Authors: Yelena Kopylova
the only one.”
“They tell me you are doing a kind of book on this part of the country. Were your
forebears from
here?”
“Yes, hereabouts.”
“What name?”
“By the name of Fountain.”
“Fountain.” Hal screwed up his eyes as if trying to recollect the name, and he said, “I seemed to
remember that name, but there’s no Fountains hereabouts. Horse troughs but no
fountains.”
There were a number of groans and “Oh, Dad,” from around the room. And now he cried
at them,
“Well, I’m allowed to have a joke. And I’ve got Mr. Hamilton laughing, if not you lot.
By the way, have
we got to call you Mr. Hamilton?”
“I’d rather you called me Ben.”
“Short for what?”
“Benjamin.”
“I’m in good company.” They turned and looked at Gabriel now, and he, grinning, said,
“Another one
from the Bible.”
During all this time, Kate had been sitting opposite to Maggie and Florrie. She had her hands folded on
her lap and it wasn’t evident that her nails were pressing into her flesh. She kept telling herself that
nothing could happen, he would make no slips. The name Bannaman would not be
mentioned, at least
not by him. Yet, she could not help but feel uneasy, and she kept looking at Hal. If he only knew who
the visitor really was, his anger could be such that he would do something terrible, were her thoughts.
“What is your line of business?” It was Tom speaking now, and Ben said, “My father’s
business was
coach building a firm owned by his father. My father died before my grandfather, who
eventually sold
out. I stayed on for a time with the company, but my heart wasn’t in it. I I decided to travel a bit before
settling down to another occupation.”
“What kind of occupation?”
He turned to Hal and shrugged his shoulder before he said, “Quite candidly, I haven’t as yet made up
my mind. It would be very nice to say farming, but I know nothing whatever about
farming. It may be
writing, I don’t know yet.”
“Well—’ Hal now hunched his shoulders, saying, ‘if you’re in a position to keep yourself without
working, well and good. Of course, it won’t cost you much up there in the wilds, in that but and ben.
How did you last out the winter?”
“I really don’t know. Sometimes I didn’t think I would make it.”
“Then why did you stay?” asked Hal bluntly.
Ben glanced towards Kate. Her face looked anxious. Then he lowered his head before he
said, “It’s a
long story, but I went through a very traumatic experience some time ago, and I needed a period of
recuperation, to be on my own and ... well, work things out. Do you know what I mean?”
Hal didn’t really know what the fellow meant. One thing he did know, he was puzzled
why this man
who talked and acted like an educated gentleman was living under conditions that a
drover would scorn.
There was something here that wanted sorting out. It was just as well that Kate and he were merely
friends, for a bloke with no livelihood would be no good to her. And here they had been for the past two
days, ski ting from one end of the house and the land to the other, as if getting ready for a visit from the
lord of the manor. And here was a fellow without a job, living practically rough, yet.
Wait a minute. He
had said, living practically rough. Look how he was dressed. You didn’t buy that kind of suit in
Allendale or Hexham. Arid he had a gold chain hanging across his waistcoat, likely a
similar quality
watch on the end of it. And his boots, they were spanking leather. There was something fishy here. He
was a good-looking bloke altogether. He was the kind of fellow, he imagined, that could get any woman
he set his mind to. So why this friendship talk with their Kate? Not that Kate wasn’t
worth the best.
He’d have to get to the bottom of it or he wouldn’t be able to sleep the night.
He got to the bottom of it sooner than he expected.
When Annie unceremoniously pushed open the sitting—room door and said in no small
voice. The tea’s
ready,” Mary Ellen, rising quickly to her feet, said, “ Well, that’s something we’re all ready for and I’m
sure you could do with a cup, Mr. Hamilton. “
“He said to call him Ben.” Hal was getting to his feet, and he cast a sidelong glance at Kate saying,
That’s. right, isn’t it? We are to call him Ben? “
When she returned his glance but said nothing, he thought to himself, She’s worried,
she’s on edge.
On entering the dining-room, Ben once again paused and looked around him, saying now,
“I suppose
it’s very bad manners of me, but these are such lovely rooms, and so tastefully
furnished.”
Hal drew in a long breath. The fellow was a little too polite for his fancy, but, making light of it, he
looked at Mary Ellen, saying, “Be on your guard, lass, he’s after something.” Whereupon Ben, looking
at Mary Ellen, answered quietly, “He’s quite right, ma’am, I am. And I’ll come to that shortly.”
The whole family paused and turned their full attention on him and he let his gaze slip over them, and
when it came to rest once again on Mary Ellen, he said, still quietly, “But what I would like now is that
promised cup of tea and some of the delectable eatables.” And he indicated the table with the movement
of his hand. Then a moment later, seeing that Kate was about to sit next to him, he held the chair out for
her, and when she was seated, she lowered her gaze for a moment, thinking. They won’t
understand
him. He doesn’t speak their language . delectable eatables. And his courtesy will be
foreign to them.
Even this part of it is not going to work out.
But as the meal progressed it seemed that she could be wrong, for he caught their
attention with his
description of the vast areas outside the towns of Houston and Galves—ton. Even as she listened to him
she could see the vast stretches of country, much of it inhabited by Indian tribes with names like
Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes. And when Gabriel asked if it
was true that
the Indians painted themselves and raided homesteads and villages, he touched on it
lightly, out of
consideration, she thought, for the women present, saying now, “The Rangers have things pretty much
under control.” Then on Gabriel’s further enquiry he described the type of men who
became Rangers.
