The King's General Part 17

"That, my dear Honor," said Jo coldly, "is not likely to happen." And, turning his shoulder to me, he harped on about the outraged Devon gentry, and how this new-styled General in the West had coolly told them that he had need of all their horses and their muskets in this siege of Plymouth, and if they did not give them to him voluntarily he would send a company of his soldiers to collect them.

"The fellow is entirely without scruples, no doubt of that," said Percy, "but in fairness to him I must say that all the country people tell me they would rather have Grenvile men in their villages than Goring's. If Grenvile finds one of his own fellows looting he is shot upon the instant. But Goring's men are quite out of control and drunk from dawn to dusk."

"Oh, come," frowned Robin. "Goring and his cavalry are ent.i.tled to a little relaxation, now that the worst is over. No sense in keeping fellows standing to attention all day long."

"Robin is right," said Jo. "A certain amount of licence must be permitted to keep the^men in heart. We shall never win the war otherwise."

"You are more likely to lose it," I said, "by letting them loll about the villages with their tunics all undone."

The statement was rendered the more unfortunate by a servant entering the room upon this instant and announcing Sir Richard Grenvile. He strode in, with his boots ringing on the stone flags, in that brisk way I knew so well, totally unconscious of himself or the effect he might produce, and with a cool nod to Jo, the master of the house, he came at once to me and kissed my hand.

"Why the devil," he said, "did you come here and not to Buckland?"

That he at once put me at a disadvantage amongst my relatives did not worry him. I mumured something about my brother's invitation and attempted to introduce him to the company. He bowed to Phillippa but turned back immediately to me.

"You've lost that weight that so improved your person," he said. "You're as thin as a church mouse."

"So would you be," I answered, "if you'd been held prisoner by the rebels for four weeks."

"The whelp is asking for you all day long" said Richard. "He dins your praises in my ears till I am sick of them. I have him outside with Joseph. Hi, sp.a.w.n!" He turned on his heels, bawling for his son.

I think I never knew of any man, save Richard, who could in so brief a moment fill a room with his presence and become, as it were, the master of a house that was in no way his. Jo stood at his own table, his napkin in his hand, and Robin, too, and Percy, and they were like dumb servants waiting for the occasion, while Richard took command. d.i.c.k crept in cautiously, timid and scared as ever, his dark eyes lighting at the sight of me, and behind him strode young Joseph Grenvile, Richard's kinsman and aide-de-camp, his features and his colouring so like his general's as to make me wonder, and not for the first time, G.o.d forgive my prying mind, whether Richard had been purposely vague about the relationship between them and whether he was not as much his son as d.i.c.k was. And d.a.m.n you, I thought, begetting sons about the countryside before I was even crippled, and what woman in Cornwall or in Devon cradled this youngster some sixteen years ago?

"Have you all dined?" said Richard, reaching for a plum. "These lads and I could eat another dinner."

And Jo, with heightened colour and a flea in his ear, as the saying goes, called the servants to bring back the mutton. d.i.c.k squeezed himself beside me, like a small dog regaining his lost mistress, and while they ate Richard declaimed upon the ill advisability of the King having marched East without first seeing Plymouth was subdued.

"It's like talking to a brick wall, G.o.d bless him," said Richard, his mouth full of mutton. "He knows no more of warfare than this dead sheep I swallow."

I saw my brothers look at one another in askance, that a general should dare to criticise his King.

"I'll fight in his service until there's no breath left in my body," said Richard, "but it would make it so much simpler for the country if he would ask advice of soldiers.... Put some food into your belly, sp.a.w.n. Don'tyou want to grow as fineaman as Joe here?"

I saw d.i.c.k glance under his eyes at Joseph with a flicker of jealousy. Joe, then, was the favourite, no doubt of that. What a world of difference between them, too, the one so broadshouldered, big, and auburn-haired; the other little, with black hair and eyes.

I wonder, I thought grudgingly, what buxom country girl is Joseph's mother, and if she still lives, and what has happened to her.

But while I pondered the question, as jealous as young d.i.c.k, Richard continued talking. "It's that d.a.m.ned lawyer who's to blame," he said, "that fellow Hyde, an upstart from G.o.d knows what snivelling country town, and now jumped into favour as Chancellor of the Exchequer. His Majesty won't move a finger without asking his advice. I hear Rupert has all but chucked his hand in and returned to Germany.

Depend upon it, it's fellows like this who will lose the war for us."

"I have met Sir Edward Hyde," said my brother. "He seemed to me a very able man."

