Colonel Fitzwilliam's Dilemma (16 page)

Joshua inclined his head, thinking Asquith was exceedingly astute. “I’m with you there.”

“Sir Marius and I discussed the situation, and he understood my feelings because they closely mirrored his own. He understood I needed gainful employment and so had me school his younger children and then escort his youngest son to England when it came time for him to complete his education here.”

“And you stayed on.”

“Yes, instead of relying on Sir Marius’s charity, it was time to support myself.”

Joshua nodded his approval. “Very commendable. Most men in your position would have taken advantage of Sir Marius’s affection for you.”

Asquith waved the suggestion aside with a casual flip of his wrist. “Sir Marius has a large family, eight children all alive and well. He does not need me adding to his burden.”

“You were still in Jamaica when Sheffield arrived?”

“Yes.” Asquith leaned an elbow on the arm of his chair and rubbed his chin in his cupped hand. “Badly run plantations such as the one Sheffield purchased against Sir Marius’s advice, were worked by half-starved slaves incapable of doing a full day’s work through no fault of their own. That didn’t prevent their previous master from trying to beat them into working harder, which of course only made them weaker. Several died from untreated wounds that turned septic.”

Joshua nodded. “I have heard many such barbaric tales.”

“When the owner of the plantation died, his sons couldn’t wait to sell and leave the chaos that Jamaica had become. They were unable to believe their good fortune when Sheffield made them an offer for the place greatly in excess of its value.”

“But in spite of what you say, it must have been profitable because Sheffield made enough money from it to purchase the estate back here in England that his brother is now trying to lay claim to.”

“Because he didn’t play fair.” Asquith flashed a humourless smile. “What do you know of the Jamaican Maroons?”

“Not a great deal.” Joshua stretched his legs out in front of him, taking a moment to recall his history. “Going back a hundred years, the Spanish colonists fled Jamaica and left a large number of African slaves behind. Rather than be re-enslaved by the British, they escaped into the mountainous regions of the island, joined forces with…err—”

“Very good, Colonel. They joined forces with the Tainos, intermarried with Amerindian natives and established independence in the back country, surviving by subsistence farming and by raiding plantations. Inevitably there were wars because the Maroons were ruthless and becoming increasingly powerful as a consequence—a threat to authority in other words, and had to be stopped. Eventually, the British governor signed a treaty with the Maroons promising them two thousand five hundred acres of land in two locations in exchange basically for living beneath their own chief and a British superintendent.”

Joshua nodded. “I recall something about that.”

“In return, the Maroons agreed not to harbour runaway slaves but to help catch them. They were actually paid a bounty of two dollars for each returned slave, which was the start of a lot of tension between rival black communities.” Asquith ran a hand across the back of his neck. “To summarise, another war recently ensued. Some Maroons remained neutral and were left alone, others were viciously hunted down and deported. Tensions were running high, and still are, hence the reason for a lot of British settlers selling up and leaving.”

“Yes, I can see the attraction of the place would be on the wane. A lot of people in this country have been made anxious by talk of abolition.”

“Mainly because they don’t want to pay the slaves,” Asquith said with a cynical snort. “Now that the place is in chaos, they are claiming they were in the right of it. Anyway, where was I?”

“Deportations.”

“Right, well, of those left behind, a large enclave of rogue Maroons occupied the hills close to Sheffield’s plantation. They could see he had a decent crop but no manpower to harvest it. They struck a deal with the Sheffields, or to be more precise, with Percival. They would pick the crop and make sure it got refined and exported without the necessity to pay the usual taxes. In return they wanted half the profits.”

“That was highly illegal, I take it?”

Asquith shrugged. “And also highly profitable. It is not an uncommon practice, especially in these anarchic times when slaves are starting to organise themselves and make demands.”

“How do you know it was Percival’s idea?”

“I overheard him on one occasion, talking to the Maroons and assuring them he would talk his brother round.”

“Ah, I see.” Joshua would give a great deal to know what hold Percival had over his older sibling. It must have been something vital to persuade Albert, who had been described to Joshua as a methodical and cautious man, to go along with such a risky scheme. “What happened to the slaves who lived on the plantation?”

