‘I certainly shall.’ She had seen how her appearance at the old lady’s bedside, that morning, had agitated her. No doubt about it, she had put the worst possible construction on that tableau she had chanced on the night before.
Sam Everett volunteered to go into Savannah for the medicine. ‘I’ll send it out for you, Mrs. Purchis and take myself off your hands. The last thing you want is to be cumbered with a guest at such a time.’
‘Nonsense.’ That was too brisk for Josephine, but he would not know. She gave him a languishing glance. ‘I need you, Mr. Everett. Think of my situation, all alone out here, with two invalids and a parcel of useless servants. Do, please, come back. I know my husband would wish it. And I promise to make the most complete use of you. To begin with, will you see Mr. Updyke for me — my husband’s agent — and explain that he will have to see to everything for a while.’
‘Of course.’ Eagerly. ‘Any other commissions, ma’am? Any notes for your friends?’
Here was a pitfall. Which of her friends would Josephine write to? She put a distracted hand to her brow. ‘I don’t know what to say, Mr. Everett. God knows what scandal broth is brewing about me in town today. You will act the part of a true friend both to Hyde and to me if you will do what you can to stifle it.’
‘Yes.’ He looked suddenly much younger than Hyde. ‘But what shall I say?’
‘Oh!’ Impatiently. ‘Anything to the purpose. You must surely know on what pretext they fought?’
‘Some angry words spoken at your party the other night.’
‘Of course. I remember them. Well, there’s your cue. And a moving picture of me, if you please, acting the devoted nurse.’
‘But you are.’
‘Of course I am. What in the world else can I do, so circumstanced? And for God’s sake, Mr Everett, let none of my dear friends decide to come and pay me calls of condolence. Tell them what you will, but keep them away.’
‘I’ll do my best.’ Doubtfully. ‘Though how any friend of yours could stay away at such a time ... And by the way, which ladies do you wish me to visit on your behalf?’
Here it was again. Fatal to give him the wrong names. She pulled a handkerchief out of her sleeve and put it to her eyes. ‘Mr. Everett, I’m distracted with anxiety for my husband! And his aunt! I’ve had no sleep!’ She was actually beginning to feel sorry for herself. ‘And we need that medicine! Go to Mrs. Scarbrough.’ Here was inspiration. ‘Give her my fondest love; tell her all; beg her to make my excuses to my other friends. Tell her you will bring news to town daily of how my invalids go on. I know how anxious his friends will be for Hyde.’
‘Yes,’ he said with a kind of triumphant obstinacy. ‘And so they are bound to call and inquire after him.’
She stamped her foot. ‘I won’t have them! Have I not enough on my hands as it is? I tell you, Mr. Everett, if you let them come, I shall make you see them for me.’
‘But, ma’am …’
‘Don’t stand there saying “But, ma’am,” to me. Get to Savannah, Mr. Everett; use your wits; tell Mrs. Scarbrough Miss Abigail has a putrid fever. That will keep them away.’
It did. An oddly peaceful week followed, with Juliet dividing her time between nursing Hyde and finding her way, quietly, round the house and grounds. Showing Sam Everett about in the evenings was a useful pretext for this. He went into Savannah every morning and brought her back, in the evening, what she suspected of being heavily expurgated accounts of the inevitable scandal. Judge James, paying his daily visit the Thursday after the duel, actually accepted a glass of madeira.
‘What’s this about a putrid fever?’ His quizzical eyes met hers.
‘Oh, pshaw,’ she made big eyes at him. ‘I had to keep my dear, inquisitive friends away somehow. You don’t mind, do you, Judge? I’ve enough on my hands without all the world coming to watch me act the nurse.’
‘And very well you do it, Mrs. Purchis.’ The compliment seemed to surprise him almost as much as it did her. ‘A few more days,’ he went on, ‘and I think we will be able to pronounce our patient out of danger.’
‘And Miss Abigail?’
‘Oh.’ He hesitated. ‘She’s getting stronger every day. I think she just feels like keeping to her room for a while.’
‘I see.’ She made an eloquent little face. ‘We must just hope, Judge, that my husband goes on well enough so I can take him back to town soon, before Miss Abigail is permanently bedridden from avoiding me.’
