Mistress of Darkness

by Christopher Nicole

  He pushed himself on to his elbow, gazed down at her. 'They said you were wanton.' 'Who said?'

  'Well ... does not your brother always refer to you as a whore?'

  Now her eyes were wide again, and her tongue was returning into her mouth, and her nostrils were dilating as she breathed. 'No doubt you'll have heard the story.'

  'Indeed I have.'

  'And now you will know it to be untrue. My maidenhead belongs to you, dearest Louis. No one else. Did I not say, that it is Sue who is really the whore in our family?'

  He stared at her for some seconds. And then burst out laughing, his chest thumping against her breasts. 'I have been out-generalled, sweet Georgiana. And I accept my defeat gracefully, as I must. But then, who could wish for a sweeter captor.' He kissed her on the mouth, slowly. And surely, he thought happily, all these roads also lead to Rome.

  'Again?' she begged. 'Can you do it again? This time it will not hurt. Will it?'

  ‘I have no idea,' he said. 'Certainly it will not hurt me.'

  'Oh, you are a wretched man.' She pouted, and smiled, almost in the same instant. 'Are all men wretched?'

  'It seems so,' he said. 'You may count upon it that I am an utter scoundrel, mademoiselle. As my wife, you will suffer untold agonies. I promise you.'

  Her tongue slowly circled her lips in that anticipatory gesture he was coming to recognize. 'Then begin now. I count myself as your wife from this moment.'

  'Alas,' he said. 'It will be necessary to wait, for at least a few minutes.' He rolled off her, and held her in the crook of his arm while he rested on his elbow. 'You can while away the tedious moments by telling me why you hate Matt.'

  'Constellation,' bellowed Robert Hilton. 'Constellation,' screamed Georgiana Hilton. 'Constellation,' shouted Sir Archibald Campbell. 'Eclipse,' roared Louis Corbeau. 'Eclipse,' called Lord Cranstoun. 'Constellation,' bawled Sir Charles Douglas. 'Eclipse,' said Sir George Rodney.

  'Suzanne,' whispered Lady Campbell to Mistress Ellison. 'You remember Suzanne. A lovely girl. But my dear...'

  'He's her cousin, you know,' Mistress Ellison said darkly. ‘I mean my dear Harriet, they ought to be locked up. It's positively criminal.'

  'And that poor man Huys,' Lady Campbell said. 'What a position to be in. Oh, I do wish this noise would stop.'

  The horses swept up to the stand. There were six of them altogether, but only the Hilton mare and Sir Archibald's stallion were in it. And now the roars of the competing parties seemed to raise the very heavens; it was four in the afternoon, and this was the last event of the day, as it was the premier event of the day, and the very sun, now beginning its stately decline in the west, seemed to be gathering itself together for a last burning effort as it bore down on the flying dust, the sweating horses, the straining Negro jockeys and their varicoloured silk shirts, the stand, crowded with everyone who was anyone in either Kingston or Spanish Town, a kaleidoscope of pale greens and pinks and blues belonging to the ladies, sombre browns and blacks of the gentlemen's coats, dotted with the brilliant blue of the naval officers or the even more brilliant scarlet jackets of the officers of the garrison and the marines, and then the slaves themselves, for race day at Hilltop was a holiday, gathered in a vast crowd, well over a thousand strong, all in clean white cottons, in the cleared area beyond the paddock.

  And now the horses were past, and the dust filtered slowly through the still air, coating faces and arms and expensive gowns, causing the onlookers to cough and sneeze.

  'Constellation,' Robert said. 'Now there, Sir Archibald, is a filly for you.'

  'Aye,' Campbell said. 'Only a short head, though.'

  'Enough, sir, enough,' said General Lake. 'That is fifteen hundred pounds.'

  'Gad, sir, I'll have my whip to that jockey,' Campbell grumbled.

  'And now,' said Lady Campbell, 'they are installed at Green Grove, if you please. Living openly together, in the utmost sin. Do you know, my dear Marjorie, I very nearly refused to come this afternoon.'

  'It makes the blood curdle,' Mistress Ellison agreed. 'But what was poor dear Robert to do? I feel so sorry for that man.'

