She covered his chest with a poultice made of barley flour boiled in vinegar and honey, then impregnated with spices. Their physician promised this medicine would be affectual, release the poisons within the body and cool his yellow bile; but toward midnight, David’s breathing became erratic. He complained mightily of a headache, and a rash of red spots spread across his chest and back.
Lewis’ head came up from viewing this rash, his eyes stricken. “Gaol fever.” He backed away with a sob. “I cannot watch him die.”
David wheezed. He raised a hand. “Come here so that I might speak with you on a serious matter.”
Sara started to move off the bed but David rolled his head back and forth. “Nay, do not go,” he gasped. “Stay with me to the end.”
She buried her face in her hands and silently wept.
Lewis went to the bed. He took David’s hand in his. “Aye, old boy?”
“Dear brother, you know of my estate and how it stands. I pray thee take care of my wife and sons, and what remains of any monies go to them.” His voice started out strong but ended in a murmur. His breathing was shallow.
Sara would not have it. “You sound as if you are finished.” She knelt on the floor with the rats and cradled him in her arms, rocking him. “Stay with me. Do not leave.”
“Lewis, I beg thee protect her.” David kissed Sara’s forehead. “I shall always be with you, Dear One.”
She sobbed against him, rocked him back and forth. “Nay, nay. We’ve too much to do.”
* * *
Sara was startled awake. Hours must have passed, for when she opened her eyes, the chamber was filled with the grey light of dawn. Somehow, she’d found her way into bed with David, who was now cold and stiff beside her. She leapt off the bed and brushed the hair from her face, the vermin from her skirts.
He looked at peace. She leaned forward and gazed into his open eyes, so clear and a window to the soul. They stared at the ceiling, vacant. His soul had fled.
She lowered her head and wept.
A key rattled in the lock and Lewis entered, his shoulders slumped with grief. He came to her and took her hands. “James is waiting on a ship of sail where he will return you to Ferryland.”
“Nay, I will not,” she cried, her chin in a stubborn tilt. “I must see me husband properly buried.”
“John and I will make certain he rests in peace but now you must leave England. You have a plantation to run, children to see to. If you stay, you will be drawn into David’s ruin.”
“But what of Baltimore’s suit?”
“It will take years to come to fruition.” He pulled her from the chamber and into the corridor. The guard closed the door.
Sara rattled the latch. “Let me back in.”
Lewis pulled her struggling into his arms.
“Nay, nay.” She keened.
He carried her out of the prison and through the stench filled streets to the Southwark wharves and a row of anchored ships.
“The tide is running to the Estuary,” he hollered over the rushing water. “As soon as you are aboard, she’ll weigh anchor.”
She fought against his restraints. “You cannot make me leave David.”
He shook her. “I can and I will. He was considered a malignant and against the current government. Do you want the same fate?”
Sara slumped against Lewis. He carried her up the gangplank and gave her to James. “Take care of her, baby brother. And take care of thyself.”
James nodded. “I shall.”
As the ship slipped into the Pool of London, Sara ran to the rail. Bells clanged on nearby vessels. The wharves were busy with people going about their lives but David wasn’t with them. The world would be a sorrowful place without him.
She ran up to the poop deck as canvas unfurled. The ship’s keel sliced into the fast current. Sara’s eyes dry of tears, she grasped the rail of the highest deck and watched London recede in the distance.
Chapter Forty-five
Ferryland, Summer 1675
Sara climbed the hill behind the ruins of the old Baltimore plantation. Two years ago on a bright sunny day, when most of the fishing boats were on the grand banks, the Dutch had come ashore and burned the plantation houses and fishery buildings to the ground. Today, stones from those ruins were the foundations of her new home, of her rebuilt fishery.
She had taken from David his singlemindedness to make good what he was not allowed to finish. Today, she had more cod liver-oil vats and fishing rooms, more fishing boats than almost any planter in Newfoundland.
She ran out of breath and paused near the top of the hill. The path was worn from years of coming up here, where she sat on a weathered bench to oversee her life’s work. Now, her heart thundered in her breast from the climb. She tired more easily these days, but she was not yet ready to transfer her holdings to her sons. At the ripe age of sixty-four, Sara still loved to perfect cod-oil that brought the best prices from the apothecaries in London, Boston and New York.
“Sara, halt,” a voice drifted to her from below.
Sara turned to see Frances working her way up the hill. While she waited, the pool filled with her fishing boats. Men scrambled ashore with their catch of the day. Barrels of pure salt garnered from the Atlantic sat near the tables and awaited the processing of the fish. A sea of flakes with dry-salted fish covered the lower green hills.
Gasping, Frances trudged up to her. “I’m getting too old for this.”
Sara laughed. “We should have the lads build us a pulley swing that goes from the bottom all the way up here.”
They walked the rest of the way with arms entwined to the bench Georgie had built for her. She brushed flora leavings from the wood that had cracked over the years. She sat down and breathed in deeply the fresh air, so different from the rank odours of London. After David’s death, she never returned to that bustling city, and was glad of it.
He’d left her in debt, and she lost the Baltimore mansion and lands even as she’d petitioned the king to return them to her. The old martyred king would have wanted his son to leave her the house and lands, but his administers preferred Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore. He had fought for a piece of land and a structure he never intended to see or improve.
