The Gun Ketch (3 page)

"You were with Burgess Chiswick in the Far East," Sir Romney nodded, dominating the conversation. "A
trading
expedition?"

"An attempt to
increase
British trade, milord," Alan said in reply. He could never discuss what occurred in the past two years until England was once more at war with France. The activities of English warships disguised as merchantmen, had they been known, would be a violation of the treaty terms ending the recent war. "To ... uhm ... open new markets and trading stations, in cooperation with the East India Company."

Trade was not a gentlemanly calling, though profit from an investment in trade was quite acceptable, as long as a proper gentleman did not soil his hands with the sordid details of buying and selling.

This facile explanation, breezed off with a languid wave of a hand, sounded semiofficial, requiring the presence of a naval officer, and Alan had gotten quite good at trotting it out since his return.

"Calcutta, Canton ..." Governour said with a wistful look. "I believe you saw both, did you not, Alan?"

" 'Deed we did, Governour," Alan turned a thankful grin on his compatriot. "And a host of trading posts you wouldn't believe for horrid heat and rain, too. Took me a month to squeeze the last water out of my hats. But tell me, how does the Chiswick family fare? Is Caroline well?"

"Quite well," Governour almost snapped. "Father, though ... well, there was bad snow last winter, and his horse fell with him. Laid out for an hour or so before anyone missed him, and... the surgeon had to take his leg where it had been broken by the weight of the horse."

"Governour, how truly awful, I had no word of it!"

"He recovered at long last, thanks be to God, but... if you do recall how he was in Wilmington when you first saw him..."

"Ah," Alan nodded. Sewallis Chiswick had been half out of his mind back then, brought on by the death of his youngest son George, of being burned out and impoverished by Rebel irregulars led by his own relations because he was a Tory, a Loyalist, and had equipped the regiment in which Governour and Burgessserved. "A heavy burden on you, Govemour, which I am sure you managed well," Alan concluded, laying a supportive hand on Governour's broad shoulder.

"Thank you for that, Alan, 'twas well said. And well meant, to be certain. So, how long can you stay with us?" Govemour brightened.

"Three or four weeks, if you can tolerate me that long," Alan laughed. "Then it's off to Portsmouth and a new ship,
Alacrity.
To be with the Bahamas Squadron. I'll need a good last dose of country life to do me."

"That we can, that we can," Govemour promised. "We'll have you aching for the sea by the time we're done carousing."

"Sounds as if you gentlemen were doing a bit of carousing of your own as I rode up," Alan smiled. "Did you race those fine horses I saw outside?"

"Court day, Mister Lewrie," Sir Romney beamed. "We dealt with a couple of ruffians, and were just recalling their appearance."

"Two poachers," Harry Embleton explained. "We've been missing a rabbit or two from the warren, a deer's carcass was found stripped of meat. Well, last night..." Harry had to wheeze in fond remembrance for a moment. "Last night, Douglas here, our gamekeeper, sets a mantrap or two, and bang on midnight, 'blam' goes the trap! We run out to see what we caught, and no sign of 'em. But this morning, bold as brass, they turn up at Mister Gallworthy's the surgeon's,
rattling
with buckshot, and he sent his man to fetch us. Caught 'em with the pelts, the meat, an' all in their larders, and had 'em into court!"

"One fellow's bloody eye was gone!" chortled Sir Romney. "Took the blast right in the face, I suppose, as he crawled up the path in the woods to lay a snare. And will you believe, sir, that he claimed... hee hee ... he
claimed
he knocked his own eye out!"

" 'Cause the Good Lord told him to, haw haw!" another stalwart chimed in. "Said he'd looked at a dirty book o' pictures ..."

"With only the one eye, mind," Sir Romney snickered.

"An' th' good book says, sir, it says..." Harry continued, trembling with pent-up laughter, "iffen yer eye offends ye, then yer s'posed t' pluck it out, ain't ye now, sir? Right, yer honor, sir?"

"As if that offending eye wasn't holed dead center with shot," Sir Romney frowned. "Shot from my spring-gun, damme if it wasn't."

"And the other could do no better than to say he'd pelted himself whilst taking a loaded fowling piece down to show it off,"

Harry grumbled, as though the second victim had been no amusement at all, not even bothering to mock a "country" accent.

