Killing's Reward

by Andrew Wareham

  Samuel thought it to be an excellent suggestion. The boys would be put in the way of earning the highest of wages – slavers paid more than any other trade – and could indeed make their fortunes, provided only that they survived the fevers and the lesser hazards of the business.

  “You are very good to me, Mr Hayes! I am indebted to you.”

  Samuel returned to Thornehills wondering just what favour Hayes would one day demand in return, knowing he would pay it instantly. Probably it would have something to do with the new canals, when they were finally dug. Hayes knew that Samuel intended to float a number of narrowboats and quite possibly expected – and would receive - favourable treatment for his own goods.

  That was for another day, and possibly five or ten years hence. For the while, he had land to dispose of and more to purchase if he was to obtain his rights of way. He visited Farmer Perry to assure him that the two sons of the late Farmer Young had been properly disposed of.

  “And right glad I am to hear that, Mr Heythorne. We have done our Christian duty by those boys, sir!”

  “So we have, Farmer Perry. We have indeed!”

  “You did mention, Mr Heythorne, as how you was wanting to put in some sort of track for the old pit of thine, sir…”

  “I did, Farmer Perry. I want a part of your land, sir. Next to the road and as much as eighty yards wide. Your holding stretches along the river for three parts of a mile but is rarely as much as two furlongs wide, the valley itself being none so broad, so I am demanding nearly a quarter of your land. In exchange, sir, I would offer you the exact half of Farmer Young’s fields together with his yard and house and barn and all of their contents. If, Farmer Perry, you would join me to persuade the other farmers of the valley to allow me the land of theirs which I need – bought at a very fair price – then the remainder of Farmer Young’s land would be yours.”

  It had occurred to Samuel that if the whole of Farmer Young’s land ended up in Perry’s possession, then the thrust of local opinion might be that Young had suffered a most fortunate accident from Perry’s point of view. Better for the Heythorne reputation that people might think that way.

  Farmer Perry was of the opinion that Farmer Young had some of the better acres in the valley and he could make good use of them; he was more than willing to swap twenty, or a little less, of his own acres for forty or so of Young’s. Possession of another house and barn was not a bad thing and Young’s carthorse still had ten good years in him, despite his little accident. It was a bargain he was anxious to make. Now the largest of the valley’s holders, he did not doubt he could pressure the little men to make the necessary sales, provided there was a sweetener or two to offer.

  “Jobs, sir, for younger sons…”

  “Guaranteed, Farmer Perry. When a boy comes to working age, there will be a start for him in pit or foundry or on the trackway or canal, when it comes. If not there, I will find a place in a pottery or one of my other pits. For a boy with his letters, better work and wages, Farmer Perry. I can probably find something for the girls as well, in service or working in the bakehouses that all my pits have for my people. That is my promise, and my word is good, sir.”

  “I shall speak to every last man within the week, Mr Heythorne. Might be, I could have a word with vicar as well. Some of they do be church-goers and would listen to him. Thing is though, for the small men, you want half their land and that leaves them not sufficient to live on.”

  “Tell them I can buy all of their land and that some can have paid jobs, with cottages under slate roofs, while others can put together the land that remains. All will be paid good money for their land.”

  It was expensive, but not too much so, and it would give Samuel the trackway he needed, and an amount of bargaining power with any other man who opened a pit or foundry in the area and who would have to pay for the transport of his goods.

  “First come, first served, Farmer Perry.”

  “So it be, sir. Very right to say so.”

  Farmer Perry did not know what Samuel was talking about but was not to disagree with the man who was so much improving his own fortunes.

  There were eight other small farmers with strips of fertile land along the valley bottom, varying between a poverty-stricken forty acres and a comfortable one hundred for the biggest. Six of them sold out after strong persuasion while the largest man became far bigger, ending up with one hundred and sixty acres. Two hundred acres remained in two separate blocks towards the northern end of the valley, closer to Leek than to the new pit and not so far from Squire Rowlands’ estate.

  Samuel paid Rowlands a friendly visit and then rode out with him to inspect the newly unoccupied land.

  “Two hundred acres of arable, Mr Heythorne. Land that will take a wheat crop one year in three and barley and turnips and beans and peas in the intervening two. I might be tempted to build a small beef herd – no more than ten or fifteen beasts – for the dung heap as much as meat. Six pounds an acre, this land, Mr Heythorne. Twelve hundred pounds would be a fair price to both of us.”

  Samuel had been making enquiries and believed that eight pounds was closer to the mark for enclosed and well-kept fields. He very mildly said that he had been thinking about seven.

  Squire Rowlands demurred and debated and eventually suggested that six pound fifteen shillings might be thought of as fair. Samuel shook his hand on the price.

  “Two hundred down now and the balance at the harvest, Mr Heythorne?”

  “Most certainly, sir. Between gentlemen, there can be no urgency in the matter.”

  Rowlands would pay, that was almost a certainty, and there was nothing unusual in deferring a payment until the harvest had come home. Few men kept large sums in cash idle throughout the year.