"Able my a.r.s.e," said Richard. "Anyone who jiggles with the Treasury must be double-faced to start with. I've never met a lawyer yet who didn't line his own pockets before he fleeced his clients." He tapped young Joseph on the shoulder.

"Give me some tobacco," he said.

The youngster produced a pipe and pouch from his coat.

"Yes, I hate the breed," said Richard, blowing a cloud of smoke across the table, "and nothing affords me greater pleasure than to see them trounced. There was a fellow called Braband who acted as attorney for my wife against me in the Star Chamber in the year '33, a neighbour of yours, Harris, I believe?"

"Yes," said my brother coldly, "and a man of great integrity and devoted to the King's cause in this war."

"Well, he'll never prove that now," said Richard. "I found him creeping about the Devon lanes disguised the other day and seized the occasion to arrest him as a spy.

I've waited eleven years to catch that blackguard."

"What have you done to him, sir?" asked Robin.

"He was disposed of," said Richard, "in the usual fashion. No doubt he is doing comfortably in the next world."

I saw young Joseph hide his laughter in his winegla.s.s, but my three brothers gazed steadfastly at their plates.

"I dare say," said my eldest brother slowly, "that I should be very ill advised if I attempted to address to you, General, a single word of criticism, but "

"You would, sir," said Richard, "be extremely ill advised," and laying his hand a moment on Joseph's shoulder, he rose from the table. "Go on, lads, and get your horses. Honor, I will conduct you to your apartment. Good evening, gentlemen."

I felt that whatever reputation I might have for dignity in the eyes of my family was gone to the winds forever as he swept me to my room. Matty was sent packing to the kitchen, and he laid me on my bed and sat beside me.

"You had far better," he said, "return with me to Buckland. Your brothers are all a.s.ses. And as for the Champernownes, I have a couple of them on my staff, and both are useless. You remember Edward, the one they wanted you to marry? Dead from the neck upwards."

"And what would I do at Buckland," I said, "among a ma.s.s of soldiers? What would be thought of me?"

"You could look after the whelp," he said, "and minister to me in the evening. Iget very tired of soldiers' company."

"There are plenty of women," I said, "who could give you satisfaction."

"I have not met any," he said.

"Bring them in from the hedgerows," I said, "and send them back again in the morning. It would be far less trouble than having me upon your hands from dawn till dusk."

"My G.o.d," he said, "if you think I want to bounce about with some fat female after a hard day's work sweating my guts out before the walls of Plymouth, you flatter my powers of resilience. Keep still, can't you, while I kiss you."

Below the window, in the drive, Joe and d.i.c.k paced the horses up and down.

"Someone," I said, "will come into the room."

"Let them," he answered. "What the h.e.l.l do I care?"

I wished that I could have the same contempt for my brother's house as he had....

It was dark by the time he left, and I felt as furtive as I had done at eighteen when slipping from the apple tree.

"I did not come to Radford," I said weakly, "to behave like this."

"I have a very poor opinion," he answered, "of whatever else you came for."

I thought of Jo and Robin, Percy and Phillippa, all sitting in the hall below, and the two lads pacing their horses under the stars.

'You have placed me," I said, "in a most embarra.s.sing position."

"Don't worry, sweetheart," he said. "I did that to you sixteen years ago." As he stood there laughing at me, with his hand upon the door, I had half a mind to throw my Pillow at him.

"You and your double-faced attorneys," I said. "What about your own two faces?

That boy out there--your precious Joseph--you told me he was your kinsman."

"So he is." He grinned.

"Who is his mother?"

"A dairymaid at Killigarth. A most obliging soul. Married now to a farmer and mother of his twelve st.u.r.dy children."

"When did you discover Joseph?"

"A year or so ago, on returning from Germany and before I went to Ireland. The likeness was unmistakable. I took some cheeses and a bowl of cream off his mother, and she recalled the incident, laughing with me in her kitchen. She bore no malice.

The boy was a fine boy. The least I could do was to take him off her hands. Now I wouldn't be without him for the world."

"It is the sort of tale," I said sulkily, "that leaves a sour taste in the mouth."

"In yours, perhaps," he said, "but not in mine. Don't be so mealymouthed, my loved one."

"You lived at Killigarth," I said, "when you were courting me."

"d.a.m.n it," he said, "I didn't ride to see you every day."

I heard them all in a moment laughing beneath my window and then mount their horses and gallop away down the avenue, and as I lay upon my bed, staring at the ceiling, I thought how the blossom of my apple tree, so long dazzling and fragrant white, had a little lost its sheen and was become, after all, a common apple tree; but that the realisation of this, instead of driving me to torments as it would have done in the past, could now, because of my four and thirty years, be borne with equanimity.

