Pengarron's Children

by Pengarron's Children (retail) (epub)

  ‘Kane this, Kane that! You, Philip and Father think the sun shines out of his ruddy armpits! Why don’t we make him a Cornish saint? Name a church after him. Saint Kane the Good, it’ll suit him.’

  ‘Oh, don’t be so horrible, Jessie. Kane’s done you no harm.’

  ‘He’s done me no good either! And don’t you dare call me a silly little maid again!’

  ‘Well, ’tis how you behave,’ David said crossly. ‘I’ll get Aunty Rosie to speak to you.’

  Jessica clamped her lips shut and refused to say another word until they were standing outside the huge, imposing Manor house.

  ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, brother dear,’ she said coolly. ‘I won’t be late to get the breakfasts.’

  ‘Now you know Father said you can lie abed here tomorrow and have breakfast with Olivia and Cordelia. He wants you to make an occasion of it for once. Kerris is a good cook, she can do our breakfasts.’

  ‘And you know very well that Kerris will stay hiding in my room until I come home. She’s still afraid of you all, all except Uncle Kenver who takes the trouble to speak to her kindly and doesn’t tower over her. And I don’t want to lie abed, I’m used to rising before dawn. I shall be home.’

  ‘Please yourself, but then you always do. But it’s not our fault if we Trenchards are all tall. Kerris is so slight and moves about so quietly we keep falling over her.’

  The terrified woman Jessica had found was still staying at Trecath-en Farm, and Jessica had decided to call her Kerris since her mind seemed to have closed down completely on her past, including her identity. She chose the name out of fondness for a docile, sickly lamb she had once cared for as she would now have to care for the girl. After two and a half weeks at the farm, Kerris still stayed close to Jessica, often clinging to her bodily, seemingly terrified of the men of the house. She spoke little, and then only in monosyllables in answer to direct questions. When asked anything about her life she became withdrawn and fearful which quickly turned to a blankness. But she was a good worker and willingly helped Jessica with her jobs.

  Jessica hadn’t wanted to leave Kerris to attend this party. She thought her father would have been glad of the excuse to keep her at home, but although Clem hated her mixing with the Pengarrons, he had spent a lot of money on her costume for the occasion so she would feel proud to go and he knew that she had been eagerly looking forward to it. Clem had pointed out that despite her trauma, Kerris seemed to trust her. Jessica had only to tell her she could stay safe in her room until she returned and there would be no fuss. Clem had added that if Kerris wanted anything, Kenver was prepared to be carried up the stairs to speak to her. And if Jessica wanted to stay the night as she had been invited to do and Kerris was too frightened to get the menfolk’s breakfasts, they had no objections to doing it for themselves; it wouldn’t hurt Kerris to stay a little longer shut away in the bedroom. Finally Jessica said she would go but insisted she would be back at dawn, knowing that Olivia would arrange for Jack, the Manor’s groom, to escort her home.

  David pulled one of Jessica’s curls and said seriously, ‘You will enjoy yourself now, won’t you, Jessie?’

  ‘Of course I will and I’ll be careful no one slips anything in my drink so I don’t end up with company in my bed.’

  ‘Jessie!’

  She laughed. ‘How’s a woman supposed to know how to avoid the wiles of wicked men if she don’t trouble herself to find out what they are like? All men aren’t as honourable as you, David. Why don’t you come in? Just for a little while? The likes of us don’t usually get the chance to mix like this with the gentry. Mother would have liked it, it meant a lot to her for us to be friends with the children of her own best friend.’

  ‘Then take on your own reasoning, little sister, and try to be friends with Kane. And I’m still going on to Ker-an-Mor, ’tis more important to me than socialising.’

  The Manor door swung open and Oliver’s tall figure was framed in the doorway with Kerensa beside him.

  ‘Come on in, Miss Trenchard,’ Oliver called out in greeting. ‘And you too, young man.’

  ‘I’m going on to Ker-an-Mor Farm, thank you, m’lord,’ David said, striding up the stone steps and giving a small bow to the Lord and Lady of the Manor.

  ‘Come inside and take a glass of something before you go, David,’ Kerensa said.

  ‘If you don’t mind me refusing, m’lady, Matthias Renfree is expecting me very soon,’ he explained humbly.

