Where Seagulls Soar

by Janet Woods

  ‘I’ll see you and Toby home first.’

  They said farewell to Thaddeus, who had completed his last voyage and was about to retire from the company.

  ‘Who’s taking my place as master?’ he said gruffly.

  ‘Edward Staines. He’ll be the senior master.’

  ‘She should have gone to your brother. One thing’s for sure, though, we’d never make a seaman out of you however hard you try.’

  Alex grinned and the pair shook hands. ‘I know. As for Oliver, it’s not my fault he went haring off to America after a woman’s skirt. Come to the office in the morning. I’ll hand over your severance pay and bonuses.’ Alex also intended to present the company’s senior captain with a gold watch. He just hoped that his manager, Henry Wetherall, had remembered to order it, for Thaddeus would be off down to Poole as soon as he could, to visit Charlotte Darsham, the woman he intended to wed.

  Joanna hugged the captain. ‘You’ll let me know when the wedding is, won’t you, Thaddeus?’

  ‘Maybe, but maybe not. The pair of us are too old for fuss, so don’t be surprised if your grandmother has become Mrs Scott the next time you see her, for I expect she’ll have things all arranged.’

  ‘You know, I’ll never forgive the pair of you if you marry without me there.’

  ‘I reckon you will, lass,’ he said calmly, ‘for you’re not a fussing woman yourself. Now, stop hugging me and go off home with your husband. He’s tapping his foot, which means he’s impatient to get started. I’ll send your luggage up on a cart.’

  After six months’ absence, Joanna and Alex’s house at Southwark had a neglected look to it. The garden was overgrown, though threaded through with May flowers. The windows were dusty, but the blackthorn was in bloom and the heavenly scent of the massed cream blossoms was heady to the senses.

  Their housekeeper came scurrying through from the back when they entered the dusty hall.

  ‘Where are the servants, Mrs Bates?’ Alex asked her, frowning as he glanced around.

  ‘Your mother . . . Mrs Nash dismissed them. She said they weren’t needed.’

  ‘Did she now.’ Alex’s mouth tightened. ‘And your husband. Where’s he?’

  ‘Bates up and died a month or so ago. He caught the cholera, he did, and it took him off real quick.’ A tear or two tracked down her cheeks. ‘I’m glad you’re home, sir, and you, Mrs Darsham.’

  Toby was looking around his new surroundings with interest. Mrs Bates eyed him uncertainly, then gazed from one to the other, as if not quite knowing what to say.

  ‘I’m Mrs Morcant now,’ Joanna told her gently. ‘And this is our son, Tobias Alexander, though we call him Toby. I’m so sorry to hear about your husband.’

  Mrs Bates gave a deep sigh as she dried her eyes on the corner of her apron. ‘Bates was older than me, but a good man for all that. I’m going to miss him. It will be nice to have a child running around the house, though.’

  She looked gratified when Toby decided to bestow his best smile on her, revealing the pair of sharp teeth he’d grown in his bottom jaw on the journey. ‘He’s a dear little lad,’ she said, her mouth stretching into a smile. ‘And so like you, Mr Morcant. Shall I fetch some refreshment to the drawing room?’

  Alex shook his head. ‘Not for me, Mrs Bates, thank you. I’m going to the office. We’ll do something about the servant problem tomorrow.’

  ‘And I must sort out a nursery for Toby. He needs a sleep.’

  ‘Use the room next to mine . . . ours.’ He grinned and kissed her cheek in a slightly perfunctory manner, as if he were impatient to be off. ‘I’ll be going then. I’ll leave you ladies to sort things out and will see you at dinner, I expect.’

  ‘Don’t work too hard, Alex. You look tired.’

  ‘I can’t promise that, my love. I’m sure I’ll be fine in a day or two.’

  ‘Right,’ Joanna said, turning to Mrs Bates after the door had shut behind him ‘Where does my husband sleep?’

  ‘In the room next to the one you used to occupy.’ A faraway expression filled her eyes. ‘It’s the room Mr Darsham used to use when he was still alive, poor man. Such a nice gentleman, he was, even though he wouldn’t take any nonsense from anybody. Still, you’d know that, you being his widow.’

