Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 02] (9 page)

Lady St. Merryn looked puzzled. “Rockland? Do I know you?”

“Not yet, my dear ma’am. But I hope and trust that one day you will know me very well, the day my adored one grants me leave to take her as my wife.”

Letty said, “Do you want to marry Cousin Charley, sir?”

“I do,” he replied. “That is the dearest wish of my life.”

“Stop talking nonsense, Rockland,” Charley said. “There is not one thing you could do or say to change my mind about marrying. You ought to know that perfectly well by now. Indeed, I don’t know what we are going to do with you. However, if you have brought word from Great-Aunt Ophelia, I will be glad of that, at least.”

“Good gracious,” Lady St. Merryn exclaimed. “Don’t tell me Aunt Ophelia is here! Oh dear, how very uncomfortable we will be, for I cannot help but think that she will take those dreadful Norfolk Tarrants in aversion. Oh dear, oh dear.”

“Great-Aunt Ophelia is not here, Grandmama,” Charley said, raising her voice. With a quizzical look at Rockland, she added, “You didn’t bring her, did you?”

“Alas, I could not bring her up to scratch,” he said. “Told me the funerals would be over and that weeping and wailing over dead bodies was a barbaric custom, and not one anyone could expect a woman of her years to take pleasure in. I must say, my treasure, to have made Lady Ophelia’s acquaintance has made up for a great deal that was missing in my life,” he added with a broad grin.

“Why does Cousin Charley not like you?” Letty asked him.

He shrugged, holding out a finger to Jeremiah, who shook it solemnly. “I don’t know, poppet. I can tell you that she insists she likes her horses better. If I were to tell you some of the things she has done to them—to the stallions, chiefly—well, perhaps it is as well that she don’t pretend to like me.”

Letty giggled. “I don’t think she would order a gentleman gelded, sir.”

Fortunately, Lady St. Merryn did not overhear the exchange.

Rockland rolled up his eyes in mock horror and turned to Charley, saying, “I see that you’ve created another in your image, my goddess.”

Charley grimaced. “Letty, darling, you simply must not speak of such things in Grandmama’s drawing room, or in any drawing room, for that matter. Medrose, show Lord Rockland to a guest chamber, please. I expect he means to stay for a few days.”

“For as long as it takes,” Rockland said with a speaking look.

She sighed, but in the event, she was grateful for his presence at the dinner table that evening. He behaved in his usual carefree manner and talked as easily to the haughty Edythe as to the shy Elizabeth.

Edythe instantly took exception to Letty’s presence at the table. “That child belongs in the nursery with our Neddy and Jane.”

Charley said, “Letty is accustomed to dining with adults, Cousin Edythe. Since we dine
en famille
tonight, there is no cause to exclude her. She would feel quite out of place with your children, both of whom are still in leading strings, after all.”

“She could help to amuse them,” Edythe pointed out.

“No,” Charley said. “Not unless she expresses a wish to do so. Letty is my guest, not a nursery maid.”

Rockland said, “I say, Tarrant, someone told me that you and your family hail from Norfolk. I was at Holkham Hall once, for the sheep shearing. Dashed amazing place.”

“Our home, Grappen Hall, does not pretend to the glories of Holkham, I’m afraid,” Alfred said. “All the same, it’s a tidy property. We’ve another smaller estate in Lincolnshire, as well.”

Rockland kept the conversation going in this vein for some time, even managing to draw Lady St. Merryn into it at one point before Alfred said, “I took a tour of the stables before I dressed for dinner. I must say, I can’t think what St. Merryn was about to keep so many horses, all of them eating their fool heads off.”

Stiffly, Charley said, “Some of those horses are mine, sir, but both Grandpapa and my father were avid hunters. Grandpapa owns a hunting box in Melton Mowbray.”

“Well, Cornwall is humbug country, and I don’t aspire to ape the Melton men, so I daresay we’ll sell most of them,” Alfred said. “Do you hunt, Rockland?”

It was as well that Rockland managed to respond quickly, for Charley knew she was near to losing her temper. She left all conversation to him after that, and after dinner, she went straight to her bedchamber. The room, which she had inherited years before from her Aunt Daintry, was cheerful and well lighted, and the mock India wallpaper with its brightly colored flowers and birds rarely failed to cheer her. This evening, however, it did nothing to lighten her mood.

