HF - 03 - The Devil's Own (59 page)

But the change in the speakership had no effect upon his imprisonment. Because he was here on the orders of the mistress of Green Grove, and he would stay here, no matter what the men might say or wish or do, until the mistress of Green Grove chose to hang him or release him. What had she boasted when first they had met and loved? That she was at once the wealthiest, the most beautiful, and the most powerful woman in the Leewards. Easy words to say. And yet how true.

But Barnee was also able to reassure him about Lilian. Her health improved every day, and her hair was grown. She looked as she had always done, apparently. But what of
her
mind? There was a cause for concern. She seldom spoke and never laughed. She sent her love by every message, but would not venture into the street. How deep must be the degradation of what had happened bitten into that delicate, reserved mind.

It was time to draw on the past. For what indeed, was the value of the past, if not to bolster the future. Time then to remember the endless horror of Hispaniola. He had never doubted then that he would survive. Untrue. He had doubted. After Bart Le Grand's
matelot
had been stuck like a pig, and had died squealing like a pig, then he had despaired. And been rescued, by Jean and by Bart himself.

Well, then, what of the march across Panama, spurred on always by that heroic villain Morgan? But always then an early end had been in sight. This was more akin to that long year on the beach at Port Royal, when he had been sustained only by the energy of Agrippa. Another who had suffered on his behalf, and died, on his behalf.

Agrippa. So much had happened since that dreadful night of his return from Barbados, the fact of his friend's death had scarcely penetrated his understanding. And he could offer nothing more than revenge, if that were ever possible. But he had never been very effective at vengeance. He had always looked to the future rather than the past. Even in Jamaica, he had never doubted that he would eventually be lifted from his despair.

As he had been, by Daniel Parke. A blessing, or a curse? Oh, surely, no matter what had happened since, a blessing, which had brought him Marguerite, and more of life than he had ever dreamed to be possible, for ten splendid years before their world had fallen apart, and which had eventually brought him Lilian, still there, could she but be reached.

Daniel Parke. He listened to the salute of guns from the fort, billowing forth noise to welcome the new governor, and to the name which suddenly seemed to spread on the wind. He clung to the bars, and gazed at the corridor and the distant office, unable to see the door to the street, unable to hear distinctly, aware only that his heart was pounding fit to burst. It was incredible, but it was true. Because there he was, wearing a gold satin coat over a silver waistcoat, face heavy with good living, and yet lacking none of its old arrogance and contemp
t, lips pouted a trifle petulantl
y, but eyes brilliantly embracing as ever, speech and manner unchangingly peremptory. He stood in the office and gazed at the prisoner, and his colour seemed to darken.

'By God,' he said. 'By God, sir. I could not credit my ears. By God, sirs, but there will be atonement for this.'

So then, what can be the greatest pleasure known to man? To sit in a hot bath, after so very long, having been shaved and knowing that the best in food and drink awaits only a decision to leave the embracing warmth. And to be in the company of a friend. And what a friend.

'My head swings,' he said. 'I doubt not that I am dreaming.'

Parke sat in a chair, and sipped a glass of wine. He had removed his coat and his wig, and vet looked hot. He had
indeed put on a great deal of weight in fifteen years.

'Then awake,' he commanded. 'For be sure that I have need of you, Kit.'

'And be sure, Dan, that you will have but to look in my direction, starting from now, and my body, my sword, my pistols and my brains will be at your service. What, raise a man from the dungheap once in a life time? There was a reason for undying gratitude, to be sure. But raise him twice ... why, that puts you beyond the attainment of any service I might perform.'

Parke frowned at him for several seconds. And then smiled. And there, at the least, nothing had changed. The flash of white teeth was as winning as ever in the past. 'Now take care what you promise, Kit. For be sure I shall call upon you. There is much we must do.'

'Indeed there is,' Kit said. 'If I could but understand how you come to be here, and in such splendour, and blessed with such power ... I tell you, it must be a dream.'

'Dreams are not very different to nightmares.' Parke got up, paced the room, arming himself with his cane and flashing at imaginary foes as he talked. 'I doubt my life has been less chequered than yours, Kit, since last we met. And believe me, I am fully aware of the ups and downs of your own career. So you married the fabulous Mistress Templeton. My congratulations, sir. Although had you asked my opinion I should have advised against it, even so long ago. And would I not have been right?'

Kit sighed. 'She is perhaps, too much for any one man. Yet is she the mother of my children.'

'All. I too have a wife, and children. At least, a daughter. The most beautiful creature you could ever see, Kit. But
I
have not seen her in five years.'

'There is some tragedy here,' Kit said.

'In a manner of speaking, only. You know my pleasure in cards and dice. Believe me when I say, Kit, I understand that to be a curse. Look at me, and see a man who had all Virginia at his feet. When my father died, and I inherited his plantations, there was no buck to stand beside me. And so, like you, dear friend, I married the best woman going. And I fathered her daughter, and I lived, and loved, out as well as in, for what gentleman will not, and I played, as my fancy took me. And you know full well, friend, that I cared not whether I won or lost, for the stake. I would as soon take my winnings and throw them to the poor. But the winning of it. The triumph. The looks of dismay on the losers' faces.'

He paused in his perambulation, and his fingers curled into a fist, held in front of his face, as if he was crushing the very air. 'There was my pleasure, Kit. There was my joy.'

'And so you cheated,' Kit said.

Parke glanced at him, and the fingers slowly relaxed. 'I do not enjoy losing. I have never enjoyed losing. I have no intention of ever losing. What, are my opponents not equally capable of cheating? A man must be prepared for all things. I am ready to back my fancies with my sword or my pistols. But the devil was highly placed, a friend of my wife's family, and influential.'

