“I’ll see that is put to him.”
“Be sure he looks at it in the proper light. He can never be clear of debt, but many of his debts will die with him. If his children are not to starve in the gutter, the little money coming in to him must be conserved in some way and not altogether thrown after the rest.”
“I’ll not quarrel with that. But would you do me a favour, Jane? “
She raised pencilled eyebrows. “What could you want from me? “
“I learn that your demand for Lady Killigrew’s bedroom is to be delayed a week or two. May I ask that your reduction in the number of our dogs be also left until after I’m gone?”
“You have a weak stomach? I should never have guessed it.” “Oh, I agree that the house is overrun. But most of the dogs I know by name and I’d prefer not to see old friends slaughtered.”
“Not slaughtered, I think to put them in the harbour and see if they can swim to St Mawes.”
She had turned the curtains of her hair to me, so that now I could see little of her face.
“Perhaps you would like to do that with the children also.”
She laughed gently. “What a monster you think me, brotherin-law …”
“In jest of course.”
She nodded. “Naturally. In jest. But it would be pleasant to live with a man who has no illusions even in jest.”
I said: “There’s always someone towards whom we are blind.”
That night Lady Killigrew struggled miraculously down to supper. The occasion was the visit of Hannibal Vyvyan from St Mawes Castle. He still remained in control there, and had come over uneasily to consult with Sir Nicholas Parker on the new arming of Pendennis. Night fell before he could leave, so he supped and would sleep with us. Hannibal Vyvyan had long been a friend of Lady Killigrew and was always very gallant towards her.
She had been so long dying that there seemed something uncanny in her appearance tonight, as if a ghost supped with us. Yet, emaciated and haggard as she was, and huddled in a great white cloak, she could temporarily breathe and a very mordant breath it was.
We ate a Banbury cheese towards the end of supper; it was one that Vyvyan himself had brought; and he said he had carried a similar one up to the castle, where it had been well received.
“So it would be,” said Lady Killigrew. “They lack up there all the refinements of life and ride roughshod over our rights and privileges.”
Parson Merther said: “I don’t know if it has been noticed but the rough soldiers passing our gate tower this forenoon flung mud all across our coat-of-arms. It stuck and dried but has not fallen off. I would have gone out to report them but knew my mission useless.”
‘Q‘11 go up in the morning,” said John. “It’s intolerable that we should be so insulted I ”
Lady Killigrew said: “It may be that the soldiers were saluting the disgrace that has come on our house. We should not quarrel with them for expressing what we all know!“
“Oh, come, my lady,” said Vyvyan. “It is not so bad as that. We all suffer misfortune from time to time. In the end the strong and steadfast will prevail.”
Lady Killigrew took a trembling gulp of canary. “Strong and steadfast, Mr Vyvyan? These are commodities which do not exist in the Killigrew family. Or have not among the men in the fifty years I have known them. Strong it may be in seeking their own pleasure, steadfast perhaps in ignoring all else. Well … this is where it has led us ~ “
“Your son has been unfortunate, madam …” Mr Vyvyan began to mutter polite excuses, but his voice was swept away in the flood of the old woman’s bitterness.
“All is lost now yet it has not been lost by too strict adherence to a set of principles. Oh, no. Oh, dear no. Some great families have risen and fallen for a cause. The only cause we have held to has been self-interest and we have fallen just the same, but the more ignobly because of it. I tell you there has never been a Killigrew who had not been willing to trim his sails to the latest breeze, to turn his coat if another were more in favour … But for all, it has done us no good. No good at all. There is a weak, self-indulgent streak in us, my friend, and not my blood, nor little Dorothy’s, nor that termagant who has just left the room, can stiffen it to fight or die for any principles at all not religion, not family, not Queen, not country ~ “
An embarrassed silence fell. She hunched her cloak against the cold airs and looked like an old white cormorant waiting for the fish to rise.
“Mary, I think you will upset yourself,” said old Mistress Wolverstone. “You should retire to bed.”
“Retire? I will retire to my grave soon enough to rest beside my husband, who was perhaps the best of a poor litter. Not that his brothers haven’t done better than he did. They have stuck close to the Queen and forever said: ‘Yes, your majesty.’ ~No, your majesty,’ and run at her beck and call. So they have big houses in London and are excused their debts.”
“Ah, perhaps soon she will forbear towards your son, ma’am. No doubt she has been ill-advised “
“Killigrew.” said my grandmother broodingly. “Know you what the name means, Mr Vyvyan? The Grove of Eagles. A two-headed eagle is our crest. Where are the eagles, I ask you! My son has bred as fertile as a parson, but I see no eagles among his breed. This bastard of his has more spread of wing than any of the true ones.”
It might have been appropriate to thank her for this compliment had she not been looking at me with such obvious dislike.
I said: “I think you expect too much too soon, grandmother. Because I am not true born I have had more liberty. Give them time.”
“Time is a commodity in which I am getting low. Deeds are of today. Promises are as fickle as next year’s harvest.” She crooked a finger like a talon at the parson down the table. “Merther, I will go up now. Give me your hand …”
When she had gone and the others had risen I walked out on my own for a breath of air before bed.
An unfair estimate, that of an old and sick woman whose temperament for years had leaned towards the melancholic. Killigrews had fought for the Lancastrian cause; they had had difficult times under Mary and one at least had lived in exile during her reign. Yet there was a ring of truth about a part of her accusation. Most of them lived on the surface of life, like fish snapping at passing flies. And when they got hooked they were deeply injured men, harshly done to by the world.
Illegitimacy had not saved me from this prevailing flaw.
On the steps below the gate-tower leading to our quay a man was fishing; it was Dick Stable. I sat with him for a while. It was a chill night but my cloak was proof against the light easterly wind. Dick had caught five mackerel and an eel. He told me he and Meg were thinking of looking for something in Penryn. There was a vacancy in the granite quarries, and she might work on a farm nearby.
“Quarry work is heavy work, Dick. Go slow on your decisions. Why must you leave here?”
“We may well get turned off, Master Maugan. We b’lieve the new Mrs Killigrew have no taking for the old servants; she d’ want new ones like the two she brought, see.”
“It’s not nice to feel you might go. Enough of my old friends have already left.”
“Well, you be leavin’ yourself, Master Maugan. There’ll be few enough to care whether we stay or go.”
I had no answer for that, so we sat a while in silence.
“You be leavin’ to marry, I’m told?”
There had always been a slight constraint between us, ever since he had challenged me about Meg, and although they seemed happy enough now I fancied there were little glances of anxiety from Dick whenever he saw me talking to his wife.