HF - 01 - Caribee (34 page)

Connor shrugged, and moved the bar to the door. Edward pulled it open, took a deep breath, and stepped outside. There was an
imme
diat
e
explosion from down the street, and the bullet smacked into the wood beside him.

'Hold your fire,' he shouted, and reversed his sword.
‘I
'd speak with you, Hal.'

He walked out from under the porch, to stand on the street. It was well into the morning now, and the sun was above Mount Misery, already steaming heat from the ground and sending it back through the still air.

'You'll surrender?' Ashton called.

‘I’ll negotiate, Hal
'

'From there?
’

‘I
'm but one man, Hal. There are twenty others, armed and desperate. You'd do well not to push them to extremities.'

There was a short silence, and Edward took three more steps into the street; his heart pounded; he was an easy target for anyone so minded. But he kept his head high. He was the
Warner
heir, and no ma
tt
er what had happened in the past, or might happen in the future, they could not afford to forget that. And what would happen in the future? He was sure of nothing. Only that he had made a dreadful mistake this day.

Hal Ashton emerged from a house farther down the street. His sword was sheathed, and he carried no other weapon. 'Well?'

‘I
'd talk with you, Hal, not the entire colony.' He went forward again, was now opposite the church, which was perhaps the most dangerous place of all. O'Reilly and his five men were in there, and should they take it into their heads that he would betray them, they might well shoot him down. But Ashton was also coming forward, to halt not ten feet away. Two men on a lonely street.

'What have you to say, boy?" Ashton demanded. "This is mutiny. Revolution, indeed. There can be no mercy for revolutionaries.'

‘I
had thought the watchword of this colony, and its rulers, was expediency,' Edward said.
‘
You followed
that course with
the Caribs.'

'And you've hated ever since, boy. Tis unnatural for a man to hate his own kind.'

‘I’
m yet to find out who are my kind, Hal Ashton,' Edward said. 'But I did not come here to quarrel. These Irishmen, and Tony Hilton, will fight, as you know. They'll fight much harder than anyone at your
back. They'll happily die, with
weapons in their hands, rather than return to slavery or the noose. And for every one of them that dies be sure at least two of your people will go too. Would you offer my father a colony populated by women?"

‘I
'll not offer him a colony seized by revolution, Edward.'

'Nor need you. We realize that we cannot win, here. We had been informed there was popular support for me in the town, but it seems we were optimistic. So you'll allow Tony and his men, and his wife, a ship, and let them depart. Hear me out, Hal. We have commi
tt
ed treason and revolution, at my command. It was my doing, and my will, and it is my will that we now end it. I will take the responsibility for all that happened here.'

"You think it will be an easy ma
tt
er?" Ashton asked. 'On your surrender you'll be an admi
tt
ed felon.'

"Yet you'll not try Tom Warner's son until he returns,' Edward said.

Ashton hesitated. 'Aye,' he said at last. 'You can wait for your father. In that gaol over there. But if you suppose he'll encourage leniency towards you, you'll be making a mistake. Tom has had a bellyful of you, Edward. You'll hang. I do not wish you to be under any misapprehension concerning that.'

'Nor am I. You're that angry, at this moment, Hal. But I'll also have freedom for the people in gaol now. They must be allowed to go or stay as they choose.'

Ashton frowned at him. 'You're demented for sure, lad. There is no one in that gaol.'

'But
'

‘It
was the Governor's express wish that we proceed to extremes aga
inst no one until his return. If
you believed differently, you've been misled.'

‘
Misled. Oh, yes, he'd been misled. To the very steps of the gallows. By Susan as well? He could no longer doubt that. But she carried his child.

'Do you agree to my people manning one of those ships?
’

Ashton pulled his nose. 'They'll be going to their deaths. Hilton is no navigator.'

‘I
suspect he'll live. He means to go no farther than Nevis, for the time being. There's diplomacy for you, Hal. At least in a way you can put to Tom. No bloodshed here, and should he return with sufficient men and a ship of war, why,
then
, you can easily take the sea against them, over there. Why man, here's your opportunity to rid the colony of all its malcontents. Offer your own people, such of them as wish to take the risk, passage to Nevis with Tony.'

Ashton frowned. 'You play a deep game here, Edward.'

Edward smile
d. 'Have you no confidence in th
ose
at your back? You can disarm th
em first.'

Ashton pulled his nose some more.
‘It
is certainly a way out of our problem. And we'll have the leader.' He glanced at Edward,
apparently
understanding what had been agreed for the first time. 'And you'll stay? To face your father and then the noose? By God, lad, you've courage after all. Of a sort'

Of a sort. The cell was
pleasantly
large, when he was alone, some eight feet square, room for a man to walk, to and fro, and to breathe. When he was alone. But this was seldom. Only the twenty Irish who had followed Hilton from Windward had been allowed to depart; those who had not
imme
diat
ely
jumped to arms at the bidding of their compatriots had been allowed to regret at leisure; now they were more harshly treated than before, and not a day passed but one was hauled to the whipping post or locked in the stocks, or clapped into the cell with Edward. Then only his size and his ability with his fists allowed him survival; it was the law in Sandy Point, as indeed it was in England, that once the door closed on a prisoner, he was left to the mercy of his friends.

He'd have starved, but for Yarico. She came every day with food. The first morning he had stared at her in amazement and mistrust. The boy Tom lurched at her side, hanging on to her skirt. But then, the skirt itself was unnatural, shrouding as it did those muscular brown legs which had first made him a man.

'Food,' she had said. 'You eat, Ed-ward.'