Letty entered a few minutes later. “Our new cousins are not very obliging, are they?” she said, sitting on a chair near the window and folding her hands in her lap. “One might almost think they came here intending to put everyone out of temper.”

Charley sighed. “I know, darling, but we must make the best of things. I expect I ought to be in the drawing room now, being polite to Cousin Edythe and Elizabeth, while they wait for the gentlemen to finish their port. But I simply could not abide them a moment longer. I don’t think Elizabeth has two thoughts in her head other than to say yes and amen to whatever the gentlemen say, and Cousin Edythe wants to find fault with everything. I only wish I might have been a fly on the wall when Medrose told Cook—if he dared—that Mrs. Tarrant means to provide her with a recipe for raspberry fool that she will agree is superior to her own.”

“It was a very good fool, I thought.”

“Cook’s raspberry fool is famous throughout Cornwall.” She hesitated, aware that she should not share her feelings with the child. But when Letty stared expectantly at her, she said with a sigh, “I feel like a coward. It is the most lowering reflection to know I am relying upon Rockland to entertain Cousin Alfred and his odious family. I’ve left strangers to occupy our drawing room, and although I hope I would have supported Grandmama and Cousin Ethelinda had they stayed with Edythe and Elizabeth, I thank goodness they retired to Grandmama’s rooms instead.”

“Are you as set against Lord Rockland as you seem to be?” Letty asked.

“Let us just say I have as little desire to speak to him as to the others.”

“Is that because you truly dislike him, or …” Letty paused, then gave her a shrewd look. “I am only a child, of course, but I have observed that people usually grieve when someone close to them has died. I’ve even seen some get amazingly angry. But you’ve said practically nothing about all that has happened to you. At least,” she amended, “you have said nothing to me, and I have not observed that you take anyone else into your confidence. Papa and Mama say it is always better to talk about things than to stuff them all down inside, but of course, if you do not want to talk to Rockland, or to anyone else …” Again she paused. Perched on the edge of her chair, she looked like a red-headed bird expecting crumbs.

“I have not had the time or the inclination to weep or wail,” Charley said. She turned to pick up a hairbrush from her dressing table, then set it down again. Unless she took the pins from her hair, she could not brush it.

Letty’s words brought thoughts sharply to mind that she had struggled to bury in its nethermost regions. With the arrival of Alfred Tarrant and his family, she had felt yet another blow. First her family had abandoned her—for so it seemed—and now her home was to be taken away. To be sure, Cousin Alfred had said she would be welcome to stay, but already Tuscombe Park felt less like a home and more like a battleground.

She soon sent Letty to bed and retired herself, refusing to allow her mind to dwell on her troubles. She hoped that things would soon sort themselves out, that with a period of quiet, life at Tuscombe Park would return to normal.

The following morning, when she descended to the morning room, she found the breakfast servants buzzing with excitement. “What is it?” she asked as she moved to examine the dishes on the sideboard.

The chambermaid replied, “Oh, Miss Charley, they do say there’s a ship be a-going to wreck soon, right in the bay! The fog outside still be as thick as muck!”

“What’s that you say?” Alfred demanded from the threshold.

Charley greeted him politely and explained, adding, “Shipwrecks are not uncommon in these parts, sir. As you may know, the tides and currents on both coasts of Cornwall are extremely treacherous. If a storm comes, or heavy fog, a ship may easily come to grief on our rocks and reefs. I might add that it is quite a sight to see. On occasion, hundreds, sometimes thousands of men and women swarm the wreckage, like ants. Long before anything can be done to stop them, they carry off not only the cargo but sometimes every vestige of the ship herself.”

Rockland entered a moment later with a broad grin. “I say, one of the servants told me a ship has wrecked in St. Merryn’s Bay. Shall we go have a look at it?”

“If you want to go, certainly,” Charley said. “They say the fog is still thick, but if you’ll give me time to change into my habit, I’ll go with you. Medrose,” she added when the butler looked in to see if all was going smoothly, “send orders to the stables to saddle horses for us. Cousin Alfred, do you want to come? Perhaps Elizabeth would like to, or Cousin Edythe,” she added conscientiously.

“Upon my word, a shipwreck is no place for gently born females,” Alfred said.

