Bonds of Earth, The (9 page)

W
HEN
M
ORWENNA LEFT
the Wheal Hope cottage she was nursing a sense of determined grievance, yet although fully aware she had been underhanded with her sister in respect of Goran, she had no regrets. The family had shown little sympathy to her when they insisted that she accompany them to this part of the country against her wishes, even though it meant parting her from the man she had intended marrying.

Morwen's resentful ambition now was to marry and move away from her family. In Goran she felt she had found someone with whom she could not only achieve that aim but who could also offer her a more comfortable life than she would have within the mining community.

She shrugged off the knowledge that her sister was enamoured of the man she intended pursuing. Nessa had hardly had time to get to know him and would no doubt find someone else in due course.

The fact that Goran had shown no interest in her did not worry Morwenna unduly, there were ways of making a man with principles believe he
should
marry a girl. It had almost worked with her previous sweetheart and she believed she could do the same with Goran.

She did not feel the least pang of conscience about her intentions. She would keep Goran as happy as any man deserved to be and they would no doubt enjoy a comfortable life together. Besides, there were other considerations – serious ones – but Morwenna did not want to dwell on them and successfully pushed them to the back of her mind.

Morwenna's plans received a setback when she met up with Jenken who was on his way home from his work on Elworthy Farm. In reply to her question he informed her that Goran had left him to finish off the work at Elworthy while he went to Roach Farm to carry out some chores there.

Morwenna thought of going to Roach Farm to find Goran but changed her mind immediately. She had never met Agnes Roach but had heard enough to think twice about annoying her by interfering with Goran's work on her farm.

However, she had no intention of returning home just yet, the upset she had caused within her family was still fresh enough to erupt again and she would no doubt be blamed for its cause. It would take a while for their resentment against her to subside, so in the meantime she decided to explore a part of the moor she had not yet visited, the area beyond the upper limits of the two farms owned by Agnes Roach.

Reaching the section of Spurre land which extended on to the high moor from the large estate she followed the boundary wall until it was replaced by a recently plashed hawthorn hedge which was little more than waist-high.

Reaching the hedge, Morwenna was startled to see a young man, perhaps three or four years older than herself, walking on the estate side of the barrier. Unseen, he must have been keeping pace with her as she walked along the other side of the wall.

He appeared equally surprised, but was the first to speak.

‘Hello, what are you doing up here, and where are you from? I don't remember seeing you around this way before.'

‘That's because I haven't been up here before – and I hope you've got permission to be over there. There's a gamekeeper who's threatened to shoot anyone he finds trespassing on the Spurre estate.'

The young man smiled, ‘You must be talking about my uncle Marcus. His bark is far worse than his bite, I don't think he's ever
actually
shot anyone.'

‘That's where you're wrong! He shot a young dog just because it was friendly with me and my sisters – and he did it while we were watching. It upset my little sister so much she had nightmares about it, so don't tell me he's not a bad person!'

‘He must have had a reason for doing what he did and you've seen a side of him I haven't, but you still haven't told me who you are and what you're doing up here on the moor.'

‘It's none of your business, but my name is Morwenna and my pa is captain of the Wheal Hope.'

‘Wheal Hope? Isn't that the name of the new mine, a little way along the edge of the moor? It means we're almost neighbours.'

‘Does it?' Morwenna shrugged, but her apparent indifference was carefully feigned. The Spurre estate gamekeeper's nephew was quite good-looking and, unlike Goran, did not seem entirely uninterested in her.

‘Yes. My name is Tom, Tom Miller. I'm staying with my uncle Marcus because he's teaching me about gamekeeping. As soon as he thinks I know enough I expect to be given a cottage on the estate. There are one or two empty at the moment. The one I particularly like isn't far from here. It's hidden in that clump of trees over there….'

He pointed to where the tops of a number of deciduous trees could be seen rising above an apparent shallow hollow in the grounds of the estate, adding, ‘It was lived in by an old retired gamekeeper who died a couple of months ago. It still has all his furniture there and would suit me very well. I'll show it to you if you'd like to see it.'

