Bella Poldark (29 page)

'Phew! It grows warmer every day. I must go and let Butto out..." Valentine went to the window. 'This is all very surprising to me, Captain. And the biggest surprise of all is that you have been put in charge of this venture. Are either of our two local knights shareholders in this concern?'

'Knights?'

'Sir George or Sir Ross. If it were only the latter I should suppose that his heart was sounder than his head and that this was a quixotic but foolish attempt on his part to save a close relative from the consequences of his folly. If it were only the former I should suppose he has had investigations made at dead of night as to the future profitability of Wheal Elizabeth -- if he were to get it cheap enough.'

'I am not at liberty to say.'

'But you are here to make me an offer for the mine with a pistol at my head!'

'There may be an element of truth in that. The choice is yours, but it is not a wide one.' 'Indeed not. Always assuming that I am not able to convince my North Country partners that I am an honest man losing their money for them in all good faith!'

'And can you?'

'It remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen what your share company is prepared to offer. No doubt they have sent you along with a knock-down price.'

Philip reached for his glasses and put them on, hooking them carefully behind each ear.

'The figure mentioned to me was seven thousand pounds.'

Valentine laughed loudly. 'If I accepted that I should--. By the time I have settled with my partners and accounted for some general expenses I should have nothing!'

'That was what one of my partners thought possible.'

'And no doubt your other partners opined that nothing was all I deserved.'

'Not in those words. No, not in those words.'

Valentine swung round. 'Well, mon capitaine, it will not do. If I go to prison, however distasteful that may be, I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that I have not disposed of my birthright to satisfy a group of sanctimonious robbers. For that is what you are, you and your crew. I wish you good day.'

Philip said: 'Your objection may be a little abated if you know that they would be willing to allow you to retain a quarter share of the mine if that price were paid. It is the feeling of a lawyer in the group that it might be possible to negotiate a settlement with the men you have cheated on those terms. But we cannot promise that. It very much depends upon how revengeful they may feel towards you.'

'Go now,' Valentine said, 'before I set Butto on you.'

On one of her visits to see her parents Clowance overtook Ben Carter, who was walking over to Trenwith. It was the first time they had seen each other since the Christmas party, and Ben flushed slightly and took off his cap.

'Why, Ben, how are you?'

'Nicely, thank ee, Miss Clowance. And how's yourself?'

'Which way are you going?'

'Past Sawle Church, y'know. Towards Trenwith.'

'I'll walk with you as far as the church.' Before he could help her she slid off Nero, looped the reins over one arm and was standing beside him. She smiled as he deferentially stepped back. 'You're married, Ben.'

'Yes, that's true.'

'My mother told me. To that nice girl you were with at the Christmas party.'

'Yes, that's true.'

'She's a cousin of mine, you know. I think that's the relationship. My mother is her aunt.'

They looked at each other. He said: 'You've picked a handsome day this day for your visit.'

She said: 'Are you happy, Ben?'

'Oh, yes. Oh, yes.'

'Perhaps I ought to say, at last.' 'Well . . . mebbe. It's took a long time, 'asn't it.'

'Perhaps after all this time we should not go into it.'

They began to walk.

'And you, Miss Clowance? - Sorry, I can't ever bring meself to call you Mrs Carrington

'Why do you not say Clowance? You used to once, you remember. We have known each other long enough. And after all we are now related.'

He smiled. Tis true. Though not mebbe as I once had the - the kick an' sprawl to -- to hope for.'

'It was not kick an' sprawl, Ben. There was nothing wrong in feeling the way you felt for me. I just did not feel that way for you. But I swear it had nothing to do with your being a Carter and me being a Poldark. It - it was just that I fell headlong in love with Stephen Carrington.'

They were in sight of the church.

'It must have been a bitter blow when he died.'

'It was. It was.'

'An' ye've not yet come out of the grief?'

'A little way.'

'Shall you stay on in Penryn? Why not come back and live 'ere, where ye b'long?'

She shrugged.

'Are you going to Trenwith to see Esther?'

'I'm going for to meet 'er. She finishes work at seven each day and I like go meet her and walk her 'ome.'

'She's a lucky girl.'

'I'm a lucky man.'

'Yes . . .'

'I would come with you all the way and meet her again -- I hardly saw her at the party - but I left late from Penryn, and my mother will begin to worry, as mothers do.'

'Tes kind of you to stop -- Clowance.'

'I very much wanted to. Will you give me a leg-up, please?'

His face was close to hers as he bent to grasp her boot. She kissed him. Then he gave the necessary hoist and she was in the saddle.

'Don't tell Esther,' she said. He put his hand up to his cheek. 'She would not mind. She d'know how I have long felt

'Dear Ben,' she said, 'I am happy for you.'

