Circle of Pearls

by Rosalind Laker

  Applause broke out again as Anne finished her second piece and bowed smilingly from her seat in acknowledgement. Makepeace courteously turned the chair for her in order that she could more easily watch her daughter play. It was as Julia rose from the stool to move into a more central position that she met the glittering, onyx-black eyes of the wearer of the bucket-topped boots. It was Adam Warrender.

  Lightning seemed to sear across the room between them, scorching and eliminating everything else in its path. All sound melted away as though a vacuum had been created in which only the two of them remained. She did not escape that unseen violence, for she felt it burn through her, making her flesh throb and activating every nerve in her body to a trembling awareness. It was fiercely pleasurable, in spite of her will being wholly set against it, and instinctively she knew it was the same for him.

  Then as abruptly as it had happened the extraordinary encounter was over, no more than seconds having passed, and the room closed in on her again. She sat down quickly on the chair that had been put ready and automatically settled her lute against her, ready to play. Her mind was racing and such a volcano of wrath was building up in her at Adam’s presence under Sotherleigh’s roof that she thought she must choke. She had been tricked! Her mother had yet to learn, with the inevitable subsequent distress, that a Warrender was in the same room with her. Julia almost ground her teeth. Makepeace, now glibly announcing the first song she was to sing, must have had his own deceitful reason for not presenting the newcomers that evening, for he could not have given the names of two and left out the third and most loathed name to those who once owned Sotherleigh.

  The colour was running up her neck and she breathed deeply. For a moment she remembered her resolve to keep the peace and even her regrets of her past treatment of Adam Warrender, but when, under her lashes, she glared at the gathered guests, every one opposed to the King and thus the enemy of her late father, her brother in exile and to Sotherleigh itself, her earlier intentions were forgotten. There were no individuals in this audience any more, not even Adam, since now that she was seated again she could no longer see him. She wanted vengeance for this violation of her home. Makepeace had behaved traitorously to her mother and to herself. But she had to swallow her pride once again and play the role of meek stepdaughter that went against her whole nature.

  Everyone was waiting. Her heart was pounding and rage gripped her throat, making her wonder how she would sing. But it had to be done. Somehow she must struggle against this tumult of fury. Much as she loathed Makepeace she would never have thought him capable of inflicting such an insult upon her gentle mother.

  She struck the first melodious notes and could hear the faint tremor in her voice as she began to sing a verse of an old song in praise of the Sussex countryside. Then Adam’s face came into view again. He was staring hard at her, conveying his awareness of the effect of his presence.

  It was the last straw! For a second she hesitated at the chorus of her song and then, before there was time for second thoughts, she switched to another. It was a rollicking drinking song of the Cavaliers.

  ‘Here’s health to the King! God bless him! Let the name of Charles ring! God bless him! And let every loyal Englishman in the land — ’

  She was almost tossed from the chair by the force with which Makepeace hurled himself from the seat to wrench the lute from her hands and smash it across his knee. In the pulsating silence that followed he threw it with a clatter to the floor. Anne made a despairing little whimper, but he silenced her with a furious gesture. His face had contorted to purple and, not taking his livid gaze from Julia, he pointed to the door with a forefinger shaking with temper.

  She rose with dignity, tilted her chin in her Katherine-like way and took a few leisurely moments to smooth a crease from her skirt. Makepeace’s finger shook in dismissal again. She appeared not to notice and as if by her own wish entirely she began to thread her way with a rustling of silk through the seated guests, whose glowering expressions followed her. Still nobody spoke or moved.

  Then, without warning, Adam, who had been struggling with his sense of humour, burst into hearty and uninhibited shouts of laughter, shattering the dignified setting of her leaving. Everyone turned in their chairs to stare at him, unable to see wherein lay any cause for amusement in what had taken place.

  Julia paused to stare at him. His head was thrown back, showing that his back teeth were as white as those in front, and he was possessed by a paroxysm of rib-straining mirth that he could not control. She clenched her fists. Whether he intended it or not, by his laughter he had lessened the impact of what she had done. There seemed to be no end to the harm that he could do to her whenever their paths crossed. She swept to the doorway, where she turned to look back into the room, only avoiding her mother’s tragic eyes as the volcano within her finally erupted.

  ‘Regicides!’ she hissed. ‘There is Stuart blood on all your hands!’

  Uproar broke out but she did not stop to listen and ran for the Grand Staircase. Adam’s amusement had been wiped from his face and he sprang to his feet as angry as the rest. It took a little while before voices subdued to a normal level again. By that time Anne had slipped away to her daughter, but Julia had locked herself in her room and would not open the door.

  ‘Please go away, Mama. What happened is between Makepeace and me. I will not let you be involved.’

  Eventually, after receiving a brief explanation through the door, Anne, realizing there was no moving her daughter, did as she had been bade and left.

  Downstairs the guests had departed. Makepeace returned to the Queen’s Parlour and sat with his head in his hands, thinking over all the harm his stepdaughter had done to his good name and the reputation he had built up as the new master of Sotherleigh over recent months. It was not just her show of royalism or her flagrant impertinence to him as her stepfather, but through her having drawn attention to the fact that his signature had been among the long list of those who had signed the death warrant of Charles I.