‘I'm sure you would but as we've only just met and all I know about you is what
you've
just told me, you're not taking me anywhere!'

There was just sufficient indignation in Morwenna's reply to indicate to Tom Miller that she was not devoid of all morals, but the look that accompanied her words was bold enough to suggest that she did not value virtue as highly as was being implied.

‘I'm sorry, I was being a bit forward, wasn't I? It's a long time since I had anything to do with girls. I worked in a saw-mill for my father until he died only a month ago, and my mother, Marcus Grimble's younger sister, died when I was only fifteen.'

‘Oh! I'm sorry to hear that.' Morwenna's sympathy sounded genuine. ‘Do you have any brothers or sisters?

‘No, the only relative I have left now is my uncle Marcus. How about your family?'

‘My parents are both alive and I have two sisters, both younger than me….'

For some minutes they talked about families until, displaying apparent reluctance, Morwenna said, ‘I'd better be getting home now, before it gets dark, my ma will be wondering where I've got to.'

‘That's a pity,' Tom Miller said, ‘we were just beginning to get to know each other, but do you come out walking the moor very often?'

Her mind working rapidly, Morwenna said, ‘I spend a lot of time walking because there's not very much to do about the mine, but I'm out much earlier as a rule, usually early in the afternoon. As I said, I haven't been up this way before so I don't know my way around at all, but it's nice and quiet and it's good to get away from all the noise about the mine.'

‘I shall be on this part of the estate for most of tomorrow afternoon. If you're around I could show you the gamekeeper's cottage then. It's in a lovely spot, I'm sure you'd like it. There's a fishing lake close to it and usually a few geese and other water birds there. It's beautiful, really.'

Morwenna left Tom Miller knowing they were both aware she would be returning the following afternoon. She knew, too, she would accept his offer to see the gamekeeper's remote cottage on the Spurre estate, fully aware of what the inevitable consequence was likely to be.

P
IRAN
P
YNE LEFT
his eldest daughter in no doubt of his displeasure the next morning. However, his admonishment was less severe than it might have been because of his need to return to the Wheal Hope and supervise the work on the main shaft being sunk through hard rock ground.

Only a couple of hours later Harriet Bolitho returned from a meeting at Elworthy Farm with Mabel and called in at the Pyne home to happily confirm that she and her family would be moving to the farm cottage the following day.

Annie and Nessa immediately volunteered to go to the moorland hovel to help Harriet prepare for the move and they went from the house taking Jennifer with them, leaving Morwenna to clean and tidy-up in their absence As a result Morwenna had no need to think of an excuse to leave the house. Completing the chores to her own haphazard satisfaction, she made her way to the high moor above the Spurre estate, soon after noon, aware that upon her return any altercation would be about the manner in which she had cleaned the house and not about where she had spent the remainder of the day.

When she arrived at the hedge which had separated her from Tom on the last occasion they had met, the gamekeeper's nephew was nowhere to be seen. For half an hour she walked up and down the boundary becoming increasingly agitated until, much to her relief, she spotted him coming towards her along a path that cut through the middle of the strip of Spurre land.

Unaware of her anxiety, Tom waved gaily and, when he was closer, called cheerily, ‘Hello, I was hoping I might meet up with you again. I've just been to have a look around the old cottage. It's in a far better condition than I realized, it will be a great place to live. Would you like to come and see it and tell me what you think? I would appreciate a woman's opinion on any possible drawbacks of living in such an isolated place.'

‘Are you quite sure that's the only reason you want to take me to the cottage?'

‘It is … unless you can think of something more exciting we might be able to do there?'

There was a thinly disguised implication in the bold question that required no answer and Morwenna said, ‘I'll come and give you my opinion, but I doubt whether it will make any difference, you've probably already made up your own mind what you want to do.'

‘That's just it, I
haven't
, so your opinion could make all the difference.'