'You killed a man over cards?'

'And have you never killed a man in anger? They wished to bring me to trial. And who knows what would have happened, Kit. I might have been hanged, for it turned out that the fool, as he challenged me, and made some sort of movement for his pockets, carried no weapon. Yet he was drunk, as indeed was I, and how could I wait to be murdered myself? He might have had a knife, a pistol, anything.'

'Good God,' Kit said. 'And you stand before me, Governor of the Leewards?'

'I am not so easily brought low. When I learned what they were about, as if every gentleman who picks up a pack of cards does not equally pick up his life at the same time ... 'tis understood by all. 'Tis only the priesthood and the little men who seek to snipe at us. Well. I'd not risk myself in their power, as you did and to your cost. There was a ship in the harbour, bound that night for England. I boarded her.'

'You fled Virginia?'

'At the time it was best. I have not finished with them yet. by God. They have not seen the last of Daniel Parke.'

'But how did you make your way in England?' Kit wondered. 'Had you friends there? Influence?'

'None, sir,' Parke cried triumphantly. 'Not a soul knew of my very existence. Yet am
I
not a man, sir? With blood in my

veins and temper in my steel? I to
ok service with the great Duke.’

'Marlborough?'

'Who else? One should serve only the best. I offered him my sword and my brains, and I am not bereft of military experience. There are savage Indians on the borders of Virginia no less than in Dominica, I'll have you know. I have conducted a campaign against them, and successfully. And with no smell of treachery about it either. Churchill was sufficiently glad to have my prowess at his side. I rode with him on the march down the Rhine. I was at his shoulder at Blenheim. Now there, Kit, did I witness warfare on a scale I had not supposed possible. I forget, you were at Panama. But even Panama can have been nothing, compared with a European battle, especially one as fought by Marlborough. More than a hundred thousand men opposed to each other, red coats and blue, green coats and white, rolling clouds of black smoke from the cannon, the unceasing fusillades, the cries of the victor and the screams of the vanquished. I tell you, that day I felt I stood on Olympus.'

'For you were the victors.' Kit got out of his tub and towelled himself.

'Aye. And more. When my lord of Marlborough surveyed the scene, and knew his triumph, he resolved that the news of it must be got back to London with the earliest possible despatch. And he called me for that deed, as he possessed no better horseman on his staff. I rode like the wind, Kit, bearing two letters, one to the Duchess, and the other to Her Majesty herself. I was admitted to her own privy chamber, Kit. There was the sum of my triumph.'

'By God,' Kit said. 'You have spoken with the Queen?'

'I have kissed her hand, Kit, and been bidden to rise. And do you know what she asked of the Duchess? "Why, madam," she said, "can all your husband's officers be as handsome as this gentleman? Indeed I understand now why no one can stand before him." And then she laughed, and talked with me some more, and told me, as I bore the gladdest tidings ever to enter London since the bells rang upon the defeat of the Spanish Armada, why, I had but to ask of her, and it would be granted to me.'

'And you wished the Governorship of the Leewards?' Kit asked in amazement.

Once again Parke checked his perambulation, and turned to face his friend. And now the humour, the excitement, had gone from his face. 'No,' he said. 'No, I did not wish for the Governorship of the Leewards. These are magnificent islands, Kit. And I would have given much, even then, to see your face again, and enjoy a glass of punch in your company. But they are not yet my home. Nor did I ever suppose they would be. I meant to return to
my
home, in triumph. Then would I have taken those ruffians by the ears. And it was granted to me, Kit. By Her Majesty herself. It was there, and mine.'

'Virginia?'

'Nothing less. But this woman who rules our destinies, she is naught but a cipher. She does what she is told, by her women, by the Duchess most of all, by her ministers. Ask, she had said, and you shall have. I asked, and was given. And yet recalled to her presence before I had properly finished celebrating, to be told the Governorship of Virginia was already in the possession of someone else, and could not presently be removed from his care. Oh, those courtiers, clamouring about her ears, whispering that I was not to be trusted with such a post, with such a past.'

'But ...'

'But they knew my worth, Kit. Her Majesty sought to soften the blow. "Yet," she said, "you shall have your colonial governorship, Colonel Parke, and one where your own special talents can best be put to my service. What of the Leewards?" she asked. "I have been told you know them, and their people. Then you will know," she said, "that they are an independent-minded lot of rascals, who pay small attention to our wishes here in London, and who have recently had the effrontery to choose a Speaker of their Assembly in a man of whom I hear nothing but ill-repute. There is defiance," she said. "And I know more, that they have a long history of smuggling and piracy and downright criminal activities. There is a position more fitted to your temper, Colonel Parke," she said.'

'It could be that she was right, Dan. 'Tis certain these islands
need a strong hand. Even Staple
ton was perhaps not sufficiently capable of dealing with the plantocracy. They know their
wealth, and the power it bestows. They conceive Antigua, at the least, no less a place than England itself, save in size.'

'Oh, she was right,' Parke said. 'There can be no doubt about that. And more, you are now right. Which is why I am here, in St John's, and not setting up my standard in Sandy Point. The centre of the Leewards is in Antigua, and the centre of the intransigent spirits is right here as well. I shall show them the quality of my blood, you may be sure of that. But I shall need men I can trust about me, Kit. Men like you. And you, like me, have a score to settle.'

'Indeed I have,' Kit agreed, frowning. 'Yet I doubt that a spirit of vengeance is the best in which to undertake to rule a people.'