  Mr Darsham’s widow, once his wife! It was odd imagining herself as ever being his wife, when Joanna now knew the man was her father. That ill-fated yet innocent liaison seemed a long time ago now – as did her upbringing on the isle of Portland as another couple’s daughter.

  Mr Darsham is still alive, did you but know it, Joanna thought, saddened because her father had been obliged to abandon his home and identity for her sake. Only he lives in Australia and is calling himself Gabriel Tremayne, these days.

  It was lunchtime. The offices of the Darsham and Morcant Shipping Company were almost deserted except for one or two familiar faces – clerks who greeted Alex with welcoming smiles.

  He nodded pleasantly to them as he walked through. It smelled familiar, and he felt at home here, in charge of himself.

  Alex hadn’t expected to find his mother waiting for him in his office.

  The arrangement of the lines on Clara Nash’s face made her look dissatisfied and unpleasant, a true reflection of her meddlesome nature.

  As the door closed, he gazed at her, saying sharply, ‘Why are you here?’

  Clara was wearing a powder-blue gown that matched her eyes, a colour too young and fresh for a woman of her mature years. Her skin had a yellowish tone to it.

  ‘Is that any way to greet me? Come, Alexander, give your mother a kiss.’

  His mouth stretched into a thin line. ‘I’d sooner kiss a viper, Mother. I believe you’ve been interfering with my household staff.’

  ‘Actually, I’ve saved you considerable money in wages. Servants are easy to come by, you can hire others.’

  ‘It’s my money, not yours. Now, why are you here?’

  She turned and walked towards the window. ‘I saw the ship come in, and I wondered if you’d be on it. I heard you went running after that girl?’

  ‘That girl is called Joanna. What of it?’

  ‘What of it?’ She turned, her eyes blazing. ‘Don’t be a fool, Alexander. The girl is an opportunist. First it was Tobias Darsham, now it’s you. I hope you’ve left her in Australia.’

  ‘Why would I do that when I went all that way to bring her home?’ he said. ‘Joanna and I were married on the ship on the way home.’ Swallowing the urge to strangle his mother, Alex smiled. ‘You might as well know. Joanna has borne me a son. His name is Toby. Now let me see, doesn’t that make you a grandmother?’

  ‘You fool,’ she scorned. ‘You could have done much better than marry some stupid island girl. She didn’t even have the sense to hang on to what she inherited from Tobias. Instead, she used it to buy you with.’

  He didn’t allow her to see how badly that stung, but crossed to the door and opened it. ‘I’ve got work to do . . . goodbye, Mother.’

  She didn’t budge, just stared at him. ‘Aren’t you going to ask after your sisters?’

  He’d forgotten the twins in his rush of anger, and sighed. ‘Of course. How are Irene and Lydia?’

  ‘Tiresome. They’re resisting my efforts to find them husbands. They said you told them they didn’t have to marry the men I chose for them.’

  He smiled at the thought that his half-sisters had found the guts to resist his formidable mother. ‘For God’s sake, they don’t have to wed yet. The pair are only sixteen. Allow them to grow up first.’

  ‘They need to be found husbands of means.’

  His eyes sharpened. ‘Has something happened to the inheritance from their father, then?’

  She shrugged. ‘Entertaining in London is costly, especially for three of us.’

  And his mother was excessive in every way. ‘I’ll invite them to stay when Joanna and I are settled back in. Have you heard from Oliver recently?’

  ‘He wrote to you saying his
marriage is in trouble. The fool invested his money in some get-rich-quick scheme, and that girl he married, along with her father, has absconded with it, leaving him to shoulder the blame. I took out a private loan to bail him out of trouble and repay the sum owing. The bank has since dropped the fraud charges against him. You can read about it for yourself. Oliver’s letter is on the drawing-room table at your house.’

  Alex frowned as he stated the obvious. ‘You opened my letter and read it?’

  She shrugged. ‘Oliver is my son, why shouldn’t I read it?’

  ‘Because it was addressed to me.’

  ‘If I hadn’t read it, he’d be in a prison cell now.’

  Alex hated complimenting her, but swallowed his pride to say stiffly, ‘It was good of you to raise the money.’

  ‘All it took was a signature. I used the Charlotte May and the Clara Jane as security. Lord Durrington witnessed it and Henry Wetherall endorsed it.’