He looked at her soberly. ‘It would not be right, Mrs. Purchis, to let you hope for anything of the kind. Your husband won’t be fit for town this side of February.’
‘February? He’ll be ill till then? And need nursing?’
‘Well, of course.’ His impatient tone told her that he thought her weary already of her role as nurse. ‘I am afraid you must resign yourself to the quietest possible Christmas.’
‘Oh, Christmas! Who cares about that?’ And then, belatedly, remembering, ‘It’s dull as ditchwater here anyway. I’ll be glad to be excused.’
Only after he had gone did she face the real cause of her anxiety. Hyde would need nursing, careful nursing, for weeks to come. And any minute now she expected to hear from Josephine.
***
The summons came a few days later, an impatient scrawl written from the house beyond Ruffton. ‘What am I to do, Anne?’ Juliet turned to her only confidante.
‘You’ll have to write and explain. With the master ill, you can’t possibly be gone so long as it would take to get up there and back. Satan and the men can fetch her to the old wharf on the far side of the island. In the afternoon, when Mr. Hyde’s asleep and Mr. Everett’s in town.’
‘Yes.’ Doubtfully. ‘I suppose that would do. But, Anne: Hyde — the nursing ...’
‘Don’t you trouble yourself about that, petite, I’ll take care of him. You know as well as I do that Madame Josephine would never have done what you have. Lucky you’ve had the sense to keep her friends away. And that’s another thing: she’s all kinds of plans for Christmas. You couldn’t possibly manage that.’
‘No ... No, of course not.’ And then, ‘You mean, she’ll go into Savannah and leave him here ill?’
‘But naturally. And a good thing too. I can get on with looking after the master, and Miss Abigail can come downstairs again.’ A sharp glance for Juliet. ‘You’d best warn your cousin about her — and about Mr. Everett.’
Juliet sighed. ‘I’ve made nothing but trouble. It’s time I was gone.’ And yet, how loath she was to leave.
***
Well,’ Josephine summed it up impatiently. ‘A proper muddle you’ve made of things, and no mistake. Hyde wounded, a stranger I’ve never seen in my life installed as a house guest, old Abigail in a miff ... Have you any other pleasant surprises for me?’ They were rapidly changing clothes in the tumbledown house by the old wharf. ‘Petticoats and all I suppose,’ she said crossly. ‘Alice would be bound to notice.’
‘I’m afraid so.’ Juliet handed over hers and stood, shivering in the damp room, while Josephine fumbled with a knotted ribbon. ‘Jo,’ she went on, ‘you do realise, don’t you, just how ill Hyde is?’
‘I should by now. If you’ve told me once, you’ve told me five times! Bed until February; constant care; old Judge James every day! Aren’t I just the lucky one! And the devil of it is, if he should die, the estate goes to that nephew of his in Charleston, with old Abigail as tenant for life. And then where’s my base of operations!’
‘How can you be so heartless!’
‘Heartless! You’re a fine one to talk. Who got us into this fix, I’d like to know?’
‘If you’d only told me about Mr. Fonseca —’
‘Why should I? He was safe in Florida, I thought.’ The ribbon broke in her hands, and she threw the petticoat at Juliet. ‘So long as I live, I’ll never forgive you for that, Ju. The only man —’ She stopped. ‘The only entertaining man in Savannah, and you get him killed.’
‘That’s enough.
’ Juliet’s hands were shaking so that she could hardly dress herself. ‘I knew, all along, that I should never have agreed to this imposture. You’re right: it’s caused nothing but trouble. So here’s an end of it. If you’ll give me the money for my passage back to France, I’ll be grateful. If not, I must just manage as best I may.’
‘But, Ju!’ Josephine’s horrified face emerged from her gown. ‘You can’t fail me now! I’ve got the ship; she’s to be in Charleston some time after Christmas. For fitting out. I’ll have to go then.’
‘I can’t help it.’ Every instinct told her that this was what she must do. The less she wanted to, the more essential it was. She really ought, she thought wryly, to be grateful to Josephine for forcing the decision she had been fighting. ‘You’ll just have to think of some excuse for going to Charleston. There are always the races. I’m sorry, Jo, it’s finished. Only — you will take care of Hyde, won’t you? He’s so weak still and all my fault.’ She was close to tears.