Asquith shot Joshua a look. “What do you think?”

“Percival left them to fend for themselves?”

“Exactly, but in so doing, he miscalculated badly. To this day I don’t know how they managed it, but they went off somewhere in the hills, were taken in, and recovered their strength. Then they were on the lookout for revenge, against the Maroons, but more especially against Sheffield, whom they blamed for making them homeless.”

“It was they who destroyed the plantation?”

“Yes, but here’s a question for you, Colonel. Was Mrs. Sheffield’s husband killed trying to save his property? Did his former slaves finish him off, or—?”

“Or did Percival see an opportunity to take everything for himself?”

The two men locked gazes and neither spoke for several moments as the full implication of Asquith’s suggestion struck Joshua.

“Quite so,” Asquith said, breaking the brittle silence.

“You really think Percival Sheffield is capable of fratricide?”

“I assume you haven’t met him?”

“No, I have not had that pleasure.”

“If you had, you wouldn’t have asked the question. He is perfectly charming, a great favourite with the ladies, but cunning as a fox, totally ruthless, and doesn’t possess a single moral in his entire body. Both brothers were that way, but Percival had an added something about him that made him especially dangerous. If you pressed me to say what it was, I would have to guess that he enjoys cruelty.”

Joshua’s blood ran cold at the thought of this man having anything to do with Celia Sheffield. “As I already told you, he is trying to claim Mrs. Sheffield’s property here in England as his own, saying he had a written agreement with his brother to that effect.”

Asquith shook his head. “I wouldn’t believe a word of it if I were you.”

“I can assure you that I do not.”

“There is nothing he would like more than to have Mrs. Sheffield beholden to him.” Joshua scowled at having his suspicions confirmed. “I saw the way he used to look at her with such hunger in his eyes, but she never wanted anything to do with him and it infuriated the man. He wasn’t used to failing with the fairer sex, you see.”

“I am certainly beginning to form a very disagreeable picture of the cove.”

“So what will you do about him?”

“What can I do?” Joshua lifted his shoulders, feeling better informed but just as helpless as he had been at Briar Hall. “I don’t suppose you have any way of confirming what you have just told me?”

“Unfortunately not. It is all speculation and conjecture. As you can imagine, it was pretty confusing at the time. Sir Marius’s plantation was some distance away from Sheffield’s. By the time news of the fire reached us and we dashed over to see if we could help, the damage had already been done. Even so, we thought it rather odd that while both brothers supposedly fought to save their home, Albert perished in the attempt, but when we got there Percival barely had a singed whisker.”

“Hmm, that does seem rather odd. Perhaps Mrs. Sheffield knows more. Presumably she was there.”

“No, she was visiting ladies on an adjoining plantation that afternoon. I have always wondered if Percival had some say in the timing of the attack and ensured it occurred when Mrs. Sheffield was not at home.”

“Or she might have been hurt too?”

“Exactly, and if my suspicions about Percival wanting her for himself are true, then he would not have taken that risk.”

Joshua fell to thoughtful contemplation. Asquith left him to ruminate for several minutes before speaking again.

“Sir Marius would probably agree to give a sworn statement regarding events but that would take a long time to reach us here in England. Besides, he can only relate the facts, much as I have just done. He cannot swear under oath that Percival murdered his brother because of course none of us have anything other than our instincts to persuade us that he did.”

Joshua stood up and paced the length of the room, mulling this latest intelligence over. “Why did you pretend not to know Mrs. Sheffield when she dined here the other night, and then treat her almost with disrespect, Asquith?”

“I behaved very badly and regret it.” Joshua watched Asquith closely as he answered and had the satisfaction of seeing him look abashed. “I shall apologise when next we meet. It was just that seeing her here brought all those awful memories back. It was not a happy time, and many other people besides Sheffield died in that fire, a lot of them slaves who found themselves trapped when the blaze spread far more quickly than they had anticipated. I know the slaves were the ones who started it, but they had good reason to feel aggrieved, and—”

“Excuse me, but I overheard the two of you speaking privately in this very room. She thanked you for not giving her away. What did she mean by that?”

