The Lion Triumphant (34 page)

He stared down at the boys. Then he put out a hand and let it rest on the shoulder of Carlos. “God’s Death!” he said. Then he took Carlos’ chin and jerked his face up. Then he did the same to Jacko. They met his gaze fearlessly. Jake Pennlyon burst into great laughter. Carlos, uncertain, laughed too. Jake took a handful of Carlos’s hair and pulled it. There was a certain emotion in his face.

He released Carlos and slapped him on the back. The boy staggered but was looking eager and expectant still. Jacko had stepped a little forward, not wishing to be left out.

“Why,” said Jake, “I’d have known you two anywhere.”

Then he looked at me, his eyes narrowed. “These boys should have been yours and you got with child by a poxy Don!” He looked down at the boys. “Get warm clothes on,” he roared. “Bring what you can—everything you can lay your hands on. You’re going on the finest ship that ever sailed the seas.”

Honey, weeping quietly, had come in for Edwina. She picked her up and held her in her arms.

“Make ready,” growled Jake Pennlyon, “and follow me.”

We went down the stairs; packhorses were waiting for us. They had been taken from Felipe’s stables. Already articles of value were being loaded onto them. It must have been midnight when we started to ride to the coast.

There was a faint moon to show us the way and the going was slow.

Jake Pennlyon rode beside me and I held Roberto on my mule. Jennet was there, her eyes wide with excitement; Manuela kept close to the children, quietly determined to follow them; Honey, widowed twice and in a like manner, her beautiful face now impassive, held Edwina on her mule. Jacko rode with Jennet and Carlos had a mule to himself.

I felt as though I were living in a nightmare. I could not forget Felipe lying in his blood, he who, a short while before, had been alive and so concerned for my safety, and all that had happened in the last hour seemed quite unreal. I was certain I would wake up soon.

There was Jake Pennlyon—I had forgotten how vital a man could be—the murderer of Felipe, whom I had grown to love.

I should never forget Felipe’s gentle courtesy, his deep and abiding kindness to me. And Jake Pennlyon had killed him. How I hated Jake Pennlyon.

And so we came to the coast and there, a mile or so from the land, lay the
Rampant Lion.

We rowed out to her; we scrambled aboard.

The spoils which Jake Pennlyon’s men had taken from the Hacienda were stowed away.

It was beginning to be light when the
Rampant Lion
shipped anchor and we sailed for England.

T
HE FAMILIAR CREAKING OF
timbers, the rolling and pitching of a ship at sea—it came back to me so vividly. Jake Pennlyon’s cabin was not unlike that of the galleon’s Captain. It was less spacious and the deck head was lower. The same kind of instruments were there. I saw the astrolabe and the cross staff, the compasses and hourglasses.

We were taken to his cabin, Honey, Jennet and I with the children. Edwina clung to her mother as Roberto did to me but Jake Pennlyon’s boys were examining the cabin; they were into everything, trying to understand how the astrolabe worked and chattering in a kind of half English and half Spanish language of their own.

Jennet was smiling to herself. “Wel, fancy, ’twere the Captain himself,” she kept murmuring.

Honey sat limply staring in front of her as though she were in a trance. I knew how she felt. She had lost a husband whom she loved—even as I had. Hundreds of memories must be crowding into her mind as they were into mine.

Felipe, I thought, I loved you. I never let you know how much because I didn’t realize it myself until I saw you lying there.

Then it was back in my mind—that hideous memory. I could see the blood staining his jacket, making a pool about his body. I could see the blood on the walls and Jake Pennlyon’s dripping sword.

I must try to shut that terrible picture out of my mind.

“The children should be sleeping,” I said.

“Oh, Mistress, do you think they could after such a night?” asked Jennet.

“They must,” I replied. I was thankful that at least they had not seen the murders. I wondered what was happening now. How many of the servants had survived, what they would say in the morning. Pilar at the Casa Azul would cry out that it was the witch’s work—the English witch who had fascinated the Governor and brought him to his death.

The door of the cabin opened and John Gregory came in.

“Well,” I said, “here is the double traitor.”

“Did you not want to go home?” he demanded. “Was it not what you hoped and prayed for?”

