Fool's Gold (31 page)

‘No appetite?’ she queried in sympathy. ‘Never mind. Just try to eat the soup. Keep your strength up.’

He insisted on spooning the soup up by himself and she let him, feeling he needed to assert his independence. He made a fair job of it, but then, he’d been all but single-handed ever since the mine accident. She’d noticed how much weaker the muscles of his left hand had been.

He must have read something of her feelings in her eyes.

‘I’m not much more handicapped with this on than I ever was,’ he said sombrely.

‘At least it wasn’t your right hand,’ she said bracingly.

He smiled up at her, a mocking, lop-sided smile. ‘I’m left-handed,’ he said sweetly. ‘They tried to thrash it out of me at the Cathedral School, called me a Devil’s Brat, but until the mine accident, I never could use my right hand for much. After, of course, there was no choice.’

Before long he lapsed once more into a deep sleep. When he awoke again, it was to find Chen Kai leaning over him. Of Alicia there was no sign.

Kai began to renew the poultices he had bandaged on to Jack’s left leg, which had been bruised and lacerated in the accident.

‘How is Pearl?’ asked Cornish.

‘Very upset. She feels she caused the accident.’

‘Nonsense! And I hope you’ve told her so. If anyone’s to blame, it’s old Ho. Chen Kai, what are we going to do with him?’

Chen Kai compressed his lips in a thin angry line. ‘Ker-hwan and I have spoken to him already. We told him to pack his bags and return to San Francisco! He can go with the boat on Wednesday.’

‘Seems like the best idea,’ he agreed sombrely.

‘But — he insists he will not go without Pearl.’

‘Pay him off!’

‘It won’t work.’

‘Why not?’

‘Face, Jack. He says his family honour will be destroyed.’

‘But if he takes her back, what guarantee is there that she will not fall into Kweh’s hands again?’

‘None. So Ker-hwan and I worked out a compromise. If she is betrothed to Li first, then he can leave her here. Then he will take his money and go.’

‘And Pearl?’

‘She has agreed. Why should she not?’

Cornish frowned. ‘Don’t know. Something I can’t quite put my finger on …’

‘You’re too tired to think about it now,’ said Kai firmly. ‘Try to rest.’

He woke again in the late afternoon to find Alicia sitting in the warm sunshine at the open window, hemming a dress which she was making for Josefa from an old skirt Julia had sent down. She was absorbed in setting her stitches and he watched her for a while from under half-closed lids.

At last she became aware of his regard. She smiled at him and set her work aside.

‘Drink?’ she offered.

‘A large whiskey,’ he answered promptly.

‘Perhaps tomorrow!’ she chuckled, pouring him some juice. She held it to his lips while he drank thirstily.

‘How long have you been awake?’ she asked.

‘About ten minutes,’ he admitted, watching her closely. ‘I was just enjoying lying here watching you.’

She was annoyed to find herself colouring under his gaze. The thought that he had been watching her without her being aware of it made her feel very vulnerable.

‘You’re a very restful woman,’ he said.

To cover her confusion she wiped his face with the aromatic lotion Kai had left and straightened the sheets.

She was relieved when a gentle knock fell on the door. Tamsin stood on the threshold with Josefa hovering nervously behind her. They had picked wild flowers in the meadow just above the house and arranged them in a rather haphazard fashion in a couple of stone jars they had cajoled out of Angelina.

‘Why d’you have to wear a harness on your arm?’ demanded Tamsin, placing the flowers on the chest.

‘To make it better,’ he replied gravely.

‘But Chen Kai told me it was better than good-as-new!’ she exclaimed with a furrowed brow.

‘And so it will be,’ smiled Alicia. ‘But only if Colonel Cornish gets his rest. Off with you now. And be good for Angelina, both of you.’

‘Thank you for the flowers, sweetheart,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘They’re just what I needed to cheer me up.’

Tamsin looked thoughtfully around the sparse room. ‘Ye-es,’ she agreed. ‘It’s not a bright room like ours, is it, Lisha?’ She turned confidingly back to Cornish. ‘You should ask Lisha to make your room bright like ours. Chen Kai says Lisha can make a palace out of a pig-sty,’ she imparted proudly.

‘And you can make a tired man out of a strong one with your chatter,’ said Alicia with a forced laugh. ‘Off with you now.’

‘You shouldn’t have sent her away,’ he reproached her. ‘She’s a never-ending source of amusement to me. Last week she told me I was just like the Good Smartman!’ he chuckled. ‘Took me awhile, but I got it in the end.’

