Ink-horn was leaving the hall again, and I realised thankfully that tonight we were to be left undisturbed instead of hurried away to bed.
“Six fits of a quartan ague,” my father said sulkily. “Many would have recovered from it. But Walter was of too fine a stock. The fine are taken up to God and the coarse are left here for the Devil’s work.”
“I think it was more than the ague,” said Lady Killigrew. “Like as not he was liver-grown. I lost two of your sisters that way and the second I suffered to be opened. The liver was rust-coloured and swollen, no pretty sight.”
My father thrust his platter violently away from him, but did not reply. No one wished to be the object of his attention now. In the uncomfortable silence Lady Killigrew motioned a footman and sent him with a message to the players to strike up another tune.
“You were saying, Captain Elliot?”
“I was saying, your ladyship? Oh, yes, I was saying that there is no ship of war in the Irish Sea, or but rarely, and there are valuable cargoes afloat every day. I wonder Mr Killigrew does not petition for one.”
Lady Killigrew adjusted a pin. “It is not in Mr Killigrew’s commission to command the Irish Sea, Captain Elliot. He is hard set because of the parsimony of the Privy Council to defend one castle and a strip of coast, and to keep down pirates.”
“Such parsimony,” said Burley, “I can hardly conceive’ll run to the lengths of depriving so important a post of common ordnance.”
“Indeed it does, Captain Burley,” said my grandmother. “You’d be surprised at the constant efforts Mr Killigrew makes, by letter and by personal appeal, for sufficiency of small armaments of all sorts. He does not get them. Even today, with the Spanish threat in no way abated, we are pared to the bone. Mr Killigrew receives 12d. a day as captain, which is the same sum as is paid to the master mason at Boscastle Pier. We have our deputy Captain Foster here; a Master Gunner Carminow there; two other gunners, and the musters of Budock to call on in need. To supply them we have not above twenty calivers, four barrels of powder and three culverin mounted. Mr Killigrew has spent a fortune out of his own pocket, as he has told you.”
“Your ladyship has my deepest sympathy,” said Captain Elliot. “It is a bitter reflection that those who serve our country most are the most often beggared by it.”
“There are some as find their labours not unrewarding,” said Captain Burley, swilling back another draught and wiping his mouth on his sleeve. Everything this man said he said with a sneer.
Soon afterwards the chief guests left the room, and servants began to clear away, picking their way among overturned chairs and spilt wine and a halfdozen sleeping sailors. In one corner three men were gambling and seemed likely to come to blows, among them an evil faced sailor called Aristotle Totle. Candles “uttered and dripped on the tables. The beech-wood had burned dead, and grey ash was scattered in the hearth The musicians had given up the struggle, and Dick Stable, who was the harpist, was feeding scraps to my father’s spaniels.
“See,” said Belemus, nudging my elbow, “the captains have gone off for their private talks. You were asking me why these men came here. Now if you could listen you would know.”
“Well, I cannot, so I never shall.”
“Ah, that depends, doesn’t it.”
“On what?”
We left the great hall and walked slowly along the panelled passage to the south wing. We passed the door of the drawingroom chamber where our guests were likely to be. Light came from two cracks in the door. After we were past Belemus said in a low voice: “There you are, witless, you can see in.”
“But someone might come.”
“If you’re interested I’ll watch for you.”
I hesitated, breathing in sensations of doubt and conspiracy, then I went to the door. The top crack was about a foot below eye level. The wood had shrunk and split, and one could see through. I heard my grandmother’s harsh cough.
Captain Burley was talking. “… if to that we add five pounds of Levant silk dyed Watchet blue, and two cases of figs, that’s more’n the value of two paltry barrels of powder.”
“I cannot strip my poor defences any barer. If the Spaniards come …”
“Oh, if the Spaniards come, Mr Killigrew …” This was Captain Elliot, whispering, not quite audible. “Ten barrels of powder would not suffice. If they come … Armada double the size of the last … Come with whips specially made for the naked backs of Englishwomen … but no attempt in the coming summer.”
“What information?‘9
“Private but authentic, your ladyship. Dolphin travels widely … Blavet last month, the Groyne in December … You could dispense with your last demi-culverin and suffer no hurt.”
One of the dogs, Christian, stirred and growled in his sleep. I could just see my father’s head as it rested on his hand, his fair moustache drooping over it. Somewhere behind him there was the clink and bubble of wine in a goblet.
“Make us a better proposition. One that we can entertain.”
“Well, Lady Killigrew, you know what it would entail as well as I do “
“Nay,” my father cut in, “I do not know that I am in the mood for it tonight. My child lies upstairs, but just gone from us…”
Elliot whispered his sympathy.
“My position,” said my father, “is one of vast responsibility with scant, paltry, minimal resources. Every month I embase myself writing to Cecil … England’s safety, England’s very survival~may depend on the quality of her few real commanders in the southwest. Grenville agreed with me God rest his soul. Ralegh agrees and has promised …”
Something passed then that I could not catch, but Captain Burley must have made a remark which was instantly resented. My father broke into one of his sudden angers which were always nearer the surface than one suspected.
“… I’m not a lackey to be gibed atl We’ve served four monarchs in our time at the castle and lost half an inheritance in the process! To be so accused in my own home …”
“Well, your honour, it’s commonly so spoken, and that Lady Killigrew herself was involved and that two of her servants was hanged for it “
A goblet of wine rolled on the floor. “If that is the sort of calumny to which I am to be subjected “
“Begging your ladyship’s pardon,” came William Love’s voice. “Richard Burley meant no offense, I’ll wager. If so “
“Let it be discussed as you will. I’ll no longer be a party to it.”
Conversation passed back and forth, cooling and calming and smoothing over. All the same I should have taken warning. I did not, until a shadow moved across the crack of the door. Then too late I stumbled back as someone opened it for my grandmother, and I stared into her cold grey eyes.
There had been little to see through the crack, but now all the room was there beyond her shoulder: the brace of candlesticks, flames bobbing, the heavy, pale-haired figure of Burley sneering angrily in the leather studded armchair, Love standing behind it; Elliot fingering the gold ring in his ear; my father pouring wine, face Hushed, his quilted yellow doublet open and awry.
Yet all the time T was staring into my grandmother’s eyes. One of the dogs had come after her, its tail wagging unsteadily. She pushed it away with her foot and without speaking to me swept on.
CHAPTER TWO
Elliot and Love and Burley and their friends stayed feasting all the following day, but they left at nine in the evening and caught the midnight tide. The day of Walter’s funeral they were gone and the waters of the river-mouth were so still and glassy that no ships might ever have been there to break the reflections of tree and hill and distant fort. To my surprise my grandmother never spoke to me about her discovery of me that night.