Charley smiled. “We don’t intend to join the scavengers, Cousin, merely to watch the activity. You will have the chance to meet nearly all your neighbors there, I expect. We rarely get to see such a sight so near to us.”

“Surely, what they are doing is against the law!”

“I expect it may be, but the magistrates are powerless to act, there being no one to enforce their commands. The military and Customs House officials provide the only effective deterrent. Unfortunately, the former can seldom reach the scene in time to do any good, and the latter interest themselves primarily in wrecks carrying goods subject to duty. I’ll be back in a twink,” she added, turning back to Rockland. Then, seeing the butler awaiting final instructions, she said, “Horses for Mr. Tarrant, Lord Rockland, Lady Letitia, and myself, Medrose.” Then, before anyone could countermand her orders, she practically pushed him from the room, and hurried off to find Letty.

When they rejoined the gentlemen—without Jeremiah, who had been consigned again to Letty’s bedchamber—Alfred looked disapproving but said nothing more about the impropriety of their going. Charley’s groom, Teddy, accompanied them.

Thinning fog soon let them increase their pace along the path to the cliffs. It also allowed them to see that many others were riding and walking in the same direction. After a time, Teddy drew his horse alongside Charley’s. Raising his voice to be heard above the thudding hoofbeats, he said, “A lot of chaps done went to the bay already and come back to get help, Miss Charley. Some did say there was still men aboard that ship.”

“I hope they got them off safely,” she called back.

Alfred, hearing her, shouted, “If the ship is wrecking in heavy seas, how can they save anyone?”

“They might not,” she said, slowing her mount again when he did, so they would not have to shout. “Still, Grandpapa spent a good deal of time and effort training the men hereabouts to save lives rather than just to take what they could get.”

“I’ve heard it said that Cornish wreckers are greatly feared,” he said.

“Many are, but hereabouts we’ve begun to win a reputation for saving ships and lives. We keep lifeboats on hand in the bay for just such occurrences as this one.”

When they arrived at the cliff’s edge some forty minutes later, however, the scene below appalled her. The tide was ebbing, and they saw the ship’s broken hull on the rocks. Only the mainmast remained whole. The others were broken.

Rockland said as they drew rein, “Looks like three or four hundred tons.”

What it looked like to Charley was an anthill. Men swarmed over the wrecked vessel, armed with pick-axes, hatchets, crowbars, and ropes, breaking up and carrying off whatever they could. Hewing sails and masts, they carried them away. On shore, men shouldered casks. Others broke open barrels, spilling the contents into buckets, jars, earthenware cooking vessels, or anything else they could fill. Men and women alike lined up to get their share. Even children helped. A multitude of people from nearby towns, villages, and parishes crowded the shore and the cliff edge, with many scrambling down to the beach to join the scavengers.

As she watched the ship being dismantled, Charley was shocked to see one of the men aboard fling something black and white into the gray waters of the sea. It struggled frantically to swim in the pounding surf.

“That’s a dog,” Letty cried. “Oh, it’s going to be drowned! Can’t we go down and save it, Cousin Charley?”

“Certainly not,” Alfred snapped.

Rockland said more gently, “We should never get to it in time, poppet, but surely in all that crowd of folks, there must be—yes, by God! Look, poppet, someone is going after it now.”

Charley saw the rescuer, too, and thought there was something familiar about him. He leapt from rock to rock, almost as if he disdained to notice the waves rising high and crashing around him, threatening to sweep him away.

Letty said suddenly, “Isn’t that—?”

“I can’t see who it is,” Charley cut in swiftly, her heart thumping as she watched the struggling dog and the brave but surely foolhardy man trying to rescue it. Nearly certain, even from such a distance, that the man was Jean Matois, she kept her knowledge to herself and shot a warning look at Letty to do likewise.

“Miss Tarrant?”

Reluctantly dragging her gaze from the scene below, Charley saw that she was being addressed by a very large, neatly dressed man on horseback who seemed vaguely familiar. “I am Miss Tarrant,” she said. “You must forgive me. I am afraid—”

“James Gabriel, ma’am, mayor of Lostwithiel since last October.” He removed his hat, revealing a bushy head of thick brown hair, as he added, “We met briefly at Tuscombe Park House one afternoon some months ago, before you left for London and the Continent. I had called to discuss with your grandfather some details of the cathedral consecration in Truro. He was kind enough to make me known to you.”