21.

I was fully prepared the following morning to have my brother call upon me at an early hour and inform me icily that he could not have his home treated as a bawdyhouse for soldiery .I knew so well the form of such a discourse. The honour of his position, the welfare of his young son, the delicate feelings of Phillippa, our sister-in-law, and although the times were strange and war had done odd things to conduct, certain standards of behaviour were necessary for people of our standing.

I was, in fact, already planning to throw myself upon my sister Cecilia's mercy over at Maddercombe and had my excuses already framed, when I heard the familiar sound of tramping feet; and, bidding Matty look from the window, I was told that a company of infantry was marching up the drive, and they were wearing the Grenvile shield. This, I felt, would add fuel to the flames that must already be burning in my brother's breast.

Curiosity, however, was too much for me, and instead of remaining in my " apartment like a child who had misbehaved, I bade the servants carry me downstairs to the hall. Here I discovered my brother Jo in heated argument with a fresh-faced young officer who declared coolly and with no sign of perturbation that his general, having decided that Radford was most excellently placed for keeping close observation on the enemy battery at Mount Batten, wished to commandeer certain rooms of the house for himself as a temporary headquarters, and would Mr. John Harris be good enough to show the officer a suite of rooms commanding a northwestern view?

Mr. Harris, added the officer, would be put to no inconvenience, as the general would be bringing his own servants, cooks, and provisions.

"I must protest," I heard my brother say, "that this is a highly irregular proceeding.

There are no facilities here for soldiers; I myself am hard-pressed with work about the county, and "

"The general told me," said the young officer, cutting him short, "that he had a warrant from His Majesty authorising him to take over any place of residence in Devon or Cornwall that should please him. He already has a headquarters at Buck land, Werrington, and Fitzford, and there the inhabitants were not permitted to remain but were forced to find room elsewhere. Of course he does not propose to deal tnus summarily with you, sir. May I see the rooms?"

My brother stared at him tight-lipped for a moment, then, turning on his heel, escorted him up the stairs which I had just descended. I was very careful to avoid his eye.

During the morning the company of foot proceeded to establish themselves in the north wing of the mansion and, watching from the long window in the hall, I saw the cooks and pantry boys stagger towards the kitchen entrance bearing plucked fowls and ducks and sides of bacon, besides crate after crate of wine. Phillippa sat at my side, st.i.tching her sampler.

"The King's general," she said meekly, "believes in doing himself well. I have not seen such fare since the siege of Plymouth started. Where do you suppose he obtains all his supplies?"

I examined my nails, which were in need of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, and so did not have to look her in the face.

"From the many houses," I answered, "that he commandeers."

"But I thought," said Phillippa with maddening persistency, "that Percy told us Sir Richard never permitted his men to loot."

"Possibly," I said with great detachment, "Sir Richard looks upon ducks and burgundy as perquisites of war."

She went to her room soon after, and I was alone when my brother Jo came down the stairs.

"Well," he said grimly, "I suppose I have you to thank for this invasion."

"I know nothing about it," I answered.

"Nonsense, you planned it together last night."

"Indeed we did not."

"What were you doing, then, closeted with him in your chamber?"

"The time seemed to pa.s.s," I said, "in reviving old memories."

"I thought," he said after a moment's pause, "that your present condition, my dear Honor, would make talk of your former intimacy quite intolerable, and any renewal of it beyond question."

"So did I," I answered.

He looked down at me, his lips pursed.

"You were always shameless as a girl," he said. "We spoilt you most abominably, Robin, your sisters, and I. And now at thirty-four to behave like a dairymaid."

He could not have chosen an epithet, to my mind, more unfortunate.

"My behaviour last night," I said, "was very different from a dairymaid."

"I am glad to hear it. But the impression upon us here below was to the contrary. Sir Richard's reputation is notorious, and for him to remain within a closed apartment for nearly an hour and three quarters alone with a woman can conjure, to my mind, one thing and one thing only."

"To my mind," I answered, "it can conjure at least a dozen."

After that I knew I must be d.a.m.ned forever and was not surprised when he left me without further argument, except to express a wish that I might have some respect for his roof, though "ceiling" would have been the apter word in my opinion.

I felt brazen and unrepentant all the day, and when Richard appeared that evening m tearing spirits, commanding dinner for two in the apartment his soldiers had Prepared for him, I had a glow of wicked satisfaction that my relatives sat below in gloomy silence while I ate roast duck with the general overhead.