Wind of Destiny

by Christopher Nicole

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she assured him. ‘I wish I were coming with you.’

  He kissed her. ‘War is no place for women,’ he told her. ‘There will be a lot of hard marching.’

  But not for you, she thought, as she accompanied him down the stairs; at the foot of the front steps there were several horses ready. Jack was already in the saddle, together with the three overseers who were apparently lieutenants in his ramshackle command. Jack wore his ordinary clothes, although he had two revolvers strapped to his waist, and a machete rather than a sword. With his straw hat he suddenly reminded her of pictures she had seen of Wild West bandits of thirty years before.

  Don Arnaldo was wearing a uniform very similar to Rafael’s, and looked extremely self conscious. ‘Now Carlotta,’ he said, as his wife began to sniff. ‘I shall be back in a fortnight, or at least, I will send word before then.’

  ‘As I will to you,’ Rafael promised Toni. The remarkable thing was that she felt not the slightest desire to cry. Yet she was aware of a great feeling of breathless emptiness in her belly, like jumping off a high wall into the dark, knowing that there should be firm ground underneath her and that she only needed to land properly — but not knowing if someone might not have placed some impediment in the way of that safe landing.

  ‘Time to go,’ Jack said.

  Toni went to the top of the steps. ‘I shall wish you Godspeed,’ she said.

  He raised his hat. ‘My thanks, Dona Antoinette. When I return, the flag of the free Cuba will be flying over Santiago. Adios.’

  ‘Adios,’ she said, and was caught into Rafael’s arms for a last kiss as he hurried down the stairs to mount his horse. ‘Oh, adios.’

  Don Arnaldo was also mounted, and at the foot of the hill the two hundred peons of General Lisle’s command were formed up in a very rough column of fours, every man armed with a machete.

  ‘But they have no rifles,’ Toni gasped.

  ‘Their rifles are waiting for them, in the hills,’ Christina told them.

  And do they know how to use them? Toni wondered. How could they, when they had never been able to practise? They were being led off to fight regulars in the most haphazard and disorganised fashion. She looked at Christina, and Christina looked back, almost defiantly. She knows this has to be a disaster, Toni thought. Oh, God, she knows that. Then she was terrified, and wanted to call them back … but they were already halfway down the hill. At the foot, Rafael rose in his stirrups and waved his topee.

  Then the column marched off, leaving little eddies of dust behind it. It marched first of all through the village, where the women wept, those men left behind cheered, dogs barked, and little boys ran and imitated the marching to either side, carrying sticks in place of rifles. Beyond the village the cattle were waiting under the care of six mounted peons; Don Arnaldo had decided to take half the herd, to keep his men supplied with meat, at least, on the march.

  The three women stood on the verandah and watched the men disappear over the low hills behind the plantation, leaving only the dust behind them, hanging on the still air. Then they looked at each other, and turned to Salvador, who stood behind them, a tray in his hand, and three glasses.

  ‘With respect, senora,’ the butler said to Dona Carlotta, I thought perhaps an eggnog … ’

  ‘You are a treasure, Salvador,’ Carlotta told him.

  Toni thought so too. The eggnog was laced with brandy, and warmed both her stomach and her mind. ‘They can do it, can’t they?’ she asked Carlotta.

  ‘They must do it,’ her mother-in-law said, fiercely.

  *

  The plantation seemed unnaturally quiet after the men had gone. No work had been detailed for this day, but that evening Martinez, the senior of the remaining overseers, rode up the hill to outline his programme for the following day, as he had apparently been told to do every evening by Don Arnaldo. Dona Carlotta listened gravely, as did Toni, neither of them really understanding what he was talking about. While Christina sat in a comer and sewed, even in the evening. Toni had read Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, and found that Christina was beginning to remind her of Madame Defarge.

  Only Christina gave the impression of sitting around waiting for her own execution, not that of any aristocrat. But then, she was an aristocrat.

  Toni felt a sudden intense loneliness, a desire to be back in the safety of Long Island, or at least to feel the embracing protection of the McGann family, and that of the United States citizenship which was apparently so precious, around her. ‘I wonder if I should not wire Ma and Pa,’ she ventured to Carlotta.

