CHAPTER V
In which a Woman has her Way
Ten days later, Rolfe, going down river in his barge, touched at mywharf, and finding me there walked with me toward the house.
"I have not seen you since you laughed my advice to scorn--and took it,"he said. "Where's the farthingale, Benedick the married man?"
"In the house."
"Oh, ay!" he commented. "It's near to supper time. I trust she's a goodcook?"
"She does not cook," I said dryly. "I have hired old Goody Cotton to dothat."
He eyed me closely. "By all the gods! a new doublet! She is skilful withher needle, then?"
"She may be," I answered. "Having never seen her with one, I am nojudge. The doublet was made by the tailor at Flowerdieu Hundred."
By this we had reached the level sward at the top of the bank. "Roses!"he exclaimed,--"a long row of them new planted! An arbour, too, and aseat beneath the big walnut! Since when hast thou turned gardener,Ralph?"
"It's Diccon's doing. He is anxious to please his mistress."
"Who neither sews, nor cooks, nor plants! What does she do?"
"She pulls the roses," I said. "Come in."
When we had entered the house he stared about him; then cried out,"Acrasia's bower! Oh, thou sometime Guyon!" and began to laugh.
It was late afternoon, and the slant sunshine streaming in at door andwindow striped wall and floor with gold. Floor and wall were no longerlogs gnarled and stained: upon the one lay a carpet of delicate fernsand aromatic leaves, and glossy vines, purple-berried, tapestried theother. Flowers--purple and red and yellow--were everywhere. As weentered, a figure started up from the hearth.
"St. George!" exclaimed Rolfe. "You have never married a blackamoor?"
"It is the negress, Angela," I said. "I bought her from William Piercethe other day. Mistress Percy wished a waiting damsel."
The creature, one of the five females of her kind then in Virginia,looked at us with large, rolling eyes. She knew a little Spanish, and Ispoke to her in that tongue, bidding her find her mistress and tell herthat company waited. When she was gone I placed a jack of ale upon thetable, and Rolfe and I sat down to discuss it. Had I been in a mood forlaughter, I could have found reason in his puzzled face. There wereflowers upon the table, and beside them a litter of small objects, oneof which he now took up.
"A white glove," he said, "perfumed and silver-fringed, and of a size tofit Titania."
I spread its mate out upon my palm. "A woman's hand. Too white, toosoft, and too small."
He touched lightly, one by one, the slender fingers of the glove heheld. "A woman's hand,--strength in weakness, veiled power, the star inthe mist, guiding, beckoning, drawing upward!"
I laughed and threw the glove from me. "The star, a will-of-the-wisp;the goal, a slough," I said.
As he sat opposite me a change came over his face,--a change so greatthat I knew before I turned that she was in the room.
The bundle which I had carried for her from Jamestown was neither smallnor light. Why, when she fled, she chose to burden herself with suchtoys, or whether she gave a thought to the suspicions that might beraised in Virginia if one of Sir Edwyn's maids bedecked herself in silkand lace and jewels, I do not know, but she had brought to the forestand the tobacco fields the gauds of a maid of honour. The Puritan dressin which I first saw her was a thing of the past; she clothed herselfnow like the parrakeets in the forest,--or liker the lilies of thefield, for verily she toiled not, neither did she spin.
Rolfe and I rose from our seats. "Mistress Percy," I said, "let mepresent to you a right worthy gentleman and my very good friend, MasterJohn Rolfe."
She curtsied, and he bowed low. He was a man of quick wit and had beenat court, but for a time he could find no words. Then: "Mistress Percy'sface is not one to be forgotten. I have surely seen it before, thoughwhere----"
Her colour mounted, but she answered him indifferently enough. "Probablyin London, amongst the spectators of some pageant arranged in honour ofthe princess, your wife, sir," she said carelessly. "I had twice thefortune to see the Lady Rebekah passing through the streets."
"Not in the streets only," he said courteously. "I remember now: 'twasat my lord bishop's dinner. A very courtly company it was. You werelaughing with my Lord Rich. You wore pearls in your hair----"
She met his gaze fully and boldly. "Memory plays us strange tricks attimes," she told him in a clear, slightly raised voice, "and it hathbeen three years since Master Rolfe and his Indian princess were inLondon. His memory hath played him false."
She took her seat in the great chair which stood in the centre of theroom, bathed in the sunlight, and the negress brought a cushion for herfeet. It was not until this was done, and until she had resigned her fanto the slave, who stood behind her slowly waving the plumed toy to andfro, that she turned her lovely face upon us and bade us be seated.
An hour later a whippoorwill uttered its cry close to the window,through which now shone the crescent moon. Rolfe started up. "Beshrewme! but I had forgot that I am to sleep at Chaplain's to-night. I musthurry on."
I rose also. "You have had no supper!" I cried. "I too have forgotten."
He shook his head. "I cannot wait. More over, I have feasted,--yea, anddrunk deep."
His eyes were very bright, with an exaltation in them as of wine. Mine,I felt, had the same light. Indeed, we were both drunk with herlaughter, her beauty, and her wit. When he had kissed her hand, and Ihad followed him out of the house and down the bank, he broke thesilence.
"Why she came to Virginia I do not know----"
"Nor care to ask," I said.
