HF - 03 - The Devil's Own

by Christopher Nicole

  'Yet will it still be my word against Philip's,' Kit said, frowning. 'We need Bale, at the least.'

  Frankland nodded. 'The Governor is aware of that, sir, and the search is on. But that confounded pirate has disappeared.'

  'He must be found, Mr Frankland. Make no mistake about that.'

  'And he shall, sir. Believe me, have no fear on that score. Certain it is that he was last heard of in Jamaica, and our agents are looking for him there. But come, sir, the frigate will already be entering St John's Harbour, as she left Sandy Point at the same time as your friend here and I took the sloop for Falmouth.'

  'I will pack, and do you breakfast, Mr Frankland.' He ran upstairs, hastily threw his clothes into a satchel, put on his coat and hat. Lilian stood in the doorway and watched him.

  'They will hate you for this, Kit. For evermore.'

  'Would you have me remain, on that score?'

  She hesitated, and then sighed. 'Yes. Yes, I would have you remain, on that score, Kit. I would have you do nothing more with your life than hold me in your arms, and love me, and keep the world at the length of your strong right arm. But I know that to do that, you must first of all love yourself. And men have strange ways of professing that love. So go to your duty. But come back soon, Kit. And come back safe. I possess nothing in this world, nor do I wish to possess anything, in this world, save your love.'

  He kissed her on the mouth. 'Then be sure of it, now and always, sweetheart.' He went downstairs, where the horses waited, procured by Agrippa from the Falmouth stable, clasped his friend's hand. 'Will I like Barbados?'

  'It is an island much like this one.'

  'And the people?'

  Agrippa shrugged. 'Perhaps you will enjoy them also, Kit, as your skin is white.'

  'Aye. You'll watch over Lilian, old friend.' 'With my life, Kit.'

  '1 did not doubt that.' He mounted and urged his horse out of the little yard, Frankland at his side. At the top of the rise which took them away from the beach he reined in, to look back, at the house, and the garden, and the beach, and the sea beyond, leading to St Kitts. Certainly he felt reluctant to leave such peaceful surroundings, such willing and undemanding love. But he would have had to do so in the near future, in any event. His sadness, his uncertainty, was compounded by what lay ahead. So in that, like all men, he was something of a coward. He had no wish to face Philip Warner again, again attempt to send him to his doom, and this time with his voice rather than merely the written word. Six months ago it had all been white hot anger, and he would have throttled the man with his bare hands. But now he was to accuse him in cold blood and after sober reflection.

  Yet it must be done, or the very foundations of these islands would crumble away in contempt. And when it was over, perhaps he could again return to Dominica. How he wanted to do that, once again to see Yarico, and hear that ageless voice, to kneel beside her hammock, and tell her how her son had been avenged. And then, perhaps, to ask her more of himself. To seek an explanation to the thoughts and fears which had risen up to torture him night after night since his return to Antigua.

  But that, too, could not be answered, could not even be investigated, until this business was completed, else would his resolution seep away from his boots like the sand from the beach after a hurricane.

  They rode in silence, and at a good pace. Frankland could see well enough that Kit wished to think, and he did not encroach, until they were close to St John's itself.

  'Supposing the ship is already at anchor, Captain Hilton,' he said. 'The town will be filled with rumour. No doubt it is, already, as the news of Her Majesty's decision will have been carried on every vessel making for these waters. There may well be some hostility in the town.'

  'Believe me, sir, I am well enough used to hostility, in the layabouts of Antigua,' Kit said.

  'Still, I beg of you, Captain, let us make our way to the harbour without a riot, if that is possible.'

  They entered the main street. By now it was early afternoon, as they had ridden since breakfast, and the shops and businesses were beginning to close. The townspeople stood on the sidewalks and stared at the two riders.

  'Captain Hilton,' someone said, and it was taken up as a shout. 'Captain Hilton, Captain Hilton, Captain Hilton.'

  ' 'Tis hard to tell whether they hate you or love you,' Frankland said.

  'I would not count on their love.' Kit kept his head straight, and looked at the street in front of him.

  'Traitor,' someone yelled.

  'Indian lover,' another voice took up the chant. 'Negro lover,' added another section.

  Then the first missile flew. Kit did not move his head, and the stone hurtled through the air, to strike someone on the far side and bring a howl of pain and anger.

  'By God,' Frankland said. 'We had best hurry.'

  'We'll run from no mob, Mr Frankland,' Kit said. 'Now, if you've a mind to run our horses at them, I am your man.'

  'Not that, sir, I beg of you. Sir William said no violence. Thank God, there is the harbour.'

  Now the air was full of flying debris, much of it, fortunately, either eggs or tomatoes or soft mud. Something struck Kit on the shoulder with a squelch, and an egg burst on the head of his horse, causing the animal to jerk and sidestep. He turned his head to find his tormentors, looked at the Christianssens. standing on their porch. They were not part of the mob. but their lips were tight and their faces hard.

  'God bless you, Captain Hilton, and good luck.'

  A lone voice in the multitude. Kit turned his head the other way, and Barnee waved. A bold action, not only for the jostles which he immediately received, but because his prosperity depended on the goodwill of the planters, and his sentiments would very rapidly be spread across the island.

