HF - 01 - Caribee (48 page)

So, then, would it be defended?

Wille
tt
was all of a bustle, now his ship was safe. "You'll require a large armed fo
rce, to begin with,' he said. ‘I’l
l give the orders. The women and the child had best remai
n behind until we have taught th
ese
Indian
s a thing or two.'

'Your instructions from my father were to bring us here, nothing more, Mr Wille
tt
. Although I thank you for your wish to see us safe ashore, the
Indian
s, if they are hostile, are not likely to come out and be shot at, and unless you are to stay here forever, with your guns trained on those trees, why, then, we must make some other arrangements. I sh
all come to an agreement with th
ese people.'

'As your father did with the people of St Ki
tt
s?" Wille
tt
asked. And had the grace to flush.

'Aye,' Edward said. 'And perhaps mine shall be the more lasting. Ladies, your bundles, if you please. I will carry yours, Aline.'

‘I
am quite capable of carrying my own belongings, Mr Warner,' she said.
‘I
am sure you have a deal to do.'

Difficult times ahead, but not to be thought of now. 'You
’
ll keep Tom by your side, always, Yarico,' he said.

Tom good.' She continued to stare at the shore.

'And what of the Caribs?'

She shrugged.
‘If
they
there, they there, Ed-ward. They come.'

'Well, we'd best give them something to come for.'

They embarked, a nervous huddle in the centre of the longboat, while the seamen pulled to the beach. Wille
tt
himself took the tiller, but there was no surf to be navigated, and only
seconds after they left the sh
ip they grounded on the sand.

They waited, the sailors with their oars backed, the colonists
with their cloth bundles and their weapons clutched to th
eir breasts. Edward stood up, made his way to the bow, and
jumped ashore. He was fully arm
ed and armoured, but he left his sword in his sheath. In his right hand he carried the staff of St George flu
tt
ering from its top. He walked up the sand, slowly and deliberately, raised the flag high, and
then
thrust the stock hard into the ground. He turned to face them.

‘I
, Edward Warner, take possession of
this
land, in the name of His Majesty
King Charles I of England, Scotl
and, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and in the name of his Lieutenant of the Caribee Isles, Sir Thomas Warner of Framlingham. And I name
this
place . . .' he hesita
ted. All manner of grandiose titl
es had fli
tt
ed through his min
d as the ship had entered the land-locked bay. But simplicity were best. 'English Harbour. You'll disembark,
if you please, ladies and gentl
emen.'

The colonists climbed out of the longboat and lifted their wives ashore, and then returned for their weapons and their goods. The pile of stuff, enough food and wine for several weeks, muskets and shot, pikes and swords, saws and hatchets, grew on the sand, but remained pitifully small.

"I
’
ll
not return tins night,' Wille
tt
declared. 'We shall lie at anchor unti
l dawn, and our guns will remain
loaded and directed at this forest. Bear that in mind, Mr Warner.'

'And I thank you, Mr Wille
tt
. But I say again, we must surely make our own way here. You'll tell my father that we are safely ashore, and you will tell him more, of the wondrous harbour we have discovered. I prophesy here and now that Antigua is the future of the Caribee colony. You may tell
him
I said so.'

Wille
tt
nodded, and gave orders to return to the ship.

‘I
doubt that is wise, Mr. Warner,' Aline remarked. 'As it will but encourage your father to supersede you in the governorship.'

'My father is a man of his word.'

‘I
ndeed?' she asked. 'But is it his word which now rules St Ki
tt
s?"

He glanced at her, and she returned his gaze without altering her expression. His wife, by God. His bride of not yet twenty-four hours, and already se
tt
ing up to be a shrew.

He turned away from her. 'Joseph Brown, you'll see about se
tt
ing up these tents. For this night well place them midway between the beach and the trees. The
Indian
s, should they prove hostile, lack distance with their missiles. Hal
Leaming
, you'll take one of these young men and secure us wood for a fire. It will drive away the sandflies. Mistress Ganner, you'll see to our supper this night. And one bo
tt
le only. We are here to work, not to get drunk.'

They stared at him. 'And you, Mr Warner?' Robert Ganner asked.

‘I
will investigate the forest behind us, and locate fresh water. You will accompany me, madam.' 'Me?' Aline asked.

‘
You are experienced in forests, are
you not? Put your goods with th
e others.' He walked up the beach, not deigning to glance at them. They had volunteered to follow him, or at any rate, to escape St Ki
tt
s. The first few days here would p
rove what they would make of th
is colony. Their respect for him was based on hearsay. No doubt he would have to knock one or two heads together, beginning, he suspected, with Ganner, a short, thickset man with a thin wife—ever a bad combination. But his first priority must to be to make sure of those who stood behind him. He could not depend on Yarico alone.

'And the
Indian
girl?' Harriet Ganner was flanked by the other two women.

'Will also investigate the forest,' Edward said. 'She knows it be
tt
er than any of us.'

Yarico glanced from him to the women, and then to Aline, who, skirts held in her hands, was walking up the sand behind him.

‘I
go so,' she said, and set off in the opposite direction, li
tt
le Tom as usual toddling by her side.

