I was no longer simple enough to take up this insult.
We went in. “What’s it like at Arwenack these days?” he asked, peering at me with his broad white grin. “Not quite the usual robber’s lair? Your father has had his wings clipped at last. Are you another doomed house?”
I took my lead from Sue that day and talked of other things. She talked of the rebuilding of Paul Church, of Philip’s sister, Amelia, who had invited her to stay with her in Pancras near London, of her mother who was not happy in her secor!d marriage.
I was to leave the following morning at ten. We broke our fast while light was still pushing through the thick spears of the cypress trees. The day was fine with a wintry sunlight, and after I had been to see that my horse was ready I walked back to the house and met Sue coming out to look for me. We walked down to the river.
Thus in silence until we came out on the small stone quay where I and the Killigrew children had tied up that day nearly six years ago when this had all begun. I brushed soil off the stone bench and we sat on it looking out over the river. She was wearing a violet-coloured cloak with the hood thrown back.
She said: “Maugan …”
“Yes?”
“You truly believe that I love you?”
“It’s a never ceasing joy to realise it.”
“Then that gives me a right a different right from anyone else to ask favours of you?”
“Yes.”
“I have thought so much of what you told me of London.
If we are to be married in February, then somehow our lives at least to begin must be based on one of those interviews.”
“There might be other ways.”
“Not well. You could stay at Arwenack, but that is hardly feasible if we married. Henry Arundell might find some employment for you, but the stewardship is gone, and knowing how he feels about me I can hardly ask him more favours for you.”
“No, I grant that. Then “
“If we go to London without any prospect or recommendation I think we should quickly fail. So that leaves Sir Walter’s offer and Lord Henry’s.”
“If you put it that way.”
“How else can I put it? And here is the problem. You want to accept Sir Walter’s offer which I see as menial and unworthy of your gifts. I want you to accept Lord Henry’s, which you greatly despise.”
I stared at her. “You really wish me to work for such a man?”
“I want you to accept his offer. He must have taken a very great liking to you or he would not have made it. I’ve heard he is a shrewd judge of character. There are not lacking likely young men anxious to be taken up by the most powerful family in England. Must one’s personal feeling come into this? Must you necessarily admire whom you serve?”
“Not admire. But surely respect, else one loses one’s self respect. Henry Howard is a dangerous man. No good could come of being at his beck and call.”
“Try it and see. Such a steadfast person as you is hardly likely to be contaminated in a matter of months. You would come to know many men other opportunities would arise.”
I looked out over the river, which was a deep oily green. The mass of trees on both banks grew so low that at high tide many of the branches dipped in the water. The undergrowth was dense and few men penetrated it.
“I could not, Sue. You ask me not to go back to Ralegh. Well, I can agree to that if you’re set against it. I can agree not to follow Ralegh. But I cannot go from him to one of his bitterest enemies. That would be a betrayal.”
She got up. “Have we not really got to the truth of it now, Maugan? Isn’t that really why you will not work for Henry Howard? Ralegh has you under a spell, and you carmot or win not break away.”
I wondered at the tone of her voice; there was such feeling in it.
“For you I’ll break away from Ralegh; I’ve said so; but I will not be an instrument for attacking him.”
“Who says he’ll be attacked? And if attacked, who says the Howards will do it? What of Essex? What of Cecil? What of a hundred others? Don’t you know how he’s thought of in London and at Court? He’s the best hated man in England.”
“Yet among his own people he excites hero worship.”
“Which is what has happened to you ~ “
“Oh, no. I don’t see him as a hero … He has many faults but also a greatness t I would not follow him blindly. But for me he stands above other men.”
The sun was obscured by a cloud shaped like a dog. The water darkened and a breeze moved over it, ruffling the surface.
“Do you mean you will serve no other but him?”
“Of course not. It is only Henry Howard I’ll not serve.”
“Not even for me?”
“I don’t believe you will ask me.”
“I have asked you.”
“Then I must say no.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
All the way home I puzzled over Sue’s hostility towards Ralegh. It exceeded logic, and in her was therefore to be wondered at. All the rest was reasonable enough, no doubt, if looked on from her point of view. She saw the Howards as the vastly influential family that they were, Sir Walter as an upstart who sooner or later might come to no good. But I could not understand the tone of her voice. That was not logic.
There had been no reconciliation between us before I left, nor any promise of a further meeting. There must be some compromise which could be reached, but just at present we were both too heated to give way.
The gate was well guarded today. Long Peter gave me the news that John and his bride were home.
I had it out with them in the big withdrawing chamber that night.
The room was without carpet; the good chairs had gone and been replaced by stools from the kitchens. The table remained because it was so heavy. Candles burned in cheap sticks, a fire flickered with green logs.
Young Jane Killigrew occupied the one good chair and warmed her hands at the fire. She wore a carnation-coloured dress of figured velvet, with over it a cloak of fine watered chamlet. It had cost a deal of money. Her jet black hair hung like curtains beside a stage, and the stage was a milk-white face coloured with two dabs of red ochre, small fierce eyes, a precise well-shaped mouth, all attention as I talked.
“Let’s not waste time in recrimination. I was back in time to save something, but the house is as you see it. In another day they’d have been in Mrs Killigrew’s and Lady Killigrew’s bedrooms. These and four others which Meg Stable had the forethought to lock were the only rooms untouched. Even the old aunts have lost some things. They snatched a bracelet from Miss Wolverstone’s wrist and took Aunt Mary’s clock and outdoor shoes.”
“A bag of mine is gone,” said Jane. “It contained a penknife, a bodkin and my seal. The servants must be whipped for ever permitting it.”
“The servants have more respect for the law than we have. They couldn’t interfere. What right had I to? Only the right of a sword.”
“And a temper,” said Jane. “One of these days it will lead you into trouble, brotherin-law.”
“There’ll be trouble now unless we move to prevent it.”
“How?” said John.
“Why should we move to prevent your trouble, brother-inlaw? “
“Because it is yours too, sister-in-law. Don’t think I’m bearing the burden of this house further than I need. It’s John’s and yours. So long as my father is in prison John is master of this house, and the privilege bears the responsibilities along with it. John “