It was Gorges’s ship Maybird which had narrowly escaped capture when Peter of Anchusen was lost, and he took a great interest in my stay in Spanish prisons, for at the age of 21 he had himself been captured by one of the ships of the first Armada and had spent a year in captivity before being ransomed. A relative of Ralegh’s and as passionately interested in the idea of founding settlements overseas, he differed as to method being an advocate of a feudal type of rule in a colony, as against Ralegh’s belief in the equality of all men. Early on he had parted company from Sir Walter and chosen to follow Essex.
Before we left the table Sir Nicholas Parker fumbled in his cloak, which he had worn all through supper because of the draughts, and took out a sheet of parchment.
“This is something to your interest. It’s an order from the Privy Council which I’m commanded to deliver you.” He passed it to me.
The order appointed Sir Nicholas Parker governor and captain of Pendennis Castle in succession to J. Killigrew. Further, all J. Killigrew’s personal possessions and habiliment, if any, were to be removed from the castle and taken into his house of Arwenack, and thenceforward neither he nor his representatives were to have access to the castle or its defences.
When I had read it I passed it to John, who by right should have had it first. He read it slowly with Jane frowning ‘over his shoulder and trying to spell out the words. When he had done he got up and handed the parchment back across the table.
“You come on no friendly mission, Sir Nicholas.”
“I come as a servant of the Crown. I obey orders, Mr Killigrew.”
“Then we must do the same.” He bowed but continued to stand. The other men one by one had to stand also, Sir Nicholas Parker the last, and the supper broke up icily.
The next morning John and I and Carminow and Foster went up to the castle to receive from the officer such posses signs as Mr Killigrew had left and we could lay claim to. Paul Ivey was already at work, spectacled and earnest, taking measurements and levels. Soon teams of horses and gangs of men would be at work tearing up the rocks and the trees and putting into effect his designs for reconstruction. We walked back in silence, each one of us perhaps reflecting on the end of an era nearly sixty years of Killigrew governance. Sic transit…
I went in to Truro to collect a debt that my father had told me was owing from Chudleigh Michell’s brother. On the way, out of curiosity, I passed Katherine Footmarker’s cottage and was startled to see it no longer there, instead a black patch on the grass, the two trees burned half way up their gnarled trunks. John Michell said:
“She was drove out in September. She had an evil eye. She went west, towards Penryn. Then two weeks since she come back … When twas spread about, this news, there was a nasty feeling in the town. A score of men and women went for her wi’ sticks and stones. She was just away in time, black dog an’ all. She must have been hit but she outdistanced ‘em. They set fire to the house, thinking twas the safest way of securing themselves against ill.”
I licked my lips. “Which way did she go this time?”
“She was seen in St Erme, heading east. I reckon she’ve left for good, and that’s as it should be. I haven’t the strong feelings Chudleigh has for such as she, but there’s much palsy and scrofula about, and who knows where it d’ come from.”
Before I left Truro I called on another old woman whom Footmarker had named as a friend. The woman could tell me little, except that Footmarker had often spoken of a niece in Bristol. No doubt she was now making for Bristol. But it was a bad time of year.
The river at Truro is so forked that except by a great detour there is no way to Tolverne except by crossing the ferry …
Sue was with Lady Arundell when I arrived. It took me half an hour to get her alone. Then wisely I did not try to take her in my arms but sat talking quietly, telling her of what had passed since we last met.
I could feel her restraint going. In another ten minutes we were just as close as we had ever been. I told her about Katherine Footmarker; for there was a sense of guilt and disarray in my emotions now. What seemed a justifiable act in expolling her from the house had become magnified and out of shape.
Presently a long silence fell. It would have been restful for me if I had not felt something still tense in her manner.
“Maugan, I have some news for you.”
“Tell me.”
“You know I have been invited to go and stay with Philip’s sister near London. I’ve decided to accept.”
“You mentioned it. It will be a good experience. But will you be away long?”
“It rather depends on you.”
“Then let it be as short as possible.”
“But I thought you might come to London in January too … We could if we wanted be married there.”
“Oh, my dear, gladly! If that’s your news … We seem to have been separated for a lifetime “
“No, that’s not my news. But perhaps I need not ever tell it you. Maugan, what I plan is that I shall stay with Amelia Reskymer. I could have the banns called in that parish. If you if you felt you could take the position Henry Howard offers you I could advance you sufficient money to set up in some small house, and we could be married in middle February. It might be necessary later in the year to return here to settle up Philip’s estate, but we could look on London as our permanent home.”
It was queer that one came to her full of determination to sweep away all petty divisions. But the nature of our love seemed to emphasise it, as the sun will a chasm.
“Darling Sue, I know how you feel. But let me put another suggestion. Have you enough money to maintain us for six months? “
“Without your earning? Perhaps.”
“Lady Godolphin told me that Philip had left you very substantial property.”
She fingered back her black fringe. “I’ve told you. Almost all was entailed.”
“Lady Godolphin said Mr Mark Reskymer was complaining that it was not.”
“Mark would always complain, even if one cottage went out of the family. But do you prefer to believe Lady Godolphin’s word to mine?”
I met a gaze suddenly glinting. “Of course not. In any case whatever you have is yours to do with as you will. My suggestion is that if you could support us for six months without consuming all the money you have, it would give me an opportunity to look about before committing myself.”
She smiled. “You would have committed yourself in February by marrying me.”
“I commit myself only to marrying the woman I love. Not to serving a man I despise.”
“Would not one compensate you for the other?”
“To marry you I’d scavenge in the waste-bins of Bedlam. And be happy to do it. I only ask that our first months of marriage should not be be tainted by a feeling that I have had to to compromise, to counterfeit … It’s a feeling of buying what is most precious with what is debased.”
I got up, angry again, part with her, part with myself. In the middle of speaking I had been seized with the realisation of all the submissions I had made in Spain merely to stay alive. Now I was straining at this less important one. Fundamentally, what had I got against Lord Henry Howard? What was the objection except sheer obstinacy? He was intelligent, able, subtle, artistic. Was it my repugnance which was really counterfeit?
Yet the earlier compromises I had made in Spain, instead of making this more easy, got in the way of it, hurting and tormenting and pushing me towards a defensive anger. And was this one less important? Before I had been prepared to bargain with the enemy. It was much harder to bargain with the girl I loved.