‘Well, first of all I need to get to your side of the hedge – and I'm not going to try to climb over it.'

‘There's a gate not far ahead and we can talk to each other across the hedge on the way there.'

As they kept pace with each other on either side of the trimmed hedge their conversation was of generalities: the moor, its animals and birds, and places of interest in the area which Morwenna had not yet discovered but which Tom thought might prove of interest to her.

They were subjects with which neither of Morwenna's parents could have raised any objections. However, once she had passed through the gateway to the estate and they were walking together they both sensed an indefinable and unspoken change in their relationship, especially when the path occasionally narrowed and their arms brushed against each other.

It was nothing that either could have expressed in words but the conversation between them was now of a more personal nature.

‘Are there many young men working at Wheal Hope?'

‘None. My pa brought only the most experienced miners with him from down west. I don't think any of them are younger than he is.'

‘That can't be much fun for you. What do you and your sisters do to keep yourselves amused?'

‘Jennifer's quite happy playing with toys – and Nessa's always got her nose stuck in a book.'

‘It sounds as though life must be very boring for
you
.'

‘It is, that's why I spend so much time walking around the moor, but I expect
you
know lots of people – men and girls – and if ever you get bored you can always go off drinking with your friends.'

‘I don't have any friends. At least, not hereabouts. We were living some miles away when my pa died so I don't really know anyone around here, not of my own age, anyway. That's why I was so pleased to meet up with you – although I suppose you must have a sweetheart
somewhere
, you being so pretty.'

As he had hoped, Morwenna was flattered by his egregious compliment.

‘Chance would be a fine thing! Anyway, I wouldn't want a miner for a sweetheart. I've spent all my life among miners and mines. I'd like to find someone who does something else, something
interesting
.'

‘Yes, I suppose it must make a man boring if he's working down a mine all the time with nothing more than a candle or two to give him light. My work is very different. As a gamekeeper there's always so much to see and do, dealing with animals and birds and taking care of the estate … but here we are at the cottage. What do you think of it?'

The cottage he had brought her to had a steeply angled and heavily thatched roof which came down low enough for a man to reach up and touch it from ground level, its symmetry broken by two diamond-paned windows. They had approached the rear of the cottage, passing through a copse of trees which protected it on three sides, yet being far enough away for there to be a kitchen garden behind the cottage. It had not been tended for some time and was struggling to hold its own against the onslaught of seasonal weeds. Nevertheless, there was an air of complacent timelessness about the cottage which shrugged off the evidence of recent neglect.

‘It's a
lovely
cottage!'

For once Morwenna was being completely honest, expressing an opinion that was not motivated by self-interest.

‘It is, and such a pity there's no one living in it. The inside is just as nice, come in and have a look around.'

The interior of the cottage was low-ceilinged and snug and surprisingly neat and tidy. When Morwenna commented on this, Tom explained, ‘When the old gamekeeper died the housekeeper at Spurre Hall sent a couple of the maids here to give it a thorough clean, and as he had no known relatives to claim the furniture it was decided to leave it in place.'

‘And this is the cottage you'll be moving into?'

‘I don't know. I could if I wanted, but I'll need to think about it. Where I am now one of the maids comes in and keeps the house tidy and we're both fed from the kitchen of the Hall. If I came up here it would be too far for a cleaning woman to come in and I'd need to be cooking for myself.'

Shrugging with feigned nonchalance, he added, ‘Perhaps I'll see if I can find a wife from somewhere.'

Disappointed when Morwenna made no reply he changed the subject abruptly. ‘The last time I was here I found traces of a rat outside in the shed and put poison down to kill it. While I go and check whether I've caught it why don't you have a look around? There's a wonderful view upstairs from the big bedroom at the front.'

When he had gone Morwenna began her inspection, going from room to room, finding many features to admire including the stout oak beams in the downstairs rooms and a spacious inglenook fireplace complete with slate-slab seats in the kitchen. At the same time, she was disappointed Tom had not chosen to accompany her on her tour of his prospective home.

