HF - 01 - Caribee (47 page)

To leave St Ki
tt
s? By God.' He looked past his son to where Anne Warner was just emerging from the path. 'You have quarrelled with your stepmother. I saw it coming. Now come, I will have a reconciliation.'

'No,
Father
,' Edward said. 'She but confirmed a resolution which has been running through my mind for some days.' He became aware of people, downing then tools and waiting, and listening, to hear the outcome of this crisis.

'And you'd leave? To go where? These islands are your home. Your past and your future. Above all, your future. I'll not have it.'

'Nor would I leave th
ese islands, sir. You offered me Nevis.'

'And you refused. I have appointed Tom Hawley.'

‘I
know that, sir. But does not your dream encompass more than just these islands?' He chopped to his knees, marked the sand. 'Here is St Ki
tt
s with Nevis just south of i
t, and Montserrat farther south
yet. Bastions, you could say. Here on the west is the open sea. Naught to fear from there, once this island is held. But to the east, where the remainder of the Leewards cluster fast... you'd do well to have an outpost in Antigua.'

'Antigua, by God,' Tom said.

The boy is right,' Judge said.
‘It
is something I meant to discuss with you.

'But it will take more force than I can spare. There are Caribs on Antigua.'

'Not many, to be sure. And I am used to dealing with the
Indian
s, Father.'

'And I will go,' Yarico said.

Tom gazed at her, frowning.

‘Ph
ilip?' Edward asked.

Philip flushed, and glanced up the beach to where Anne
Warner
waited. I'd as soon have done with fighting and pioneering.'

So he had already been made the object of her advances.

'Well, then,' Edward said.
‘I
must recruit from amongst your people, Father. Not more than a dozen will be needed. With Yarico and my wife.'

"There is another problem,' Tom said. "The banns are not yet completed.'

"Then forget the banns,' Edward shouted. 'We can be married this afternoon. You are ruler here. You make the laws and you dispense with them, when the occasion arises.'

'And this is such an occasion?" Tom demanded. 'You come bursting out of
that
wood with all of the impetuous haste I remember and dislike from your youth, and claim
that
everything must be done to your satisfaction on the instant? I had looked for your support, here in St Ki
tt
s.'

'You shall have my support, in Antigua. I swear it.'

'And will you not need mine, in even greater proportion, while I have not the means to provide it?'

‘I
shall call upon you for nothing, Father.'

'By Christ, if I could understand what is happening,' Tom said. 'Anne, sweetheart, can you explain this situation? You have heard what this madman wishes?'

Anne Warner came down the beach, her hair flu
tt
ering in the slight breeze.
‘I
have heard,
Sir Thomas. And I understand. I
think your son feels constricted by his surroundings, since our arrival. He is too used to having the entire island at
his
disposal, at his command. You have told me how he was ever a wayward youth. And how he was ever a disappointing youth, while bound by your laws and your penalties. And we have all seen how he has blossomed forth into a veritable leader of men, when forced to his own devices.' She was close now, and smiling at Edward.
‘I
say let him fulfil his ambition, and yours, and spread the Warner wings a few miles farther afield.' The smile was cold.

11

The Carib

'
‘
Tis not so mountainous as St Ki
tt
s, to be sure,' remarked Peter Wille
tt
. He stood on the poop deck of his ship and conned the approaching shore through his glass.

'And green,' Edward said. If anything, greener than St Ki
tt
s.'

'Unless it is merely because it has not been burned out so many times,' the sailing master observed. 'And like all these pesky islands, it has naught but an open beach. It is my opinion, Master Warner, that the true reason the Spaniards have ever passed the Leewards by, and the Windwards, is that they like their ships to he secure during the storm months. And so do I, or any sailor. Lacking proper harbours, these colonies you and your
Father
plan will never be aught but huts sca
tt
ered along a shore.'

‘I
have no doubt that you are right,' Edward agreed, peering through his own glass at Antigua. 'But as these islands are all our present situation permits us to inhabit, why, we must do the best we can, and hope that one day fortune will be our friend.' He frowned, his eye pressed hard against the copper rim of the telescope. 'As, by God, she may well have elected to do. Is that not a break in the shoreline, Mr. Wille
tt
?
’

The sailing master frowned in turn, and checked his compass. They had sailed round the southern end of St Ki
tt
s, taking the narrows between the Christ child and Nevis, and with the wind, unusually, in the north west, they were now beating up towards the southern part of Antigua, where the island was to some extent flat in the front it presented to the sea. ' 'Tis a fact the beach ends, and then resumes some distance farther along. But I would say it is naught but an outcrop of rock, and best avoided.'

'Mr. Wille
tt
,' Edward said.
‘I
do believe you are a pessimist. Look at the beach, man
. Even on the sand there is a thin line of white. If
that darker area were rock there would be endless surf. But there the water is unbroken. We'll stand towards it, if you please.'

' 'Tis your father's ship we risk.'

