HF - 01 - Caribee (21 page)

‘
You surprise me,' Rebecca said. Never had he heard such coldness in her tone.

He stood above her. 'What mean you, woman?'

Her eyes came up, gazed into his. 'You were all of dripping saliva when you saw that girl lashed. Aye, you, and every man there. I conceived myself in the midst of a pack of wolves. I'd have felt safer with the
Indian
s.'

He hesitated. But now was not the time for more anger, especially where she was so nearly right. 'Aye,' he said.
‘It
was a time for quick and savage justice, and it made us less than men. We must discover a be
tt
er means of conducting our affairs, where it is less of a spectacle. It is the spectacle that does the harm.' He sighed. 'There is so much to be done. Every day turns up another problem. Edward will remain one now for too long. Hilton has reappeared to become one. And count upon it, there will be endless others. I had no conception of what I undertook,
when I landed here so confidentl
y. Yet will we survive, and prosper, Rebecca. This land is Warner land. In time we shall seek the other islands, and they too will prosper. The Spaniards have no interest where there is no gold, and in time we shall muster sufficient numbers even to set the Caribs at naught. Do not fear the future, Rebecca. My faith in it grows with every disaster we overcome. But I thank God I shall ever have you at my side in the struggle.'

Her head turned, away from him. 'Perhaps you will have me at your side, in the future, Mr Warner.'

'Perhaps?
’

'Perhaps,' she said.
‘I
know not now to whom I am married, a captain of the King, a kindly man, given only to just anger and legal lust, or some adventurer returned from pirating, filled with the dreams and the wild talk of Walter Raleigh, and yet entirely lacking his greatness of spirit.'

'Woman,' Tom snapped,
‘I
am not in the mood to be tried by your humour.'

She sat up, a suddenly blazing virago. And once he had mourned her lack of fire. 'So, then, sir,' she shouted. 'Would you strap me, naked, between those stakes, and tear the flesh from my bones? Ah, you'd not have the courage for that, Tom
Warner
. You'd give the leather to that boy Jarring.'

He stared at her, taken aback, his mouth opening and shu
tt
ing again.

'So leave me be,' she said. 'Give me time, to get to know this new man. I'd not anticipated more than one in my life.'

He hes
itated, and
then
went outside. Edward still stood on the porch, staring at the sea. Phihp scraped the sand by the door. 'Why is everyone quarrelling today, Father? Why did Susan have to bleed?
’

'Oh, hold your mouth shut, boy,' Tom said. But he had no wish to speak with anyone, this day; he could see Ashton and Berwicke returning up the beach. Angrily he stamped through the house again, and out the back, left the village and surveyed the growing tobacco in the field. His wealth. What he had always sought, and now possessed, in abundance. So let them have their tempers and think he had changed. He had brought them all this, and he would bring them more, and yet more.

A sound had him turning, sharply. It was no more than the faintest of rustles, in the bushes by the edge of the field.

'Who's there?' he asked.

A moment's hesitation, and then Yarico stood up.

6

The River of Blood

There she is, by God,' Jarring shouted. 'A sail. At last. A sail.' He seized the conch shell with which the watch was provided, ran to the lip of Brimstone Hill to look down on the village and the tobacco fields, and blew a long, wailing blast, which screamed on the wind across the southern half of the island. Ships were the only punctuation in the endless life of the colonists, and when
the ship was delayed, morale im
me
diat
ely
seeped away into irritation and quarrels. Thus the conch must only be blown when there could be no doubt that the sail on the horizon was standing in.

Its wail caught every a
tt
ention on the island, for the sound penetrated as far as the Carib town. The
Indian
s gathered on the beach to gaze seaward. At the foot of the hill, work in the tobacco field ceased, and the colonists and their servants and their women gathered at the water's edge, differences forgo
tt
en at this suggestion of news from home, of fresh European food and wine, of reinforcements for the colony, of a vehicle for the removal of their tobacco.

