The Stranger From The Sea (33 page)

Daisy said: 'When my eldest sister died I could not sleep of nights for thinking of her in the cold clay of St Ernie.'

'And at her funeral,' Paul said, 'the vicar was drunk as a haddock. Kept reeling against the altar rail as if he was at sea in a storm.'

'Paul, don't!'

The procession was approaching, the torches describing flickering yellow semi-circles in the blue air.

'Robin Hood and Littl
e John

They both are gone to the fair - O;

And we will to the merry green wood

To see what they do there - O.'

'What a pretty sight,' said Daisy. 'I wish Violet had come; she so loves such celebrations.' 'She's not well again?'

'Oh, it is the same cough as always, and a light fever. But I do believe she coddles herself - and Mama is bad with her too; having lost one stepchild, she is fearful for another. But the night air is so light and mild I believe it could do no harm.'

'As for St George
–

O St George he was a knight
–

O Of all the kings in Christendom

King George he is the right - O

And send us peace in merry England

Every day and night - O .
..'

As the singers came up they surrounded the bonfire, the torches wobbling and uncertain. The voices petered out in coughs and giggles, the singers having become self-conscious in the presence of the gentry. Ross made a sign to Sam, who stepped forward and said his prayer.

'O Lord Jesus Christ, the True Light. Who dost enlighten every man that cometh into the world, do Thou bless this bonfire which in our gladness we light to honour the Nativity of St John the Baptist; and grant to us, being lighted by Thy grace and fired with Thy love, that we may come to Thee. Whom that Holy Forerunner did announce beforehand as the Saviour of the world. Who livest and reignest with the Father in Heaven, ever one God, world without end. Amen.'

Caroline Enys had been persuaded much against her will by Demelza to be the Lady of the Flowers. When Sam had finished his prayer, Ross gave a nod and Music Thomas and Sephus Billing plunged their torches into the green pyramid. A dozen others followed suit, with yells of delight that seemed to come from further back in time than the Christian prayer that had just been uttered. Sam hunched his shoulders in discomfort, and was glad of Rosina's consoling hand on his arm.

Just before the flames reached the tin barrels, Caroline stepped forward and threw a bunch of flowers and herbs into the fire. It contained a collection of good herbs and bad, the good in this instance being St John's wort, elder, oak, clover and foxglove; the bad were ivy, nettle, bramble, dock and corn cockle. Caroline had sworn that no power on earth would induce her to speak the bizarre Cornish words, but the one power on earth that could do so, Demelza, had contrived to worm its way round her protests and she had reluctantly learned them, though she had only the vaguest idea what they meant.

'Otta kelmys yn-kemysks

Blesyow, may fons-y cowl leskys,

Ha'n da, ha'n drok.

Re dartho an da myl egyn,

Glan re bo dyswres pup dregyn,

Yn tan, yn mok!’

There had been silence while she spoke, but the moment she stepped back - and none too soon, for the flames were suddenly out of hand - there was a scream of satisfaction from the spectators and they began to dance around the fire, the wild flaring light making demons of them all. A little drinking had been going on beforehand.

Jeremy drew in a sharp breath and frowned into the lurching scalding light. One person just withdrawing into the shadows of the old mine looked so much like
...
He put out a hand to draw Clowance's attention, but Clowance was talking animatedly to Ben, and in time her brother withheld his hand
...

Many of the girls in their best summer smocks had joined in the dance, and thirty or forty people held hands swirling round the bonfire. Once more Jeremy saw the man, but the third time he was no longer there. A phantom spirit appearing, as Ben said, at the location where he would eventually die?

After a while Ross touched his arm: 'The fire is sinking
...'

Fireworks were a sophisticated touch the villagers had not expected, and for the next twenty minutes Jeremy and Ben and Paul Kellow and Horrie Treneglos set off rockets and squibs and serpents and gerbs and crackers to the gasps and screams and laughter of the watchers. In the middle of it the bonfire collapsed and sent up its own cascade of sparks into the quiet evening air.

Jeremy and Paul had also manufactured some of their own fireworks. In metal saucers they had contrived a mixture of chlorate of potash, nitrate of strontia, sulphur and lampblack, which produced a brilliant light that bathed the whole scene in demonic red. After these had died down, to a long sigh and a burst of applause, another
group of saucers was lit containing chlorate of potash, chloride of lead, nitrate of baryta, sulphur and resin, and the night became as brilliantly green.

'How
marvellous
you are!' Daisy said to Jeremy. 'What are they called?'

'They are supposed to be Bengal lights, but don't quite approximate, I believe.'

'Paul says you are
a
genius.
He has told me about all your experimentations at Harvey's Foundry.'

'Paul is up the pole. But it's still a
secret
what we dol He should not have told you!'

'Does Clowance know?'

'No.'

'So now I am party to this special secret! DeliciousI Have no fear: it shall go no further.'

'I think, my child, it will soon have to go further, but for the moment, if you don't mind
...'

'Of course, Paul is fascinated, with my father opening his new stage to Penzance. He thinks there is a future for a steam engine replacing the horses. Do you?'

'In ten years why not?' Jeremy was loath to discuss it with her here.

'Are you going to be an inventor?'

Jeremy screwed up his eyes, staring at the dancers again. 'Oh, phoo. I'm practical. Not an inventor. I try to see the future — pinch other people's best notions.'

'Would you take me sometime?'

'Where?'

'Fishing
...'

'You mean -
our
fishing.'

'Of course
...'

·Well, I
...'