  Lady Campbell snorted. Marjorie Ellison had lived in Jamaica too long, that was her trouble. So once upon a time she had had hopes of becoming mistress of Hilltop; no doubt it had been a fortunate escape. ‘I doubt,' she remarked, 'that he is any better than either his sister or his cousin; they all come from the same tainted stock. And as for that child Georgiana...'

  Georgiana was leading the route down to the paddock, where the steaming horses were being unsaddled, and the jockeys were receiving their rewards.

  'Here's a purse for you, Abraham,' Robert bellowed. 'A hundred guineas, by God. You rode well, well, by God, sir.'

  'I thanking you, Master Robert, suh,' Abraham grinned, and held the bag to his ear to hear it jingle. 'You going to sell me free, suh?'

  'I will not, you black devil. You'll ride for me until you drop, by God.'

  'Wretched nigger,' Sir Archibald shouted at Eclipse's rider. 'The whip, man. The whip. Have you never learned how to use the whip?'

  'Man, Excellency, sir,' explained the boy. ‘I did think he would take she. I really tliink so.'

  'Ah, bah, you'll come up to the house, my dear, for sangaree?' He had discovered his wife and Mistress Ellison at his elbow.

  'I suppose we must,' Lady Campbell said, but her eyes gleamed as she watched Georgiana, arm tucked through Louis Corbeau's, head against his shoulder as she chattered away.

  'I'm afraid my officers and I must decline your kind invitation to dinner, Robert,' Rodney said. 'We must catch the tide.'

  'It's an outrage,' Robert declared. 'An outrage. Why, George, so to treat the nation's hero ...'

  Rodney's smile was sufficiently confident to dispel any fears for his future. 'I imagine our Whiggish masters dispatched the frigate before the news of the battle can have reached them,' he said. 'They have accused me of monstrous crimes. Statia is only the half of it. No doubt your impeachment stands amongst them.'

  'But I have written to abandon the action,' Robert protested.

  'And no doubt that also has not yet gained London. I find the whole thing more amusing than disturbing. There'll be a great to-do when the Count and his officers reach Plymouth, and the news gets abroad.' He took Robert's hand. 'Meanwhile, my month here has been of the happiest. No doubt I shall not return. Sixty-four is a shade too old for active campaigning, and this gout gets no better. You'll give my best regards to your young scoundrel of a cousin, and his so beautiful lady.'

  'I'll do that,' Robert promised. 'You do not then join in the general condemnation of the pair?'

  Rodney shrugged. 'He would appear to be one of those men who has been destined either for greatness or disaster. It is too early to decide which.' He laid his finger alongside his nose, 'You'd do well to remember you have another sister.'

  'That wretched girl.' Robert frowned at the pair, leading the procession back towards the carriages. 'Aye, I'll remember it, by God,' .

  But it was midnight before the last of the guest equipages went rumbling down the drive, and Maurice led the servants round the house to accumulate the glasses and the devastated plates of cold meat and jellies, and to douse the candles.

  'Georgiana,' Robert bellowed, stamping on the verandah. 'Georgiana.'

  'She has retired,' Corbeau said. 'It has been a long day.'

  Robert peered at him through an alcoholic fug; the Frenchman's cravat had been released, and he had discarded his coat. 'And did you tuck her in, sir?'

  Corbeau pretended to frown. 'Surely you do not mean to quarrel, Robert?'

  Robert threw himself into a chair, and was immediately surrounded by his terriers, crawling over his feet to scramble on to his lap. ‘You think you'd take me, boy? Over-confidence is a great weakness. I'd killed my first man when you were still sucking.'

  'I meant, sir,' Corbeau said, 'that I should have to kneel and beg your forgiveness. I could quarrel neither with my host, my capto
r, nor my future brother-in-law.'

  'What? What? Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.' Robert sat up, scattering the dogs. 'You've spoken to her?'

  'Indeed I have, if you will forgive me.' Corbeau collected a half-empty bottle of wine from a passing tray, and dragged up a chair.

  'And she is willing. Oh, yes, she is willing.'

  Corbeau drank, and offered the bottle. 'I think she will accept my troth, subject to your approval of course, Robert.'

