Besieged

by Bertrice Small

  Returning to Jamestown he found the king's letter, and immediately returned home, leaving his second wife and children behind. His goal was to obtain a grant for the lands about the Chesapeake area, for this was the perfect place for his colony. In England James I was dead, but Charles I, his son, was equally fond of Lord Baltimore. He thought his father's old friend and faithful servant looked tired and worn, and attempted to turn his mind from the New World. But Charles I finally saw that George Calvert would not be dissuaded until he could found this colony of his which he had been talking about for years. As for religious toleration, the king was doubtful such a thing could be obtained, but let George Calvert try if he must.

  Lord Baltimore was granted by royal decree the land: to the true meridian of the first fountaine of the River Pattowmeck. Created Lord Proprietary, his rights over this territory were virtually royal. He could make laws. Raise an army. Pardon criminals, confer land grants, and titles. And then King Charles gave his father's old friend an especial right not even granted to the Virginia colony. Lord Baltimore's colony was allowed to trade with any country it chose to trade with; and in return, the king would receive one fifth of any gold or silver discovered in the colony, and be paid annually a quitrent of two Indian arrows.

  As the charter was being drawn up for the new colony the king gently suggested that, having no name yet, Lord Baltimore might like to name it after the queen. George Calvert agreed, a twinkle in his eyes. Terra Mariae was therefore entered into the Latin charter as the colony's name, but it was immediately called by its more familiar English appellation, Mary's Land.

  Lady Baltimore and the children were sent for, but after a quiet voyage their vessel was wrecked off the coast of England with no survivors. Lord Baltimore was devastated. He had lost two wives, and several of the children. Exhausted, worn down by his many years of hard work, and saddened beyond all measure, George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, died suddenly on April fifteenth, 1632. Two months later the royal charter was issued to the second Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, a handsome young man of twenty-seven.

  ***

  At Glenkirk, James Leslie had learned all of this news-sent to him by his stepson Charles Frederick Stuart, the duke of Lundy- even as Kieran and Fortune prepared to go south to England. "I doubt ye'll be able to sail this year," he said, "but ye'll nae know that until ye speak wi Lord Baltimore. Ye'll go to Queen's Malvern first, and Charlie will know what ye're to do next. I dinna know these people, but since they're connected wi the court, Charlie will."

  James Leslie and his wife had decided they would not be going south to England for their usual summer visit with their family. The duke felt he had been away from his lands a year, and would not travel again so soon. Jasmine was only just recovering from her childbirth of seven months ago. She did not want to take a bairn as young as Autumn on another journey. The trip home had been all she would dare with the precious infant upon whom she doted so greatly. Fortune and Kieran would go alone to England.

  Now as the day for their departure came near the duchess of Glenkirk grew sad. When her second daughter had gone she would have no children left at home but Patrick Leslie, but he was sixteen, and while he loved his mother, and tolerated her concern, he considered himself a man. And her wee Autumn Rose, who was growing so quickly Jasmine could almost feel life speeding by her, and she was helpless to stop it.

  Fortune sensed her mother's mood, and attempted to cheer her "She's only a baby, Mama. 'Twill be years before she leaves you. You can devote yourself to her as you never really could to the rest of us. I think Autumn is very fortunate to have you, Mama."

  "Aye," her mother answered, brightening a bit. Fortune was very astute, but then she had always been the practical child. When she and her siblings were young I was at court, Jasmine thought. I did not have the time for them I shall have for this daughter. "I will miss you," the duchess of Glenkirk said softly.

  "I will miss you, Mama," came the reply. "On one hand I am so excited to be going to the New World, but on the other I am a little afraid. It is such an adventure, and as you know I have never been one for adventure. I did not ever plan to have one. Yet here I am, setting off into the unknown with my darling Kieran. If only people would tolerate each other's religions, I should have never had to leave Ulster." She sighed deeply. "Do you think this Mary's Land will really be a place of toleration, Mama? What if it isn't? Where will we go then?"

