Master Of Paradise

by Virginia Henley

  The ship needed its steam engine completely gone over so that the trip back would be speedy and without mishap, and Nicholas did not feel like kicking his heels in Liverpool, a port with which he was unfamiliar.

  His longing for Amanda was almost unendurable. It seemed more than a separation; it felt more like an amputation, for she was part of him. He had tossed restlessly in his bunk as the ship crossed the Atlantic, and when he did fall into an exhausted sleep, it was filled with voluptuous dreams of his beautiful, fragile Amanda. The dreams were never satisfying-- they were always elusive and very, very frustrating. He swore that when he returned to Paradise, things would be different. He would put an end to the ridiculous facade of the marriage in name only, and take her to his chamber and his bed, where she belonged.

  Once his feet were back on English soil, Nicholas began to long for a glimpse of his old home where he had spent his boyhood. Philip, too, invaded his thoughts. He would be a man of twenty-one now, and he longed to know how his brother had fared.

  Nicholas made up his mind in five minutes. He took the railway train to London, then hired a carriage and drove himself into Kent to Peacock Hall. He tooled his carriage up the driveway and stopped at the coach house. He did not recognize any of the stablemen or gardeners, so he spoke to the man who approached his carriage. "Is Lord Peacock in residence?"

  The man spat on the ground and his voice was filled with contempt. "Lord Peacock? He's not the paymaster here. You'd be wanting Mr. Chetwynd, sir, but he left for London this morning."

  Nicholas, in quelling tones, said, "I most definitely would not be wanting Mr. Chetwynd. Good day." Leaving the man open-mouthed, he drove up the driveway to the house.

  He knocked loudly on the door, and it was a moment or two before a maid appeared. "Is Lord Peacock at home?" he asked shortly.

  "I'm afraid he's not seeing anyone at the moment, sir."

  "Well, I'm not leaving without seeing him. I've come too far for that. Is his mother at home?" he demanded.

  "Mrs. Chetwynd is indisposed, sir," parroted the girl.

  "Nonsense, she'll see me. Tell her it's Nicholas Peacock, and I won't take no for an answer."

  He shivered at the chill in the air, and thought with longing of the warm sunshine of Carolina.

  The maid returned and led him into the drawing room.

  Pamela had been sitting in a dim corner, but as Nicholas entered the room, she stood and took a step toward him.

  She looked as if she could hardly believe her eyes that this magnificent man was the same Nicholas Peacock she had thrown out five years before. He had always been a handsome, well-made youth, but the man who stood before her now was mature and totally self-assured, with an aura of wealth about him.

  As Nicholas looked at Pamela he saw that time had not been kind to her. Her lovely rounded softness had disappeared and she looked thin, almost ill. Then he noticed with a shock that her face carried an ugly bruise down one side, and she held her arm stiffly, as if it pained her.

  "I came to see Philip," Nicholas said bluntly.

  She held herself proudly for one moment, then her face crumpled. "Oh Nicholas, I bitterly regret my actions toward you the day your father died."

  He waited, knowing there was more to come.

  "I married Peter Chetwynd much to my sorrow. He was only after my money, and the estate."

  Nicholas glanced about the walls and noticed quite a few valuable paintings were gone. "The estate and everything in it belongs to Lord Peacock," he said with emphasis.

  "Oh God, it's not that simple. You know Chetwynd is a barrister with a law firm. He appointed himself Philip's legal guardian until he turns twenty-five. Even then I fear he will find some legal loophole to keep everything."

  "He beats you?" Nicholas asked without emotion.

  "Yes," she said low.

  "And Philip?" he asked.

  "He... he drinks, and Chetwynd encourages him.

  "Where is he?"

  "In his room," she said, shamed.

  Nicholas removed his overcoat and went upstairs to his brother's chamber. He found him sprawled on the bed, unconscious and stinking. It took him a full fifteen minutes to revive him with slaps and shakes and finally cold water.

  The slim young man blinked rapidly and said thickly, "Nicko? Nicko? That you, old man?"