‘Oh, the Good Samaritan! Yes, it’s one of her favourite stories, but she never gets it quite right …’

‘Who’s looking after her while you’re looking after me?’

‘Angelina.’

‘I’d have thought Angelina has quite enough on her hands with all the cooking.’

‘Now that’s something I wanted to talk to you about, Colonel Cornish,’ she said. ‘If you’re feeling strong enough, that is,’ she added conscientiously.

‘I can see this is serious,’ he mocked. ‘Sit down.’

‘I’ve told her to stop the preparations for Thursday, but Kerhouan insisted I clear it with you first. So if you let me have the guest list, I’ll send Calum into Sacramento with your regrets …’

‘My regrets?’ he queried coldly.

‘For being unable to entertain them on Thursday as arranged.’

‘But I have no notion of being unable to entertain them! I shall be up from this bed by tomorrow at the latest, which gives me two days more to get over whatever fiendish potion you poured down my gullet.’

‘But …’

‘The matter is not open to discussion,’ he snapped impatiently. Then he slumped back against the bolster, his eyes closed, his face pale.

She hurried to his side, holding the smelling bottle under his nose until he reached out and pushed it away, wrinkling his nose. ‘If you don’t calm down, Colonel Cornish, you won’t even be out of bed by Thursday!’

‘Stop arguing with me then,’ he replied silkily. ‘No!’ he held up his sound hand. ‘I’ll hear no more about it.’

She reached behind him to straighten the pillows and plump them up. ‘And what’s all this Colonel Cornish nonsense?’ he demanded, reaching up to catch her wrist in his good hand. ‘You can do better than that — you did yesterday.’

She drew back, colour suffusing her face. ‘Please — you’re hurting me.’ Even sick he had a strength in his one good arm that she could not match. ‘Colonel, please …’

‘Jack!’ he insisted. ‘Maybe you can’t say the rest to my face yet, m’dear, but Jack you’ll call me if you want me to let go.’ In his agitation, the Cornish accent was very strong.

‘Please — J-Jack,’ she stumbled over the words. ‘You’re hurting my wrist. Let me go, please.’

He released her wrist so suddenly that she staggered. There was a mocking smile on his face, but as he watched her, it faded to be replaced with something more disturbing. He patted the counterpane for her to sit down. ‘And now, m’dear, it’s past time you and I sat down and had a serious talk.’

On top of the agitation of the previous day it was all too much.

‘No. Please.’ She turned away to the window, trying to stem the tears. ‘I’m sorry!’ she blurted out. ‘But I just can’t.’ She fled across the room to the door. ‘I’ll send Angelina … or … or someone … to sit with you. Excuse me.’

She kept steadfastly away from him for the next twenty-four hours. And when he was up and about again, she made sure for a couple of days more that she was always either with Pearl or Angelina.

And there was plenty to occupy her. With Pearl she was busy cleaning out the rest of the upper rooms and some of the outlying buildings which had been tacked on, haphazardly, over the years, and turning them into suitable guest apartments, for it was not to be expected, after the heavy drinking which would inevitably accompany such an all male gathering, that many of the guests would be capable of enjoying a journey back to Sacramento, even in the comfort of the
Tresco
, which the Colonel was putting at their disposal for the journey out from town.

‘I can’t see why you’re putting yourself to all this trouble!’ he exclaimed, pausing in the doorway of the dining-room to watch, in some exasperation, as she finished beeswaxing a floor which, to him, already looked cleaner than he ever remembered seeing it. ‘They all know this is a bachelor household — they won’t expect to see it gleaming!’

She paused only briefly from her polishing. ‘Look like a one horse farmer and that’s how they’ll estimate you,’ she said briskly. ‘Coming up from the river, they won’t see what good heart your land is in; their lasting impression will come from the house. That’ll show them what kind of man they’re dealing with.’

‘But all the cooking …’

She smiled a rare smile. ‘Don’t fret about that. Angelina could cook for twice that number single-handed, aye, and with half the notice.’

‘She can have Xavier and Luis to serve.’

‘I can cope.’

‘You are not to show your face on Thursday evening!’ he commanded roughly. ‘Is that quite clear?’

‘But that’s ridiculous!’

‘Consider it an order!’ he snapped, turning sharply on his heel and striding away down the corridor before she could think of a retort.

She recounted the conversation to Kai in the kitchen, but he only smiled at her anger. ‘It is not like you to be so foolish, Alicia,’ he said with a slow smile. ‘He is trying to protect you.’

‘I can very well protect myself!’