'Since I knew, I have asked Paul several times but he says no, it is not for women. I wonder why? Your mother has told me she went a ride on that engine in London -what was it called? I do not think women should be disentitled to take an interest in the latest mechanical notion.'

Jeremy looked into her eyes. She passed the tip of her tongue across her lips and smiled at him.

He said: 'There's precious little as yet to see at Hayle.' 'What is
there?' 'Just nuts and bolts.' ‘
No, tell me.'

'A boiler. A few wheels. A piston or two. A frame made in the shape of a bed. A tall funnel which eventually will emit steam:
puff, puff, puff, puff

'How quaint!'

'Yes: it is Trevithick's idea -
I
told you I pinched 'em. Instead of condensing the steam one
thrusts
it out, dispenses with it.'

'But is the carriage not all yet joined together, assembled?'

'No. Nor will be for a while. For the time being it is all on the shelf while we discuss a more conventional engine.' 'But could I still come?'

'If you wish. But I am now visiting the foundry officially to talk of such an engine. No need to fish. The only obstacle now is a twenty-mile ride.'

'I shall look forward to that,' she said. 'And don't think I can't ride just as fast as you.'

'Oh, I know, I know. I've seen you and Clowance riding hell-for-leather on the sands. It is a wonder you've not come a cropper in a water pit.'

Ben and Clowance came up to them. 'Tis time for the last procession afore supper. Come on!'

The villagers round the fire were linking hands, and Music Thomas and Sephus Billing were crying 'An eye! An eye!' Ben and Clowance pulled Jeremy and Daisy towards the end of the chain, the three Trenegloses closely following. The procession moved off, away from the hot deep glow of the fire, threading among the trees, out to Wheal Maiden, back around the Wesleyan Meeting House, down the hill towards the lights of Wheal Grace where the engine was still about its lonely clanging and sighing, the engine house silhouetted against the candescent night sky. Down, down they went, to Nampara House and on to the beach, thrusting through the thistles and the tall tree mallows, still shouting 'An eye! An eye!' Across the beach almost to the cliffs under Wheal Leisure; there, the arbitrary choice of the two leaders coinciding, the procession turned in a sharp semi-circle and began to jog back towards where the bonfire smoked on the hill.

Past Nampara, across the stream, up the wooded lane, leaving Wheal Grace on their left. At the top of the lane, a few hundred yards from the food and the ale and the smouldering bonfire, the two leaders stopped and formed an arch - an
'eye’
- by joining hands above their heads; and under this arch, or through this eye the procession of sixty-odd people had to pass. Once they were through, they scattered like starlings, all making for the trestle tables and the waiting matrons.

The Enyses had a glass of ale and a saffron bun with the Poldarks before leaving with their two little girls and the nurse. Before they left, Caroline said to Demelza: 'I have bad news. My aunt Sarah has at last conquered her lifelong inclination to faint at the thought of coming to see me in this savage county. She has written to say she will be with us in two or three weeks' time. But, my dear, it is an entourage! Not only is she bringing a footman and a maid but Colonel Hector Webb to dance attendance! Clowance met Colonel Webb while she was staying with us. My aunt, though now visibly ageing, cannot bear to be without a courtier.'

'But Mrs Pelham is a delightful person,' Demelza said. 'I shall be happy to meet her again.'

'Well, make no mistake, you shall. We shall
rely
on you and Ross to help us entertain this delightful (I agree) but relentlessly urban lady. I do not suppose she has been west of Basingstoke in her life
...
But stay -
I
trust this will not clash with your visit to Bowood. When is that?'

'Late
July. But
nothing
is decided yet, Caroline. I don't even know if Clowance really wants to go. And, of course, if she did, we have no one to send with her. We sadly lack close relatives.'

'I assumed you would go yourself.'

'I should be away for more than three weeks! What would Ross do?'

'What no doubt he does when separated from you for as many months on end. But has Clowance not given you any indication of her feelings about this?'

'Not yet.'

'Then ask her. It is a mother's privilege.'

'Don't tease. How - even if she agreed to go - how could I go into a great house like that remembering I am nothing but a miner's daughter?'

'My dear, you have braved many social ordeals. Unless you arrive at the door wearing a metal hat with a candle stuck in it, I do not suppose they would readily guess, do you?'

'You think it amusing, Caroline, but it is not at all amusing. There are all sort of pitfalls I might tumble into. And I should dearly hate Clowance to feel embarrassed for me.'

'You are far more likely to feel embarrassed for Clowance, who has a distinct habit of calling a spade a spade! Seriously, you must get to know her true feelings. Then if she likes to go, you must take her.'

Demelza said: 'Could you not take her, Caroline?'

The crowds at the trestle tables were long and noisy. Some young men were competing with others in leaping over the fire.

Caroline said: 'Mrs Pelham would make it impossible. But in any case if Clowance goes, then it's right - right for you as well as for her - that you should be the one to go with her.'

'But you
enjoy
these things!'

'So would you if you went. And I promise, I'll lend you Enid.'

'Enid?
Your
maid?’

'Yes. Who else? You could not possibly go without one. You like her and she likes you. I'm sure she'd be happy to go-*

'Caroline, you know I
cannot
pretend to like being waited on hand and foot, and sitting about and doing needle-point and - and taking a turn in the park and talking prettily about Mr Scott's latest novel! Now we are so much more comfortably circumstanced ourselves, I believe Ross would sometimes have me more genteel; but I am as I was born and it is too late to change.'

'I'm relieved to know it,' said Caroline.