At supper Clowance said: 'I thought Cuby and Noelle would be here.'

'I have not had any word,' Demelza said. 'I expect they will be here tomorrow.'

'I saw Ben on my way. He was going to meet Esther. You were telling me last time that Ben and Esther's wedding was interrupted by the ape, but Harry came in and you never finished the story.'

Demelza finished the story.

'Did it upset them, d'you think?'

Demelza looked at Ross, who said: 'By the time the disturbance began the ceremony was over. They did not like it - it is another black mark for Valentine in Ben's eyes. But they were both too concerned to get away from the church without being pursued by a crowd of rowdy youths. I think in a way Butto was a useful diversion.'

'And Music and Katie are settling in at Trenwith? I did not mention them to Ben.'

'Cousin Geoffrey Charles seems very pleased with them. He says Music has a real gift with horses.'

'Yet he hated Butto . . . Have you seen Butto, Mama?'

'I glimpsed him out of the vestry door.' They ate in amiable silence.

'Henry is very quiet tonight,' Clowance remarked.

'He was more than normally self-willed,' said Ross. 'I laid a relatively gentle hand upon his sacred person and he did not like it. After a few screams that would have rivalled Bella at her worst he has gone sulking to bed.'

Demelza frowned. 'He said to me: "Papa's a naughty boy. Smack him for me." I promised I would.'

'Any time,' said Ross.

'You have an unruly family, Papa.'

'I can't think where they got it from,' Demelza said.

'Talking of the unruliest of us all,' Clowance said, 'I showed the letter from Bella to Mama while you were out. Pray read it if you wish.'

She passed the letter over, and Ross was silent for a couple of minutes. 'It says very little fresh. Indeed it is much the same as she sent to us. But the more letters she sends the better I am pleased. One feels she still has some conscience.'

'I have had another letter from Mrs Pelham,' Demelza said to Clowance. 'She is inconsolable. She seems to think it is her neglect that is somehow at fault. I took her letter to Caroline, and she is writing to try to reassure her.'

'What does Caroline think of it all?'

'I believe she feels uneasy because it is her aunt. If it were not for that I think she would be quite behind Bella's escapade. Tis in Caroline's nature.'

'It is in mine,' said Clowance.

'And ours,' agreed Ross, 'were it not for a little parental anxiety.'

'Has anyone heard from Christopher?'

Ross shook his head. 'Bella says she has written, but we do not know if he has replied to her or what he has said. I cannot imagine him being pleased.' When no one commented on that he added: 'Bella has been his protege. It was his idea that she should go to London and become a singer. He was engaged to marry her and they would have been married by now were it not for a - for a disingenuous postponement, apparently by agreement between them. My inner feeling is that there has been a cooling off, even an agreement to a temporary separation. In that case he has no real cause for complaint. Or not much. Did he know there was a likelihood that she might go away with this Frenchman?'

Demelza said: 'A while ago he spoke of wanting to marry Bella to protect her from the attentions of other young men. One of those he mentioned was Maurice Valery.'

Ross stirred, impatience coming to overshadow the tinge of anxiety.

'Until we have Bella in front of us to answer our questions we shall not know the ins and outs of it. Perhaps not even then.'

'I should not worry about it too much, Mama. Bella has her own life to live. We had many long talks when we were together at Easter, and I was astonished, simply astonished at the way she had matured. Instead of her being my brash little sister it was as if she was almost older than me, different, come to see things in a different way.'

'The way of the world?' Ross asked gently.

'I do not say she had become a part of that world, only that she sort of understood it. She might have been a young married woman and I an old maid!'

'That you are certainly not,' said Demelza.

'She was never, never condescending. I only mean that we have now been living different lives, so that the eight years between us no longer existed.' They rose from the supper table and drifted into the old parlour. Demelza had her glass of port, Ross his brandy, Clowance took an extra glass of wine.

'Why do you not come back and live here?' Ross said.

'We should very much welcome that.'

'Ben suggested the same thing this afternoon.'

'And so?'

Clowance wrestled with unexpected impulses. She was by nature the friendliest of people; only Stephen had brought about situations which had caused her often to think twice before she spoke; and the circumstances of his death, and her discoveries about him at the time of his death, had inhibited her further. But here she was with her mother and father, whom she dearly loved and from whom she had never received anything but kindness and common-sense understanding, in their own home where she had grown up, where everything was familiar and friendly and a part of her old life. Perhaps the wine was helping. She told them of the two marriage proposals she had received. Ross glanced at Demelza but she had her eyes down, staring deeply into her glass of port. He said: 'Philip has been courting you long enough and has never been backward in showing his feelings. Edward Fitzmaurice - well, his is a much older suit; but I thought he had asked you to marry him once long ago and you turned him down.'