‘From suggestive remarks made by a group of men far on in drink? I doubt it. Better for you to steer clear of them.’

‘Better still if she marry the boss, then he can have proper dinners with a proper hostess,’ Angelina chimed in from her post over by the range. ‘More comfortable for all of us.’ She ignored Alicia’s strangled cry of protest and went on serenely: ‘That child sure needs a father and you sure need a husband.’

Alicia did not deign to answer, sweeping out of the kitchen grim-faced, closing the door with an angry slam as she went.

Angelina looked across at Chen Kai. ‘Don’t you go thinking that was a knock against you,’ she rebuked him. ‘I see how good you are with leetle Tamsin. But it ain’t a situation I approve of.’

He shrugged. ‘You are only saying what I have said to Alicia, but she won’t have him.’

‘You mean he’s asked and she’s turned him down?’ she demanded in disbelief.

‘I think so. Yes.’

‘She always was stubborn,’ she sighed, with a shake of her head, ‘but that is madness.
Loco
.’

‘Yes.’

‘As mad as you,’ she went on smoothly. ‘There’s that poor child Pearl and all you can do is give her the cold shoulder, as if she didn’t have enough problems with those
loco
parents of hers.’

Their brief moment of unity was swiftly gone and with a scowl Chen Kai found himself following Alicia’s hasty exit. Angelina just smiled serenely to herself and turned back to stir the contents of the huge pan on top of the range.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The day before the dinner, Cornish came to the kitchen to talk to Angelina about the last few details. His arm was greatly improved and he only used the sling when Chen Kai-Tsu or Alicia reminded him.

‘Everything’s just fine and dandy,’ Angelina assured him.

‘And you can manage tomorrow night? Need any extra help?’

‘Alicia and I can manage OK.’

‘Mrs Owens? She can help in the kitchen if you really need her, but understand this — she’s to keep well out of sight from the minute those men set foot on Tresco.
Comprende
, Angelina?’

‘A good servant should always be invisible,’ said Alicia with a smile as she passed through the kitchen with a pile of linen. He held the door open for her with his good arm, and watched her pass through with a baffled look on his face.

The Sacramento Valley was shrouded in mist when Alicia awoke on the Thursday morning and, for once, as she slipped out into the courtyard to draw the water for washing, she was unable to gaze across to watch the sun tip the peaks of the mighty Sierras with golden light. Robbed of the distant prospect, it seemed as though Tresco were marooned, an island of fresh, dewy greenness, silent but for the plash of the river as it curved around below the bluff before hurling itself into the muddy brown waters of the mighty Sacramento. Even the cluster of houses beyond the nopal hedge was invisible. She found herself resenting the approaching invasion for the threat it posed to the peace and quiet of Tresco.

The silence was broken by a crash from the kitchen and a door slamming somewhere over by the bunkhouse. She became aware of the chill in the damp air and drew her shawl closer about her shoulders. She and Tamsin were both glad to draw close to the range in the warmth of the kitchen.

‘Tomorrow I send Pearl with hot water for you!’ scolded Angelina.

‘Certainly not!’ replied Alicia with heightened colour as the Colonel and Chen Kai took their seats at the table.

‘Of course she will!’ Cornish insisted. ‘She already fetches it to Angelina. Anyway, you mustn’t argue with Angelina today, or she’ll curdle all the puddings!’

Angelina put her hands on her hips and laughed one of her rich laughs, her ample chin and bosom quivering. ‘That’s right!’ she chuckled. ‘And today, be sure no one comes into my kitchen unless to help.’ She banged a plate of hotcakes and sizzling bacon down on the table in front of them and then she rounded on Kai. ‘And you,’ she wagged a finger at him, ‘you I don’t see until this evening. You keep those children out from under my feet. And don’t come in the kitchen, not to see Alicia, not to make eyes at t’other one.’

Kai looked as though he would have liked to strangle her.

By mid-morning the mists that had swept up the valley from the sea had dispersed beneath the burning rays of the summer sun. At midday Luis was dispatched to the river meadows with the men’s food and Alicia emerged from the heat of the kitchen to sit with Chen Kai and the children in the shade of the lemon tree, listening to the soothing music of the little fountain as they ate the tasty pies that Li made down in the cookhouse.

‘I’ve persuaded Angelina she must take a
siesta
,’ explained Alicia. ‘She’s not as young as she was and when she gets tired, her temper gets hotter than her pepper stew!’

‘And you?’

‘Oh, I’m not tired!’ she asserted, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes.