‘Well, I’ll be jiggered!’ Josephine shook her curls into place. ‘You’ve never lost your head to that dry-as-dust husband of mine! Oh, Ju, what a little fool you are. And what a pity,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘You’d suit him much better than I do. The two of you could talk education and politics and the rights of man till the cotton was picked. Oh, well,’ she gave her pretty little Gallic shrug, ‘time’s running on. I must get back to the delightful household you have arranged for me, and you to that gothic ruin of yours. You’ll find old Sukey has put it in some kind of order for you. As to your passage to France; think it over, child, think it over. For one thing I can’t possibly lay my hands on the money for the moment, having spent my last penny on the Liberty. My ship,’ she explained, ‘a suitable name, is it not? Keep calm, love, don’t go fretting yourself about Hyde. He’ll come about, you see if he doesn’t. And I’ll visit you from Savannah just as soon as I get fixed there for Christmas. Time then to think of your plans. And one thing, pet. Do pray, remember, if Hyde is really so ill as you say, how bad it must be for him to have this little trick of ours exposed. “No excitement”, you keep saying. Well, do you not think it might excite him just a trifle to learn what a fool we have made of him between us? So, for all our sakes, keep quiet, child, in that quiet house of yours. I’ll visit you as soon as I can — after Christmas.’
‘Very well.’ She was too tired to argue. ‘I’ll wait a while. And keep quiet, as you say.’ The light was beginning to fail. Hyde would wake soon, expecting the broth she always gave him now. ‘But don’t think I shall change my mind, Jo,’ she warned, ‘for I shan’t. Oh, by the way, I helped myself to a bundle of books from the library, to help pass the time. I’ll return them when you come.’
Josephine laughed. ‘You know how little I shall miss them. And it doesn’t sound as if Hyde will be resuming his studies for some time to come. Good-bye, pet, and take care of yourself. I’ll go first. No need for more of them than must to see the two of us together.’
‘But, Jo —’ She was gone. Watching through the broken window, Juliet saw her say a casual word to Noah, the groom, who had been waiting with the horse she had ridden across the island. Then she was up, and riding away down the track across the cotton fields, with never a backward glance.
Juliet bit her lips. So many things she should have said. Too late now. And no time either to be thinking of the cruel, casual things Josephine had said. Or how true they were. She picked up the warm shawl her cousin had been wearing and had a moment’s sick revulsion at the too-familiar scent that clung to it. Then, swinging it round her shoulders, she pushed open the crazy door and walked down to the wharf where Satan and his team of rowers were waiting.
***
Old Sukey was delighted to see her. ‘Gives you the horrors, here on your lone. But you look tuckered out, missy. Why not get right into bed and I’ll bring you a bite there?’
It was a delicious idea. Tucked snugly into the bed Sukey had warmed with a hot brick, Juliet had time to notice the ‘Some kind of order’ Josephine had spoken of. The whole place had been changed beyond recognition. The bed was comfortable, the furniture adequate and the hot meal Sukey brought her delicious. And she was tired, almost too tired to eat. How many nights was it that she had either watched with Hyde, or got up half-way through to make sure all was well with him? Trying to count, trying not to remember, she let the easy tears trickle down, and fell asleep.
That was the oddest Christmas Juliet ever spent. The weather was mild, like spring-time in France, and she sat out of doors a good deal, warmly wrapped in a shawl, reading and resting after the strain of what she had been through. She and Josephine had agreed, from the start, that it would be best for her not to go far from the house. Sukey did the shopping in Ruffton, as Anne had done before, except that old Sukey grumbled a good deal about the length of the walk, and never got back without reminding Juliet of the state of her ‘poor feet’.
She also brought lurid details of the ‘Purchis Scandal’ which had inevitably reached Ruffton by now. ‘They make more of it than most,’ she explained. ‘Along of Mr. Hyde’s being such a quiet kind of gentleman. But Miss Josephine, she’s riding high over the lot of them. Christmas parties and I don’t know what all.’
‘She’s in Savannah then?’
‘Where else?’
‘And what do they say about the master?’
Sukey shrugged immense shoulders. ‘Who knows? Winchelsea’s a long row from Savanny.’