  Samuel returned home after his busy week, more than a little pleased with himself – he had been presented with an insoluble problem, yet he had come up with an answer, and in quick time. Alexander and his Gordian knot was nothing on Samuel Heythorne! He explained his genius to his mother.

  “You were perhaps a little vigorous in your treatment of Farmer Young, Samuel.”

  “An unfortunate necessity, Mother. The man could not recognise his own best interests and those of his sons. I had to swallow my scruples and, indeed, steel myself to resolute action, to do what was necessary for the advancement of the whole valley. With a trackway, and later a canal, the Cheadle coalfield will find itself to expand greatly, to the benefit of otherwise idle or partly employed young men who will now have well-paid jobs to sustain them and their families for their whole lives.”

  He sat back and thought about the statement. Honesty moved him to offer a caveat.

  “Well… not badly paid work, in the mines and the foundry, if that does come into being.”

  “You have some doubts about the foundry, my son?”

  “Iron is so very bulky, Mother. To sell our product must demand a canal along the line of the Churnet to Leek and then down to the Trent, which must itself be canalised first. That must be a matter of some years, or so it seems. Unless the owners of the brass foundry can be persuaded to take a substantial investment in the new canal, it will be many years before we could afford to promote such an endeavour. For the while, we must just build a trackway. I could wish we had an engineer locally to oversee the process. I do not know that I have the knowledge required.”

  “Who has? If you wish to do something, do it – there is none to do it for you. Ask Mr Bragg for his advice. He knows no more about canals than you, I do not doubt, but is in the habit of solving practical problems.”

  It was a sensible suggestion, Samuel admitted.

  “What more can you tell me of the man Young, Samuel?”

  “I had no choice, Mother. It was not my active desire to terminate his existence, but it was necessary for the well-being of all in the whole vicinity. I acted with reluctance and took care that he should not suffer unduly.”

  “’Thou shalt not kill’, Samuel?”

  �
�Well… not very often, Mother. I certainly do not intend to make a habit of so doing.”

  She had to be content with this, reflecting that his father might well have said the same. It seemed that some habits were bred into the individual, that they could not help themselves, perhaps. Unfortunate, but it appeared to be the way of Nature.

  “Will the sons return as grown men, Samuel, possibly harbouring a grievance?”

  “Unlikely, Mother. They have been taken aboard ship to learn to be seamen – a little old for the procedure but not hopelessly so. They are to ply their trade aboard a Guineaman at first, on the run to the Bight of Benin. After a few months, when they have begun to learn the skills, they will be taken aboard a slaving ship, thus to earn the highest wages available at sea. If they survive, they will have money in their pockets, provided only they do not throw it away in riotous living, and will no doubt regard me as a benefactor.”

  Josie noted the important words.

  “Just how high is their chance of surviving, Samuel?”

  “Some sailors live twenty years in the trade, Mother. Probably one half die in their first pair of voyages. The weak, it seems, succumb early. Strong, healthy men may last for many years. As well, those who drink heavily or behave foolishly in harbour and weaken their constitutions are brought to the grave by their own excesses – which is a judgement upon them.”

  “Little chance the boys will return, you would say.”

  “Almost none that both will come back. Perhaps half a chance that one might. I do not expect to be troubled by them.”

  She dropped the topic – the youths would not be an immediate problem.

  “What do you do next, Samuel?”

  “I must have a last conference with Farmer Perry, I find. Donkeys, Mother. They are not in great supply, I suspect, and may be very useful for drawing empty tubs back uphill on the trackway when it is built. There will be a downhill gradient so the loaded tubs will roll under their own weight for much of the distance. Donkeys will be cheaper than ponies and may be a sensible means of transport.”

  Farmer Perry agreed and was very willing to breed donkeys for the use of the pit and the trackway. He had two daughters who were not best suited to the heaviest work in his fields but who were ideally suited to take charge of a donkey stud. He could use the resources God had given him to their best, he said.

  Samuel agreed that the dispositions of Providence were often remarkably convenient.

  “Thought I were going to have to send them out in service, or get ‘em married off, so I did, but now they can stay at home and work usefully their whole lives long. Their eldest brother will keep they after I’m gone, so long as they stay useful. Couldn’t ask for better.”

  “You will not wish them to marry, Farmer Perry?”

  “Nay, damned costly that can be. If a lass is to wed then she must have a bottom drawer and a few pounds besides in her pocket. Then there must be a feast at the marriage itself and all sorts of dresses and things for her mother and sister. No end to the cost of it all! Better far for them to stay at home and work for the good of all. They don’t need to go buggering about and picking up no young men. None of this having children nonsense, sir! Maybe one girl in ten dies in the straw, for this giving birth is a tedious risky old affair, so better far to stay single and live a peaceful existence by the fireside in their own home.”

  It seemed to Samuel that the considerations of cash were more important than the welfare of the girls – but they were not his daughters and they were none of his affair. He smiled and nodded and said he must give Farmer Perry’s words the careful thought they deserved.

  “Aye, do that, sir, for ye hast to look to your own sister, too.”

  Samuel wondered what Perry meant by that - but he forgot his words within the hour.

  “Well, Mr Bragg, we have the land down the Churnet and can have a trackway built all the way to the head where our own coals from Thornehills come down.”