  Olivia’s head appeared squeezed in between her parents. ‘Are you two going to stay out here chatting all night? Hurry up, Jessie, or the other guests will be arriving before you’ve changed.’

  David left and Olivia took Jessica straight to her room.

  ‘Your mother looks beautiful, but then she always does. I hope I look as good as her tonight,’ Jessica said, suddenly feeling overawed.

  ‘I don’t suppose anyone will ever be as beautiful as Mama,’ Olivia said matter-of-factly. ‘People say I look like her and of course I do, but my hair will never be quite as glowingly red as hers or my eyes such an exquisite grey-green. Your dress is lovely, Jessie, you’ll make a perfect Artemis,’ she went on enviously, touching the fine tissue. ‘I didn’t know you were such a good needlewoman.’

  ‘Kerris made it for me and did all the embroidery, she’s some clever that way. She’s a great help around the farmhouse and I hope she stays with us for ever.’

  ‘Have you any idea who she is and where she comes from yet?’ Olivia asked, tossing all her pairs of dancing slippers out from the bottom of a cupboard so that Jessica, whose small feet were roughly the same size, could select a pair for the night.

  ‘No, and please don’t say anything about her to anyone else, will you, Livvy? We’ll have everybody in the parish coming over to the farm gawping at the “mystery woman” to see if they know her. She’s so frightened all the time, poor soul. I don’t want to see her scared witless like she was when I found her ever again. We’ve decided to wait a month and see if she gets her memory back.’

  ‘She was probably tyrannised by a brutal husband. I hope be never finds her, and don’t worry, I won’t talk about her. Keep the pair of slippers you decide on, Jessie. It will give you a lasting memory of tonight’s events.’

  ‘Thank you, I’ll hang them up on my bedroom wall. There won’t be much call to wear them around the farm.’ Jessica touched an object carved out of wood on Olivia’s dressing table. ‘What’s this? I’ve never seen anything like it before.’

  ‘It’s a birthday gift from Ricketty Jim. It was kind of him, wasn’t it? You’re holding it the wrong way up. It’s a carving of mushrooms and grasses growing against a fallen log.’

  ‘Oh, yes, I can see that now. Didn’t know he did things like this.’

  ‘I’ll take it down to the display table with the rest of the gifts. He’s going to entertain us with some of his colourful stories during the evening.’ Olivia tapped Jessica’s shoulder. ‘Pity you insist on leaving at dawn. You are so stubborn. We could have had such fun in the morning picking over what my guests gave and what they wore, what they said and did.’

  ‘I have to get back for Kerris,’ Jessica replied, a little impatiently.

  Cordelia came in dressed in her costume as Aphrodite who was famed for her soft feminine beauty. The other two girls admired it and told her she looked lovely. Cordelia was secretly very pleased with her appearance. She knew she was no beauty in the raw sense as Jessica was or the classical sense as Olivia, but she knew she looked specially lovely tonight and nervously hoped to impress some of the gentlemen, one in particular.

  ‘I think your costume is simply wonderful, Jessica,’ she said excitedly. ‘I can’t wait to see you in it and I’m dying to know what the birthday girl here has chosen to wear. Something in green, I bet, to set off her red hair.’

  ‘Yes, what’s it like, Livvy?’ Jessica asked. ‘You can let us in on the secret, we promise not to tell anyone.’

  ‘You can wait and see like
the others. Tonight I’m going to copy the outrageous Lady Rachael and make a grand entrance.’

  ‘Well, I’d better get ready myself so I can leave you to dress in secret then,’ Jessica said.

  ‘Will you come to my room and help me choose what pieces of jewellery to wear with my dress, please, Olivia?’ Cordelia asked. She never had the confidence to decide for herself what to wear. ‘Aunt Kerensa is busy with Cherry trying to coax Kelynen into her costume at the moment.’

  ‘We’ll help Jessica first, then I’ll come,’ Olivia said.

  ‘No, you go now,’ Jessica put in quickly. ‘I’m quite used to dressing myself.’ She wanted the cousins to go and leave her to change her clothes alone, certain that her underclothes would look cheap and shabby compared to what they wore.