Asquith now looked ashamed and shifted awkwardly in his seat, failing to meet Joshua’s gaze. “I knew she did not much like her husband, and I couldn’t blame her for that. But he
was
her husband, and she showed little remorse at his demise.”

Joshua scowled. “She didn’t pretend a grief she did not feel, and you blame her for that?”

“Well, yes. Several people were shocked by her attitude.” Joshua snorted. He had never been one to conform and he applauded Mrs. Sheffield’s refreshing honesty. “She also made little secret of the fact she hated Jamaica and couldn’t wait to return to England.”

“But you just mentioned a lot of other people felt the same way.”

“True.” Asquith inclined his head. “To her credit, she also had endless battles with her husband and his brother about the appalling manner in which they treated their slaves. She didn’t try to hide her disgust from the rest of us, but it did her no good because the Sheffield brothers adamantly refused to do the right thing by them. So all Mrs. Sheffield could do was spend time with the women and children, doing what she could for their illnesses and sneaking food to them when she was able.”

“And you hold that against her?” Joshua asked, feeling his temper rising.

“No, I applauded her efforts, but…excuse me, I did wonder if she encouraged her slaves to rise up against her husband and the Maroons who moved in. They would do absolutely anything she asked of them, you see.”

“Careful!”

“I was wrong, I know that now, but you must see how it looked. She got what she wanted, which was release from an unhappy marriage, return to England, and financial independence. She wasn’t to know that Percival would try to claim her property.”

“I am very glad you did not spread false rumours about Mrs. Sheffield’s character,” Joshua said, narrowing his eyes at his cousin’s tutor.

“I would never do that.”

No, Joshua thought, perhaps not. But he would not have imagined the young man he thought so well of being capable of jumping to such erroneous conclusions either. Joshua might be in love with Mrs. Sheffield, and therefore justifiably considered biased, but it must be obvious even to the slowest-witted, she was incapable of such duplicitous behaviour.

“I assume Mrs. Sheffield is aware of what you thought about her.”

“Things were said in the heat of the moment that I now regret,” Asquith replied evasively.

“Apologise when next you see the lady, throw your support behind me in my efforts to restore her property to her, and we will say no more about the matter.”

“Thank you, Colonel. That is very generous of you.” Asquith paused. “Now we have cleared that matter up, will you permit me to ask you a personal question, sir?”

Joshua sighed, suspecting he knew what was coming. “Ask away.”

“Miss de Bourgh. Er, Lady Catherine told me why she wished to come to Pemberley, and why you are here also.” He cleared his throat. “Excuse me, but you obviously have a personal interest in Mrs. Sheffield. Where does that leave Miss de Bourgh?”

Damn the man’s impertinence! “Anne and I would not suit,” he replied shortly.

Asquith elevated both brows. “You would pass up the opportunity to be master of Rosings?”

“Apparently so.”

“Have you told Lady Catherine of your decision?”

“Not yet, and nor shall I for a few days more.” Joshua slapped the younger man on the shoulders. “That ought to give you time.”

“Me?” Asquith laughed. “If Lady Catherine even suspected—”

“I have watched you and Anne together. She is clearly besotted with you and deserves to be happy. You have done a great deal to bring her out of herself. I hardly recognise her anymore.”

“It is what I am paid to do.”

“Anne is no longer quite so afraid of Lady Catherine, thanks in part I think to your opening her eyes. If there is something she wants enough, my impression is she might even defy her mother in order to get it.”

Asquith shook his head. “Lady Catherine would disinherit her.”

“I doubt that very much. Lady Catherine likes you. She has softened greatly since I saw her last.” Joshua paused. “There is something in her attitude when she looks at you, especially when you mention Sir Marius.”

“They knew one another when they were younger.”

“I suspect my aunt liked him, which accounts for her taking you on as Anne’s tutor. The question is, do you return Anne’s feelings?” Joshua waved a hand. “I don’t expect you to answer that. It’s none of my damned business. All I would ask is that you do not excite her expectations if that is not the case.”