  ‘How can you do that?’ Carlotta asked. ‘It would mean going into Santiago, and what could you tell diem that would not immediately be known to General Linares?’

  ‘Um,’ Toni commented. But she knew her mother-in-law was right. As Ma and Pa had been deliberately kept in the dark about what was going on, the whole situation would now have to be explained to them. ‘It’s just that … they are going to be so anxious, when they hear about it.’

  ‘By the time they hear about it, it will all be over,’ Carlotta asserted with determined confidence. ‘We will hold Santiago, and you will be able to telegraph the news of our triumph.’

  Having not slept at all the previous night, Toni slept very heavily indeed that night, but had the most terrible blood coloured dreams. The next day was Sunday, and they rode into Daiquiri in die carriage, as they normally did, followed by most of the peons and their wives, on mules, horses, in carts, or on foot, again as usual, for Mass. Father Jaime greeted them with his customary effusiveness — the Diazes were his most important parishioners — and chatted with them before the service. ‘Don Arnaldo is not well?’ he inquired.

  ‘We have lost some cattle,’ Carlotta told him. ‘And Don Arnaldo has taken some men into the hills to get them back. Rafael has gone with him.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Father Jaime.

  ‘They will be back in time for Easter,’ Toni said in gallant support. And hoped she was right; Easter was just a week away.

  ‘To lie to a priest is a deadly sin,’ Christina hissed as they took their places.

  ‘He already knows the truth,’ Carlotta said.

  Toni realised she was right when, during the prayers, Father Jaime offered a special blessing for Don Arnaldo and his son, and all those who had accompanied them, wherever they might be. ‘He does know,’ she whispered to Carlotta. ‘He knows exactly what is happening.’

  ‘I should think all Santiago Province knows by now,’ Carlotta replied.

  After the service, Toni stared at the soldiers of the garrison, many of whom had attended the Mass, in their smart blue and white uniforms. Did they know, she wondered? But they were as polite as ever. Although surely they could see that only half the normal number of peons from Obrigar had attended the service.

  When they got home, the waiting was unbearable. They sat on the verandah and stared up at the hills, and listened, and jumped every time there was a peal of distant thunder, as there often was at this time of the year, as the land began to heat up after the brief, mild Cuban winter. ‘They are miles away by now,’ Carlotta told her.

  It rained all Monday, and Toni wondered how the ‘army’ was faring, drenched to the skin and tramping through the mud. But Tuesday dawned fine, and she sat on the upstairs verandah and watched the peons trailing into the fields, less cheerful than usual — they all had fathers or brothers or cousins with the rebels. And then she put down her needle and sat up, her heart seeming to constrict as she watched the horsemen in the distance, coming up the great central track that led from Daiquiri to the heart of the plantation, mud flicking away from their horses’ hooves.

  She got to her feet and ran inside. ‘Dona Carlotta,’ she cried. ‘Dona Carlotta. Lumbrera is here.’

  Carlotta came out of the kitchen, Christina out of her bedroom. ‘Leave the talking to me,’ Carlotta said. ‘Remember. And smile, no matter what he says.’

  ‘Or does?’ Christina asked, quietly.
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  Carlotta gazed at her. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Or does. Remember. We too have a part to play. Go back to your rooms and do whatever you were doing, Toni … ’

  ‘I have my sewing here,’ Toni said, and carried her bag on to the front verandah, by the steps, from where she could watch the troop approaching. She counted twenty men, with Lumbrera out in front. Their harnesses jingled as their swords slapped their horses’ sides and their rifles rose and fell on their backs. They were the enemy.

  But they had always been the enemy.

  Carlotta came outside, wiping her hands on a towel, ostentatiously — as if Dona Carlotta had ever taken any part in the actual cooking on the plantation. ‘Buenos dias, Colonel,’ she called. ‘Bien?’

  The troop came to a halt. Immediately before arriving in front of the house, it had fanned out, so that it covered the whole front, with enough men left over to watch the side walls. ‘No, senora, it is not good,’ Lumbrera said, dismounting. ‘Have you not heard the news?’