"So what was the punishment?" Alan asked, appalled by them all. He'd seen men quilled with splinters, limbs ripped off with grape-shot, or puking blood from stomach wounds suffered in battle. He'd been hit enough to know what agony those men must have endured already.

"Transportation," Sir Romney said. "And the families to be put out of the parish. I'll have no poaching on my lands, and by Jesus, they know it."

"And those two tenancies'll be enclosed. Last of the common lands this side of the stream anyway," Govemour stated calmly. "And they were always behind on their rents. Well, Alan. I have to get back home. Finish up your ale and ride with me."

"Only if you promise you have some more waiting," Alan managed to smile. "Good morning to you, gentlemen, milord. I trust I'll be seeing you again in the next few weeks. We'll hopefully have merry times?"

"Bloody squires," Cony grumbled as they were fetched their horses. "A spring-gun. A mantrap! Jesus, sir."

"And transportation to where, I wonder, with America lost," Lewrie speculated in a soft voice, "the Fever Islands? That new Van Diemen's Land? They'll rot in the hulks for months. Years."

"And the fam'lies turned out, sir, just 'cause they ain't free-holdin'. Damn th' bloody Enclosure Acts, too."

"Easy now, Cony," Lewrie warned.

"Oh, I knows, sir," Cony huffed, swiping his hair back from his forehead and putting on his hat. "Might o' been practiced sin-ners'n layabouts. But they might o' been poor folk what needed the meat t'keep their young'uns fed, too, sir, an' not able t'grazebut one cow on th' commons. Rabbits eatin' up what little garden they got, an' them not able t'lift a finger, 'cause they's th'
squire's
rabbits. Life c'n be hard fer poor crofters, sir."

"And a damn sight harder now they broke the law poaching," Alan declaimed with a nod of understanding. "But, they knew the risks. And they lost."

"Aye, sir. Makes a man sad, even so, sir."

"That it does, Cony. Let's get mounted, then, and go see nicer people than Sir Romney bloody Embleton."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"That's Embleton land yonder," Governour pointed out as they rode west out of the village and crested one of those rolling hills. "Our land starts at that creek mat feeds the stream. Up and over two hills west, about a mile. Then down south to the Chiddingfold Road, and another stream. There were two estates in the beginning, from our grandfathers on down. Two manors, two famines. Father was due his parcel in '46, but he wanted to stay in North Carolina, so he sold it freehold to Uncle Phineas to work as one farm. Paid a good price to us, he did, and brought it up to snuff. Altogether, we've about 900 acres in freehold or copyhold. And when we came back to England, Uncle Phineas rented 120 acres back for a token guinea a year."

"The copyhold recorded at which manor?" Alan asked, seeing that only the thin silver line of the small creek and its brushy bottoms separated Embleton land from Chiswick land. "Glandon Park?"

"With the Embletons," Governour said. "Once it was all part of the Goodyers... Norman Guidiers, I think... but the last of 'em died out, Lord, four hundred years ago? 'Twas then the Embletons were made baronets and awarded the land."

"And the old castle and bailey?" Alan pressed. "Theirs? I've a mind to look it over whilst I'm here. Think you I could?"

"The Embletons should allow it," Governour smiled. "It was the Eadmers, vassals to King Harold, built it. I'll ask for you. 'Twas where I did most of my courting with Millicent. Have to have a care, though. There may be mantraps. That's where the rabbit warren is, below the rise there."

"I haven't offered you my congratulations on your marriage!" Alan exclaimed, hitting him on the shoulder once more. "Slipped my mind completely! A lovely bride, hey?"

"The most felicitous of women, Alan, I cannot find words to say how charming, how utterly ..." Governour enthused, reddening with embarrassment. Love, which had him half-seas-over, was not an easy topic for English gentlemen. "Wait until you meet her!"

"I look forward to it eagerly," Alan assured him.

They reached a fork in the road and another bridge, this one of stout oak timbers. The fork led off to the right, across the bridge, over which they clattered onto Chiswick lands at last.