All of these things were necessary, Tom thought, as he stood on the porch of his house and gazed at his people. And yet the sinking of their differences was by far the most important. Would that he could have discovered a means of accomplishing this without the uncertain assistance of Jefferson's vessel. He had assumed that governing an island would be li
tt
le different to commanding a regiment of foot, or the Tower of London, for that ma
tt
er. He had assumed so many things. He had found the Irish labourers the simplest to deal with, as, indeed, so many of his foot soldiers in the past had been Irish vagabonds. These men understood command and
the lash, and li
tt
le else. Yet here again there was a difference. He could not inspire them, by standing before them and pointing his sword at the enemy. There was no enemy. There was not an Irishman living—it was impossible to imagine an Irishman living—who would not respond to such a call on his valour and aggression. To hoe another furrow, to prune another leaf, left them sullenly discontented; hence the stocks which had made their unwelcome appearance in the centre of the village, close by the whipping post. O'Reilly sat there now, as he had sat there for the previous two days. A big, cheerful young man with a shock of fair hair and a straggling beard, he considered himself their natural leader, apparently felt it necessary to assert himself, and suffer for it, every couple of months.

Then the women. In many ways they were the most content of all. But even that was a transient phase. Their pleasure at being freed from the ship and the prison they had infested before that, at finding themselves in a tropical paradise with eager young men to love their bo
dies, was already dwindling. Th
ree wer
e mothers; th
ree others would not be long delayed. It was more than ever necessary for Jefferson to have brought a priest with him; already two of the girls had been whipped for promiscuity. For adultery he could order a more severe punishment

Punish, punish, punish, was that,
then
, to be his role? Had he exchanged the position of gaoler to the nobility merely to become gaoler to this pack of layabouts? He had punished none of the men. He was too conscious of his weakness, here. They were his colonists. They had to have arms at hand and the freedom to live their lives. So when
they
sought outside love he had whipped the women. He was in the presence of a force he could not command and could not otherwise control, because he lacked the strength. It should not have been so. Berwicke might by now be past physical endeavour, but Ashton remained always a powerful aid, and there should also have been Edward and Hilton; he did not doubt
that
they were each worth six of the colonists. But Hilton was seldom seen on the leeward coast and since he had removed her, Susan had never appeared in the village. He brought fish and coconuts, as he had promised. He acknowledged the Warners as the leaders of the colony, and no doubt, if called upon, he would lend that strong and angry right arm, that bow and that sword and that pistol to his governor. But how to summon a man ten miles away, when he might be needed in seconds?

No, if it came to a business of force, it would have to be Edward. If he could trust the boy. If he could trust the boy for anything, whether for him or against him. Near a year now, and he had not forgiven. He mooned the beach, did no more than his share of work in the fields, grew in height and breadth and strength with every day, until already, at seventeen, there was scarce a man would dare lift a hand against him in the entire colony—and remembered.

As did Rebecca. Only in Rebecca's presence did Edward's face soften; only when Edward was near did Rebecca smile. But Rebecca provided a more serious cause for concern. She would have few relations with him, only those she regarded as her duty. But this was not entirely disgust, he was sure. She complained of headaches and was often hot to the touch, while she sweated in a qu
ite unusual profusion. Her dwin
dling strength could be seen in the gauntness of her face and body, the great shadows which had accumulated under her eyes, the sudden streaks of white which marked her hair. She was ailing, and he knew not what caused it. As with Sarah. Her constantly running nose and her endless sneezes were more a ma
tt
er of irritation than alarm, but she was none the less hardly suited to this climate.

Of all his family, only Philip was unchangingly his, in appearance and health and support. But Philip wanted several years to manhood. He had not been forced to it like his brother.

And did they, did the colonists, did the labourers, did his personal problems, really ma
tt
er? Was not the colony, despite all, thriving, and had not the ship, after all, arrived? Were not his fears the product of his own imagination, his own guilt? Because he was guilty. He was guilty of so many crimes he dared not stop to count them. Of adultery, merely to begin with. Of breaking his own rule regarding
Indian
women. Of loving, where he had never loved Rebecca. Of wanting and desiring like the most profligate courtier, when he had refused all during his days at court, had even, on one unforge
tt
able occasion, spurned the advances of Frances Howard. Then he had been a man. Now he was a... a dog. Summoned to Ins duties by his bitch, daily.