  Anger surged, then ebbed, leaving him drained. He paled as the pain in his side came back to nag at him and was hard pushed not to double over and retch. Sweat coated his forehead. ‘You signed over half of the company ships? To whom?’

  ‘Barnard Charsford.’

  ‘That usurer! Are you insane? You didn’t have the authority to do that. How much was the loan, for God’s sake?’

  ‘Considerable. But it didn’t take long to persuade Henry Wetherall that the signature I had was genuine. Your signature is easy to copy and, after all, it was all for the company’s good.’

  ‘Like hell! There were other ways of raising the money than compound a fraud with another fraud. I could have you and Durrington arrested.’

  ‘Don’t be tiresome, Alexander. It would simply be your word against ours. Lord Durrington is a peer. He witnessed your signature and backdated it. And Barnard Charsford is a friend of ours, who will swear on oath that you lodged the document yourself, before you went gallivanting off after that girl.’

  ‘Joanna is my wife, and I’d have you talk of her with more respect.’

  ‘We will never have respect for each other, since we are sworn enemies.’ She gave a small, tight smile and her eyes suddenly became as cold and as hard as ice. ‘May I remind you that Oliver used to own half of this company before your wife persuaded him to sell it cheaply to her. Do you ever wonder how she managed that? Perhaps she spread her legs for him, in the same way she did for you.’

  Clara gave a light laugh when his fists clenched. ‘You didn’t imagine I’d bailed Oliver out with my own money, did you? I haven’t got that much left. The cards have proved unlucky, of late.’

  ‘I did think for a moment that he might have roused some motherly spark in you. I should have known better. And you can only apply your own low standards to the situation, since I never knew who my father was until recently. Certainly not the man you were married to at the time. But don’t imagine Joanna is the same. She has more love and compassion in her little finger than you have in your entire body. Now, get out.’

  And his voice was so hard that Clara left rather quickly.

  Later, Alex heard Henry Wetherall come in. His manager came straight to his office, a wry smile on his face.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Morcant. I wanted to be here when you arrived. There’s something I need to discuss urgently with you, regarding a loan taken out against the company assets.’

  ‘I’ve already talked to my mother, Henry. She forged my signature on the document.’

  Henry looked shocked. ‘Mrs Nash said the loan was authorized by you. I’m sorry. If I’d known I’d have never endorsed it, for the interest rate was extremely high. However, I was led to understand it was an emergency.’

  Alex shrugged. ‘I believe it was. Don’t feel bad about it, Henry, it’s not your fault. But I’d be obliged if you kept what I’ve told you to yourself, for there were extenuating circumstances. I’d have done something similar under the circumstances, I expect, though I’d probably have sold the Nightingale rather than take on such a loan.’

  ‘I did suggest that, but the guarantor wouldn’t consider it, because of her age. It was the clipper ships, or nothing. They threatened to impound them, otherwise. At least the Joanna Rose is free of debt. I insisted that the ships were insured for the sum required, and was able to prove it, so Joanna Rose wasn’t included as collateral.’

  ‘Aye, there’s that, but you can be sure they’ll seize her too if the need arises. We’ll have to try and keep her at sea, with a quick turnaround every time she’s in port, Henry. Fetch the books. It looks as though there’s going to be some hard work in front of me before the company’s solvent again.’

  ‘You could take in a partner, sir, cut your losses. I know Lord Durrington is interested in purchasing a share of the company.’

  Alex tried to keep a sour look from appearing on his face. Durrington was the man who’d fathered him, but Alex detested him, and knew he’d never publicly acknowledge him as his father.

  ‘I could, except for one thing.’ He smiled broadly at his manager. ‘I married Joanna Darsham, and my wife has recently presented me with a healthy son. So, you see, I have his future to prepare for. That future doesn’t include Lord Durrington, believe me.’

  2

  May had ticked over into a flawless June when Joanna threw the door wide to allow Tilda Lind inside the house.

  She stared hard at her childhood companion and friend, amazed by the change in her over the previous year or so. The last time they’d met, Tilda had still been building up her strength after being reduced to the point of starvation and degradation by her family. Joanna could hardly believe this was the same woman.