  ‘Well, if you’re sure,’ Olivia said, then sensing Jessica’s reasons she caught Cordelia’s arm and pulled her along. ‘We’ll probably be a while, Cordelia will take ages to make up her mind.’

  Jessica closed the damask curtain that hung round the bed in the middle of the room and changed quickly behind its privacy. She had to take off her shift to wear the costume and felt really daring as she twirled in the filmy layers of the exotic style Kerris had made for her. Wanting to see what she looked like in Olivia’s full-length mirror, she came out from behind the security of the bed hangings. Hearing a step and thinking Olivia had come back, she called out, ‘Olivia, do you think—’

  At the same moment Luke Pengarron came into the room saying, ‘Livvy, will you do—’

  They stared at each other in surprise for a moment then Luke, who had swept his dark eyes over Jessica and taken in the brevity of her dress, blurted out, ‘You look so beautiful!’

  Jessica, who always gave a stinging retort to anything this usually disagreeable young man said to her, was taken aback by his genuine complimentary reaction to her. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  Luke could not tear his eyes from her. For once his self-confidence and superior sarcasm deserted him. He stammered, embarrassed that he had to admit a weakness. ‘W-would you do this brooch up on my shoulder for me, please? I… I can’t manage with this s-stiff arm and there’s no one else about.’

  Jessica stepped up close to him. She felt humbled that he had asked her to do what was a simple task to anyone with two good arms, that he had spoken of his disability.

  ‘The catch looks very fiddly,’ she said, to lessen his discomfort as she fastened the large gold brooch.

  Luke kept his eyes on her face throughout and when she dropped her arms, he said a simple ‘Thank you’ and did not move away.

  Jessica felt chained to the spot. It was the first time they had ever been civil to each other; it had come unexpectedly and easier than she could have imagined. Luke Pengarron was so good-looking, ruggedly handsome with the intense dark features of his father and their Pengarron forebears. Jessica had been so incensed by his hostile and scathing behaviour towards her and her family, she had not noticed this before. She bit her bottom lip and knew why the husband-hunters among the gentry pursued him so hotly.

  She looked from his fine face to his shoulders, both broad and nearly in line despite his disability, then down his arms to his hands which were clenched at his sides. When he stood still, there was nothing to indicate that he had a useless arm – not that it mattered.

  Jessica’s gaze came back to his face. His expression had not changed. He just kept staring intently at her. Dressed in their mythical costumes, they seemed to be in another world and she felt drawn to him.

  Luke put out the hand of his good arm and Jessica lifted hers to place it in his.

  ‘I hope you’ve finished dressing, Jessie,’ Olivia called to her as she ran from Cordelia’s room to her own, ‘or we’ll never be ready on time.’

  Jessica swung away from Luke and put her hand guiltily to her side as if she’d let him kiss her fingers and had enjoyed it.

  The next moment Olivia was in the room. ‘Oh, Luke. You look wonderful, but I hope you don’t want me to do anything for you because Mama’s finished with Kelynen and is on her way to help me.’ Then seeing Jessica, she exclaimed, ‘Jessica! You look absolutely beautiful. Doesn’t she, Luke?’

  ‘Yes, she does, quite beautiful,’ Luke agreed in a soft voice.

  Jessica glanced at him to see if his expression had gone back to its habitual bad-temperedness but the look he gave her was almost wistful. He left the room without saying another word.

  ‘He seems to have been absolutely stunned by you. I hope I’ll have the same effect on the gentlemen tonight,’ Olivia said, unaware that Jessica was feeling just as stunned.

  Chapter 7

  When she walked down the stairs on Oliver’s proud arm that evening, Olivia’s appearance had the effect she desired. Her hair and costume was of Circe, the Enchantress, said to have lured men to her island where she gave them a potion that turned them into beasts. She beamed a brilliant smile around the great hall, to deafening applause from her many guests, and over a dozen besotted young men made up their minds to put in an even heavier appeal to their fathers to make a plea to Sir Oliver for his elder daughter’s hand.

  Olivia and Oliver were followed down the stairs by Kerensa and Cordelia on Kane’s arms and Kelynen on Luke’s. The family made a scene of rare elegance and beauty.

