Langley's Choice

by Kate Dolan

  Once again, an interruption saved Josiah from his uncertainty. Hurried footsteps crunched on the walkway in front of the house, and someone pounded on the door with great urgency. He heard Grimble pass from the kitchen through the length of the opposite parlor to the door. Quick words were exchanged, then the servant knocked on the parlor door and entered, followed by a tall, skinny boy of about sixteen who looked ragged and near to overcome with exertion.

  “Sir.” The boy paused for breath.

  “He says he has urgent news of Miss Caroline,” Grimble broke in.

  “I was with Miss Caroline last night.”

  “What?” The word fairly exploded out of Carter’s mouth.

  “We, Miss Caroline and I, sneaked into the Falls Inn last night, to see the Greek treasures.”

  Edwina stirred excitedly on the bench.

  “What?” Carter repeated with only a little less fire in his voice.

  “And something happened…I don’t know what. I woke up and everyone was gone. And…”

  “What, boy?”

  “Other people…men…are missing. They say…they say…” The boy looked from one face to another in the room, as if unable to find anyone to whom he could impart his story.

  “Come on, out with it!” Carter moved forward, apparently ready to throttle the tongue-tied lad.

  “They say it were pirates. They say Caroline was taken by pirates!”

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  Langley's Choice

  By

  Kate Dolan

  Zumaya Publications Burnaby B.C.

  2003

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  LANGLEY’S CHOICE

  © 2003 by Kathleen C. Dolan

  ISBN 1-894942-42-6

  Cover art and design by Marlies Bugmann

  And Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Zumaya Publications 2003

  Look for us online at http://www.zumayapublications.com

  National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Dolan, Kate

  Langley's choice / Kate Dolan.

  ISBN 1-894942-42-6

  I. Title.

  PS3604.O445L36 2003 813'.6 C2003-905291-5

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the volunteers at Maryland Romance Writers. Without the shared support, information and all those writing challenges, this book would be only a disjointed collection of pages moldering in the bottom of a file drawer.

  Acknowledgements

  I owe a great debt to:

  “The Tarts”—Laura Graham-Booth, Kathy Love, Janet Mullany, Kathy Shelor and Christine Zampi—for their comprehensive critiques and unflagging support.

  W.B. Lamb for invaluable help with research and editing.

  Peggy Dolan for assistance with plotting and characterization.

  Terry Crawford at Jerusalem Mill for bringing his historical expertise to bear on the manuscript

  Dr. S.D. Smith at the University of York (UK) for sharing his extensive knowledge on colonial life and trade.

  I also wish to thank the living history interpreters and librarians who’ve patiently answered my endless streams of questions over the years. Any historical inaccuracies and anachronisms are completely of my own doing. I have taken a few liberties with historical facts in order to suit the needs of the story. For instance, although Charles Eden was appointed governor of North Carolina in May of 1713, he did not take the oath of office until 1714, so it was unlikely that he would have been ensconced in office in the fall of 1713. Also, although Eden and Tobias Knight were widely considered to have profited from routine trafficking with pirates, evidence indicates that Eden, at least, upheld his oath of office with more integrity than I have depicted. My apologies to his descendents—the legends of notoriety are much more fun to portray.

  Most of all, I have to thank my family—Jim, Trent and Meg—for loving me, supporting me and not complaining when forced to live on a steady diet of cold cereal, sandwiches and leftover fishsticks.

  Chapter One

  Something smelled terrible.

  The stench forced Caroline awake, though she wished it hadn’t. Her head felt like it was spinning and growing steadily larger. And pounding—as though an army of servants was grinding with mortar and pestle inside her head.

  When she pried her eyelids apart she could see nothing but inky blackness. Where was she? Was the room really moving?

  Caroline tried to sit up, but found the sickness was not confined to her head alone. Bile rose in her throat and threatened to choke her, so she lay still again, leaving just the dizzy headache to contend with. She turned her head slowly and tried to see.

  No smell on earth could be this horrid; she must be in hell. This suspicion was confirmed by the sudden realization that tiny mites were tracing paths up her arms, down her legs and even into her hair. Caroline pushed herself up, fighting off waves of nausea as she scratched at her skin.

  Why was the floor moving? Was it the rum Jimmy had insisted she drink to fit in with the men at the Falls Inn? Was she still there, thrown into the cellar of that wretched place as a common drunkard?

  She shuddered. How would she get back to Hill Crest before anyone noticed she was missing? Was Jimmy here, too?

  Suddenly, she heard a scraping noise from above, and a small patch of light streamed in through an opening in the ceiling. A large man descended a ladder Caroline had not noticed earlier. Light framed his dark, bearded face like a halo. The voice accompanying the face was less than angelic, however.

  "Well, one of you lot are awake at last. Too strong he made it," the man grumbled to no one in particular. "Waste of good rum. You there, boy, go help the cook. Time to earn your keep."