  "You will come home to Glenkirk where we will protect you," the duchess said firmly. Then she took her daughter into her arms, and they hugged one another. "You know, Fortune, that you and Kieran will always be welcome here. AIways!"

  It was so difficult leaving, Fortune thought, the day they departed Glenkirk. There was a strong likelihood that she would never see this childhood home of hers ever again. An ocean would separate them, and having crossed it once, Fortune was not certain she would have the courage to cross back over it again. As she had always said, she was not one for adventure, and yet what was this she was doing? This place they were going to was a wilderness. There were no castles, no houses, no towns, or shops. How would they survive? Yet what other choice did they have?

  Fortune put on a brave face, and said good-bye to all those whom she loved. Her stepfather, James Leslie, her mother, Jasmine, her brother, Patrick, her baby sister, Autumn. Her mother's lifelong servants for the first time since she had known them were teary. They were, she noticed for the first time, growing older. I will never see them again, she realized suddenly. She put her arms about Adali, her mother's majordomo. There were no words to say what was really in her heart. He hugged her wordlessly, then turned away, but not quickly enough for she had seen his tears. Rohana and Toramalli hugged and kissed her, and unable to help themselves wept fulsomely.

  They left Glenkirk, Fortune's great train of possessions behind them, protected until they reached Queen's Malvern by an armed troop of Leslie men-at-arms. The trip was, as it usually was, uneventful, but for Kieran, Rois, and Kevin it was as much of an adventure as their voyage from Ulster had been. For Fortune it was just another trek into an English summer.

  Charles Frederick Stuart, the duke of Lundy, was awaiting them on their arrival at his home, Queen's Malvern. The estate had been given to his great-grandparents by Elizabeth Tudor, and passed on to him with the blessing of his grandfather, King James. It had therefore cost the canny king nothing to bestow a dukedom upon his first grandchild, a bargain he well liked. Charlie, as his family called him, was a tall, slender young man with auburn hair, and the Stuarts' amber eyes. He looked far more like his father, the late Prince Henry, than he did like his mother's family. He would be twenty in September, and was as polished a courtier as his Great-Uncle Robin Southwood, the earl of Lynmouth, had been at his age.

  "You're looking particularly lush and well satisfied," he greeted his elder sister with a wicked grin. " 'Tis obvious marriage agrees with you, Fortune." He kissed her heartily, and gave her a hug.

  "A Stuart first, as Mama likes to say," she responded with a chuckle. "Here is my husband, Kieran Devers. Kieran, Charlie, the not-so-royal Stuart in the family."

  The two men clasped hands, sizing one another up, and immediately decided they liked one another.

  "Henry will eventually be over from Cadby," Charlie told his sister, and then said to Kieran, "the revered eldest brother of us all."

  They moved into the house, and into the family hall where the servants were quick to bring refreshment. Settling themselves about the fire, for the June day was chill, they talked.

  "Papa said you would know how to contact Lord Baltimore," Fortune said to her brother.

  "He's at Wardour Castle down in Wiltshire," was the reply.

  "How do we get there?" Kieran asked.

  "Fortune will remain here," Charlie said. "You and I will ride down in a few days' time. I'll send ahead to gain an appointment with him, for this expedition of his is extremely popular, and he is besieged by those who are interested in going. Many, of cours
e, are only interested in gaining lands, and then leaving them to their colonists while they return to England to live well. Cecil Calvert, like his father before him, wants responsible colonists who will remain in Mary's Land. I think you will qualify, and that, along with your ability to support yourselves, will weigh heavily in your favor. And of course because I am the king's dear nephew, and want a place for you," he teased them both.

  "And we have our own vessels," Fortune said. "I'm going with you, Charlie. You aren't going to leave me behind while you two have all the fun, little brother."

  "Wardour will be no place for a woman," he protested. "An important expedition is being set up there. It will be full of men, Fortune, and you are a respectable married woman now, for God's sake."

  "Doesn't Lord Baltimore have a wife, Charlie?"

  "Aye, Lady Anne Arundel," was the answer.