I was silent. I was thinking of Don Felipe. I could not stop thinking of him.

“You are to be taken to a cabin where you will sleep. I will show you.”

We followed him along an alleyway and into a cabin which was considerably smaller than the one we had left. There were blankets on the deck.

“You may all rest here. Captain Pennlyon will see you later. He will be busy for some hours yet.”

I followed John Gregory into the alleyway.

“I want to know what happened in England,” I said.

“I left in good faith,” he said.

“Did you ever know good faith? Which master did you serve?”

“I serve Captain Pennlyon who is my true master and was ere I was taken by the Spaniards.”

“You betrayed him once.”

“I was taken and submitted to torture. I was made to obey but when I saw once more the green fields of home I knew where my loyalty lay. I never want to leave my country again.”

“You found my mother? You gave her my letter?”

“I gave her your letter.”

“And what said she?”

“I never saw such joy in any face as when I placed your letter in her hands and told her you were well.”

“And then?”

“She said you must be brought home and she bid me take a message to Captain Pennlyon, your betrothed husband, to tell him where you were. She said I must take him to you and that he would bring you safely home.”

“And this you did. You were a traitor to him and to your new master. And now you have returned to the old. How long will you be faithful to him, John Gregory?”

“You are sailing for home, Mistress. Are you not content to do so?”

I said: “There was bloody murder in Trewynd Grange on that night when we were taken away. There was bloody murder at the Hacienda. These murders are at your door, John Gregory.”

“I understand you not. I have expiated my sin.”

“Your conscience must trouble you,” I said. I asked myself: How near had I come to loving Don Felipe? I did love him. Surely this emptiness I now feel, this numbed despair was due to love.

I went back to the cabin. Roberto was looking anxiously for me, so I took him in my arms and soothed him. Edwina was fast asleep. Carlos and Jacko were whispering together.

I said: “We should all lie down. Though I do not expect we shall sleep.”

In a short time Jennet was breathing noisily. I looked at her contemptuously and asked myself of what she dreamed. Of further tumbling with the Captain? How wantonly her eyes had shone at the sight of him.

Honey lay still.

I whispered: “Honey, what are you thinking?”

She answered: “I keep seeing him lying there. A man who has slept at your side … in whose arms you have lain… There was so much blood, Catharine. I can’t forget it. I see it wherever I look.”

“You loved Luis?”

“He was gentle and kind. He was good to me. And you Felipe, Catharine?”

“He took me against my will, but he was never brutal. I think he soon began to love me. Sometimes I think I shall never be loved as I was by Don Felipe.”

“Jake Pennlyon…” she began.

“Do not speak of him.”

“We are in his ship. What will happen do you think?” I shivered. “We must wait and see,” I said.

We must have dozed a little, for it was morning. The ship rocked gently, so the weather was calm. There was food for us—beans and salt meat with ale. It was brought by John Gregory. As on that previous occasion he had been given the task of guarding us.

“All’s well,” he said. “There is a fair wind and we are on course for England. The crew have had a double ration of rum for last night’s work. The Captain has promised them a share of his booty when we’re safe in the Hoe. He wishes to speak with Mistress Catharine when she has eaten.”

I was silent and in no mood for food. Roberto said he did not like the food, but I noticed Carlos and Jacko ate heartily. Edwina ate some beans and Jennet did justice to her share, but Honey could not eat. We drank a little of the ale, which tasted bitter, but at least it was cooling.

John Gregory conducted me to the Captain’s cabin.

Jake Pennlyon roared, “Come in,” when he knocked.

I stepped inside.

“Come and sit down,” said Jake Pennlyon.

I sat on the stool which was fixed to the deck. He said: “This is your second sea voyage. A little different from the first, eh?”

“The galleon was a finer ship,” I said.

He pursed his lips contemptuously. “I’d like to meet her. Then I could show you who is master.”

“She had an armament of eighty cannon. I doubt you could match that.”

“So we have become a sailor, since we sailed with the Dons! You’ll never see that one again.”

I shuddered. Once more I saw him clearly there on the floor, his blood mingling with the mosaic tiles.

“John Gregory told me you had been questioning him.”