  "Yes, it's me. Come on, let's get you on your feet."

  "Knew you'd be back," Philip said with conviction.

  Nicholas helped him to bathe and shave and don fresh clothes. Then he rang for a servant and ordered a large pot of very strong coffee that Philip drank with shaking hands.

  They talked for two hours. Philip told him how Chetwynd had dismissed all the staff, both inside and out, and replaced them with servants loyal only to himself. The art treasures and paintings from the collections were gradually being sold off, and when Philip and his mother had protested, Chetwynd began to abuse her. Philip didn't even get an allowance, but all the liquor he desired was provided free.

  "Philip, you cannot be stripped of your inheritance; you are Lord Peacock. We'll go to London and hire our own law firm. What Chetwynd has done is clearly illegal. Not only will we put an end to this theft, we will bring charges against him."

  "That will take money, Nicko." Philip smiled weakly.

  "I've got money."

  "What about my mother? I can't leave her here," Philip pleaded.

  Nicholas went out onto the landing and called downstairs, "Pamela! Would you come up here, please?"

  She came submissively and Nicholas mocked himself for being a fool. He spoke briskly. "Philip and I are going to London to engage a law firm to untangle the mess you created for him. Your son is loathe to leave you behind to suffer the consequences, so I am willing to also take you. Pack everything you need. It will be many months before you will be able to return here."

  His voice of authority was obeyed without question. In London, Nicholas took three rooms at Claridge's in Brook Street, ordered them dinner in their rooms. He left strict instructions that upon no account were spirits to be served, and took himself off to Temple Bar.

  As he went over the directory, one name, Gardiner & Higgins, struck a dim chord in his memory. He thought perhaps it was a firm his father had used.

  Nicholas was shown in to Simon Gardiner's private office lined with law books. He was greeted with a friendly welcome.

  "Well, Mr. Peacock, I expect you are here about your inheritance."

  Nicholas was at a loss for a moment. "No, actually it's my brother who is Lord Peacock."

  "Quite so, quite so, but I'm speaking of the money your father put in trust for you until you reached your majority." Gardiner smiled.

  Suddenly his father's last words came to him clearly: "Remember... Gardiner... Higgins... money." His mind came back to the present in time to hear Gardiner say, "He invested the money when you were nineteen, so that makes a hundred thousand pounds invested for seven years at twenty percent is almost four hundred thousand pounds," he said in a matter of fact voice.

  "That's over a million dollars." Nicholas was incredulous. "Well," he said, covering his shock, "you've done an excellent job for me. Most commendable. Just carry on as you have, and in the meantime I wish to retain your services to straighten out my brother's inheritance. I don't care how much it takes; any expenses you incur can be deducted from my account.

  Within two days, Nicholas learned that the Peacock inheritance was surrounded by misappropriation and litigation and would take months to straighten out. He authorized Gardiner & Higgins to proceed and decided to take Philip back to Paradise. He'd use the voyage to wean him away from alcohol, and hoped it would restore his health.

  Nicholas thought long and hard about taking Pamela. He didn't want her, yet he thought perhaps he owed it to his father to give his widow one more chance. As well, he didn't wish her in England where she could be involved in God knew what with Chetwynd, so when he explained the situation about the litigation and extended
an invitation, they both accepted with joy.

  Pamela put her hand on his arm. "You are very generous, Nicholas. I know I don't deserve this, but I swear you'll never regret it."

  As he looked at her, he realized the incredible irony of it all. That day he had thought himself penniless, so he had sailed to South Carolina and eventually with both hands forged something fine for himself. Now I have Amanda and Paradise, to say nothing of my wealth. If I had known my father left me money, I would probably never have gone to America. I thank the Fates for taking a hand in my life.

  Before they departed London, Nicholas went to a diamond merchant in prestigious Hatton Garden off Bond Street and bought Amanda a matching set of necklace, bracelet, and earrings.

  The sea voyage, along with Nicholas's strict discipline, rid Philip of his craving for alcohol. The unhealthy pallor was replaced with a tanned glow from wind and sun. Pamela too regained some of her former good looks, but kept quietly to herself for most of the trip.