  Although all the gentlemen with whom he was acquainted knew of his Parliamentary and military career and it was possible some were aware it had culminated in his having put his name to that death warrant, he had managed to keep Anne in ignorance, as far as he knew, of his having been a signatory, not wanting any more barriers between them. He believed Julia had remained similarly in the dark or else she would have directed her denunciation at him alone. It was an unlucky chance that she had chosen to highlight an action he had most wanted to keep out of the public eye since coming to Sotherleigh. He had no regrets about what he had done, and would have signed again to bring the same end to that royal tyrant’s three sons if such a chance had come his way, but the local gentry were moderate folk politically, few diehards among them. However strongly they had been for the Parliamentary cause, and however staunch their present loyalty to the Commonwealth, it troubled many men’s consciences here in Sussex and throughout the land that such a violent act as regicide should have been perpetrated in their cause. The outrage shown by his guests this evening was indicative alone of that unease. It was quite likely that a few would not come to his house again after having received such an unwelcome reminder of the role he had played.

  He sat back in his chair and set his hands on the arm-ends. His chest rose and fell as he drew in deep breaths. This evening could be lived down and he would do it. Tomorrow he would mete out punishment to Julia and remind her of the warning he had given her and that now would be in force. In command of himself again, he went upstairs.

  When he entered Anne’s room in his nightshirt, she sat up from her pillows anxiously. She had learned from an acquaintance in Chichester, some of whose relations had been Parliamentarians, that the new owner of Sotherleigh was the one and the same Makepeace Walker whose name was among the signatories on that notorious death warrant. She remembered the immediate sensation of drowning in aversion for him, not knowing how she could endure living with such a man. Then there had come t
he realization that she had no option. She could not abandon Sotherleigh and her son’s interests or the safety of the family. So somehow she had slammed the door on the knowledge she had gained, refusing to dwell on it, and had managed to survive once more. Now she had been propelled into facing up to it again and must summon up her strength. Endeavouring to keep her voice steady, she spoke quietly.

  ‘I realize that what Julia said downstairs must have caused embarrassment to you. I’ve always known you were a signatory, but please don’t punish her, I beg you! You should have realized what a shock it was to have a Warrender here.’ He climbed into bed beside her. ‘Are you blaming the son for what the father did?’

  ‘Indeed not!’ Anne’s sense of fairness flared. ‘It was simply the question of the revival of painful memories that could have been overcome if you had only presented the young man to us in the first place.’

  ‘Had you been on time, madam,’ he replied bitterly, ‘I would probably have done so.’

  ‘Please don’t start upbraiding me!’ she cried out defensively. ‘I cannot endure it tonight.’

  ‘I have no intention of doing that at this late hour.’ He took her by the shoulders and bore her back into the pillows, leaning over her and looking down into her face. ‘You have a most wilful daughter. It’s high time I had a son to amend her presence. Do not suppose I have been totally unaware of how you have kept my seed from your womb, but there’ll be no more of that deviousness. The sin is entirely mine, because I wanted to enjoy your beauty to such an extent I did not wish a pregnancy to keep me from you. Now the time has come for you to do your duty and bear me an heir.’

  Panic possessed her. A child was a gift and she would have loved another if only it could have been Robert’s! Not one by this crude, insensitive husband prepared to force conception on her. She sought vainly for excuses.

  ‘But I’m no longer a young woman! Changes are almost upon me. My doctor would never advise — ’

  He cut her short. ‘My impression of your doctor is that he is a country fool. When the time comes you shall have the best midwife available. I love you, Anne. I never thought I should say those nonsensical words, but that is the case.’ Suddenly a wave of white-hot jealousy overwhelmed him at the thought she should have conceived by another husband before him. ‘You shall give me a son!’

  The further protest she would have uttered was cut off as his mouth swallowed hers. He entered her without any preliminaries, except ensuring that her womb was open to him.

  *

  Julia was silent throughout the tirade that Makepeace let fly at her next morning, enraging him still further by her calmness when he informed her that she was now as much up to offer as a slave in a foreign market-place. It sweetened his mood later when he heard her despairing cries upon discovering that her horse had been sold. When Anne suggested that her daughter should stay with William and Susan Holder at Bletchingdon for a while he agreed. He had had enough trouble for the time being and it would be good to get Julia out of his sight.

  Julia, although overjoyed at the thought of visiting Christopher’s home, did not like parting from her mother or her grandmother. Mary had been invited to accompany her, but had declined, always nervous of going into the presence of strangers.

  ‘Send for me immediately if I’m needed,’ Julia insisted to Anne when the day of her departure came.

  ‘I will, but I’m sure that won’t prove necessary.’ Anne embraced her fondly, ‘I want you to have a happy time. I was grieved to read in Susan’s letter that Dean Wren is dead and, of course, she and her husband will be in mourning for him. However, she has assured me there are plenty of young people in the village with whom you can mix.’