But no one knew. Of this he was sure. He took himself into the forest, from time to time. But he had been given the character of a solitary man, disappointed in his fami
ly, in his colonists, in his ver
y island. No one knew how his heart sang with joy whenever he saw her, waiting for him, shrouded in her midnight hair, a bundle of lascivious evil, for she was undoubtedly that, intent on possessing his body with the ferocity of some demon, reawakening in him all the long forgo
tt
en manhood he had delighted in sharing with Sarah. And no one knew, either, the black despair with which he returned from these trysts, his energy and his desire spent, the fascinating laughter of Yarico following him through the trees, flooding his ears to remind him that he, the Governor and the lawgiver, was the biggest criminal on the island.

Edward stood by the porch. ' 'Tis the ship, Father,' he said 'Will you not come?'

Tom raised his head. Excitement, at last, in the boy's tone. He must forget
that
word. In the man's tone. A fine figure of a man. No, a splendid figure of a man. A dominating figure of a man. He had created this colony, for Edward and Philip, to give them property and empire
they
could never possess in England. 'You'd best see i
f your moth
er wishes to rise.'

He walked down the beach, joined his colonists and their women and children, to stare at the vessel which came round the north of the island, drifting rather than sailing, for there was li
tt
le wind.

But this ship would hardly
have sailed ver
y fast in any event. Her foremast was gone, and her mainsail was a ta
tt
ered rag. Only her mizzen seemed intact, as she ghosted towards the beach.

'She's been in a storm,' someone mu
tt
ered.

'A hurricane,' said someone else.

‘In
the spring?' asked a third voice, with contempt.

Oh, they were knowledgeable, his colonists. But not knowledgeable enough. 'She's been in ba
tt
le,' he said quietly, and their heads turned. The fact that life was a conflict, between nations, fought with guns and swords, had passed them by, here on Merwar's Hope. They fought amongst themselves, and were whipped for it, but they had seen no death here. Perhaps they doubted such a thing was possible. Sometimes he doubted it himself, could he but forget the memory of the Dominican savage being torn to pieces at the stake.

'By God,' Ashton said. 'You're right, Tom. Look there.'

For now they could see the sha
tt
ered bulwarks, the gaping hole in her hull, just on the waterline.

'But she flies no flag,' Berwicke said.

'Aye. We'd best approach this with caution. She carries a deal of metal,' Tom said. 'Ralph, you'll assemble the women and prepare them to take to the forest. Where do you think she'll come ashore, Hal?'

Ashton studied her through the glass.
‘I
cannot make out the name,' he mu
tt
ered. 'But there are men aboard, and able to move. She is under control, and I see them making ready to anchor. She should come in by the Neck.'

'Then we'd best down there to see what can be done. Edward, you'll issue arms to every man. Not the Irish. Ralph, you'll remain here with four men to see that no mischief is done to the plantation. Creevey, you've my permission to leave the village. Make your way across the island to Mr Hilton, and request his presence, fully armed, if you please. Be off with you, now. The rest of you men will accompany me.'

They gazed at him with some surprise. They had not known such decision, such certainty, since the day the girl had been flogged. Suddenly
they
remembered that he was, before all else, a soldier. And
that
their natural instincts were in that direction, too. They fell in behind him, hefting their firepiec
es, with cartridges and powder horn
s slung from their shoul
ders, and cutlasses hung from th
eir belts. They might not amount to much in a fight, Tom considered, but they looked the part, every man save himself and Ashton stripped to the waist and browned by the sun, every man eager to relieve his boredom.

They marched along the beach, a full dozen of them, staying close to the trees, in case the stranger should take it into his head to open fire, but easily keeping pace with her. And at the Neck they found Tegramond, wearing his sword, with a score of his braves, also armed.

'Ship, fight,' Tegramond said.

'Not with us, I hope, old friend,' Tom said. 'But she has certainly been in a ba
tt
le. I have a notion they will want our help, not our enmity.'