  When Amanda made her usual evening visit to Miss Louise, she was upset to find the young mare down in the stall. What she feared, labor, had indeed begun. Brutus and Ben had fed and watered the horses and mules, and she appealed to them for help.

  Brute said, "We jist pays dem no-never-mind and dey manages, Miz Mandy.

  "Fetch more clean straw, a couple of blankets, and light me a lantern. I'm going to stay with her."

  They had learned that it was best not to argue with the master's wife. She had a mind of her own.

  The young mare labored through the night with no visible results. Amanda alternated with soothing words and caresses for her beloved Miss Louise, and curses for Nicholas for not returning in time. "Damn him to blazes, the wretch should have been back a week ago, yes and could have been if he'd wanted to!" Then she thought of the dangers of slipping past the blockade and felt her heart hammering with fear. Then after another scream from Miss Louise, she was back cursing Nicholas.

  "Tabernac! Taberush! He let that damned great Sunblood service you and the foal is too big to come." She overlooked the fact that it had probably been her own carelessness in leaving her mare with his stallion.

  By morning she was frantic and knew if the colt wasn't born soon, she would lose the mare. Finally, some sweet-smelling fluid escaped and one spindly leg presented itself. She didn't dare pull on it because she feared harming both mother and colt.

  As Nicholas turned the hired carriage into the lane-way lined with the towering cathedral-like oak trees, he grinned at Philip. "Welcome to Paradise." He stopped the carriage before the white-pillared magnificence of the plantation house.

  Samuel was there to welcome Nicholas home and hand down the luggage to the house servants.

  Philip spoke up. "I'll take the carriage to the stables. I'm dying to look about. You go on in to that wife you've been longing for."

  The moment Philip drove the carriage into the stable, eager hands took over to unhitch the horses, and he strolled through the stables that were even larger than those at Peacock Hall in England.

  Mandy saw the tall young man and cried, "Do you know anything about horses?"

  He looked down at the beautiful girl with the golden eyes filled with apprehension, and the mare obviously in foal. "Yes, actually I do," he replied in his clipped British accent.

  "Thank God," she breathed. "She presented one leg but we'll need two hooves. Get that rope over that stall and we'll see if we can help her."

  Philip was so close to her, he could see the tiny beads of perspiration on her forehead and feel her breath on his cheek as she found two hooves and pulled. The foal began to emerge from its mother, then with a gush, the shoulders and head slipped out along with the birth sack. Miss Louise staggered to her feet visibly relieved, and began to nuzzle the little creature in the straw.

  "Oh, you did it!" Mandy cried, overjoyed. She leaped up and threw her arms about Philip with delirious gratitude.

  He picked some straw from her hair and laughed. "Nay sweetheart, you did it, the laurels are yours." As he looked at her, he knew he had fallen hopelessly in love.

  Amanda blushed. "I'm sorry, I don't even know your name, sir."

  "It's Philip... Philip Peacock."

  Her head flew up and her hand went to her throat. "Nicholas! Nicholas is home?" She was off and running, but not before Philip had glimpsed the exquisite joy that had transformed her.

  Amanda rushed headlong into the beautifully decorated main room of Paradise with its cool peacock blue and ivory furnishings. Nicholas was surrounded by Mammy Lou in her snowy, starched apron and tignon. Jennifer Joy, dressed in frilled primrose muslin, and Philip's mother, Pamela, gowned in elegant gray and pink. They stared at her stained gown and disheveled hair with disbelief and dismay. Only Nicholas seemed unaware of the deplorable picture she presented as his eyes lit up, and he swung her about with delight.

  "Nicholas, however did you get past the blockade?" she cried breathlessly, tears of relief threatening to spill over.

  "I slipped up the Santee River to the Intracoastal Waterway. Didn't even go into Charleston where I figured patrols would be waiting. Sweetheart, you mustn't worry about me. Blockade running is just a game. We have a three-thousand-mile coastline and they can't patrol everywhere at once." Finally, he became aware that the other females in the room were staring with disapproval at his wife. Then he noticed her dishevelment.