  Katherine had been prepared for Julia’s going. She was seated in her wedding chair when her granddaughter came to sit on the footstool and say farewell. ‘Shall you be seeing Christopher?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes!’ Julia’s face shone at the prospect. ‘I wrote to him upon his bereavement and in his reply, which I received today, he tells me that lecturing twice a day at Gresham College, in Latin in the morning and in English in the afternoon, has palled. Those who attend are older men and the City Fathers. Admirable though it is to further the education of adults, he has to admit that Oxford calls him.’

  Katherine nodded. ‘I can well believe it. Now I want to give you a little present.’ She reached stiffly for a purse worked in the Florentine stitch on the table beside her and gave it to Julia. ‘Buy yourself a new gown and some pretty gewgaws to wear. That husband of your mother’s wants to make you all as plain as pikestaffs, but he can do nothing about your lovely young face.’

  Julia sat straightbacked with astonishment, clutching the purse with both hands. ‘How did you know of the marriage? We thought we had kept it from you!’

  The wise old eyes were grave. ‘Since I’ve been better many things have come to my notice. Firstly a complete change of staff. Then a man whose voice about the house I did not recognize and then seeing this stranger out in the Knot Garden. Your own whispered conferences with Mary when you thought I was asleep. From two gossiping, maidservants I learned Makepeace Walker’s name, and that he has property in the north and no children, and that Sotherleigh was sequestered by the Commonwealth Government and given to this man by Cromwell himself.’

  Julia shook her head in self-reproach. ‘What tools we’ve all been! We should have known we couldn’t deceive you indefinitely.’

  ‘I have weighed everything up and I’m convinced your mother married that man for all our sakes and to allow us to remain at Sotherleigh.’ Katherine’s voice was weak these days, but although she still kept her forthright manner, an unexpected catch in her speech told that she was deeply moved by what she had to say. ‘She has sacrificed herself for us, Julia. It shames me that I always thought her too gentle for her own good, but she is the frail bough that never breaks, no matter how ill the winds may blow. She has been the heart and the guiding light of Sotherleigh ever since she came here, and I was too proud to see it until now.’

  Tears streamed from Julia’s eyes. ‘My conscience has troubled me too. Many times! I realized on the day of her marriage to Makepeace that Mama was doing what she least wanted to do and it was for those of us whom she loved She took everything on to her shoulders and yet I was the one who had made you a promise to keep Sotherleigh secure.’

  ‘Your mother fulfilled it on your behalf, even though she knew nothing of what had passed between us. For all we know Fate had decreed that it was not your turn yet to protect Sotherleigh. That may come. In the meantime we can appreciate what Anne has done for us and be thankful for the rest of our lives.’

  ‘I will! Always.’

  ‘There is something more I have to say to you.’ Katherine took Julia’s right hand into both her own and held it in a clasp that quivered from her age and physical frailty, ‘It’s to do with your going to Bletchingdon. If you think to waste your hours and days yearning after a young man unsuited to you, the visit will bring you no benefit and nothing but misery will await you if you continue along the same path in the years ahead.’

  ‘I hope you’re not thinking of Christopher,’ Julia said uncertainly.

  ‘I am. I know that when you were younger, the advice I’m going to give you now would have set you after him like a bolting horse and nothing could have held you back. That is the way of youth. But you have been through a great deal of sorrow and heartache in recent weeks, and no matter if you have acted in a headstrong manner at times, it is all behind you. Learn from the mistakes you have made. This will help you to guard against another that would be totally disastrous for you and that clever young man, who is in love with knowledge and beauty of another kind, which he finds among the stars in the firmament.’

  Julia bent her head. ‘You’re asking too much of me. Grandmother.’

  ‘I think not. I can’t see you being content to be just another planet.’

  ‘Would you sooner see me wed to whatever husband Ma
kepeace picks out for me?’

  ‘Is that what he has threatened?’

  ‘Yes. He said he would stop at nothing to make me obey.’

  ‘Bah! He doesn’t know your mettle as I do. Not even Queen Elizabeth could have made me marry anyone other than Ned. Ed have gone to the Tower first.’

  Julia looked up at her then. ‘I’ve told Makepeace I’ll never give in and I mean it.’

  Katherine smiled fondly at her. ‘We’ve always been two of a kind, child. You’ll recognize the man who is right for you when the time comes. In your own heart you know that the genius of Oxford and Gresham is not for you.’

  ‘I’ll love Christopher until the end of my days.’

  ‘There is love and love, Julia. You’ll find what you are seeking in a man who’ll let no obstacle stand in his way to win you.’

  Julia tried to thrust away the memory of Christopher turning from her in the maze, but it persisted. For the first time she saw it as the rejection that it had been, not just his sense of honour coming between them, but a division of their whole lives. If they had been destined for each other would not a truly loving passion on his part have swept all else away?

  ‘It’s a long time since we’ve had a good talk together like this. Grandmother. I’ll remember what you have said, but this is something I have to think about and decide for myself.’

  ‘I haven’t the least doubt about your good sense, Julia. But now surely you must go. Have a merry time at Bletchingdon. At your age I was dancing every night.’