The Rape of Venice (31 page)

‘But Roger, I want this money. The thought that by coming to Calcutta I could obtain it quickly has been my great consolation for leaving the paradise in which we lived while at Zanzibar.'

‘My love; as you have always been a poor relation and dependent on others' generosity, I can well understand that this chance to achieve financial security weighs more with you than it would with most women. But I pray you to remember that you need no longer have any fears for your future,
because you are now my responsibility, if you wish it, without waiting until we can marry I will willingly settle a good round sum upon you.'

Her mouth twitching in a smile, she asked. ‘Pray what is the size of your fortune, Mr. Brook?'

‘Between thirty and forty thousand pounds; and I'll settle ten thousand of it on you tomorrow if you wish.'

Jumping onto his lap, she threw her arms round his neck and cried in delight, ‘Oh, my own darling one, how I do love you! Yet there are times when you are the most foolish of men, I do not want this money for myself. I know now that as long as you live you will provide for me and, should you die, then I'll die too, of a broken heart. But here is a chance for me to become a fine
parti;
and being a woman, I'll have no scruples in taking it. Can you not realise the intense joy it will be to me, instead of coming to you empty handed, to bring you a dowry of fifty, nay, a hundred, thousand pounds?'

‘My sweet! My sweet!' Clasping her to him so that her cheek was against his, he shut his eyes and gently shook his head. ‘You overwhelm me, and I am more than ever ashamed that for so long I rejected the wondrous gift of your love. What you decide about the settlement is your affair, and it is not for me to seek to deprive you of the pleasure of giving. Yet I pray you to remember that you did ensnare Winters—not for money, it is true, but for your own ends; so it would be ungenerous to deprive his son of a portion of his fortune sufficiently large to prejudice his future.'

‘So be it then,' she laughed. ‘We will enquire into his affairs, and find out how much he can afford without crippling his business.'

Roger remained silent for a moment, then he said, I only hope we'll be given an opportunity to do so. He has declared war against us, and I'll not disguise from you, my pet, that our situation at the moment is uncommon black.'

‘Why so, my love?'

‘Our trouble springs from the false relationship I thrust upon you on our first morning at sea in the
Minerva
. At the time it went a long way to establishing the respectability of our association; but now, it has recoiled upon us in a most dangerous manner. Our travelling companions in the
Minerva
will all be prepared to swear that we are uncle and niece; yet here we are living as husband and wife. That our union has not yet actually been blessed makes no difference in such a case. It is the fact
that we are cohabiting. All who know us in this city will regard us as guilty of incest. ‘Tis a crime for which there are most grievous penalties, and Winters intends to charge us with it.'

Clarissa's face showed her alarm, and she slipped from Roger's knees. ‘Surely,' she said after a moment, ‘there is some way in which we can prove that we are only cousins by marriage.'

‘I know of none,' he replied gloomily, ‘save having sworn affidavits regarding ourselves sent out from England. To write home and receive a reply would take nine months at the least, and it is what is to befall us in the meantime that worries me. Were we in Europe we'd be to horse in the next half hour and be over a frontier before a charge could be preferred against us; but that's not possible here. I'm at my wits' end what to do.'

‘Could we not bribe Winters into taking no action by offering to forgo the settlement?'

‘Unfortunately that could prove only a temporary expedient. Shutting his mouth would not shut those of others. As two additional survivors from the
Minerva
, the news of our arrival must by now be all over the city, and with it the news that you are now living with me as Mrs. Brook. ‘Twill be matter for righteous condemnation of us in every
salon
, and either the Church or the Law will feel called on to see that such sinners are made an example of.'

‘What can they do to us? Tell me the worst, Roger. I pray you hide nothing from me.'

‘I hardly know, my love. I think it unlikely that a court would condemn us in the face of our oath that the charge is brought under a misapprehension; so it would have to postpone a verdict until evidence of our true relationship could be procured from home. But the court would certainly order that during the interim we must not live together. It might even prohibit us from meeting, under pain of being sent to prison should we be caught doing so.'