  But at last they were at the waterfront, and the seamen were gathered on the wharf, facing the mob. Kit and Frankland dismounted, and the ship's lieutenant touched his hat.

  'Good day, Captain Hilton, and well met. I think we had best leave this instant, as all is ready.'

  Kit got into the longboat. Frankland raised his hat. The sailors cast off, and the boat rowed for the waiting frigate while the crowd flowed along the jetties, shouting their execrations.

  'Indeed, sir, I wonder at your courage in coining through that mob,' the ship's lieutenant said.

  Kit did not reply. He wondered at his courage in coming out here in the frigate's boat. Ten years ago he had fired into this ship. And surely by now rumour would have spread the name of the perpetrator of that deed? Yet the lieutenant seemed no more than anxious to be the perfect host.

  'You will, sir, at any rate be pleased to know that we arranged things better for your wife,' he said.

  Kit turned his head to frown at him, but the longboat was already pulling under the side of the frigate, and the pipes were sounding as he scrambled up the ladder and into the waist of the warship, where Captain Holgate awaited him.

  'Welcome on board Euryalus, Captain Hilton. I have given you my own cabin.'

  'Why, sir, that is far too good of you,' Kit protested.

  'Orders from Sir William,' Holgate assured him. 'And in any event, sir, we wish you and your lady to enjoy the voyage. It is a difficult business, beating down to Barbados, and may well take us upwards of a fortnight.'

  'My wife?' Kit demanded. 'This is the second time her presence has been intimated. I was not aware that she was accompanying me. Indeed, I am sure there must be some mistake.'

  Captain Holgate looked embarrassed. 'I do not see how there can have been a mistake, Captain Hilton. Should she not, as this whole affair touches her so closely?'

  'Let me understand this,' Kit said. 'Marguerite is on board this vessel?'

  'And awaiting you in my cabin, sir,' the Captain said. 'Now,

  I think I had best get under way, as the wind is for the moment fair, and the tide as well.'

  ***

  Kit ran down the companion ladder, made his way across the great cabin, and reached for the door of the
Captain's quarters. Here he checked, for a moment, getting his anger under control, and then threw the door open.

  Marguerite wore her riding habit, her coat open, her hat resting on the table beside her. Oh, the cunning hussy. For she had never in her life, to his knowledge, allowed herself to be seen off her plantation except dressed as the great lady. But she remembered full well that she had been dressed like this when first he had seen her, and had first renewed his love for her.

  And that would be easy to do all over again. For had she aged at all? Oh, indeed she had. There were crowsfeet tracing away from the corners of each splendid green eye; a combination of strain and the constant squinting necessary to withstand the glare of the West Indian sun. But these gave that marvellous girl's face a maturity it had previously lacked. And now the breasts were heavy, and sagged against the thin cambric of the shirt. But how they demanded to be caressed, and how his own chest demanded to feel them against it. And beneath the belt her belly would be pouted, but none the less soft and sweet to the touch.

  She smiled; there was sweat on her upper lip. 'You may leave us, Patience Jane,' she said, and the maid hastily sidled round Kit and out of the cabin. 'Kit. Do you know, I heard the tumult in town even from here? I was so worried for you. I wanted the Captain to run out his guns, and the swine would not.'

  'It would have been a remarkable misjudgement of the situation,' Kit said. 'To fire into a crowd of people doing no more than express their feelings, on account of one man.'

  'Oh, what rubbish,' she said, and got up. 'There are men, and there are people. One man is worth a thousand, perhaps a million people.' She came towards him. 'Listen. They are raising the anchor. Isn't it exciting. I have never been on a sea voyage, with you. I have never been on a sea voyage at all, since that visit to England, my God, seventeen years ago.'

  He held her shoulders. Christ, had it only been a few hours ago that he had similarly held Lilian? But this action was to keep her at arm's length. 'What are you doing on board this ship?'

  Her eyes were wide. 'I am going to Barbados with you. 'Why?'

  'My husband is giving evidence against my father, Kit; is it not a matter of concern for me?'

  'I would have thought you'd try to stop me from going at all.'

  'What, me prevent Captain Christopher Hilton from doing what he thinks best? Then would I be putting my head in danger.'

  'Now you seek to mock me.'

  'I do not. Nor would I seek to humiliate you by requiring you to submit to my wishes in this matter. But I wish to be at your side, for the next few weeks may well be the most important in your life, Kit. And in mine.' Her laughter rippled across the cabin. 'And, of course, in Father's.'

  Still he held her as she would have come forward. 'Be sure that the evidence I shall give will send him to the gallows.'

  'I have no doubt it shall,' she agreed. 'But do we have to discuss it now? We have a voyage of at least a fortnight in front of us, so Captain Holgate assures me. Let us keep our serious talk for when we are far away from land, and able thus to sec life more clearly, perhaps.'

  'If you do not discuss it now, Marguerite,' he said. 'I doubt we shall discuss it at all. I have no intention of sharing this cabin with you. I am about to ask the Captain for separate accommodation.'