  Caroline looked around hopefully. The boy he was talking to must be Jimmy. But the eyes staring out over the beard were fixed directly on her. As she looked down to avoid those eyes, she saw she was still wearing the boy's costume she had borrowed from Jimmy for their adventure at the inn.

  Suddenly, it all started to make sense. The light coming through the square hole in the ceiling was sunlight. A background noise, of which she had only been dimly aware, now sounded like the splashing of water against wood. She was on a boat. And whoever had brought her here thought she was a boy.

  This was unacceptable!

  Caroline did the only thing a lady could do under the circumstances. She fainted.

  At least, she intended to faint. Her sickened body collapsed back onto the deck willingly enough, and she closed her eyes in anticipation of peaceful oblivion. But she was uncomfortably aware that she remained very much awake. The smells of the small room assaulted her nose again, and she heard the man with the dreadful eyes huff in disgust as he poked at a few of the men sprawled on the floor around her. Questions rose in her mind with a dizzying hysteria. Caroline decided she really should be able to faint this time.

  Josiah Throckmorton wiped the sweat from his eyes and lifted the hat that seemed to sink lower and lower on his head with each step. He stopped walking. Pushing the wet strands of hair as far from his face as he could, he raised his eyes to the sky. A dull, hot lig
ht confirmed what the motionless air already told him: no rain today.

  He replaced the soggy hat on his head and continued up the path from the river landing, marveling that water could condense on every inch of his heated flesh, that steam could hang in the very air and yet the skies could refuse rain to quench the thirst of the living things below.

  Even the river reflected this perversity. When Ellis had tied the small skiff to the dock, he had been forced to reach up so far he almost tumbled out of the boat. The man seemed to know no more about boats than Josiah did—less, even, since Josiah had at least learned where not to stand in a small river craft. And yet Ellis had professed to a lifelong expertise with boats. Either the man was a liar simply trying to avoid his work in the fields or an exceedingly slow learner.

  The path Josiah trod up from the dock now veered into even more heavily wooded terrain. Shade from the trees brought relief to eyes sore from squinting through the bright haze, but it did not seem to cool the air at all. Josiah looked around almost suspiciously; by all rights, there should be a cool breeze in the woods. Where was it?

  He slapped a young branch aside with disgust. No breeze, no rain. He needed water for his animals and for his house, but that could be brought from the river, if necessary. Water for the fields was a much greater concern. Tobacco did not need an excessive amount of rain, but it needed some. They had not had any for weeks.

  He tried hard not to think about the money he had borrowed to build a separate kitchen for Hanset House (and how he hoped to soon change that lowly descriptive to a more dignified “manor” or “estate.”) His prospects had looked bright and promising in the spring, when all thoughts centered on the anticipated end of “Queen Anne’s War,” as they called it here. Peace would re-open the continental tobacco market and bring stability and prosperity back to this tobacco-dependent society.

  Josiah had put aside all thoughts of practicing law, which he had found objectionable enough in London and feared to find even more so in the unruly and inconvenient provincial courts of the colony. But if he could not bring in a good crop this first year he would need to ply his legal services at the next assizes to keep his debts in check. An unpleasant prospect, to say the least.

  He kicked at a stone in the path and noticed, with some dismay, that it had left a small scratch in his best pair of shoes.

  If he did not muse on the pitiful weather or the disastrous effect it might soon have on his affairs, to what else could he turn his mind? He did not care to dwell on the upcoming interview at Hill Crest.

  Josiah scrambled over a newly fallen tree trunk blocking his way, taking care not to dirty his waistcoat or snag the new “French” lace edging his shirtsleeves. The lace was probably a none-too-accurate counterfeit made by a woman in Dorset; but he had paid as much for the order as if it had been genuine, and it was rare and valuable enough even as a copy.

  Just as he touched safely to the ground, an errant piece of bark made a vicious grab at his best silk stockings and succeeded in creating a large, unsightly ladder down his left leg. He cursed softly. He should have come by horse rather than by the river. The trip by land was longer, of course, but well-worth the effort if it kept his clothing intact.

  This would be only his third visit to Hill Crest since John Carter had accepted the proposal of marriage offered to his daughter Caroline. Josiah earnestly dreaded the prospect of spending another hour in the crowded family parlor surrounded by his future family-in-law. The sisters—there were far too many sisters—would giggle and joke among themselves at his expense. He had been certain of such ridicule before; but now that he was to appear before them in ruined stockings and hair sagging with perspiration, his certainty grew into an overpowering gloom.

  Even Caroline might join in her sisters' untoward mirth; she did not always show the respect he had hoped for from his bride-to-be. Her attitude would improve after the marriage, he was sure.

  For the hundredth time, he replayed the scene of the engagement in his mind.