  "Is she there?"

  "Of course! It's her father's home," he replied.

  "Then I shall go," Fortune said. "You're a courtier, Charlie, and you don't really know a great deal outside of the court. And my husband is a country gentleman from Ulster, unfamiliar with English ways. I have to go. I'm the only one of us with a practical nature, and we'll need my skills at negotiation."

  "She's right," Kieran said with a chuckle, "but I'll not mind her company at all, Charlie."

  The young duke thought a moment, and then he grinned. "Damn me if you aren't correct as always, sister. I'd forgotten that you are the sensible one among us. Aye, come along, but we're going to ride, Fortune. No servants, and no fancy clothing. Wardour at Tisbury is several long days' ride from Queen's Malvern. Perhaps on the way back we'll go by way of Oxton, and see India and her family."

  "Ohhh, I should like that!" his sister responded enthusiastically.

  They sent word to Cadby to Henry Lindley that they were leaving for Wiltshire, and would see him when they returned. Rois and Kevin were left in the care of the Queen's Malvern servants, and the trio rode out one fine June morning. Kieran was surprised to find how capable his wife was in caring for herself. He had not realized it before, and it struck him suddenly how little he really knew Fortune. They reached Wardour Castle several days later. Fortune had never seen a building such as Wardour before. It was hexagonal in shape, and its Great Hall was laid out over its entrance.

  Cecil Calvert greeted them personally. "Charlie! 'Tis good to see you, my lord. The king is well?"

  "I haven't been at court in a month," Charlie replied. "I've come today to ask a favor of you, Cecil. This is my sister, Lady Fortune Lindley, and her husband, Kieran Devers. Kieran was heir to a lovely little estate in Ulster until his English stepmother decided her son, Kieran's half-brother, would make Mallow Court a better master."

  "You're a Catholic?" Lord Baltimore said, his look sympathetic.

  "Aye, my lord, I am," Kieran said quietly.

  "They want to go with you, Cecil," Charlie said.

  Lord Baltimore looked distressed. "We already have more people than I had anticipated," he said.

  Now it was Fortune who spoke up. "We have our own ships, my lord," she said. "My own two trading vessels. The larger I'll use for our transport. The other I intend using for the horses. We have colonists, too. Fourteen men of whom five are farmers, two fishermen, two weavers, and one each, a blacksmith, a cooper, a tanner, a shoemaker, and an apothecary. The five farmers have wives, and several children among them. All are healthy, devout, and of good character. And we have a physician, Mistress Happeth Jones, plus my two servants. We can provision all our people as well as the ship, my lord. Please, let us come with you. There is nowhere else for us to go, for while my husband is a Catholic, I am an Anglican. They say you will practice toleration of all faiths in your Mary's Land. It would seem the perfect place for us."

  Cecil Calvert looked at the lovely young woman before him. While she was dressed for riding, rather outrageously in doeskin breeches, her garments were expensive, and elegant. Her hands were the hands of a lady. Her speech refined. "It will not be an easy place to settle, Lady Lindley," he told her. "You will have to build your own home, and it will be nothing, I will wager, like that which you are used to for it is a wilderness. There are other dangers too. Some of the natives are not friendly, and as prone to war as the French and the Spanish, although I hope to negotiate a peace treaty with them. You must bring everything that you need with you, and if you find you are in need of something you do not have, you will have to do without it. You will be bereft of your family, for I know from Charlie that yours is a large family. You will not see your brothers and sisters for years, if indeed you see them ever again. Are you truly certain that you would make this great journey, and live in this new world?"

  "Aye," Fortune told him bravely, "I am, my lord."

  "I would consider it a debt owed you, Cecil," Charlie Stuart said meaningfully.

  Lord Baltimore waved his hand. "Nay, Charlie, I am happy to offer your sister and her husband a place in my colony. They are just the kind of people I truly want. They will make something of the land given them, and they will remain to build the colony. Come with me now to my privy chamber. I will tell you what is involved, and what you will get in exchange." He tucked Fortune's hand in his. "I remember you, and your sister, India, at court. You were two of the prettiest young ladies there at the time. You departed, leaving behind many broken hearts." He led them along a stone corridor, finally ushering them into a paneled room where a fire was burning merrily.