'Why?' he had asked.

'Ed-ward, Yarico.'

'Oh, for Christ's sake, don'
t
start that again. Aren'
t
you my father's woman? By God, you're all of a stepmother to me.'

'Ed-ward, Yarico,' she said firmly. And shrugged. 'Edward, Susan, Yarico, War-nah. You eat, Ed-ward. You must not die.'

They are going to hang me, Yarico. Hadn'
t
you thought of that?"

She tossed her head, scornfully. 'War-nah not hang his son.'

'But he has others, of whom he is more proud.' Yet he had by then picked up the bread and fried fish. It had smelt so good, and he had been starving. And then she had stood so close. Yarico, the savage. Yarico, the lover. Yarico would survive, as she had always survived. And he still did not even know her age. No doubt she was unaware of it herself. But as he was only twenty he doubted she was any older.

And now her gaze was as soft as ever he remembered it. 'You want, Yarico?' she had asked softly.

Yarico, who had destroyed her entire nation to ensure her own existence.

' Tis neither the rime nor the place,' he had said. 'But you'll come again, Yarico?'

'Every day,' she had promised. 'Every day, Ed-ward.'

Thus she was able to keep him informed of events in the colony, of the departure of Hilton and Susan, and their followers. Quite a band, apparently, for a dozen of the colonists, with their wives and three children, had elected to accompany the rebels. Not one of them, not even Susan, had come to say goodbye. No doubt, had he led them to ba
tt
le, against their friends, and seen half of them killed, they'd have called him a hero. He wondered that he hated none of them, Hilton most of all. Certainly he had been completely hoodwinked into accepting responsibility for a hare-brained scheme which he now knew had never the slightest chance of popular support, and very li
tt
le more of success even had they discovered Ashton asleep in his bed.

But the scheme had worked, for the Hiltons and their followers. They had put to sea and gained Nevis easily enough, and Sandy Point had been left in self-righteous security, glowering across the narrow passage, remembering and preparing to avenge. As no doubt Hilton was well aware. Yarico brought news, after only six weeks, that the ship they could see anchored off the smaller island had left again, under full sail, for the north east. Anoth
er dream gone forever, Edward th
ought. Only one amongst hundreds. But on board that ship would be Susan, and with her, growing in her belly, his son. He had to believe this, as he wanted so desperately to believe it. Without that, his life was indeed wasted, and his brain doomed to extinction.

Those that remained behind found themselves in a new world, dominated by William Jarring and the Reverend Mailing. Jarring might have given out that he favoured the freedom advocated by Hilton, but clearly he had decided it was more worth his while to support the parson; whatever Mr Mailing's professed repugnance for the high-church principles of Archbishop Laud, he now introduced a rigorous system of a
tt
endance at Chapel, refusal to comply being punished without fail by a term in the stocks for a first offence, and a spell in gaol for the second, while similar measures were meted out for the slightest case of drunkenness, or the slightest altercation. Hal Ashton, however good his intentions and however great his desire to obey the precepts of Tom Warner, very rapidly found himself a cypher in his own colony. The li
mit to drink no doubt slightl
y interfered with Jarring's profits, but he clearly regarded this as a worthwhile investment in his future, for with the parson's backing there could be no bounds to the heights at which he might aim.

He visited Edward regularly, to talk of the plans he had for the colony, as if Edward were already hanged, and Philip . .. there was no mention of Philip, and he never visited his brother; while there was no window in the prison, merely a skylight which did not admit of looking at the street. Yet the boy was well, and seemed hardly disconcerted by the turn of events, according to Yarico. But she herself was an enemy of Jarring's, permi
tt
ed her liberty and her place in the community only by the fear of Tom Warner's return. Edward wondered just what would happen should news arrive that his father was dead, or too ill, perhaps, to resume his duties? Then would
this
ill-assorted group u
tt
erly disintegrate, he had no doubt. He wondered, too, if Father had ever really understood how precarious was the peace of this colony, even with the rebels departed. There were far too many factions, too many memories, too many ambitions, for there ever to be peace here. What had they said so contemptuously of Walter Raleigh's Virginia colony? An ill-chosen lot, hence failure. What would they say of Tom Warner's Merwar's Hope? Nothing different. But at least their leader lived in the colony himself, and could hold them together.

His importance was sounded with the explosion of a cannon from the summit of Brimstone Hill, and a moment later the door opened to admit Mr Mailing, another regular and unwelcome visitor. 'You'll be pleased to learn, Edward, that a fleet has been sighted, and is approaching Great Road. 'Tis your father, returning with six big ships. You'd best prepare yourself to meet your trial.'

‘I
'd have thought you'd say my maker,' Edward remarked.
‘
You are that determined to have my blood.'

'Aye,' Mailing said. 'You'll hang, and stay in chains until you rot, boy, as a warning to all other would be troublemakers. And you'll not be alone. There are people yet on Nevis, we have learned, left behind by Tony Hilton. They'll be brought back to dangle beside you. We'll have no revolution on Merwar's Hope.'

He banged the door behind him, and Edward was left to wait, and remember Father's last return from England, when he had been such a bubbling mass of energy and determination. And optimism. Not the sort of man to hang his own son. But then, he had never supposed that was possible. Or he would not have sacrificed himself? There was an admission of cowardice. But perhaps there was no argument with that. Any
other
man would have defied the worst the colonists could do, and gone down fighting, rather than tamely surrender himself and his dreams. Because Father might not hang him, but there could be no question as to his exclusion from the succession, now.