‘What say you? Oh, Roger, no! For us not to be able even to see one another for the best part of a year would be utterly intolerable.'

It was as Clarissa gave this anguished cry, and tears sprang to her blue eyes, that the Bengali servant again appeared at the door, salaamed and addressed Roger:

‘More people to see you, Sahib. The Sir Curtis Beaumont, Sahib, and his Lady. They request receiving.'

At the unexpected news that these good friends too had been rescued, Roger and Clarissa's faces lit up with joy; but after a second, Clarissa's fell, and she exclaimed in consternation:

‘Oh, Roger! How can we now receive them? They cannot yet know … but, oh, I'll sink through the floor from shame.'

To her amazement he was still smiling. Suddenly he leapt to his feet, seized her round the waist, threw her up in the air, caught her in a bearlike hug as she came down and cried, ‘Praise be to God! We're saved! Saved, saved, saved, my dearest dear!' Then, turning to the servant, ‘Show them in. No one was ever more welcome.'

Before the Beaumonts were half through the doorway, Roger had Sir Curtis by the hand and was wringing it like a pump handle. Lady Beaumont gave Clarissa a somewhat uncertain look; but Clarissa's face showed no trace of embarrassment, only transparent joy, as she ran towards the older woman; and next moment they were kissing one another most affectionately.

Drawing Sir Curtis into the room, Roger exclaimed: ‘Sir, your arrival could not be more opportune. No one could be more delighted than Clarissa and myself to learn that you and your lady survived the
Minerva
disaster, but we'll talk of that anon. At the very moment of your being announced we were in the depths of despair about a matter that concerns us most
closely. Should your memory not have deteriorated since we last met, you have it in your power to relieve us of all anxiety. Do you recall the conversation you and I had the morning after Clarissa became engaged to Sidney Winters?'

‘Why, yes,' the judge smiled. ‘You were greatly opposed to the match, and consulted me on the feasibility of applying to the Court when we reached Cape -Town for an injunction restraining the marriage on the grounds that she was not yet twenty-one.'

‘And your reply, Sir; your reply?'

‘It was to the effect that you lacked the legal status necessary to make such an application, because you were not her guardian; or, as you had led us to suppose, her uncle, but only a cousin of hers by marriage.'

‘That's right!' Roger exclaimed joyfully. ‘That's right! Thank God, Sir, that your memory is clear upon the point, for we are like to be charged with having committed incest.'

Lady Beaumont's face showed how shocked she was, and she said with swift disapproval, 'Tis true, then, that you are living together? I could not believe it. Had I done so I would never have come here.'

‘Oh, please, please!' Clarissa seized her hands. ‘You don't understand. Roger had to pretend I was his wife to save me from an Arab who would have taken me for his harem, and …'

‘And we were later married by a Protestant Missionary in Goa,' put in Roger swiftly.

‘Yes … yes!' Clarissa endorsed the lie. Then, her face radiant, she cried, ‘And it was the happiest day of my life; because I've been desperately in love with Roger for years.'

‘Tut, tut!' murmured Sir Curtis. That's a strange statement, young lady, seeing that barely three months back, without the least pressure from anyone, you married Mr. Winters.'

Clarissa blushed scarlet as she recalled her real reason for marrying Winters, but covered her confusion with a bold white lie. ‘I became engaged to him, Sir, with the intent of making Roger jealous. I hoped up to the last moment to bring him up to scratch. Then, in despair and finding myself so deeply committed, I felt that I must go through with it.'

‘The fault was mine,' Roger declared, putting an arm round her waist. ‘I knew she loved me, and I loved her; but most selfishly I had set my mind against marrying again. It is I who am to blame for all our troubles from the very beginning.'

Sir Curtis gave him a quizzical look. ‘Are we to take it, then,
that Miss Marsham's presence in the
Minerva
was not due to any headstrong determination to see the gorgeous East, but that she smuggled herself aboard in pursuit of you?'