  She frowned at him. 'Kit, I have just said that I would not dream of humiliating you by demanding that you not testify against my father. May I ask of you a small favour in return? That you not consider humiliating me by refusing my bed?'

  'I should have thought the humiliation would lie in accepting your bed, Marguerite. There can be no member of this crew does not know of our relationship.'

  'Of your relationship, with Lilian Christianssen. Thus I stand already sufficiently humiliated, would you not say? What ails you, Kit? Would you be utterly faithful to your Danish lady? Can you swear that you will always be? I should have thought you of all men would know better than that. What shall I do, Kit? You know that no human finger has touched this body, saving my maids in my bath, since you left. And saving my own, of course. For be sure that I have torn at my own body, out of lonely desperation. Be sure that I have awakened in the middle of the night, and cried out for you, and sweated for want of you, and been called upon myself to atone for your absence, as Onan might have overlooked me and felt pity for me, in my needy turmoil. Must I humiliate myself further? Must I crawl on the deck at your feet? Must I weep, and beg? See, I do both of those things. You once said I consider myself a demigoddess. Well, so I do. So here stands before you a demigoddess, weeping and begging, willing to humble herself, before her demigod. Demand of me what you will. Be sure that I will grant your most ambitious, or your most debased wish. I ask only your love, Kit. I ask it even at second hand. As I have given you mine, at cost of fame, and family, and fortune, I ask only your kiss in return.'

  Could there ever be a woman so demanding, so insistent? If he could but believe that she acted out of passion, and not carefully calculated determination to achieve. But on that score he knew her a shade too well.

  Desperately he thrust her away. 'You are a temptress, madam. You seek to suborn me from my duty, and from my responsibility as a man. Had you been in the cabin of that ship with me perhaps you would have known better. I will not declare they were innocent men. Perhaps there are no such things on the face of this earth. But they were men, such as I, or your father, or any other that you may have known, and to those men I had pledged my word. To them, no less than to their people. And even had I not, they came to your father's ship in good faith and believing in his good faith. I had made them believe that there was a new era of peace and perhaps prosperity opening for both our peoples. And your father took that possibility, nay, that probability, and tore it into shreds with his hands, before my eyes. Should he not pay for it, our children will have to do so. I will have him do the paying, madam. Believe me, I do not seek to insult you or to hurt you. You remain, before God, the most beautiful and the most desirable female I have ever known, or can possibly hope to know. But while you support that evil, you are evil, and I will have no part of you. Come to me again when the trial is finished, and your father condemned, and we will speak again.'

  He freed her hands, and stepped for the door, and hesitated, expecting her to speak. But she said nothing, nor could he make himself turn to face her again.

  'Gentlemen.' Captain Holgate struggled to his feet, and swayed with the ship. He swayed thus at most meals, and it made little difference the state of the weather. So no doubt in a gale he was a very good fellow to have in command, as the trembling of the hull itself would have little effect upon his already trembling body. Now he watched the wine in his glass flowing to and fro, although the wind was light and the frigate did no more than roll in the swell. 'I give you the Queen, God bless her, Anne.'

  The men rose, Kit in the midst of the officers, and the toast was drunk. As usual, he found himself staring at Marguerite. As he sat on the Captain's left, and she on the Captain's right, at table were they in closest proximity. At least no questions had been asked by the courteous officers concerning his request for a separate cabin, although equally certainly this strange pair must be a fruitful source of gossip for the entire crew.

  Now, as ever, she smiled at him, her face a delightful mask concealing whatever anger seethed behind those brittle green eyes. But then, for her part, she seldom came on deck, and spent most of her time in her cabin.

  'The land rising on our port bow is Barbados,' Holgate declared. 'And by dusk we shall be anchored in Carlisle Bay. Now tell me truly, Mrs Hilton; has the voyage been so violent, so unpleasant?'

  Marguerite shook her head. 'I am sure that as sea voyages go, this has been as peaceful a venture as one could wish, Captain. But will we truly be on land by this evening?'

  'Indeed, Mrs Hilton. Unless the wind should entirely drop, and that is not its custom in these parts.'

  'Then I hope you will excuse me now, as I should prepare myself.' Her chair scraped as she
stood up, and the assembled officers hastily got to their feet. 'Pray be seated, gentlemen. I would not interfere with your port.' Her gaze swept them all, and came to rest upon Kit. 'I would be obliged if you would attend me, for a moment, dear one. It is a matter of some importance.'

  It was the first time on the voyage she had made such a request in front of the assembled afterguard.

  'Gentlemen.' Kit went round the table and opened the door for her. She swept past him in a cloud of scent, and snapped her fingers at Patience Jane. 'You may return later to complete the packing, girl.'

  'Yes'm.' Patience Jane gave Kit a hasty, anxious glance, and hurried out of the cabin. Kit closed the door, but remained standing by it.

  Marguerite sank on to the seat beneath the great stern window. 'Cannot you now have done with humiliating me? Can any woman have suffered the outrageous gossip of these last few days? I cannot even command my husband to my bed? Oh, perhaps I went about it in error. I assumed, as I am a woman, a woman you once loved, that I had but to approach you in that guise to regain your love. I had forgot the inconsistency of man.'