  'Then I approve, by God. Oh, yes, I approve. With her safely married, I can breathe again. I'll have the lawyers draw up the contracts tomorrow.'

  'There are matters to be discussed.'

  'Details,' Robert said. 'You wish a dowry? Take what you will.'

  'A dowry interests me not in the least,' Corbeau said. 'I mean, firstly, that there must be some delay in the affair.' 'Oh, yes?'

  'Well, sir, I will not take Georgiana as my wife while I am a prisoner in your house.'

  ‘A prisoner, by God.'

  ‘Nor can I really ask her to engage in the perils of a voyage back to Rio Blanco, at least until I have returned there myself, and made sure the plantation is ready to receive her. She understands this herself, and is happy to agree.'

  'Once the betrothal is official,' Robert said, 'you can wait as long as you like.'

  'It will be official by the time we finish this discussion,' Corbeau said, getting up and pacing the floor, while the servants hurriedly got out of his way. 'You'll understand, dear Robert, that mine is a very old family in these parts.'

  'Ha ha/ Robert said. 'Ha ha ha ha ha. You seem to have forgotten that I am descended from the very first Englishman ever to plant a colony in the West Indies.'

  'There was a Corbeau with d'Esnambuo.'

  'A quartermaster, I believe. At that time Sir Thomas Warner was already governor of St. Kitts.'

  'I'll not quarrel, Robert, and there's an end to it. I would merely say that while the Corbeaux have renewed their blood time and again with the best Paris can offer, the Warners and the Hiltons have had their mishaps.' He held up his hand. 'Hear me out, I beg of you. The past is the past, and there is an end to it. 'Tis the present and the future that concerns me. I understand that Matt is to be your heir.'

  'Aha,' Robert said. 'I begin to get your drift. I have hopes of placing that pair in a slightly less compromising position, given time. Dirk has not yet replied to my letter, but he is a reasonable man.'

  'As to whether or not their children are bastards, means very little to me,' Corbeau said. 'I admire, indeed I love them both. I am concerned about the other shadow in Matt's life.'

  Robert frowned at him. 'Other matter? By God, that wretched sister of mine has been gossiping as usual.'

  'You are speaking of my future wife, sir,' Corbeau said coldly. 'In my opinion she but did her duty.'

  'And has your family no skeletons in its closet?'

  'Oh, indeed we have, Robert. But none, at the moment in any event, like to overshadow our future prosperity.'

  'Nor do we.'

  'Indeed? I understand that young Matt, a very positive fellow, I have observed, even if he has not yet learned that constancy of purpose which can lead to a successful life, fell deeply in love with a mulatto girl, some two years ago, am I not right? She was removed from his reach by Georgiana, greatly to her credit, indeed, and in pursuit of her he comes chasing back to the West Indies. That is certainly an evidence of love. Now, you in your wisdom sent him to Statia, and there, being a young man with red blood in his veins who has just tasted the delights of the feminine world for the first time, he seduces your other sister, and she, being married to a man she does not love...' he held up his hand. 'Oh, come now, Robert, you cannot persist in that fiction any longer, surely? Suzanne chooses to fall in love with this handsome young man. And so she in turn chases behind him all over the Caribbean, and now they are preparing to settle down in happy sin. Again I repeat, they are welcome to it. But I would like to hear what proof you have, firstly, that Matt will not fall out of love with Sue as easily as he appears to have fallen in, and then revert to his passion for Gislane, which still taxes at the least his honour, I know; or worse, what is likely to happen should Gislane reappear in his life. The Caribbean is not so large an area that this is impossible. Or even, in my opinion, unlikely. And you will agree, dear brother-in-law, that either such eventuality will bring the utmost disaster upon your family. Which I now have the honour to call my family.'

  'Ha.' Robert got up, paced the room, waved his arms and the servants disappeared. 'I understand your concern, Louis, truly I do. I can only reassure you as best I may. As for the vagaries of Matt's heart, I can offer no opinion. But even should he manage to recreate his first passion, which will be a very unusual experience, I can tell you, he will not find the girl again. And for that same reason, she is unlikely to encounter him again by chance.'

  Corbeau frowned. 'You have not done away with the girl?'

  'I am no murderer, sir.'