“Do you expect silence from your captives?”

“Captives! Who speaks of captives. I have rescued you from God knows what. I am taking you home.”

I said: “Don Felipe Gonzáles was my husband.”

The color flooded his face.

“I know he got a Spanish brat on you.”

“We had a son,” I said.

“Married you!” he spat out. “That was no marriage.”

“Solemnized according to the rites of the church,” I went on.

“The Catholic Church. How could you sink so low!”

I laughed at him. “You are a very religious man, I know. You lead a life of piety. All your actions are those which one would expect of a holy man.”

“I am a man of tolerance. I am even ready to take my wife back even though she has played the whore with a filthy Don.”

“He was a man of fine and cultured manners such as you could never understand.”

He took me by the forearm and shook me; I thought at once of the gentle hands of Felipe.

“You were betrothed to me. That betrothal was binding. It was as good as marriage.”

“I did not regard it as such. If I had I would never have entered into it.”

“You lie. You wanted me. You would have been my wife, you would have been at Pennlyon Court had you not been sick of the sweat.”

“I never was sick of the sweat.”

He stared at me. Oh, I had deceived him completely then.

“It was a ruse. It was a way of keeping you off. Now, Jake Pennlyon, was I eager for you? When I kept to my bed for weeks to escape you?”

“You were suffering from the sweat. I saw your face.”

“A concoction … a paste, spread lightly over the face. Even you lost your lust when you saw that!”

“You … devil!” he said.

“In Tenerife they called me a witch and you call me a devil. In truth, all I am is a woman seeking to escape from a man she does not want.”

He was shaken. So he had not really believed in my reluctance, so great was his conceit.

He said at length: “I shall marry you when we reach Devon. In spite of everything I will honor my bond.”

“I will release you,” I promised him. “I will leave Devon and take my son with me to my mother. She will be happy to have us.”

“I have not risked much to bring you home for that. You will honor your promise and when you have a son of whom you can be proud you will forget that you so demeaned yourself as to go through a ceremony of marriage with a Spanish dog.”

“You are to blame for everything that happened,” I cried. “You with your lust and your cruelty and your wickedness. It was no ordinary raid which was made that night. It was for revenge because of what you had done to Don Felipe. You had ravished the innocent child he was to marry; you left your seed there. Carlos! Oh, yes, your eyes light at the sight of him. There is no doubt that he is your son. It is due to this and a proud Spaniard’s desire for revenge that I was taken as you took that girl. Because I was betrothed to you. Betrothed to you through blackmail. There never was a more unwilling partner in such a bond! So because of your wanton lust I was taken and submitted to similar treatment.”

He clenched his hands. I knew he was imagining me fighting with all my strength and finally being overcome.

“He was not like you,” I said. “He did not want violence. It was not lust for a woman but for revenge. You are responsible for everything. You …
you …
from the moment you came into my life you have destroyed my peace. Because of you this has happened to me.”

“You liked him. You agreed to marry him. Or was that for the child?”

“You would not understand this man. There could not be one less like you. He explained to me what was to happen. He did not come himself to get me and it was not until I reached the Hacienda that I was forced to submit. He offered me a choice. He did not wish to use violence. I was trapped. So I was passive. Then … he loved me and he married me … and life was not unpleasant.”

“So my wildcat was tamed … tamed by a dirty poxy Don.”

I turned away. As always I was, to my fury, excited by the presence of Jake Pennlyon. I felt alive now as I had not since I left England. I was actually enjoying the battle with him and I was disgusted with myself—particularly that this could happen so soon after Felipe’s death.

He sensed this, I know. For suddenly he had me pinioned; he held me against him.

He kissed me then and I felt an excitement which Felipe had never aroused in me.

He said: “I’ll not let the fact that you were a Spaniard’s whore stop our marriage.”

“Dare say that again.”

“Spaniard’s whore,” he said.

I lifted a hand to strike him, but he caught the hand by the wrist.

He bent me backward and again his mouth was on mine. He said: “Ah, Cat, ’tis good to have you back again. I was too kind to your Spaniard. I should have brought him back to the ship and had sport with him before I dispatched him to the torment of hell.”