Surely bad news of Hyde would have reached town? And yet, it was with a curious feeling of confirmed expectation that she saw Satan and his team of rowers pull in towards the wharf one gloomy day of early January. Forgetting all about the rowers, she ran down over the bluff to meet Satan. ‘What is it?’ The fact that Josephine was not with them was bad news in itself.
‘Bad news, missy.’ His words confirmed her fears. ‘The master’s worse. Miss Anne sent us for you — and Noah to town by land for the missis. Won’t she just be mad at having to come all the way round by road!’ The idea obviously gave him pleasure. ‘You to wait for her at the old wharf.’
‘But why? What for? I don’t understand, Satan.’
‘Miss Anne said, don’t ask why, just come.’
‘Very well.’ What else could she say? ‘I’ll get my shawl, and tell Sukey.’
‘Don’t waste no time, missy. It takes longer to here than to Savanny, even by road. And the mistress don’t much like waiting.’
‘No.’ She ran up to the house, explained as much as she herself understood to Sukey, promised that she would be back before night fell, and was running back over the bluff winding her shawl round her shoulders as she went, before Sukey had really drawn breath for the inevitable protest.
The mild weather had brought, already, the first hints of spring. Along the river banks the drab hues of cane brakes and evergreens were lighted up, here and there, by the first delicate green and soft brown of new shoots. Juliet hardly noticed. Half consciously, she was aware that the rowers were singing a gloomy song today:
‘Die on the field of battle,
Die on the field of battle,
Glory in my soul.’
Somewhere, not very far off, on the Carolina shore, a forest fire was burning; she could smell it in the fresh wind and see the heavy pall of smoke overhead. They burned for days sometimes, Sukey had told her. But at least, up there, it was no threat to Winchelsea. They were in the main river now and she saw, with relief, that the tide was low. Josephine’s carriage would have no difficulty in getting over the corduroy bridge that connected the island, of Winchelsea with the main land.
‘Die on the field of battle.’ Hyde was worse. If he died, now, it would be twice her fault, for causing the trouble in the first place, and for leaving him against her better judgment. And yet, what else could she have done? Oddly, at this point, she realised that she had made up her mind about something, without even consciously considering it. She had told Sukey that she would be back before nightfall. Well
, poor Sukey would have a long wait. Because, whatever Josephine said, whatever happened, she was going back to nurse Hyde.
And then? She pulled her shawl more tightly round her, against the beginning of the sea breeze. The future must take care of itself. Hyde’s illness was her responsibility, and she was going to shoulder it. Her heart curiously lighter at the thought, she shouted back to Satan, ‘Tell them to sing the other song; the one about Jenny!’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ Odd to think he had no idea what her name was.
So it was to the rousing tune of ‘Jenny shake her toe at me,’ that the boat finally pulled into the old wharf. Anne was standing there, waiting, her face drawn and anxious in the gathering dusk.
‘But who’s with Hyde?’ Juliet asked as she jumped ashore.
‘Alice. I gave him an extra draft. He should be quiet for an hour or so more. Yes, wait, Satan, thank you.’ Anne was invariably courteous to the servants. ‘Quickly.’ She led the way towards the tumble-down house. ‘You’re the only one who can persuade her. She’s in a bad mood, I’m afraid; summoned so suddenly, and with a party on tonight; and, of course, the land journey. Even you’ll have trouble.’
‘Persuade her to what?’ But in her heart she knew.
‘That you must come back and nurse the master. He won’t mind anyone else. I’ve done my best, God knows.’ She broke suddenly into French, a sure indication of her state of mind. ‘Night after night I’ve sat up with him; given him his broth, just the way you did. Everything. No use. He won’t stay still, he shifts the bandage, he works himself into a fever, and talking, all the time talking, le pauvre.’
‘What about?’
‘Josephine.’ Anne faced her with it, pausing for a moment in the derelict garden. ‘Make no mistake about that, petite. It’s her he calls for, but it’s not her can save his life. I almost laughed, this morning, when Judge James and madame must be sent for. Much use she is in a sickroom. But that’s the way it is, ma mie. If he’s to be saved, you’re the one can do it, and then —’
All for Love Page 10
