming them to unhappiness? Kerensa’s parents had died young, her father from typhus, her mother in childbed, her grandfather had been murdered. She was soon to find out if she had been cursed herself, if the happiness she had regained with Oliver was to be everlasting.

  Locating a particular large pebble of twisting black and white colour, Kerensa let go of Oliver’s hand. Lifting the pebble aside she scooped away fine shingle a foot deep. A tiny sealed leather bag appeared and she picked it up.

  Oliver took it from her. ‘I think I know what’s in here,’ he said in the lowest of voices. He guided her to some flat rocks where they could sit down.

  Kerensa’s heart seemed to rise and choke her as Oliver untied the drawstrings of the bag. He pulled out a lock of blond hair tied round with blue ribbon, and laid it on the palm of his hand.

  She took his free hand, gaining courage from the fact that he did not pull it away. The restriction in her throat made her next words come out raw and husky. ‘I’m sorry I lied to you about throwing it away, Oliver.’

  It was what he had feared for so long, and what he had been working at so hard to make his heart accept. His fist tightened round the evidence. He felt that his whole self was about to explode with rage and hatred. What she had admitted by keeping this lock of hair, hurt him so much he had to fight back the horrendous darkness invading his soul.

  ‘Trenchard has meant everything to you, Kerensa?’

  She started to cry, tightening the grip on his hand, afraid he would tear himself away from her. ‘Yes, Oliver. Forgive me! Don’t let it spoil what we have now, I beg you. It’s all over, I swear to you it will never happen again. It’s you I love, really love, from the bottom of my soul.’

  Tears were in his eyes. While her confession had distressed him deeply, what he was about to confess she had no suspicion of. Why should she? He had not been wrenched away from someone he had loved and could never forget, from someone he could turn to for true love, after a sequence of humiliating and terrible events. His confession might burn away all her love for him.

  ‘As difficult as it is to come to terms with the very thought of you being with another man, I – I do forgive you, Kerensa. Although for one hideous moment I felt I could kill Trenchard, I acknowledge you were in love with him.’ He sighed from the bottom of his heart. ‘That’s more excuse than I had.’

  She looked at him, puzzled, then as realization flooded through her, in shock and disbelief. ‘Are you saying…?’

  ‘Yes, Kerensa…’ his voice faltered, ‘it was with Rosie Renfree.’

  ‘What?’ The relief that he taken her confession so well was overshadowed by acute emotional and physical pain, as if she had been given a blow to the heart. It had crossed her mind that Oliver might have thought about being unfaithful, but she had dismissed it. There had been no gossip, no rumours. But with him staying at Ker-an-Mor, and apparently being utterly discreet, an affair with Rosie had gone unnoticed. Why did he do it? Why Rosie? Clem’s sister! How strange. How terrible.

  ‘I never thought you’d… Rosie? Was it to get back at me or Clem in some way?’

  ‘Not that, I swear. I was so lonely, so wretched, Kerensa, and I was so afraid. I needed someone and Rosie happened to be there. I beg you not to say anything that will destroy her and Matthias’s marriage; her remorse made her ill. I overwhelmed her better judgement, stirred up past feelings. You see, there was a brief, innocent, attachment between us when you and I fell out after the death of my half-brother. I too know how, through terrible circumstances, one can give way to one’s needs and, although it pains me to admit it, I can acknowledge that you never lost your feelings for Trenchard. I shall never stop regretting that I helped to push you towards him. I’ll not ask if you still love him, only to say that I accept there will always be a bond between you. Kerensa, can you forgive me for my
unfaithfulness?’

  They were both staring miserably down at their feet, absorbing the appalling things they had heard. Simultaneously, they lifted their eyes to the other’s face.

  Kerensa was grieved at his despair. ‘Yes, I do forgive you, Oliver. I was wrong to hold my resentment against you for so long, and I understand why you turned to Rosie, and loving you the way I do, I understand why she became involved with you. I want you to believe you can trust me, Oliver, I swear I won’t ever turn to Clem in that way again. It’s you I love more than anyone else in the world, more than my own life. Thank you, for being so understanding towards my betrayal to you. I thank God for that.’

  ‘I believe you, Kerensa. It was Rosie who pointed out to me how I should see things differently concerning you and her brother. I thank God for your forgiveness, and I thank Him with all my heart, that at the end of the terrible time we had been through, you chose me. It’s all that matters, I swear to you. On my life, I swear it.’

  ‘It’s all that matters,’ she repeated. ‘All else is dead and buried in the past, forever.’

  He lifted her face and they kissed, a long, dedicated kiss. Finally they smiled, enjoying each other’s closeness.

  Kerensa said, ‘Oliver, there’s one thing left to say. It’s about Clem. Jessica or Timothy will write to him with the news about us. I hope you will agree that it would be cold and unfeeling for me to just leave it at that.’

  ‘What do you want to do, Kerensa?’

  ‘There’s nothing I can do until he returns again to Vellanoweth. If I write to him Catherine might see the letter. I think Clem sensed that my love for you was the strongest. All that I ask, Oliver, is that you will allow us a few minutes alone, so I can explain everything to him properly.’

  ‘You have my agreement, Kerensa.’

  ‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’ She was anxious for both men’s feelings.

  ‘Not as much as I once would have done.’