Climbing the narrow wooden staircase, she made her way to the front, east-facing bedroom that was surprisingly large for such a small cottage. Tom had not exaggerated about the view from here. The River Lynher curved through the valley that was part of the Spurre estate. The land rose on the far side, but the cottage was above the height of this rise and it had a panoramic view of a landscape which extended to the heights of Dartmoor, far off in the neighbouring county of Devon.

Suddenly she heard footsteps on the stairs and, a few moments later, Tom entered the room, coming to stand just behind her, looking over her shoulder to share the view from the window.

Despite being very aware of his closeness, her first words were far from romantic.

‘Did you kill the rat?'

‘I can't be absolutely sure but the poison has been taken, so no doubt it's lying dead somewhere.'

There was a brief silence between them before he leaned forward so that his cheek was touching hers and pointed to the far horizon. ‘That's Dartmoor. It's far bigger than our moor here. Have you ever been there?

‘No, I've never been out of Cornwall.' Very aware that his other arm had passed behind her and his hand was now resting on her shoulder, she added, ‘You were right, it is beautiful.'

‘Not as beautiful as you.' As he spoke the hand tightened on her shoulder and she was awkwardly pulled around to face him, her body against his.

This was the moment when she should have made a protest, Morwenna knew it, and so did Tom. When none came he kissed her, lightly at first but when she responded it became more demanding. Pulling her even closer he made a clumsy attempt to move her backwards towards the bed.

Now she
did
object. Pulling her head – but not her body – away from him, she said, ‘You'd better save anything you have in mind for when you've found that wife you were talking about.'

‘Perhaps I've found her….'

He tried to kiss her again, but she twisted her head to one side, away from him, saying, ‘Don't be foolish, this is only the second time we've met.'

‘What's time got to do with anything?'

He did not release his hold on her and with their bodies pressed hard against each other Morwenna was fully aware of the desire in him.

He spoke again. ‘I believe that if you meet up with the right person you know it right away.'

‘You might know straightway but it doesn't mean you get what you want there and then.'

‘Why not, what's the sense in waiting? It's just wasting time if you both feel the same way.'

‘You would say that because when you get what you want you can go away and forget all about it, leaving the woman to face the consequences.'

‘I would never do that. If I felt strongly enough about a woman to want to do it to her I'd want to marry her anyway.'

‘So you say. It would be a very different story if it came to
having
to marry because of what you'd done.'

He shook his head. ‘No, it wouldn't. Like I said, I wouldn't do it to anyone unless I felt I'd like to be married to her. Mind you, I'd never get married to anyone I
hadn't
done it with. I'd want to know she loved me just as much as I loved her.'

Sensing that Tom was not quite as feverishly eager as he had been a few minutes before, Morwenna believed she might have overplayed her apparent virtuousness. Relaxing her body so it was still pressing against his, but less rigidly, she was able to excite him once more.

‘How do I know you mean it?'

‘I
do
mean it. What else do you want me to say?'

‘Do you promise that if I let you and anything happens to me, you
will
marry me?'

‘I promise! I knew when I first saw you that you're the sort of girl I want to marry. Even though I've only known you for a couple of days I'd like to marry you and bring you here to live.'

She said nothing while his body explored hers through the thin summer dress and his excitement increased. Then … ‘All right, you can … but only because you've said you'll marry me if you get me into trouble … You
do
promise?'

‘Of course I do, I wouldn't do it if I didn't want to marry you.'

Even as he was speaking he was propelling her backwards to the bed. Reaching it she fell backwards on to the hard, straw mattress.

After fumbling with his trousers he pulled her dress clumsily up about her waist.

‘You're not wearing any drawers!'

‘I've never worn any since I was a little girl. I don't like them.'

‘That's all right, it makes everything much easier….'

He was lying on top of her now and she gave a gasp as he thrust inside her, then her body was responding to his and she abandoned herself to the love-making she had been missing so much since she had left Alan Toms behind in Cornwall's far west.