Shading her eyes against the sun’s glare, her gaze fell on the rocky shore where the tree had struggled to survive all those years ago. She remembered clearly on her return after David’s death, two young saplings had sprouted from the old withered stump, providing nourishment to the new growth.
Now, the trees were twenty feet tall; their twin columns supported branches that extended over the water and up the hill.
“’Tis like our families.”
“What is?” Frances asked.
Sara pointed. “The trees there, onshore. They stand like pillars to our legacy, our putting down roots on this vibrant Newfoundland. They are the pillars of Avalon Province. “
Frances took her hand and held it. “Nay, sister dear. You and David are the pillars of Avalon.”
The End
Afterward
Lady Sara Kirke lived until 1683 or 1684, leaving a legacy of hard work and entrepreneurship in Newfoundland-Labrador. She was survived by her sons, George, Phillip and David, her sister, Frances and nephews. Lady Sara Kirke’s gravesite is unknown.
Today, she is considered the foremost North American Female Entrepreneur. Awards are given yearly in her honour by Canadian Women in Technology (CanWIT), a National non-profit network designed to boost women’s participation and advancement in the high-growth technology sector.
Bibliography
I would like to thank the following for their wonderful texts in the drafting of this novel.
Abbott, Jacob, History of King Charles the First, with Engravings., Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1848
Cockayne, Emily, Hubbub, Filth, Noise & Stench in England, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2007
Coleman, R.V., The First Frontier, Castle Books, New
Jersey, USA, 2005
Culpeper, Nicholas, Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, To which is now Added, Upwards of One hundred Additional Herbs, with a display of their Medicinal and Occult Qualities; Physcially applied to The Cure of All Disorders Incident to Mankind. London 1653
Davies, J.D. Pepys’s Navy, Ships, Men & Warfare 1649-1689. Seaforth Publishing, Pen & Sword Books, Ltd., Barnsley UK 2008
Gardiner, Samuel Rawson (Editor), Notes of the Judgement delivered by Sir George Croke, in the Case of Ship-Money, Printed from Original 14 April, 1638, for the Camden Society 1875
Hall, John E., Esq. & Clerke, Francis. The Practice and Jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty; in three parts. Baltimore, 1809
Kennedy, John P., Discourse on The Life and Character of George Calvert, The First Lord Baltimore. The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, 1845
Kingsford, William, History of Canada, Canada Under French Rule, Vol. I, [1608-1682], Rowsell & Hutchison, Toronto, 1887
Kirke, Henry, The First English Conquest of Canada, London SE, 1908
Mason, John, Captain. A BRIEF DISCOVRSE of the Newfoundland, with the Situation, temperature, and commodities thereof, inciting our Nation to goe forward in that hopefull Plantation begunne. Printed by Andro Hart, Edinburgh, 1620 (Found in the Publications of the Prince Society, Boston 1887)
Otis, Charles Pomeroy, Voyages of Samuel de Champlain Vol. I, 1567-1635, translated from the French, Boston, 1880
Pedley, Rev. Charles, The History of Newfoundland, From the earliest times to the year 1860, London 1863
Pope, Peter E., Fish into Wine, The Newfoundland Plantation in the Seventeenth Century, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 2004
Prowse, D.W., QC, A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial, and Foreign Records, Macmillan & Co., London & New York, 1895
Shaw, William Arthur & Burthchaell, George Dames, The Knights of England, Volume 1, a complete record from the earliest time to the present day of the knights of all the orders of chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of knights bachelors. Printed and Published for the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, Lord Chamberlain’s Office, St. James’s Palace, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906
Sainsbury, W. Noel, Esq., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty’s Public Record Office. Edited by W. Noel Sainsbury, Esq. London 1860
Steckley, George F., Merhants and the Admiralty Court during the English Revolution. The American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 22, No. 2, (April, 1978). Pp. 137-175
Sulte, Benjamin, F.R.S.C., & David, Senator L.O., A History of Quebec, Its Resources and People, Vol. I., A Canada History Company, Montreal, 1908
The Book of Common Prayer, 1549 edition
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/index.php
http://bcw-project.org/
Katherine Pym books published by Books We Love
Historical Fiction of London during the 1660’s
The Barbers, London 1663
Jasper’s Lament, London 1664
Erasmus T Muddiman, London 1665
About the Author
Katherine Pym and her husband divide their time between Seattle, WA and Austin, TX. She writes rumpus good tales in 1660’s London before the great fire that burned the City to the ground. The decade is so exciting. It is filled with human interest stories as people adjust from one government to another, and all their changing rules and regulations.
You will also find Katherine at
Facebook; Novels-by-Katherine-Pym
Twitter; @KatherinePym
Blog; http://bwlauthors.blogspot.com/
BWL; http://bookswelove.net/authors/pym-katherine/
Jude Pittman is co-owner with Brian Roberts of BWL Publishing Inc. Judith writes mystery and paranormal romance as Jude Pittman. She is the author of the mystery trilogy, Kelly McWinter, PI which includes Deadly Secrets Book 1, Deadly Betrayal Book 2, and Deadly Consequences Book 3. Jude has published the novella Healing Spirits, Bad Medicine with John Wisdomkeeper and the novel To Kill A Songbird, with romantic suspense author Jamie Hill
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