  “Would you, Miss Carter, do me the honor of taking my hand in holy matrimony and joining me as mistress of Hanset House?”

  He had uttered the words with rare eloquence, on bended knee, his hands clasped in the ancient posture of all true lovers. Caroline smiled all the while with a radiance so overpowering he had to look away. She herself looked away several times, covered her mouth with her hands, and at one point even appeared to almost choke with emotion.

  “I am flattered, Mr. Throckmorton, at your generous proposal, and I accept…only, I ask that you give me some time first. I wish to give my preparations the proper attention.”

  “Certainly, Miss Carter, I would be only too pleased to oblige you in any way. Shall we say…October?”

  “Surely, sir, you would not want to interrupt the work of your plantation at such a time.”

  Ah, she was so considerate!

  “Perhaps December, then?”

  “Mr. Throckmorton, would you wish to be married in a sea of cold mud?”

  “I see. We shall have to wait until…April?”

  “Or May. Much as I am grieved to say it.”

  Oh, how truly selfless she was, putting the needs of his business and the comfort of her wedding guests ahead of her own happiness. And her desire to delay the wedding to give her preparations proper attention—surely that must be a sign of her esteem.

  If only she would refrain from giggling with her sisters.

  Josiah swallowed hard and tried to clear his throat. He had to admit that the prospect of facing a parlor full of giggling girls did not trouble him as much as the anticipation of the few awkward words he would have to exchange with Charles Carter, Caroline’s elder brother.

  The actual words would be of no real consequence; at each meeting, Charles met him with a searching gaze that thoroughly unnerved Josiah, though he was his superior both in years and in social rank. Charles always seemed to be looking for something in him, and Josiah knew neither what it was nor if he had it to find. More than anything else, it troubled him he could be so distressed by this unspoken questioning. Why should it matter what this boy thought of him?

  After all, John Carter was willing to trust his eldest daughter to him and that was all that really mattered. Yes, Josiah could face this interview, and the many that would follow before the marriage in the spring, because the patriarch of one of the most important families in the region esteemed him for a son-in-law. True, the family was of humble origin. But they had been in Maryland for nearly sixty years and now had substantial holdings. Their estate was one of the finest in the colony.

  In Maryland, it seemed, money was as important as family. Even more so, perhaps. At home, in England, it had always been enough simply to be a Throckmorton. Here, Josiah’s standing depended on the precarious financial status of his plantation.

  As he looked down to step around a twist of branches in the path, he admired the new etched buttons on his waistcoat and smiled. He would rise above this difficulty. The Throckmorton family had held landed estates for centuries. And with his sister’s new connections…well, Charles Carter certainly could not look down his nose at him.

  Josiah stood a little bit taller after this last reflection, causing a twig to snap sharply against his hat. As he emerged from the woods near the top of the hill, he took a deep breath before making his final approach to the house.

  Freshly painted and recently enlarged, the manor house at Hill Crest plantation remained a thoroughly unimpressive structure to Josiah’s eyes. In England, a yeoman farmer might have been proud of such a house, but a great landed family would scorn to dwell in such a place. Yet the Carter house, with but four rooms on the ground floor, an untold number of irregular chambers upstairs and a handful of unpainted outbuildings scattered randomly about the yard, was one of the finest Josiah had seen in Maryland. Disgraceful really. His family would be horrified to learn of the impoverished colonial lifestyle to which he had subjected himself.

  Uneven footsteps res
ponded to his knock, and soon a short male servant opened the door.

  “Good day,” Josiah began without much thought. “I have come to call on Mr. Carter.”

  Instead of opening the door, the servant glanced backward nervously.

  “If it is inconvenient…” Josiah’s voice trailed off. The door remained essentially closed, an unusual practice in this informal society.

  The servant then backed up, opening the door and motioning him inside. John Carter stepped forward to greet his guest with a strange expression on his face. A smile appeared, too late to look convincing, but it was enough to tell Josiah he had better not inquire too closely into his host’s affairs. If Carter wanted to pretend everything was pleasant, it was his guest’s duty to play along.

  “Welcome, Mr. Throckmorton. What an effort, to visit in this heat.” After shaking hands, Carter gestured to a leather chair next to an open window. “Please take a seat. I’ll send for some refreshments.”

  He looked in vain for the servant, who had somehow already managed to disappear. With a frown, he reached over to a small table, picked up a palm-sized brass bell and rang with three sharp jerks of his wrist. The sound reverberated surprisingly sharp and loud in the still air, making Josiah flinch ever so slightly. Carter then turned back to address his guest.

  “Did you come down alone today?”

  “No, I…” Josiah paused as the chair cracked rudely under his sudden graceless assault. He really needed to pay more attention to his manners, especially in company. These days he seemed to move about with all the elegance of a stable hand. An adolescent stable hand. With rickets and clubfeet.