‘Yes,' laughed Clarissa. ‘Twas a monstrously unmaidenly act. But I confess it; you have hit upon the truth.'

‘We owe you both a deep apology,' Roger added, ‘for the deception we practised upon you; but at the time it seemed the only way in which I could preserve Clarissa's reputation.'

Lady Beaumont was smiling now, and said, ‘For that I would be the last to blame you; and it seems that I am to be called on to save her reputation yet again.'

‘Oh, dear Lady Beaumont!' Clarissa cried, throwing her arms round her ex-chaperone. ‘You are, indeed, our Fairy Godmother. It needs only that you and Sir Curtis should clear us of this terrible imputation for us to reach the seventh heaven; for I vow that Roger has already made me the happiest woman in the world.'

‘And you, my love,' smiled Roger, ‘although I don't deserve it, have made me the happiest man.'

Champagne was sent for and an hour went swiftly while the four of them told of their adventures since they had parted in sight of the
Minerva
going down. They also discussed the matter of young Winters and the marriage settlement. Roger produced the document from his big fish-skin wallet, and Sir Curtis said there could be no question about Clarissa's legal title to the money. He added that Winters's firm was a very rich one, so he would not be jeopardised if called on to pay out a sum running into five figures. On that assurance Clarissa stuck to her intention of making her claim and the judge said that after Christmas he would introduce them to a good lawyer who would handle the matter for her. The following day was Christmas Eve, and on it Lady Beaumont was giving a reception; so it was agreed that no better opportunity could be found for her to present Mr. and Mrs. Roger Brook to Calcutta society.

After the Beaumonts had left, Roger and Clarissa, now almost intoxicated with joy at this most fortunate outcome to their affairs, sent for the clothiers again, who, with the willingness of Orientals to work all night, promised that they should have at least one set of European garments apiece by the following day.

On Christmas Eve, lolling side by side on the cushions of a hired palanquin, which was borne by a team of sweating
natives, they had their first proper sight of central Calcutta, and were much surprised to find that its principal streets and open spaces differed little from those of a large English town. For the past half-century the architects had copied faithfully the prevailing fashion in London, and some of the larger private mansions might have been lifted bodily from Grosvenor Square. By contrast with the adjacent streets of native houses made from wood and bamboo, they looked all the stranger, and the more so as their gardens had nothing in common with those at home, their most striking features being tall palms, deodars, baobabs and other tropical trees. But the people in the streets and the new bazaar—which against strenuous opposition by property-owners had been erected in the middle of the town—they found fascinating, for the crowds were larger, and displayed a far greater variety of colourful costume, turbans, hats made from leaves, and strange weapons, than in any other place in India that they had so far visited.

In those days every city displayed evidence of great wealth side by side with the direct poverty, but such contrasts were far more evident in this eastern metropolis than in the capitals of Europe. Most of the well-dressed Europeans and many richly robed Bengalis were escorted in their palanquins by a dozen or more servants dressed in colourful liveries; yet half the native population wore only a single ragged garment, and at the mouth of every alleyway crouched cripples and beggars who appeared to be in the last stage of destitution.

The mixture of smells was indescribable, as the better off of both sexes, white and brown alike, soused themselves with perfumes, many of the women wore garlands of flowers, and from market and warehouses there frequently came a fragrant whiff of aromatic herbs; but these pleasant scents were never strong enough to overcome for more than a moment the all-pervading odour of stale sweat and rotting garbage, which at times was augmented to a revolting stench coming from some dead pariah dog or the corners at which men and women were often to be seen relieving themselves in public without shame.

On the waterfront, hundreds of coolies, wearing only a loin cloth were humping the rich cargoes that scores of lighters and small schooners had brought up from the ships at anchor in Diamond Harbour at the mouth of the Hooghly. Bills of Exchange and canvas bags of gold running into many thousand pounds a day were being chaffered over between merchants, ships' captains, agents and the Parsee bankers; yet in the ghats
that led down to the river there huddled scores of emaciated figures picking the lice from one another's hair and bathing their sores in the dirty water.