  ‘News?’ Carlotta asked. ‘What news?’

  Lumbrera stamped on the bottom step to remove some mud from his boots, then came up to them. ‘Good day to you, Dona Antoinette.’

  Toni inclined her head. ‘What is this news, Colonel?’ she asked, taking her cue from her mother-in-law.

  ‘You have not heard that the traitor, Marti, and the brigand, Gomez, have landed in Cuba?’

  ‘Good heavens,’ Carlotta remarked. ‘Whatever for?’

  ‘Ha ha. They have some men with them, Haitian desperadoes, and are calling on all Cubans to unite and drive out the Spanish. Can you believe that? Some people will never learn.’

  ‘You would think they would remember the last time,’ Dona Carlotta agreed.

  ‘Yes. But there can be no doubt that there are misguided people, criminals, who will follow their lead, at least until we have shot one or two of them. Dona Carlotta, it is necessary for me to speak with Don Arnaldo. It is possible for you to call him from the fields?’

  ‘Alas, Colonel,’ Carlotta said. ‘I cannot. He is not here.’

  ‘Not here?’ The colonel frowned at her.

  ‘Some men from the hills, undoubtedly those bandits who are led by Pedro Garcia, came down the other night and drove off half of our cattle. Don Arnaldo has led a posse in pursuit of them.’

  Lumbrera gazed at her for several seconds, then nodded. ‘He should have sent for me. However, I hope he catches them. Then I will speak with Don Rafael.’

  ‘Rafael has gone with his father,’ Toni said, beating Carlotta to it.

  ‘I see. Well, then, let me speak with Senor Lisle.’

  ‘He went with my husband and my son,’ Carlotta said.

  Lumbrera looked from one to the other. ‘When was this?’

  ‘Two nights ago.’

  Lumbrera nodded again. ‘Then they should be back soon. I will call back in a day or two.’ He flicked his boots, made as if he was about to leave, and then checked. ‘But in the circumstances … I am sorry, senora, but I must ask you to write down what you have just told me.’

  ‘Write it down?’

  ‘Of course. It is simply a record to show General Linares, to prove to him that I did come here seeking Don Arnaldo, and have not just made up this story about cattle thieves, eh? At this time the general is very anxious to know where everybody is, you understand.’

  ‘Yes, I quite understand,’ Carlotta said. ‘I will write what you require.’ She went inside.

  No, Toni wanted to say. Refuse to write it down. If you do not write it down, it is your words against his. But she said nothing, and smiled at the colonel instead, as she had been instructed to do. ‘It is a warm day,’ she remarked. ‘Will you not take a glass of punch?’

  ‘I am on duty,’ Lumbrera said, and stared at her. ‘Do you understand, senora, that it is a serious offence, a very serious offence, to lie to a police officer at a time like this? All Santiago, all Cuba, has been placed under martial law. Such law deprives the ordinary citizen of any rights which might be considered to interfere with the safety of the state. Even an American citizen might find herself in very bad trouble if she broke such a law.’

  ‘I am not in the habit of breaking laws, Colonel,’ she said, refusing to lower her gaze.

  ‘I am sure you are not, senora,’ he agreed. ‘But sometimes those in whom we place our trust break the laws, without our even knowing of it, and then we misguidedly attempt to protect them from the consequences of their crimes, and become as guilty as they. Rebellion against the government is a terrible crime, senora. It strikes at the very roots of society, and then that society demands that it be destroyed, by any means. When I am commanded to find a revolutionary, I must do this thing, regardless of whom I hurt. And the easiest way to do this thing is to arrest the woman of the outlaw, and question her. And do you know something, senora, I enjoy doing that. Because she is as criminal as her man, if she will not co-operate with the police, with the government. When they resist me, I am happy. I know I will break them in the end. I have devised a trick with a candle … but I will not distress you by relating it. It is bad for married women, but much worse for virgins.’ Still he stared at her.

  ‘Are you trying to frighten me, or disgust me?’ she asked. ‘If you were ever to lay one of your filthy fingers on me, you would have the United States Navy bombarding Santiago within twenty-four hours.’