'He has never given up,' said Demelza without raising her eyes. Moses, their latest cat, inserted himself round the parlour door and moved slinkily across the room, his tigerish back sinuous in the fading light.

'Well, yes,' said Clowance. 'There it is.'

'Is that a sufficient answer to our suggestion that you should return home to live? That shortly you shall choose between these two gentlemen? Or does it mean that you have chosen?'

'No.'

'But that you might soon?' asked Demelza.

'I ought,' said Clowance. 'I did ought.'

You did ought,' said her mother. 'That is the sort of grammar I have been trying to live down.'

'It is very expressive,' said Clowance. Ross said: 'And do you have a taking, the merest sliver of an inclination towards one or t'other?'

'I could marry either or neither. I like them both.'

'Not love them?' said Demelza.

'Not exactly. Not what I - I remember of love.'

It was a sad remark, thought Demelza. Her pretty, blonde, down-to-earth daughter was waiting for someone to sweep her off her feet. As Stephen had in his swashbuckling way. But with good results? She remembered Clowance saying to her soon after Stephen's death with great bitterness in her voice: 'If I ever marry again it will not be for love, it will be for position and money.'

'Well, you cannot marry both,' Demelza said. 'I believe it is against the law. If you marry neither you could always stay just as you are at Penryn. Or, as we said, you can come home. It is a pleasant life here, with little stress these days. Cuby seems to have settled back in Caerhays.'

'She has a child,' said Clowance. She stood up just as Moses was going to jump in her lap. 'I told you - Edward sent me this long letter. I have it upstairs. I'll get it and you can read it.' She was out of the room, her feet pattered, a door banged, more pattering and she was down again. 'There. Who shall read it first?'

'Your mother. She reads more slowly.'

Demelza made a face at him. 'Does he write with too many loops? Oh, no, this is proper. Oh, I never had such a long love letter in all my life!'

While her mother was reading Clowance slumped on the floor and stretched the cat out on his back. Moses was still young and tended to be nervous and scratchy, but this time he recognized a friend. When she had finished Demelza made no comment but handed the letter to Ross, who took up a pair of spectacles to read it. Further silence, except for the cat purring.

'Well,' Ross said, 'he states his case. And states it well. It is not exactly passionate but he purposely did not intend it to be. It is pretty clear that the young man loves you. You have to admire him. He must have the pick of half the aristocratic young ladies of London and the shires, but he has never given you up.'

'I feel flattered, and a weeny bit sorry for him. I would like to make him happy.'

'And Philip?'

'I feel flattered, and a weeny bit sorry for him. I would like to make him happy too.'

They all laughed.

'Do you want an opinion on which of the two we would like you to marry?'

'Ross,' said Demelza reprovingly.

'Well,' he defended himself, 'Clowance has paid us the compliment of telling us of her dilemma. The very last thing either you or I should do would be to press her to make one choice or the other. Our opinion is our own. If she solicits it, she is entitled to treat it as no more than, and no less than, a breath in the wind.'

'Well said, Papa. Mama, what do you think?'

'Let your father say first.'

Ross went round lighting the candles. The sky outside, from being of grey-stretched silk, turned a shade darker as each candle caught and slowly lit the room.

'Philip is a very brave soldier. If there were decorations for bravery he would surely have them all. Like Geoffrey Charles he will always be a little military in his bearing and in his straightforward attitude to life. He is, I am certain, honourable and kind. He has the disadvantage of having had a bad breakdown in the West Indies, and often when I meet him he seems as taut as a wire. He tells you he has a competence and knowing that family it will be fully adequate. They will find him a home in Cornwall - there is one in Penzance now where mainly he makes his home and even if you do not live at Nampara you will be living the sort of life you love in the county you love. The Prideauxs are a very old family - I think you could make a very good life with him.'

Clowance got up and drew the curtains across, stood with her back to the window looking at her father.

'As for Edward, in this letter he has spelled out the life that you might live with him. That too is very attractive. Although he says he will not be rich, that is, compared to his brother, who came in for so much, Edward will have enough property to live where and how he wants. He has offered you almost a choice of lives. If you keep him to them he will fulfil his promises, I'm sure. You will become Lady Edward Fitzmaurice, but your children will not have tides. Edward took no part in this past war and is a Whig. Ithink he is quite exceptional in that, although an aristocrat, he has lived a singularly decent and unprofligate life. And that, I can tell you, is highly unusual.'

'Are you recommending him, Papa?'

'I am commending him, not recommending him. I commend them both. Very recently - I have not told you this, Demelza - I have been more associated than usual with Philip Prideaux, and he has impressed me with his his good sense and grasp of unfamiliar things.'

Moses, deprived of Clowance's ministrations, stood up, straightened up, stretched enormously, pointed his tail and walked towards the door. Clowance said: 'Was it something to do with mining?'