'And my father's instructions were for you to set me ashore where I chose. And I choose that bay, if indeed it is a bay. If not, with the wind where it is, we shall have ample time to run back out to deeper water. I would have you stand in. Now.' He left the poop and went down the ladder to the waist, pausing for a moment at the top of the next ladder to consider the group huddled there, starin
g at the land which was to be th
eir home. If they could make it so. There were eight of them, f
ive of them hardly older than h
imself, already opting for the increased danger but, they would be hoping, increased freedom of the sub-colony, removed from Tom Warner'
s iron discipline. The other th
ree men were married, and had their wives clustering close, homely females, pink cheeked and buxom, peering with anxiety at the forested slopes ahead of them. They too were young enough to work hard, and not yet burdened with the problems of motherhood. He had had to refuse two couples because they already had children. He had no means of knowing whether survival, even for adults, was possible on Antigua.

Much would depend on Yarico, the only mother. She stood by herself, as she nearly always stood by herself. Except for li
tt
le Tom, of course. He never left her side, and whenever he seemed tired, he was in her arms. Father had insisted
that
she wear a gown on St Ki
tt
s, but today she had once again reverted to her loin cloth, and remained, as ever, an entrancing and bewildering sight, the more so to the white women than to anyone else, he supposed. She gazed at the approaching land without expression. There were her people there, and only she would be able to talk with them, freely. Not even he would know what she would be telling them, just as not even he fully understood what went on inside her mind. She looked at ease and at peace. But then, she had looked at ease and at peace when
she had stood close to him at hi
s wedding ceremony, yesterday afternoon. Throughout the festivity she had stared at him, and none other.

Aline stood by herself, close to the rail. Anne
Warner
had found new clothes for her to wear, but no doubt with some malice, had dressed her as one of the ordinary women, in a plain grey gown with a high white collar, which shrouded her figure in a shapeless sack. But Aline had refused the equally anonymous white cap which the other women wore, and had left her hair free and undressed, save for a bow at the nape of her neck. And no garments could hide the splendour of that face. Yet today it was not laughing. This morning, when she had dressed herself, and regarded herself in Anne's glass, she had burst into a shout of that tremendous sound he had almost forgo
tt
en. For now she was married. And yet, not married. They had spent not a moment alone since the deed had been pronounced. Of course there had been far too much to be done, with the accumulating and listing of all the equipment they would need, with the farewells, with the celebrating which had gone on long into the night. But for that morning on Mount Misery she would yet be a virgin, although a bride of more than twelve hours. Yet she had herself shown no great anxiety to be with him. No doubt she was as apprehensive as himself. And now? She glanced at him, as he approached, and then looked away again, pink spots in her cheeks. Aline
Warner
. Assuming that Anne
Warner
would see to it that Li
tt
le Tom never took his rightful place, Aline was the cornerstone of the
Warner
dream, the woman on whom the continuation of the family in the West Indies would depend.

And at this moment she did not wish to speak with him. He stood next to Yarico instead. 'What do you know of Antigua?"

'An-tigua people, pouf,' she remarked,

'Your people have fought them?'

'My people rule. . ..' she waved her arm. 'Until War-nah.
’
‘
We think we see a break in the shoreline. Have you heard of this?
’

She shook her head. The breeze caught the heavy black hair and floated it. Edward pa
tt
ed Li
tt
le Tom on the head and returned to the poop. The sailors were already aloft, trimming the sails, and the orders were being passed down to the helmsman. Now the li
tt
le ship came as close to the wind as she could manage, heeling as she approached the shore.

Wille
tt
closed the telescope with a snap. ' Tis a gap, all right, Mr Warner, but once we enter there we shall lose the wind, and if there should be a current we shall be at its mercy.'

Then break out your boat and have it ready,' Edward said.
‘
You can always anchor until the oars are ready to take the strain. By God, man, are you a ship's captain or a inexperienced apprentice?'

Wille
tt
flushed, and went to the rail to give his orders. Edward remained staring at the approaching shore. Now the gap could clearly be seen; the sand and the outcrops of rocks on either side, with the ripple of surf against them, allowed in the centre a deep green gash, and the land in there was farther off. Wille
tt
, in
addition to swinging out the longboat, also ordered sail to be shortened, and with the wind coming ever more onto the bow the ship slowly lost speed But there were no
breakers, no heads, peering th
rough the waters of the gap. It scarce seemed to move, indeed, a slow sway of deep water, to and fro, and beyond, a wonderland, once again of sandy beaches and outcrops of rock, but curving round to form a vast lagoon, to which access could only be gained by this one narrow entrance.

The ship was now almost without way, and the longboat entered the water
with
a spla
sh. The crew were already at th
eir oars, and a moment later the towing warp took up the strain, while a leadsman climbed into the bows to call the depths. But there was no need, surely.

'By God,' Wille
tt
said.
‘I
have seen nothi
ng like it. You could hide the Spanish Armada in here, in comfort and security.'

'Aye,' Edward said. Antigua. His island. In all the group, to their knowledge, the one island with a natural harbour. And it was
his
.

And once he had called himself unfortunate.

Wille
tt
chose his spot, dropp
ed the bower anchor in four fath
oms of clear green water, onto a bed of the most perfect white sand. It reminded Edward of the interior of Susan's cave. Now they were in, there was no breeze to be felt at all. Nothing moved; the trees in their profusion on the shore, the unscarred sandy beach, the endless tree covered hills beyond, the quiet, sheltered sea. No mountains on Antigua. No hills to be called misery, no hills to be defended with brimstone. Was the island, then, defensible? It looked larger than St Ki
tt
s.