  ‘Splendid! Splendid!’ Lady Rachael Beswetherick trilled at the top of her voice. She had been disappointed at not being allowed to come dressed as Mother Earth but was determined not to be overlooked tonight. She was dressed in a brightly coloured sack-backed gown over wicker panniers so wide they allowed no one a close proximity to her. ‘You look absolutely divine, Olivia, deliciously gorgeous! Open your presents at once, my dear. The rest of us will simply die of curiosity if you delay another minute!’

  Oliver led his family to the head of a large oval-shaped table where numerous wrapped parcels of every size and shape were sitting under the guard of two burly estate workers. There was a good deal of bustling as people pressed forward to get a good view but Jessica and Philip, with Simon Peter who felt very awkward knowing that Sir Oliver and Lady Pengarron had good reason to despise his father, preferred to stay quietly at the back.

  ‘You look every bit as beautiful as Olivia,’ Simon Peter whispered into Jessica’s ear as Oliver announced who the presents were from and Olivia opened them and thanked the givers.

  ‘No, I don’t,’ Jessica returned, wanting this to be entirely Olivia’s night. ‘See how her eyes are shining; she looks so happy and deserves to be.’

  ‘’Tis time she was thinking of getting married,’ Philip remarked. ‘Most ladies her age are at least promised to somebody by now. I can see the Harris, Ransoms, Bassets, Arundells, Grenvilles and Rashleighs are here, all eager to be announced as her future husband.’

  ‘Some women are in no hurry to become a man’s chattel, Philip,’ Jessica hissed, trying to hear what had been given by whom.

  ‘Like you,’ Simon Peter said mournfully, pretending to be jostled so he could slip an arm about her waist.

  Jessica gave him an impatient look and taking his hand away moved in front of him. It brought her directly into Luke’s line of vision and he gazed at her as he’d done earlier. Jessica stared back, expecting his expression to change to one of disdain but it stayed the same. Then she realised someone else was looking at her. Kane was witnessing the joint perusal with some amusement. He grinned and winked at her and Jessica tightened her face and tossed her head. She didn’t mind being the object of a Pengarron’s disparagement or gentle interest but she would not tolerate being one of amusement.

  As the guests were thanked, they moved away from the table and were supplied with more wine before taking the floor to dance. Hezekiah was one of the last to arrive and brought his gift with him. It was inside a long box and he handed it over to Olivia with a flourish of his bejewelled gloved hand. Oliver and Kerensa pointedly glanced at each other.

  Olivia took off the lid and cried out, first in w
onder then in a revulsion she tried to hide. The box contained two elaborate emerald bracelets that would look right only on the wrists of a gentleman’s mistress of gaudy taste.

  ‘Dear Captain Solomon! They’re, they’re…’

  Distasteful and unsuitable – Kerensa and Oliver shared the same thoughts and their daughter’s horror. The gift was typical of Hezekiah.

  Hezekiah’s macabre mask broke into a misshapen smile. ‘I’m so pleased you like them, Miss Olivia. I knew your parents were intending to give you the beautiful necklace you are wearing and I thought they would make the ideal complement.’ He withdrew with a bow and mingled with the crowd and Olivia turned to her parents in horror.

  ‘He’s not expecting me to wear them tonight, is he? They’re absolutely awful, they’ll ruin my costume.’

  ‘Leave them on the table,’ Oliver whispered, feeling uncomfortable as Hezekiah took a glass of wine and looked their way. ‘I’ll tell him you want them on display.’ To Kerensa he said under his breath, ‘I’ve a good mind to tell the men to turn a blind eye if someone tries to steal them.’

  The only part of the evening that Philip Trenchard enjoyed was when Ricketty Jim enthralled the gathering by telling folklore and ghost stories, with little Shaun O’Flynn, dressed up proudly by his parents, acting out some of the parts. They received many a generous tip and were asked to perform at other social gatherings. The storyteller firmly declined and Polly and Nathan, who didn’t want their son to become an amusement of the gentry, quickly packed him off to bed.

  Philip was glad as the celebrations drew to a close and the last of the guests, whom he thought of disparagingly as the ‘stiff-nosed and glitter brigade’, left. Simon Peter, too, had departed to attend the same meeting on Ker-an-Mor Farm as David. About twenty of the younger people were left, drinking wine in the parlour.