"Damn fine lands, Mister Chiswick, sir," Cony volunteered as he beheld the lushness of the growing grain fields to either side, the thickness of the wood lots, and the pastures snowy with young sheep. "Makes old Gloucestershire look like a stone quarry, so it does."

"Two hundred acres in corn and wheat, an hundred in barley and hops. And the rest rotated with sheep for manuring, or hay for fodder," Governour boasted. "Second-best in the county, next to my father-in-law's. Uncle Phineas has made it a paradise. Sheep are the coming thing in the South Counties. Now we've orchards that make the best cider around. And we rent out about eighty or so in sheep."

"Cattle, sir?" Cony asked with relish.

"Not so many as we may sell, Cony, but enough for the use of the home farms. We've pigs and chickens, and ducks, and all. And a small herd of fine horses. You take your pick, Alan, you'll see we have the beginnings of a good stud here."

The road forked again about a quarter-mile on. The right fork went to the thatch-roofed two-story cottage that Alan had visited the last time, and he began to turn his horse's head in that direction.

"No, we're all up at the main house now, Alan," Governour said. "That's leased out. Thought it would be better if Father was under a closer regimen of care under Uncle Phineas's roof."

"And the honeymooners have to share a house?" Alan teased.

"Well, no, I've a new place of my own down near the Chiddingfold Road. It was a rough tenantry, after all, that house. A man name of Byford has it now. He's the sheeper I mentioned."

Around another turn, across a pasture, stood the Chiswick manor house. It was of homey red brick, with a Palladian entrance hall added on in front, with two humbler wings of two stories each forking off at angles to enfold a lawn and flower beds around a curving drive.

"Race you to the door!" Governour shouted, putting spurs to his mount, and was off like a shot. Alan howled like a red Indian and got going in pursuit, and his gelding snorted with alarm, checkedand rose on its hind legs for a moment, then caught the spirit of the game and plunged into a mile-eating gallop, stretching its strong neck out even with the docked tail of Govemour's thoroughbred. They ran on, Alan's horse gaining until its nose was even with the other horse's shoulder, both riders hallooing and yelling to draw the attention of the house to their antics. Out came an older man in breeches and waistcoat, with a green eyeshade still over his brows, an older woman Alan recognized as Mother Charlotte Chiswick, a dark-haired beauty he took for the Amazing Millicent ... and there was Caroline!

"Beat you, ha ha!" Governour bragged as they drew rein so hard they set their mounts back on their haunches. "Look who's here!"

Alan's horse couldn't help but paddle on across a flower bed and back in a circle, shaking his head and snuffling rage at being bested, curvetting as Alan patted his neck and realizing that Caroline had never seen him ride before, which made him sit up straighter and extend his booted feet in the stirrups as he calmed the horse.

He sprang down from the saddle as a groom appeared to take the reins, and strode to her side, arms open in greetings.

"How good it is to see you!" he cried. "It's been a long two years and more!"

"Alan Lewrie, oh, welcome, welcome!" Caroline replied. They met, embraced for a second, then held hands at arm's length to gaze at each other and twirl around in a small circle. "At last!"

She had become
more
lovely! Still too tall at two inches below Alan's height to be thought fashionable, still willow-slim, and what London blades would call "gawky." But filled out rounder and fuller in the most interesting places! Her light brown hair shone like spun gold, her hazel eyes twinkled with joy, and the slight folds below her eyes crinkled in such a merry manner that he thought he could go on gazing at her slim, high-cheeked face for all time.

"We didn't expect you 'til Friday, or the weekend," she said.

"I had good roads," he replied. "I was inspired! I rode like John Gilpin!"

Caroline inclined her head to one side and winked with one eye, forcing Alan to notice that her mother was standing there. He let go of her hands and fell to one knee before the old woman.

"I was inspired by your ginger snaps, Mistress Chiswick," he cried, "I could not wait another instant to taste your ginger snaps!"

"Alan Lewrie, you are such a wag, sir!" Mother Charlotte said with a simpering laugh, tapping him on the head with her fan. "Come here and let me kiss you! Oh, 'tis grand to see you well, after all the adventures you've been up to among the heathens! We've gotten a letter from Burgess telling us all about it. Pirates and such, and a battle! He's well, when last you saw our little Burge?"