  Lord Baltimore settled his guests, sitting with them. "Now," he said, directing his gaze to Fortune and Kieran. "For every grant of land made by me, an oath of fealty must be sworn to me as the colony's Proprietary. You will receive a thousand acres for every five men you bring with you. As you are bringing fifteen men you will be given three thousand acres, Master Devers. I will want twenty pounds for each man transported. The women and children will not be charged. Each male colonist will receive a hundred acres for himself, and if he has a wife, one hundred acres for her in addition. Fifty-acres is assigned to each child over the age of sixteen years. They will pay twelve pence quitrent each year for every fifty acres. You will pay twenty pounds quitrent yearly.

  "Each of your people must have a minimum of two hats, two suits, three pairs of stockings, shoes, one ax, one saw, one shovel, nails, one grindstone, one spit, one gridiron, a pot, a kettle, a frying pan, and seven ells of canvas. The women, of course, will take gowns, and not suits. Each man will need a musket, ten pounds of powder, ten pounds of lead, bullets, and goose shot, as well as a sword, a belt, a bandolier, and a flask. Your people, both men and women, should learn how to shoot for they will not be able to depend solely upon the gentlemen in the expedition for protection."

  Kieran nodded. "What kind of food supplies shall we stock?" he asked.

  "Flour, grain, cheeses, dried fish, meat, and fruit. Casks of beer, cider, and wine. And seed. You will be given a list of what to bring for we must get through a winter and spring before we will be able to eat off our own land," Lord Baltimore said.

  "Then you intend sailing this year?" Kieran was surprised. Both his father-in-law and Charlie believed Lord Baltimore's expedition could not set off until the next year. They would have to send to their people and tell them to prepare. Monies would have to be dispatched to Rory Maguire for the supplies. "When?" There was so much to do.

  "Autumn. 'Tis not the best time to travel, but we have no other choice. Unlike my father, I seem to have enemies who would prefer Mary's Land not be settled."

  ***

  The representatives of the Virginia colony were in particular most vexing. They complained to the king that by allowing the Mary's Land colony to come into existence they would lose both land and settlers. They complained that Cecil Calvert was setting up a colony where all people, even Catholics, could worship in freedom. Then they started rumors that only Catholics would be allowed in Mary's Land. They lobbied hard to get King Charles to rescind Lord Baltimore's charter. He listened to th
em all, but he remembered George Calvert's faithful service to his family. And, too, his young Catholic queen pleaded privily with him to ignore the malcontents.

  "The charter will stand," the king told his wife. "I think the Calverts dreamers to believe they can actually make a place in this world where all people, no matter their faith, can be welcome. Human nature being what it is…" He shrugged. "But perhaps it is possible," the king concluded. "We will pray for their success."

  Nonetheless Calvert's detractors continued to work behind the scenes to destroy Lord Baltimore's dream. Cecil Calvert realized he could not, at this time, go with his colonists. He put his younger brother, Leonard, in command, and his even younger brother, George, was made the colony's deputy governor. Jerome Hawley and Thomas Cornwallis were named to assist the Calverts as commissioners. The preparations continued for an autumn departure. Kieran and Fortune returned to Queen's Malvern to prepare. There was no time for visiting India at Oxton.

  Back at Queen's Malvern Fortune realized that her moon link had been broken. She was with child. The knowledge put her in a quandary. She knew if her husband learned of her condition he would not allow her to go to Mary's Land until after their child was born. Had she been India, she would have kept the secret, but she was not India. She was the practical child, and yet… she sighed.

  "What is it?" her brother asked as he came upon Fortune sitting upon a stone bench in the Queen's Malvern gardens. He sat by her side, and took her hand in his.

  "I have a problem to solve," Fortune said. Her fingers worried her dark green silk skirts.