"Nor care to ask," he repeated, meeting my gaze. "And I know neither hername nor her rank. But as I stand here, Ralph, I saw her, a guest, atthat feast of which I spoke; and Edwyn Sandys picked not his maids fromsuch assemblies."
I stopped him with my hand upon his shoulder. "She is one of Sandys'maids," I asserted, with deliberation, "a waiting damsel who wearied ofservice and came to Virginia to better herself. She was landed with hermates at Jamestown a week or more agone, went with them to church, andthence to the courting meadow, where she and Captain Ralph Percy, agentleman adventurer, so pleased each other that they were marriedforthwith. That same day he brought her to his house, where she nowabides, his wife, and as such to be honoured by those who callthemselves his friends. And she is not to be lightly spoken of, norcomment passed upon her grace, beauty, and bearing (something too greatfor her station, I admit), lest idle tales should get abroad."
"Am I not thy friend, Ralph?" he asked, with smiling eyes.
"I have thought so at times," I answered.
"My friend's honour is my honour," he went on. "Where his lips aresealed mine open not. Art content?"
"Content," I said, and pressed the hand he held out to me.
We reached the steps of the wharf, and descending them he entered hisbarge, rocking lazily with the advancing tide. His rowers cast loosefrom the piles, and the black water slowly widened between us. From overmy shoulder came a sudden bright gleam of light from the house above,and I knew that Mistress Percy was as usual wasting good pine knots. Ihad a vision of the many lights within, and of the beauty whom the worldcalled my wife, sitting erect, bathed in that rosy glow, in the greatarmchair, with the turbaned negress behind her. I suppose Rolfe saw thesame thing, for he looked from the light to me, and I heard him draw hisbreath.
"Ralph Percy, thou art the very button upon the cap of Fortune," hesaid.
To myself my laugh sounded something of the bitterest, but to him, Ipresume, it vaunted my return through the darkness to the lit room andits resplendent pearl. He waved farewell, and the dusk swallowed up himand his boat. I went back to the house and to her.
She was sitting as we had left her, with her small feet crossed upon thecushion beneath them, her hands folded in her silken lap, the air fromthe waving fan blowing tendrils of her dark hair against her delicatestanding ruff. I went and leaned against the window, fa
cing her.
"I have been chosen Burgess for this hundred," I said abruptly. "TheAssembly meets next week. I must be in Jamestown then and for some timeto come."
She took the fan from the negress, and waved it lazily to and fro. "Whendo we go?" she asked at last.
"_We!_" I answered. "I had thought to go alone."
The fan dropped to the floor, and her eyes opened wide. "And leave mehere!" she exclaimed. "Leave me in these woods, at the mercy of Indians,wolves, and your rabble of servants!"
I smiled. "We are at peace with the Indians; it would be a stout wolfthat could leap this palisade; and the servants know their master toowell to care to offend their mistress. Moreover, I would leave Diccon incharge."
"Diccon!" she cried. "The old woman in the kitchen hath told me tales ofDiccon! Diccon Bravo! Diccon Gamester! Diccon Cutthroat!"
"Granted," I said. "But Diccon Faithful as well. I can trust him."
"But I do not trust him!" she retorted. "And I wish to go to Jamestown.This forest wearies me." Her tone was imperious.
"I must think it over," I said coolly. "I may take you, or I may not. Icannot tell yet."
"But I desire to go, sir!"
"And I may desire you to stay."
"You are a churl!"
I bowed. "I am the man of your choice, madam."
She rose with a stamp of her foot, and, turning her back upon me, took aflower from the table and commenced to pull from it its petals. Iunsheathed my sword, and, seating myself, began to polish away a speckof rust upon the blade. Ten minutes later I looked up from the task, toreceive full in my face a red rose tossed from the other side of theroom. The missile was followed by an enchanting burst of laughter.
"We cannot afford to quarrel, can we?" cried Mistress Jocelyn Percy."Life is sad enough in this solitude without that. Nothing but trees andwater all day long, and not a soul to speak to! And I am horribly afraidof the Indians! What if they were to kill me while you were away? Youknow you swore before the minister to protect me. You won't leave me tothe mercies of the savages, will you? And I may go to Jamestown, mayn'tI? I want to go to church. I want to go to the Governor's house. I wantto buy a many things. I have gold in plenty, and but this one decentdress. You'll take me with you, won't you?"
"There's not your like in Virginia," I told her. "If you go to town cladlike that and with that bearing, there will be talk enough. And shipscome and go, and there are those besides Rolfe who have been to London."
For a moment the laughter died from her eyes and lips, but it returned."Let them talk," she said. "What care I? And I do not think your shipcaptains, your traders and adventurers, do often dine with my lordbishop. This barbarous forest world and another world that I wot of areso far apart that the inhabitants of the one do not trouble those of theother. In that petty village down there I am safe enough. Besides, sir,you wear a sword."
"My sword is ever at your service, madam."
"Then I may go to Jamestown?"
"If you will it so."
With her bright eyes upon me, and with one hand softly striking a roseagainst her laughing lips, she extended the other hand.
"You may kiss it, if you wish, sir," she said demurely.
I knelt and kissed the white fingers, and four days later we went toJamestown.
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