“They preferred otherwise.”
“One has not always the good fortune to be able to please oneself. In any event I should have thought the captain on very shaky ground for complaint if it’s true what is rumoured, that the money was stolen from this Portuguese carrack which has been brought in and which is the Queen’s prize.”
“According to the captain,” said Sir Francis, “they brought goods here which they had purchased in fair trade at the quay at Plymouth. They spent the afternoon and evening of Thursday visiting Mr Trefusis, Mr Thomas Enys, and divers traders of Penryn, to whom they sold most of these goods and received payment in money and in bills. At about four of the clock on Friday morning seven armed men boarded and took possession of Buckfast, and in the struggle one of the crew Ezekiel Penwethers, was struck on the head and fell overboard to his death. The ship was searched from prow to poop and everything of value taken, including of course the gold.”
My father had not listened patiently to this. He had closed his eyes and sighed and opened them to look again at the stain. “So I’ve heard, Francis. So I’ve been told. For my own part I doubt very much if the captain’s story will bear a close quizzing. But if it is true I am sorry he has suffered this misfortune though not overly surprised. Vagrants and thieves roam the countryside committing all manner of outrages, and they are on the increase. Who is to check them?”
“If the captain’s story were true I’m sure you would not be overly surprised,” stuttered Mr Trefusis, “since one of the robbers was seen to be wearing Killigrew livery under his cloak! “
Into the stretched silence came a sudden burst of shrill weeping; little Odelia had slipped from her chair, and she rushed to her mother for comfort. By the time Mrs Killigrew had carried her from the room the flush had faded from my father’s face.
“The spleenful thoughts of my neighbour never surprise me. But I trust that you, Francis, don’t cradle such suspicions? “
“Well, I should be glad to have “
“A reassurance? Are you saying that I did it? Do you think if I had committed this robbery I should have been such a fool as to take men aboard dressed in my own livery? But in fact on Thursday night last I was ill.”
“Ill? “
“A seizure in the stomach. I had to rouse my chaplain, and I think he can reassure you that I was not out of my bed that night.”
Mr Trefusis grunted his doubts. “Then if it was not you in person … This has “
It was a mischance that at that moment Simon Killigrew should enter the room. He looked curiously from one to another of the tautened faces. “Welcome, Uncle. And you too, Trefusis. Is this private business?”
“Oh,” said Trefusis, “I did not know you were beret That might well explain it all! “
“Explain what?” asked Simon.
“They’re all the same, the Killigrews,” said our neighbour. “They all have morals as accommodating as a Greyfriar’s sleeve.”
“You came to this house uninvited, Trefusis,” said my father. “If you don’t leave under your own sail you are likely to be helped to go.”
“A moment, John,” Sir Francis said quietly. “You may put Mr Trefusis out; but these depositions have been taken and will presently find their way to the appropriate quarters. Whether they are true or not, I’m afraid they will have to be sifted. Therefore “
“Then sift them, Francis ~ But I thought I had enough jealous ill-wishers in the county without supposing one of my own kinsmen to be among them. What is your interest in this? With all your broad acres and prospering tin-works, what can you covet of mine?”
‘Y covet nothing of yours, as you should know. This accusation is no doubt false, but it shows the reputation you bear.”
“My reputation, by God! “
“Yes t If you think because I speak you words of warning I am your ill-wisher, then you misread me. But it comes to a pretty pass when mariners shun the river you command and only put in here under extremity of storm and stress, when armed retainers rule the countryside instead of the Queen’s law. Things cannot go on like this. I speak as your kinsman and your friend! Good night.”
On the Thursday after this Uncle Simon said he must leave on the morrow for Greenwich where the court then was. My father said he had been thinking it over and had decided he would ride with him; then my grandmother decided to go too. This caused harsh words. My father said Lady Killigrew was not strong enough to sit a horse with them for ten days. She answered that if she tired she would hire a coach. My father said that in their present beggared state they could not afford it; best if she waited and took a passage by sea. My grandmother said she was an indifferent sailor and the autumn gales were due; she wanted to go now; she was sick and tired of a country bumpkin’s existence; if he wished to go chasing Lady Betty again she would not stand in his way; all she wanted was to see for herself what they were wearing in London and in Westminster; she wanted to meet all her relatives and friends; besides, she had a little money now.
When Friday morning came Lady Killigrew was ready at sun-up with the others, her two bags packed, her little black mare saddled, and no one dared say no.
The house was very different without them. Rosewarne the steward did his best, but he was given such scant authority when the two ruling Killigrews were at home that he did not have the way of it when they were gone. Then my stepmother took to her bed with an attack of jaundice, and just at this time Henry Knyvett chose to pay one of his rare visits to his wife at Rosemerryn, so the ordering of the servants fell upon Bethia Wolverstone, my grandmother’s unmarried sister, and upon Mary Killigrew, my father’s unmarried sister. But Mistress Wolverstone spent much of her day reading and praying and my aunt Mary lived only for her hawks and her falcons, so discipline relaxed, meals were late and work went forward at half-speed. Even when Mr Knyvett came back there was no improvement, for he went into one of his drunken spells.
All this slackness was aided by the great storms which blew up as October came in. There were ever more excuses for not going out, for postponing work in the yards and on the roofs of the barns. It had been a good year for apples, and the cider presses were much in use. Catching Henry Knyvett’s complaint, servants were found drunk about the house, and one was thrashed for trying to force a kitchen maid. One day the Webster came and bargained for our surplus wool but I do not think my grandmother would have let it go at so low a price.
One evening, having been helping with some hides, I went up to say good night to Mrs Killigrew later than her own children, and she told me to sit and talk with her for a while; then she read me a chapter from the Bible.
There was no malice toward me in her such as I found now in my grandmother; indeed Mrs Killigrew was too gentle and too absent~thoughted to feel malice for anyone. She spent much time in reading and meditation. The books beside her bed were Latimer’s Sermons and A Treatise on the Resurrection of the Dead. Yet she did fine wrought-stitch work, was skilled in gardening and in preserving fruit, and if one of the servants was ill or hurt she would tend on them herself. I thought my eldest halfbrother John would grow up to be like her.
When she paused to take a sip of water I could hear the rats scattering behind the wainscot and the bang of a loose shutter in the wind. I stared curiously at the wire hoop of a farthingale with a pair of silk stockings hung over it, at a purple taffeta nightgown behind the door. I thought: what if my mother had been here instead; would she have been content always to take second place? Mrs Killigrew said: “Tell me, Maugan, are you happy here?” When I looked up startled, she added: “Of late you have been in trouble more often than out of it.”