The four of them left the house soon after dawn the next morning and walked together down Love Lane, through the square and past the old abbey. At the edge of the town, they stopped outside a grand house, set apart and surrounded on three sides by its own land. It was three storeys high, built of red brick, with a red-tiled roof, tall chimneys and large latticed windows. The oak door, too, was large and looked strong enough to withstand any amount of battering. If he had not known better, Thomas would have guessed the house to belong to a successful wool merchant.
‘There are fifteen rooms,’ Margaret told him, ‘all well proportioned. There are stables and a well at the back.’
‘It looks perfect,’ said Thomas, smiling. ‘Quite large enough and plenty of land upon which to build. I can see why Rush bought it. It would have been a wise investment if he had lived to enjoy it.’
‘Thank God he didn’t. The world does not need monsters like Tobias Rush.’
‘Indeed not. But let us hope that in death his money serves a useful purpose.’
‘We’re not going to live here, are we?’ asked Lucy.
Thomas laughed and put his arm around her shoulders. ‘No, my dear, we are not going to live here but we are going to buy it. Your mother and I have plans for it.’
They walked around the house, peering into the windows and trying the doors. All were locked. An internal inspection would have to wait until Mr Cole had done his work. They were about to leave when a troop of soldiers appeared from the direction of the town and marched up to the house. Polly and Lucy immediately hid behind Thomas and Margaret, who stood to face them. The captain and his six men wore the red coats of Parliamentary infantrymen, their twelve ‘apostles’ containing powder and ball in loops on their bandoliers, iron helmets and tall leather boots. They carried muskets and swords. Even to Thomas’s untutored eye they looked better equipped and more disciplined than the men whom Rush had sent to arrest him on that cold March morning.
‘We are looking for Tobias Rush,’ announced the captain.
Thomas grinned. ‘I fear you will not find him here, captain,’ he replied.
‘Is that so? And where might we find him?’
‘Tobias Rush is dead and was buried on the island of Barbados. I have a letter from the governor, Lord Willoughby, to prove it.’
‘And who are you, sir?’
‘My name is Thomas Hill. I own a bookshop in Love Lane. My family and I have a mind to buy this house and we’re inspecting it.’
The captain looked suspicious. ‘Were you now? Or were you planning to break in and steal what’s inside?’
‘Certainly not, captain. As I have told you, Rush is dead. The house will be sold and we intend to buy it.’
The captain turned to his troop and spoke quietly to them. Thomas could not hear what was being said but he did see the glances in his direction. God in heaven, not again. If these men had orders to find Rush, they would not want to return with only the word of a stranger that he was dead. It would be more sensible for them to escort Thomas to whomever had sent them and let him tell the story himself. Even with the letter he would have to do more explaining than he would like – he had, after all, helped defend Barbados against Ayscue’s Parliamentary fleet. He put his arm around Margaret and braced himself.
The captain turned back to face him. ‘Master Hill, we have decided to believe you. We did not like Tobias Rush and we are not unhappy to hear that he is dead. However, if he should come to life again you will have some awkward questions to answer. In that case, you may expect a visit from us at your shop in Love Lane.’
Thomas let out a quiet sigh of relief. Rush had returned from the dead once. He would not be doing so again. ‘That is understood, captain. And if you do see Tobias Rush, be sure that you will be looking at a ghost.’ The captain did not reply but gave his soldiers the order to turn and off they marched.
‘I did not enjoy that,’ said Margaret. ‘I did not think they would believe you.’
‘Nor did I. Another spell in Winchester gaol looked horribly likely. Still, the war’s over and a man’s word may be worth something again. Let’s hope so.’
The next six months were spent in trips to Winchester to visit Mr Rose and Mr Cole, meetings with the mayor and aldermen of Romsey, and weekly conferences with builders, carpenters and stonemasons. Thomas watched impatiently as the work progressed, until, at last, just before Christmas Day, it was finished. The house that had once belonged to Tobias Rush had been transformed and a new house, perfect for a well-to-do family of four, had been built in its grounds.
On the first day of January 1653, Thomas Hill, accompanied by his sister and nieces, all three dressed in new bonnets and new gowns made from the silk he had bought in Winchester, attended the official opening. The mayor spoke warmly of the man who had conceived the idea, paid for the work and endowed the establishment with a capital sum sufficient for its needs for many years to come. Then he announced that the new Romsey School was now open. It would start with eight pupils, all of whom had lost their fathers during the war, including Polly and Lucy Taylor. Until a schoolteacher was appointed the children would be taught mathematics, Latin and English by the benefactor himself.
After the ceremony the party repaired to the Romsey Arms. He had survived, he had prospered and he had made good use of the Gibbes’s gold. The celebrations were long and merry and when eventually they were over, he set off unsteadily up Love Lane. Only when he reached the baker’s shop did he remember that he no longer lived above the old bookshop. With an embarrassed grin, he retraced his steps down the lane, past the inn and the abbey, to his new house beside Romsey School.
Author’s Note
For an island of only 166 square miles and a population, white and black, of fewer than forty thousand, Barbados played an important role in the English Civil Wars, especially after the execution of Charles I. This was all the more extraordinary for the fact that the brothers John and Henry Powell, the first planter colonists, had only arrived there in 1627. When the Royalist and Parliamentarian forces met at Edgehill, the Barbados planter community was no more than fifteen years old.
Thomas’s experience was not uncommon because the success of the sugar industry had one terrible drawback – its insatiable demand for cheap labour. This demand was met not only by slaves from Africa and South America but also by prisoners, convicts and Royalist supporters, who found themselves ‘Barbadosed’. Some were well treated; many, like Thomas, were brutally exploited and abused. Very few returned home.
Among the events in The King’s Exile which really did take place were Humphrey Walrond’s coup to gain the governorship, the appointment of Lord Willoughby to replace him, the false intelligence carried by the Dutch ship, the blockade by Sir George Ayscue’s fleet, the arrival of the fleet from Virginia, the battle on the ridge above Oistins that was ‘rained off’, the signing of the Charter of Barbados in ‘Ye Mermaid Inn’.
Having been negotiated by Sir George Ayscue on behalf of the English Parliament, the terms of the charter had the unforeseen result of giving the island, after the restoration of the monarchy, more independence than it would otherwise have enjoyed.