  "I'm sorry I look so frightful, but I've been up all night with Miss Louise. She's just foaled-- do come and see."

  Nicholas raised his eyes as Philip entered the room. "Amanda, I want you to meet my brother, Philip."

  She turned and the two young people looked into each other's eyes and a secret passed between them. "We've already met."

  Philip looked at his brother and thought again for perhaps the thousandth time in his life that Nicholas had everything. Looks, strength, a powerful body and now he had Paradise. Philip knew he could bear it all philosophically, yet there was one thing Nicholas had that he would always covet: this girl, this wife, this Amanda Virginia.

  "This is Philip's mother, Pamela."

  "Please forgive my appearance," murmured Amanda. "I'll go up and change at once."

  Mammy let out an audible sigh of relief and followed her up the staircase. This time she knew herself on safe ground; this time she knew Mandy deserved her prating.

  Pamela had been curious in the extreme to meet the wife Nicholas Peacock had chosen for himself. Now that she had seen the girl, she could not comprehend how such a mere slip of a girl with the unruly mane of hair and manners of a hoyden could attract such a virile man, while he had never responded to her own classical beauty. In the brief moment the two females had looked at each other, their dislike had been immediate and intense.

  Jennifer treated Philip and his mother with such exaggerated deference, that it made Philip uncomfortable to be addressed as Lord Peacock, no matter how many times he protested. His mother, however, relished being referred to as Lady Pamela, especially since Nicholas never gave her the title anymore. As a consequence, Pamela got along splendidly with Jennifer. She recognized her own frustrated feelings in the girl where her brother-in-law was concerned. The two had in common a prurience belied by their angelic blonde facades.

  Pamela got on amazingly well with Aunt Billie also, but the meeting with Amanda had been destined to disaster from the outset.

  Amanda was very excited to have Nicholas back at Paradise. She went alternately hot and cold at the thought of being in his arms again, and when she thought of him making love to her, she was breathless with trembling limbs and aching breasts, as Mammy Lou helped her into a pale green lawn fastened with satin ribbons. Amanda was saved from Mammy's lecture by Cleo, who went into labor, so of course Mammy took charge.

  Nicholas and Philip saddled up to tour the plantation, and their horses weren't out of sight before Brandon turned up. He was very dashing in full dress uniform. The South Carolina Cavalry was riding to Virginia soon, and he was
tying up loose ends before he left.

  Brandon had the black twins in tow and tried to discretely turn them over to Jennifer without causing a stir, but Mammy Lou after one glance, knew them for bed wenches. Hands on hips she demanded, "What ah suppose t'do wid dis trashy pair?"

  "Oh Mammy, you should be able to find lots of things for them to do," Jennifer said, "especially with Cleo indisposed for awhile. They must be trained for something."

  Mammy sniffed. "What dey trained fo' ain't fitten f' white ladies t'know."

  Brandon looked appealingly to Amanda.

  "I have a dozen things they can help with. Don't worry about them Brandon." They can do laundry in the mornings since the extra sheets alone will be mountainous with our visitors, and the sultry heat that necessitates clean linen every day. In the afternoons I can put them to hoeing the potato fields. Of course she didn't mention these chores to Brandon or he would have objected to his pampered darlings doing menial work.

  That night, Samuel served dinner for seven, with Nicholas at the head of the table, his brother Philip and Pamela on either side. Amanda was seated opposite her husband at the foot of the table, flanked by Jennifer and Brandon. Aunt Billie was squeezed in between.

  Philip was in rare good spirits. He felt almost reborn since Nicholas had come into his life again. He had become so hopeless and now he was supremely grateful. He rose formally to offer a toast. "To Nicholas Peacock, the most honorable man I know."

  Jennifer raised her glass and said sweetly, "Daddy always knew Nicholas was an honorable man. He placed so much trust in him. He gave him his little girl when she was left motherless. Nicholas pledged his honor as a gentleman to protect Amanda with a marriage in name only."