We dropped anchor. We went ashore with the children; Jake Pennlyon came with us. He had never looked more arrogantly proud. He was a sailor returning home with his booty, and he had taken his revenge on the Spaniard who had dared thwart him.
I was unprepared for what I found on the shore, for there was my mother.
She held out her arms and Honey and I ran to her; she hugged first me and then Honey and she kept saying, “My darling girls!” over and over again, while she laughed and cried and kissed us and touched our faces and held us at arm’s length to look at us before she held us again.
The children stood looking up at her wonderingly. We introduced her to them—Edwina, Roberto, Carlos and Jacko. Her eyes lingered on Roberto. She picked him up and said: “So this is my little grandson.” Then she did not forget to show equal interest in Edwina—her little granddaughter as she called her.
She was staying at Trewynd Grange, which Lord Calperton had put at her disposal. No member of his family had used it since the tragedy of Edward’s death. When Jake Pennlyon had set out to bring us back, my mother had prepared for the journey to Devon, so determined was she to be there to greet us as soon as we stepped onto English soil.
How strange to walk into the Grange again, to look up at that turret window from where I had first seen the galleon. My mother and I walked arm in arm, hands clasped. She could not speak of her emotion just then, though later doubtless she would.
As soon as the Rampant Lion had been sighted she had set the servants preparing a banquet, and the smells of savory meats and pies greeted us. It was so long since we had smelled such food and in spite of our emotion we were eager for it.
I went up to my old room; I stood at the turret window and looked out on the Hoe and the Rampant Lion dancing there on the waves.
My mother was behind me, and we were at last alone.
“Oh, my dearest Cat!” she said. “If you but knew.”
“I do know,” I said. “You were in my thoughts all the time.”
“What terrible experiences for you—and you little more than a child.”
“I am a mother too now.”
She looked at me anxiously. I started to tell her why we had been abducted, but she already knew. John Gregory had told her.
“And this man … you say he was good to you.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“And you married him!”
“In the end it seemed the best thing to do. I had my son. Roberto was made heir to his estates. And I was fond of him, for he was good to me.”
She bowed her head. “I too married, Cat.”
“Rupert?” I asked.
She nodded.
“And my father?”
“He will never come back. He is dead, Cat. I have long known he was dead.”
“He was said to have disappeared mysteriously.”
“There was nothing mysterious about your father, Cat—at least no more than there is about all men and women. He was placed in the Abbey by the monk who was his father and so the legend was built up. He acquired his riches by selling the treasures of the Abbey and he died by an accident in the Abbey tunnels. That is all in the past and I have married Rupert.”
“You should have married him long ago, Mother.”
She said: “I am happy now. He wanted me to come here because he knows of my love for you, but he is eagerly awaiting my return.”
“And Kate?”
“She is as ever.”
“She did not marry again?”
“Kate does not wish to marry, though there are many who try to persuade her. She wishes to keep her freedom. She is rich, independent, she wants no man to govern her.”
“No man would ever govern her. She would govern him.”
“You still speak of her bitterly, Cat.”
“I still remember. And Carey?”
“He has a place at Court.”
“So you see him now and then?”
“Yes.”
“Does he speak of me?”
“We all spoke of you when we lost you.”
“Carey too?”
“Yes, Carey.”
“And is he well, Mother?”
“He is indeed. Now, Cat darling, what will you do? Will you marry Jake Pennlyon? I want you to be happy, dearest Cat. More than anything I want that. Jake Pennlyon brought you back. He plans to marry you. He was betrothed to you before and he has waited for you.”
I laughed aloud. “I think I may be going to bear his child.”
“Then you love him.”
“Sometimes I think I hate him.”
“Yet…”
“He insisted,” I said. “He was the Captain. He offered me marriage, but he was impatient.”
She took me by the shoulders and looked into my face.
“My dearest Cat,” she said, “you are changed.”
“I am no longer your virgin daughter. Twice I have been forced to submit. It’s odd, Mother. They both offered marriage.”
“Now you must build up a new life for yourself, Cat. Come home with me to the Abbey.”
“I thought of it. There I should see Carey perhaps. I do not want to open that old wound. Perhaps he will marry. Has he married?” I asked swiftly.
She shook her head. “You married the Spaniard,” she reminded me.
“I married him because I thought I would stay there forever. I wanted to assure my son’s position.”
“And this child you are carrying?”
I hesitated. Was I beginning to ask myself if I could overcome my grief for Felipe, which stirred sadly in my heart, by my hatred of Jake Pennlyon?
I said: “I will marry Jake Pennlyon. He is the father of the child I am carrying. I shall stay here, Mother, for much as I long to be with you I could not return to the Abbey.”
She understood as she had always understood.
Jake Pennlyon was triumphant. The preparations for the wedding began at once.
“We want our son’s birth to take place at a respectable time after the wedding day.”
During the previous year Jake’s father had had an apoplectic fit and died instantly. He had lived so lustily that he had shortened his span, was the general opinion. So Jake was master of Lyon Court and I was to be its mistress.
I made conditions.
The children were to remain with me. He wanted Roberto to go to the Abbey when my mother went. “For to tell the truth,” he said, “the sight of that brat makes my gorge rise.”
“He is my son,” I said. “He shall never be parted from me as long as I live.”
“You should be ashamed of consorting with our enemies. A brat that was forced on you!”
“That could be said of the child I am to bear.”
“Not so. You were willing. Do you think you deceived me?”
“It is you who deceive yourself. My son stays or there will be no marriage.”
“There will be a marriage,” he said. “Don’t think you’ll cheat me twice. No plaguey sweat this time, my girl.”
I laughed at him. “Roberto stays,” I said.
“And the other two,” he said. “By God, I’ve no objection to a nursery. We’ll fill it. Those two boys are game little fellows. I like them.”
“You would. They resemble you. Manuela and Jennet will take care of the nursery, but let me tell you this: There will be no more merry games with my servants.”
He took my chin in his hand and jerked up my face in one of his ungentle gestures. “You must see to it that there is no one but you. I warn you I am a lusty man.”
“I do not need the warning.”
“You need to heed it. You can keep me solely yours, Cat, and you will.”
“Do you think I can manage to retain such a prize?” I asked with sarcasm.