“Have you ever ridden out after Indians?” Tom was smiling at him, and he returned his
smile with a
grimace as he said, The ride out after Indians! More like running the other way. I’m a peaceful man,
which is only another name for a coward. “ The men laughed. All except Hal, who,
looking down the
table from under his brows, thought again, he’s too smooth. He’s too clever, making out he takes to his
heels when faced with danger. He didn’t have that impression at all of the fellow, not with that shaped
jaw and eyes as black as chiselled coal..
The meal lasted for nearly an hour. Three times Annie rose from the table and refilled the big brown
teapot and the silver hot water jug.
The plates that had held slices of pork and ham, meat pies, fruit pies, conserve tarts, seed cake, rice
loaf, and an outsize loaf, were almost denuded now. And the atmosphere was relaxed:
even Maggie was
showing her better side, and had been for some time now, putting quite intelligent
questions to the guest,
and listening most attentively to his answers, her long lashed lids napping, as Annie said later, like aspens
in the wind.
Maggie’s play was not lost on Kate, and she guessed what was in her mind, that if she
herself was
merely a friend of Ben’s, there was every chance of someone else becoming closer to
him, and why not
her? Indeed, why not her? For was she not pretty and vivacious? And she wondered what
Maggie’s
reaction would be when Ben stated the reason for his visit here today. And she hadn’t to wait much
longer.
It began with Hal saying, “Well, now, here’s one who must get out of his Sunday togs
and continue the
business of the day. And that goes for you three weaklings an’ all.” He nodded towards his sons.
“And what about you, eh?” He was now addressing Ben.
“Would you like to come along with us, and see how things are run on a farm?”
“I should indeed. Thank you very much.”
Hal made as if to rise, then sat back, saying, “But before we go about our several
businesses, there was
something you were going to ask of us. Well, would you like to ask it now; or is it a
private matter?”
Ben did not answer for a moment, but, turning towards Kate, he took her hand and, lifting it up onto the
white table cloth, he held it there, saying quietly now, “It was to be a private matter, yet it concerns all
your family, because I hope to take Kate’—he glanced at Kate’s almost white face now
jaway from you
all. I’ve asked her to marry me, and she has done me the honour of accepting. Now all I want is your
blessing.” He had not said, consent.
There was not a murmur or a movement around the table, for nothing he could have said
would have
surprised them more. Here was this fellow, a foreigner plainly from the way he talked, and a bit
dandified into the bargain, but it came over more in his manner, like the way he was
holding Kate’s hand
now in front of them all, not on the table any more, but against his chest. Then look at the difference
between him and her. All right, Kate was a fine woman, none better, but sitting there, they looked like
chalk and cheese: him as flat and as lean as a stripped willow, and Kate . well, she was a big wench,
there was no doubt about it, she was a fine big wench.
It was Hal who seemingly got his breath back first, for now getting to his feet and
thrusting the armchair
aside, he said, “Aye, I think it should have been done in private. There are things to say, young fellow,
things I want made clear, and now.”
“Just as you say.” Ben got to his feet. He still had hold of Kate’s hand and he
embarrassed the
company still further by bringing it up to his cheek, the while looking down at her and saying, “Don’t
worry, my dear, don’t worry. It’s going to be all right.” Then he followed Hal out of the room.
In the hall, he stood for a moment looking first one way, then the other, and saw that his host was
standing outside a door at the end of a small corridor. When he joined him, Hal thrust open the door of
his office and went in. He did not take a seat but, standing with his back to the desk, he began
immediately, saying, “Now, mister, let’s get this thing clear. You spring this thing on us, saying you are
going to take Kate away. Where to, may I ask? Up into that shepherd’s hut in the wilds?
Kate’s been
used to a good home, a good upbringing. And anyway, nobody knows nowt about you.
Who are you
anyway?”
This, in a way, would have been the opportunity for Ben to say quietly who he was,
trusting that this man
would be sensible enough to let the past bury itself, and let him expiate, as it were, any residue that was
left. Yet he had promised Kate, and he saw now, as she had indicated, that this man was of a fiery
disposition; it would be best to tread warily with him, so he answered him quietly, saying,
“I’ve told you
who I am, sir. And as for taking Kate to the shepherd’s hut, that was never my intention, even if she had
consented. I happen, sir, for your information, to be a man of means. In this country I am banking with
Lloyds. They have offices in London, and also in Newcastle. I give you leave to enquire into the
finances I have had transferred from my home. There, I still hold shares in the coach
business. I am the
owner of a house of considerable style and value.
My grandmother is there at the moment. I have enough money to keep myself and Kate
in idleness for
the rest of our lives if I so wished. But I had considered taking up residence in this country. “
His manner had become stiff and formal, and it was certainly having an effect on Hal, for now, flopping
down into his desk chair, he said, “If all this is true as you say, why are you living like you do? Why
haven’t you shown your face here afore, if you felt that way about Kate and it was not just a boo ky
friendship, as she said?”
“To answer your latter question, Kate wished it that way. She’s had an unfortunate
experience as you
so well know, and she was fearful of what significance you would place on our
association, and she was
content to let it be one of friendship. But for my part, from our first meeting, my feelings for her went
beyond friendship.”
“Aye, well.” Hal took lip a feathered pen and started stabbing the quill end into the back of a brown
ledger, and he seemed at a loss for words until, his chin jerking up, he said, “But that doesn’t account for
a man of means, as you say you are, living rough.”
“I wouldn’t call it living rough! It’s a sparsely furnished, but comfortable little room. It met the needs of
the time, because I had come to England in ... well, I can only say, a disturbed emotional state.”
“What do you exactly mean by that? I would rather you spoke plain. You been married
afore?”
Ben now smiled and shook his head.