  “It will be put in hand, sir, and soon. I have made my enquiries and will purchase the timbers from three separate yards, sir, for speed and for price. We do not want one man to have a monopoly of our business. I have some thoughts about the roadway, sir, and will make it up good and strong with brick or stone walls to the sides. It might be that one day we shall replace the timber with iron rails, to carry far greater loads which will need a solid footing for the tracks to lay on. Walls will stop the base spreading and falling wastefully into the river.”

  “The decision is yours, Mr Bragg.”

  “So it must be, sir, at my pits. While you hire me, I am to take charge properly.”

  It seemed to Samuel that Bragg was becoming a trifle arrogant – an undesirable eventuality. He might well discuss that with him one day.

  “I have not visited my sister for some few weeks, Mother. I do think I should do so, do not you?”

  Josie agreed that he should – it was never desirable for brothers and sisters to grow apart.

  “I am sure Mary will be pleased to see me, Mother.”

  “Probably, my son. Remember that she is in effect her own mistress, having the freehold of a house. She will be living her own life as best suits her, I do not doubt.”

  Samuel wondered if Farmer Perry’s words were to an extent a comment on his sister’s independence, and how she was exercising her precocious freedom.

  He rode out next morning in a suspicious frame of mind, would not have been at all surprised to have discovered a young man in residence. If he did, he vowed, he would shoot him on the spot.

  Mary greeted him with open arms, hugged him to her and demanded that he should stay the whole morning to see all that she had done to her house and lands.

  “I have been fortunate, Samuel, to meet my good friend Elspeth, who has moved into the house as my chief adviser. She is the daughter of a farmer from a mile or so up the road and knows all about the land and the best ways of gardening and growing vegetables and ornamentals too. We are setting up a nursery for apple, pear and plum trees - saplings, that is, which we shall plant out into an orchard in a year or two. She is working the lower field this morning, with the aid of the gardener and his boy. I was there too until I saw you riding along the road. Come and see what we are doing.”

  Samuel did as he was told, putting his horse up in the little stable and taking his sister’s arm.

  “Some twenty acres of park attached to the house, is it not, sister?”

  “Very near, Samuel. A rectangle in shape, running downhill to the little river which gives us a boundary. Good soil, Elspeth says. It will support a fine orchard as well as the working gardens for the house. Elspeth thinks we shall have all in shape in another two years. She knows all about such things, of course. She is very clever and loves the land and the gardens.”

  The young lady was something of a paragon, Samuel mused. He was surprised when he was introduced to her and shook her hand, she being such a friend of his sister’s, to find her a tall, well-made young female, somewhat older than him and robustly muscled. She smiled at Mary and put an arm around her waist to hug her - much, it would seem, to Mary’s delight. It was strange, he mused, but if the girls were such good friends then there could be nothing out of the ordinary.

  They spent an hour walking the gardens, pointing out the various features of trees and plants and beds and rustic paths that would provide walks in future years. He saw that the two young women held hands occasionally, no doubt to help each other over the rougher ground.

  Inside, the house was equally changed – the dark old furniture replaced to an extent by lighter woods and covers.

  “I must imagine your companion has done much of the work here, Mary.”

  “Mrs Antrobus keeps herself busy, Samuel. She has her dogs now as well and must walk them every day, the exercise no doubt good for her. She watches the cook and keeps a close eye to the maids as well, much to my pleasure, for I find I am not of a domestic nature.”

  It seemed good to Samuel. He was not
one for dogs himself but had no doubt they were excellent companions. He was a little surprised that the outdoor female, Elspeth, should have entered the house with them, through the front door, but Mary had mentioned that she lived in. They sat down to tea, the three together and Samuel explained almost all he had been doing recently. The girls were very pleased to hear that he had sold out of the distilleries and had used the money to buy another pit.

  “Far more respectable, Samuel. Much more the thing for a genteel family. While I think of it, Samuel, could you arrange for the purchase of a fowling piece? We do have a problem with pigeons in the gardens and Elspeth can handle a sporting gun – her father possesses one.”

  He promised to do so, would send his own gun to them as soon as it could be arranged. He was surprised by the request, but Elspeth was a strong sort of young female, was no doubt more than capable of shooting a few pigeons. He did not doubt that she would be as able as any young man.

  “It is too soon to have heard from Abraham yet, is it not, Samuel?”

  “Certainly so, sister. He will barely have reached the Colonies and will have had little chance to settle himself. I do not expect a letter for some months yet.”

  In fact, he did not expect a letter ever – his brother was not much of a one for writing and would have many demands on his time if he was setting himself up in a new country. He hoped the boy was well – he would welcome him back if he was not – but much feared he would neither hear from him nor see him again. He would have been surprised to have seen all that his brother was doing at that time.

  Abraham had boarded ship misty-eyed, blinking back the tears, thinking it probable that he would never see his elder brother again. Younger sons moved out, that he knew, but he did not have to enjoy the actual moment of parting. He waved and hurried below to his cabin, following the steward who was to look after him. Samuel had been generous and he had one of the larger single cabins on the ship, unusual for so young a gentleman, the steward thought.