  Tilda had always been considered plain, with her brown, heavy-lidded eyes and angular face. Now she was glowing. Apart from her trim figure, Tilda’s other claim to beauty was a glossy sweep of brown hair, now almost hidden under her dark blue bonnet.

  ‘Oh, Tilda, you look wonderful.’ Joanna took her in a crushing hug. ‘I’m so happy to see you again.’

  The pair clung to each other, their eyes moist, Joanna remembering a time when they’d only had each other to rely on.

  Eventually, Tilda pushed her to arm’s length and looked at her severely. ‘I should be angry with you for going off to Melbourne without a word. The continent of Australia is so far away and you missed my wedding.’

  ‘There was a good reason for it, Tilda, one I couldn’t tell you about at the time.’ And she still couldn’t tell Tilda all of the story, for the fewer the people who knew the truth, the better. ‘Alex told me all about your wedding. Being married to the Reverend David Lind obviously agrees with you.’

  Tilda’s smile was the most spontaneous and engaging that Joanna had ever seen from her friend.

  She gazed from her to the grave-faced child clinging to Tilda’s skirt. The girl was named Grace and was a child born to Tilda’s elder sister. Mary Rushmore had died from a disease brought about by plying her trade as a prostitute on the streets, when Grace was about four years of age. It was Grace’s good luck that Tilda had been in a position to offer the girl a home.

  Joanna shuddered at the thought of being forced to live such a life. She was thankful she’d had someone to turn to when she’d been in trouble. Neither she nor Tilda would have survived without help.

  ‘Hello, Gracie,’ she said. Smiling at the little girl, Joanna held out the rag doll she’d made for her on the ship. She’d just been stitching the eyes when she’d seen her visitors come up the path. ‘I don’t think you’ll remember me. You look very pretty.’ Grace was pretty, with her dark curls and glowing brown eyes.

  Smoothing her hands down over her smock, the girl gazed up at Tilda.

  ‘It’s all right, dear,’ Tilda said. ‘This is my best friend, Joanna. Remember, I told you all about her?’

  Grace gave her a shy smile as she took the doll and held it tight against her. ‘Joanna went away on a ship,’ she whispered and hid her face in Tilda’s skirt.

  ‘Now I’m back home
again, and we’ll soon become reacquainted. Come through to the drawing room and I’ll fetch some refreshment for us, since Mrs Bates has gone to the market. I’ve got a surprise for you.’

  The most pressing, of course, being the existence of Toby, who had managed to roll off his rug, and who looked pleased with himself as he sucked noisily on his fist.

  ‘You renegade,’ she scolded, ‘You’ll get dirty on the floorboards.’

  Tilda sucked in a slightly shocked breath. ‘A baby! Joanna, is he yours?’

  ‘Of course he’s mine. Because you married a clergyman, don’t you dare go all prissy on me, Tilda. Toby is Alex Morcant’s son. We were married on board ship by Thaddeus Scott on the way home.’ She picked Toby up, cuddling him close, enjoying his milky baby smell and falling in love with him a little bit more. ‘Isn’t he the most beautiful baby in the world?’

  Grace detached herself from Tilda’s side and came to inspect him. Toby stared solemnly at her for a moment or two, then he grinned at her.

  ‘The baby likes me,’ Grace exclaimed, smiling at Tilda.

  ‘Of course he likes you, and so do I.’ Joanna was unable to hide her smile as she stooped to kiss the little girl’s cheek. Handing her son to Tilda to mind, Joanna took Grace by the hand. ‘Come through to the kitchen with me while I make some tea. You can carry the napkins, then open the door for me while I bring the tray through. I hope you like muffins, because my housekeeper has made some. And there’s some gooseberry conserve to spread on them.’

  While they were gone, Tilda gazed at Joanna’s son, wondering why her initial reaction had been disapproval. She couldn’t help but smile at him, though. ‘Your mama is full of surprises, young Toby, but I imagine you’ve learned that already. And how handsome you are, the very image of your papa. I have a surprise for Joanna, too, but not one as great as you are to me.’

  When the pair came back, Tilda noted that Joanna had drawn Grace out in the short time they’d spent in the kitchen. Grace was usually cautious of strangers, but she was chattering away about anything that came into her head. Joanna listened intently to her, any comment she made complimentary to Grace. Joanna had always possessed a knack of making people feel better about themselves.