  ‘Senora,’ he said in mock horror. ‘Such a thought never crossed my mind. You are not the wife of a revolutionary.’

  ‘Here we are,’ Carlotta said, returning on to the verandah. ‘I have written that my husband, my son, and our chief overseer, have ridden into the hills with a body of armed peons in search of the rustlers who have taken some of our cattle. You are welcome to inspect the herd, Colonel.’

  ‘Why, Dona Carlotta, that would be to imply that I do not believe you,’ Lumbrera protested, taking the notepaper and looking at it. ‘You have not dated this.’

  ‘Ah,’ Carlotta said. ‘I will do that.’ She went back into the house, with the paper.

  Lumbrera followed her, and Toni followed him. She did not feel she wanted to let him out of her sight, in case he began to threaten Carlotta. And what a horrible threat. A candle?

  ‘Nor have you signed it,’ the colonel said, standing in the doorway of the office.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Carlotta said, and wrote her name at the bottom.

  ‘Now I would like you to write something for me, Dona Antoinette,’ Lumbrera said.

  Toni glared at him.

  T would like you to write, on that same paper, “I swear that the above statement made by my mother-in-law is true,” and then sign it.’

  Toni looked at Carlotta. She wanted to say, ‘Go to hell.’

  ‘That does not seem very difficult, my dear,’ Carlotta said.

  Toni took the pen, dipped it in the inkwell, and wrote very carefully, trying to conceal the trembling of her hand.

  ‘You have not signed it,’ Lumbrera reminded her.

  Toni added her name.

  ‘Where is Senorita Christina?’ Lumbrera asked.

  ‘I am here,’ Christina said from the head of the stairs.

  ‘Senorita, how nice to see you. I was afraid you might have ridden off into the hills with your father and brother. Will you come down here? I would like you to write something for me.’

  Oh, Lord, Toni thought. Oh, Lord. We are damned. Quite damned.

  Christina came down the stairs with a rustle of skirts.

  Lumbrera kissed her hand. ‘Will you write on this paper, under Dona Antoinette, “I swear that the above statements made by my mother and sister-in-law are true.”’

  Christina hesitated, and gave her mother a glance. Carlotta nodded, and Christina picked up the paper and read it, then dipped the pen and wrote.

  ‘Now sign it,’ Lumbrera said.

  Christina obeyed.

  ‘Thank you very much,’ Lumbrera said. He carefully blotted the ink, then folded the paper and put it in h
is pocket. ‘That is very kind of you. Of you all. It would make a policeman’s work so much more simple if everyone would co-operate as willingly as you three ladies. I will bid you good day.’

  ‘Would you not like to search the house?’ Carlotta asked.

  Lumbrera smiled. ‘What could I possibly find, Dona Carlotta? No, no, with this paper of yours in my pocket, my visit to Obrigar has been entirely satisfactory and worthwhile.’

  They stood together to watch them ride away.

  ‘Pompous little man,’ Carlotta commented. ‘How easy it is to hoodwink fools like that.’

  Toni wondered if she knew anything about the candles. ‘I don’t think he is so foolish as he seems,’ she said. ‘We have all just sworn to a lie, in time of revolution. That could be interpreted as aiding the rebels.’

  ‘Oh, really,’ Carlotta said. ‘He first of all has to find out it is a lie.’

  ‘I think he is going to endeavour to do that now,’ Toni said.

  ‘We still cannot be condemned for protecting our own husbands and father and brother,’ Christina insisted.

  ‘And Jack Lisle?’ Toni asked. She looked from one to the other of the women. It is far worse for virgins, Lumbrera had said. She shivered, then went upstairs to her room. She had a sudden overwhelming sense of looming disaster.

  *

  The feeling grew all week, and began to spread, amongst the peons and their wives, even if Toni never communicated any of her fears. But when they attended church on Good Friday morning, the congregation was seething with rumours and whispers, of how the rebels had met the regulars in a pitched battle, and gained a great victory. Today the soldiers of the garrison were less friendly. None of them attended the Mass, and instead they patrolled the harbour front and the railway station, armed and anxious.