‘So I see!’ he grinned at her. ‘You’re a different woman from the one I brought here.’

‘Thank God for it!’

‘Tresco has wrought a miracle in you,’ he said softly, reaching across to take her hand.

‘It saved my sanity,’ she agreed. ‘But without you, my dear friend, there would have been nothing left to save.’

‘You wanted to see me about the guest rooms, Mrs Owens?’ came Cornish’s voice, sharp and edgy.

He was standing at the corner of the inner verandah, his leatherbound arm for once in its sling, his face taut. Behind him she could see Pearl, face pale, eyes downcast.

‘At your leisure,’ he said sarcastically. Flushing, she released Kai’s hand and rose swiftly to her feet.

She put Tamsin to bed early that evening, resisting the child’s requests to be allowed to stay up to watch the visitors arrive. Then she hurried back to the kitchen to help Angelina.

There were to be six courses, each served with two removes, and although a great deal had been prepared in advance, Angelina’s pride had made her include a number of more elaborate dishes which had to be prepared and served up straight away.

‘Is goin’ to be a hot night,’ observed Angelina as she rolled out the pastry for the raised pies.

‘Hot and sticky!’ agreed Alicia. ‘But think how much worse if we still had the open fire!’

‘Phew!’ the cook exclaimed, and they both laughed.

They heard the
Tresco’s
whistle sound down at the quay. Alicia put more of the ice to float on top of the bowl of punch she had mixed earlier and carried it through to put it on the table in the
sala
. Xavier and Luis, scrubbed and clean, were sent to wait on the visitors.

‘Goin’ to be a night of hard eatin’,’ observed Angelina.

‘And hard drinking,’ agreed Alicia.

Everything went smoothly, as Angelina and Alicia had intended it should. ‘If we could feed a hundred miners every night, ten gentlemen not goin’ to bother us!’ laughed Angelina.

Every time the boys came through the door, carrying fragrant dishes in or empty plates out, they heard the occasional brief burst of conversation and as the evening wore on and the pile of empty bottles grew, the voices became louder, gusts of laughter greeting what were obviously ribald stories.

‘Just like being back in the
cantina
again!’ commented Alicia wryly.

There were ten men altogether, the boys told them in answer to Angelina’s eager questions. Attorney Crocker, of course, and his brother, Lamarr, and a fat man they didn’t know, except that he sent his compliments to the chef on the excellence of the pies, of which he had apparently eaten more than his fair share.

‘And who else?’ demanded Angelina.

‘Well, Colonel Cornish, of course, and Mr Judah,’ confided Luis. ‘He’s trying to persuade them all to build a railroad all the way to New York! No wonder they all call him Crazy Judah!’

‘And Mr Hopkins and Mr Huntington, they’re there too,’ chimed in Xavier. ‘But Mr Hopkins is only drinking water, and he’s hardly eaten anything at all. Looks as if a puff of wind’d blow him over!’

‘And they’ve brought two other men with them from San Francisco. They’re directors of some railroad company.’

‘And Mr McCann is
real
ugly …’

‘But Mr Olsen’s worse,’ interrupted Luis. ‘He’s little and fat and his eyes are sunk into his cheeks just like a pig.’

‘Yes, but Mr McCann — he looks real mean!’

‘You don’t get that food on the table before it starts to cool, I’ll get real mean!’ chuckled Angelina, sending them on their way with a friendly shove.

The
pièce de résistance
was a masterpiece of the confectioner’s art, concocted by Alicia. Cream, saved from the milking of the two Shorthorn house cows, thickened and flavoured with the best brandy, was piled between layers of fruit and delicate pastry into a pyramid, decorated at the last minute by thin cobwebby strands of spun sugar. Xavier took the heavy silver platter from Alicia and, without thinking, she hurried ahead of him to open the door into the dining-room.

As he marched proudly through the door with the elaborate dessert, she had a momentary glimpse through the opening. She saw Cornish’s profile and, to one side of him, a huge man with a full beard and moustache. As he turned to speak to his neighbour, she saw him full face. The left-hand side of his face from the hairline to the uneven edge of the beard was covered in puckered purple scar tissue which drew down the corner of his eye and twisted the corner of his mouth to give the whole face a frightful aspect.

She slammed the door and ran gasping down the hall to the kitchen. She collided with a startled Angelina, who grabbed her to prevent her falling.

‘What is it,
querida
?’ she demanded.

Hand to her throat Alicia gabbled something incoherent, her voice rising hysterically, then her head snapped back and she fell to the floor in a dead faint.