Edward parted the first of the bushes, forced his way through them, extricating his feet from the clawing branches which covered the earth. Behind him Aline came crackling.

‘I
doubt you need me
, sir,' she panted. 'When last I
knew a forest I was not encumbered by a gown.'

He stopped. The beach was already lost to sight. 'Then take it off.'

'Sir?'

'Take it off,' he said.
‘I
command you as your husband and your governor.'

'You seek to humiliate me, sir. Those people.. ..'

'Will not leave the beach, I assure you of
that
. We are as secure from their prying eyes as if we were on the moon. And I am your husband.'

She stared at him, a flush rising out of her neck, then she slowly released the t
ies on the back of her gown, shr
ugged it free of her bodice, and lowered it past her hips.

'And the shift,' he said.

The flush deepened. 'Do you then, mean once again to make me lie upon the ground, Mr Warner?'

‘It
may well come to that. I would see if you, once again, will excite me to
that
pitch.' As if there could be any doubt. As if he was not already as excited as a young boy. As if he ha
d not been so for the past month
s.

'And you are my husband, so I must obey, or risk a whipping.' She raised the shift over her head, threw it on the ground behind her gown. And then faced him, deliberately inflating those swelling breasts while sucking her belly flat. And watching his eyes. 'Although, sir,' she said,
‘If
such a course of action would relieve your mind, then would I lie content. It is a sad thing, to be taken
with
hatred. To be married with hatred.'

And how well she understood him. He hated her at the very moment that he loved her. And why? Were the two emotions indistinguishable? Hardly likely. He had known no hate with Susan. But he had always feared Yarico's love. Because he feared to be
possessed, and he knew that th
is girl but waited to possess him, and more, knew her power? Or because she had tormented
him from the first, and torment
ing, had set his feet upon a path from which there was no turning?

Or because, above everything else in life, he wanted possession of her, and not her body, which was there for the taking, but her mind, which could laugh, and in that magnificent sound raise life itself from the level of the ditch and the pasture, which was all he knew, onto the mountain
peaks and the h
igh valleys, above the clouds, and where the sun and the moon held eternal, equally magnificient sway? Possession. But possession of Aline Galante's mind was not to be had by wishing it. There was a door there,
with
a key in it, and he did not have the knowledge to turn it

And yet, no doubt to her sorrow, she was no longer Aline Galante, but Aline Warner, as she knew too well. The flush had faded into a paleness which spread down to the still glowing white contours of her breasts. 'Do I then, disgust you, sir?'

'No,' he said. 'No, I should have to be a sorry man were that possible. But as you say, here is neither the time nor the place. The wife of the Governor shou
ld lie on soft sheets, and as th
ose are not available
as yet, she should at least l
ie in her own tent. But as you are here with me, I would speak with you.'

‘You
do not have to take me away secretly, and force me to inflame your passion, to speak with your wife, Mr Warner.'

'You thi
nk so?
’
He came closer, put his hand on the nape of her neck to grasp her hair and hold her, only niches from him. 'You have just proved how necessary it is, Aline. You can use words, and expressions, and even glances, in a manner that is beyond me.'

Her eyes were wide from the pressure on her scalp, but she never flinched, nor asked him to release her.

'So now that I am to be Governor,' he said. 'And in addition I am married, it may be possible for a sharp tongue and a more ready, and educated, wit than my own to make sport of me. I will not have it so. Those men on the beach I can handle. If need be I can destroy them. And in doing that I can frighten their women into submission. My own wife is a different ma
tt
er. If it pleases you to chide me, to make fun of

me or to ignore me, when we are alone together, that is your privilege. I will not encroach upon it, I promise you. But in public, at all times, you will be my faithful wife, and my most devoted supporter. And my most loving helpmate. Understand
that
, madam, or I shall indeed bring you into this forest and tie you to a tree and whip the flesh from your back.'

His fingers relaxed. Slowly she put her hands behind her head, to straighten her hair and rub her scalp.

‘I
understand you, Mr Warner, and as, on occasion, you frighten me more than anyone, you may be sure that I shall obey you.'

He nodded. Then there should be no more cause of difference between us. Now get yourself dressed.'

Still she stood there. 'And yet, sir, as we are alone, and you promised me the privilege of an independent mind hi such circumstances, I would observe that you cannot treat life, and more especially marriage, as if it were a military campaign. Indeed. I have heard it said that even the most successful military commanders rely upon the love rather than the fear of their men. How much more important must it be for the people of a country to love their leader. And where a wife finds it impossible to love her husband, then indeed they are both doomed to a lifetime of loneliness.'

Almost could she be said to be threatening him. He chewed his lip in indecision, and was relieved by the rustling of the bushes which announced the presence of Yarico. She glanced at Aline with interest, but her mind was clearly occupied.
‘Indi
an
come,' she said.

'By God.' He started to follow her, checked and looked over his shoulder. 'You'll chess yourself, and approach the beach, but cautiously, Aline.'

He hurried away from her before she could protest, reached the sand only a few seconds later, to see his colonists accumulated into a circle around their belongings and the first of the tents, weapons hi their hands, gazing at the twenty odd Caribs, men and women, who stood farther down the beach.