  'But... how can you be so sure? Georgiana says she was sold to Hodge of Nevis. My God, that is but ten miles from

  Antigua. Do you not see the peak from Green Grove's front verandah?'

  'Oh, indeed you do. But Gislane is no longer on Nevis.'

  'I must ask you to be more explicit.'

  Robert glanced at him, then sighed, and sat down again. 'You'll understand this is a most secret matter, Corbeau, which has hitherto been known only to myself.'

  'I'll respect your confidence. But I have a right to know.'

  Again Robert sighed. 'I suppose you do. Well, you may suppose I was well aware that Nevis is altogether too close, to either Statia or Antigua. I visited Hodges privily, oh, more than a year gone - the girl had only just arrived - and convinced him that he should sell her again.'

  'Convinced him, by heaven. I like that. Sell her where?'

  'To a Dutchman.'

  'My God. A planter?'

  Robert nodded.

  'My God,' Corbeau said again. 'Knowing their reputation?'

  'Knowing their refusal to countenance any restrictions on their treatment of their slaves, if that is what you mean. Nor do your people, Corbeau.'

  'Yet are we somewhat more refined. You have a heart of stone, Robert.'

  'I have a duty to protect my family, you mean. As you were just insisting.'

  'Aye. Oh, I admire you. Yet am I not convinced. A Dutch planter? Not from Statia, obviously. And there is little enough planting on Saba. Where did you find this man?'

  'She was sent to Essequibo.'

  Corbeau stared at him. 'The River Coast? That great swamp, where Europeans die like flies?'

  Robert shrugged. 'She is only part European.'

  'My God,' Corbeau said again. 'And the man's name?'

  'I have no idea,' Robert said. 'I thought it best.'

  Corbeau nodded. 'Smartly done, to be sure. You are to be congratulated, sir. However, I am afraid I must press you just a shade further. You have done, I admit it freely, everything in your power, short of that murder which repels you, to your honour, to ensure that this girl never again threatens the future of the Hiltons. Yet are there very many strange coincidences in life, some good, some disastrous. It is at least possible that she might escape the Guyanese swamps, or that Matt may learn what happened to her, and chase behind her. What then?'

  'The idea is impossible.'

  'If it is so impossible you can at least consider it.' 'What would you have me say?'

  Corbeau sat beside him. 'Listen to me. I am thinking now of my children, Georgiana's children. No matter what happens, you'll agree they will be the only truly legitimate heirs to your estates. Dirk Huys will never divorce Sue, and you know that as well as I. Now Matt is entitled to his inheritance, so long as he acts the part. God knows, I would stand between no man and what is rightfully his. But should he act less than the part, why, then, the Hiltons of the future must be protected.'

  Robert gazed at him for some seconds. 'You're a cunning fellow, Louis.
Yet I cannot gainsay your point. Very well. Should Matt ever introduce Gislane into this house or Green Grove, he shall forfeit his inheritance, should I still be living, and I shall insert a clause to that effect in perpetuity, into my Will. In which case the Hilton estates will devolve upon the children of Georgiana.' He sighed. 'And a famous name will quite disappear.'

  Corbeau laughed, and clapped him on the shoulder. 'You take altogether too gloomy a view of the situation, Robert. As you say and hope, perhaps Matt is indeed in love with Sue, and we worry needlessly. But to have taken the proper precautions, that were the sensible thing to do. Now I am for bed.' He went to the archway into the hall, stopped, and looked over his shoulder. 'Tell me, Robert. This Gislane, Georgiana even has to admit that she is quite the most beautiful creature she has ever seen. Is that a fact?'

  'What? Oh, aye. Entrancing. Do you know, I last saw her, naked and triced up to a bar. Indeed I saved her from a flogging. And she had then spent four months on a slaver. And yet... by God, Louis, I nearly took her for myself. Try to imagine every bit of high yellow you have ever known, take each of their very best points, from toe to tit, and put them all together, and you'd have that girl. As to what she'd be like now, after a year of Dutch company, well, I cannot say.'

  'An intriguing thought,' Corbeau agreed. 'But between Georgiana and yourself, you almost make me understand Matt's point of view. 'Tis an odd world we live in, to be sure.'

  CHAPTER TEN