*

‘I don’t want your damned whiskey!’ she shouted at Chen Kai from the floor where she was struggling to tie a bundle of clothes in a large Paisley shawl.

‘I won’t let you do it, Alicia!’ said Chen Kai, ashen-faced. ‘I won’t let you take her out on the road like this!’

‘Let her stay here with you then!’ She looked up at him, her face swollen and tear-stained. ‘You’ll both be better off without me!’

‘You’re not going anywhere!’ snapped Cornish, coming up behind her and taking the bundle unceremoniously out of her hand. ‘Not until I have some explanations. Angelina told me some cock and bull story about someone wanting to put you
back
in prison?’ Alicia slumped down on the bed as if every bone in her body had dissolved. ‘Now I’ve had enough of these half-truths of yours, Alicia. I want the truth — and I’m not aiming to leave until I get it.’

‘Please, Jack, listen to me,’ began Kai.

‘Kai, I’m sure you have another good yarn to spin, but not this time. This time I’ll talk to her alone.’

Chen Kai opened his mouth to protest.

‘That’s an order!’ barked the rancher.

Kai drew a small bottle from his pocket and placed it on the table. ‘Call me if you need me,’ he said quietly. ‘And when she’s had enough talking, that will help her sleep.’

As the door closed behind him, Cornish poured a small glass of whiskey, knelt and held it to Alicia’s lips.

‘Now,’ he said softly, ‘now I want the truth!’

She looked piteously at him, but his face was set. This time, she knew, she would have to tell him — everything.

‘I was in prison in San Francisco,’ she said dully. ‘And Fisher knows — he put me there! And now he won’t stop until I’m back in prison, until I’m dead!’

‘Fisher?’

‘The big man with the sc-scarred face.’ Her voice shook. ‘Fisher.’

‘McCann. God’s sake, he’ll be gone soon, back to San Francisco. I don’t think he saw you, the door was hardly open more than a few seconds. Surely there’s no chance of discovery. Even the name has changed!’

‘He won’t let me go,’ she said on a rising note of hysteria. ‘If I don’t do what he wants, he’ll turn me in and they’ll hang me!’ She began to cry, hot, scalding tears flowing unchecked down her pale cheeks. ‘You don’t know what I did, what an evil thing I did.’ She pressed her hand to her eyes as if to block out the vision. ‘There’s no point in running away. He’ll always find me.’

‘Tell me!’ he urged her gently. ‘Tell me what happened.’

She shook her head helplessly. ‘I can’t,’ she sobbed despairingly. ‘Please … don’t make me.’

From the inner room came a startled shout and the sound of Tamsin crying.

She started to rise.

‘Stay there!’ he commanded harshly. ‘If she sees you in this state, you’ll only make her worse.’

He went in and knelt by Tamsin’s truckle bed, his broad shoulders blocking her view of the doorway and the outer chamber.

‘What is it, Tamsin?’ he asked softly.

‘Colonel Jack?’ she whimpered.

‘Yes.’ He caught her hand and felt her shaking. She caught her breath on a sob. ‘I heard a lot of noise and I thought that the bad man had come to take Lisha away again. I’m so frightened!’

‘There’s no need,’ he said soothingly. ‘You know I won’t let anyone hurt you.’ He stroked the tangled hair out of her eyes and held her and talked to her until the sobs faded away and she began to drift back to sleep again. ‘No one will ever frighten you again,’ he murmured as her eyelids began to droop tiredly. ‘You’re quite safe at Tresco, you and Chen Kai and your mama.’

The heavy eyelids fluttered and she chuckled drowsily. ‘Silly, Lisha’s not my mama, though I loves her like she was.’

His eyes widened in shock.

Alicia’s shadow fell across the doorway and he half turned to her.

‘Shall I ask her about the big man?’ he said in a half whisper. ‘Shall I ask Tamsin why she’s so frightened?’

He hated himself for doing it.

‘Don’t!’ came the panic-stricken whisper from behind him. ‘For God’s sake, don’t make her remember! Don’t make her remember!’ He laid the sleeping child back against the soft pillow and turned slowly.

She was leaning against the wall as if she could no longer depend on her legs to support her. ‘I’ll tell you,’ she went on dully. ‘I’ll tell you all you want to know. Then you’ll understand why I wouldn’t — why I could never marry you.’ She crossed to the bed and sat silent for a moment, gazing into the distance.

‘It’s a long story,’ she began. ‘I guess it started back in ’50, in Hangtown.’

‘You were already in California then?’