The Witch From The Sea Part 21

And as I stood there I saw the men with their donkeys; they were coming towards us and each man was carrying a lantern. They did not see me standing there. They walked round the path to the Seaward Tower.

I went into the castle. I took off my wet clothes and rubbed myself dry. I felt sick with horror. Something told me that I did not know everything of what happened on nights like this.

I wrapped a cloak about me and went to the window. I could see nothing but the darkness. I could hear nothing but the groaning and shrieking of the wind and the sound of the waves pounding against the rocks in their fury.

I did not go to bed. I knew I would not sleep. Colum did not come home all night. With dawn the storm had abated. The wind was screeching in a lower key; the waves were washing against the castle walls, their anger spent.

I knew that down there the little boats would be going back and forth. They would be bringing what they could find from the vessel. They would carry it stealthily into the Seaward Tower and in a few days Colum would go away and find a buyer for what he had to sell. Then a little later Jennet would be told she was not to go to the Seaward Tower to her lover because he had other work to do than entertain his mistress.

And out there in this fierce malignant sea men would be dying and there would be no one to save them. It was not men's lives they were interested in; it was the ship's cargo; and if they saved lives what complications that might bring. What if the saved ones demanded to keep what was salvaged from their ships? So it was to the interest of Colum and his men that all perished.

It was this that I could not forget.

Soon after dawn I dressed myself and again went down to the sh.o.r.e. It was there that I found her. She was lying in the shallow water; her long dark hair floating about her. Her face was pallid and I thought she was dead.

I waded out and caught her arm. When the wave had subsided I dragged her nearer to the sh.o.r.e. The next wave came and nearly carried me out with her, for the sea had not yet calmed down and the waves were still strong. But I managed to drag her free of them.

She was lying on the sand and I knelt beside her.

She is dead, I thought. Poor woman.

I took her wrist and felt a pulse fluttering. Then to my horrified amazement I realized that she was heavily pregnant.

My father had taught me a form of artificial respiration. I turned the woman's body so that she was lying face downward, her head turned to one side. I knelt and placed my hands on her back and keeping my arms rigid I pressed with the weight of my body-thus I drove the water out of her lungs and I believed saved her life.

I waited beside her, I rubbed her hands and wrapped her in my cloak. I watched her lest she should need further attention and in due course was rewarded for I could see that she was breathing more naturally.

What I wanted now was to get her into the castle. I wanted to put her to bed and make sure that she had the care she so urgently needed.

I left her lying on the sh.o.r.e and went back to the castle. I called several of the servants. I told them what I had discovered and we took a mule down to the sh.o.r.e, and dazed and shocked as the woman was we managed to get her on to the animal and bring her to the castle courtyard. There I ordered several of the men to carry her to a bed.

They took her into the Red Room wrapped in my cloak as she was and laid her on the four-poster bed. I had not wished her to go into that room but they had put her there before I could prevent them and it seemed unwise to move her again.

She lay very still and I said to Jennet: "We must not disturb her yet but bring clean clothes from my bedchamber. Her condition is dangerous for she is pregnant."

"My dear life," cried Jennet. "The poor soul will surely lose her baby."

"We shall try to see that she does not," I replied.

I sent one of the men to bring the physician. He lived five miles away but he would come at once if there was a call from the castle. Then I ordered that hot soup should be brought and between us Jennet and I undressed the woman.

I was surprised that she was younger than I had thought. I guessed her to be my age or perhaps a year or so older. Her skin was smooth; her limbs most beautifully formed and in spite of her pregnancy it was possible to see that she was an exceptionally beautiful woman. She was only half conscious but she seemed grateful for what we were doing. Her hands were long and slender; they had never worked, that much was clear. There was a patrician air about her face, an unearthly beauty, but perhaps that was because she was almost more dead than alive. Her hair was magnificent-thick, silky and black with that almost bluish tinge which is so rarely seen in England and when it is usually means foreign blood. Her lashes were as black as her hair and their blackness was accentuated by the pallor of her skin.

"She was on that ship," whispered Jennet.

"She must have been," I answered. "There is no other reason why she should be lying in the sea on such a night."

Jennet's eyes were dazed with memory. "The sea can be terrible," she said.

"We will nurse her to health," I insisted.

It was amazing how quickly she recovered. I was able to feed her with the hot soup and when she was lying in clean clothes in the warm bed, the faintest colour came into her face. It was as though a light had been placed behind the alabaster. Her skin glowed. I thought: I don't think I ever saw such a beautiful woman.

I had to face Colum. I knew he would be angry. What would he have done if he had found the woman? Left her to the mercy of the sea I knew, which would have soon finished her.

I went into our bedchamber and came face to face with him.

"So you have brought a woman in?" he said.

"She was half drowned. I am nursing her. She is to have a child."

"Why did you bring her into the castle?"

"She would have quickly died had I left her there."

He gripped my wrist. "What concern is that of yours?"

"If I see someone dying I would do everything I could to help that man or woman."

"So you bring her into my castle."

"It is my home."

"Forget not that you live here through my clemency."

"And forget not," I said, "that the dowry my father gave me has been very useful in maintaining the castle."

He narrowed his eyes. I knew that he was pa.s.sionately interested in worldly goods. It must be for this reason that he had become a scavenger; he had married me not only because he had desired me but because I brought a good dowry with me-as good as any girl of the neighbourhood would bring him-doubtless as good as that which came with Melanie Landor. My mother had prevailed on my father to endow me well. It was important, I being in the condition I was, that I should marry the man who had put me in it.

I found it so horribly sordid. He did not. His eyes gleamed now at the prospect of what riches the sea would bring him.

"You are becoming a shrew," he said.

"And I am beginning to learn something of you."

"Learn this then," he said. "It is I who will decide who shall be a guest in my home."

"What do you propose to do, turn this woman out? She is sick, or will be if she is not cared for. What would become of her?"

"Is that my affair?"

"Perhaps it should be, as you will help yourself to the goods which were being carried by the ship in which she travelled."

"What should I do? Let the sea swallow them?"

"Perhaps they should be salvaged and returned to their owners."

That brought out a peal of harsh laughter. "I can see my clever wife should indeed be managing my affairs." The laughter died out suddenly; his mouth was grim. "On the contrary, I can see I shall have to teach her to manage her own. And that is that she interferes not with what she sees and that if she attempts to she will soon be wishing that she had never done so."

"What will you do then? Strip me naked to the waist and tie me to the whipping-post as though I were a servant who has misbehaved? Will you wield the whip or is that too menial a task for your n.o.ble hands?"

He took a step towards me and lifted his hand. He had done it before, and as before the blow did not come.

"Take care," he said. "You would find that if I were truly angry with you my wrath would be terrible."

"I know it," I said looking him in the eyes.

"Yet you provoke it."

"I will not be your puppet. I would rather be dead."

He laughed. There was just a hint of tenderness in his face. He seized me and held me tightly against him. "You are my wife," he said. "You gave me the best son in the world. I am not displeased with you. But know this. I will not be crossed. My will is law. You have my favour. No woman ever pleased me for so long as you do. Let us keep it so."

"And what of this woman from the sea? Will you turn her away?"

He was thoughtful for a moment. I could see he was thinking deeply. He was angry because there had been a survivor from the ship and because I had brought her into the castle and may well have preserved her life. He would have preferred her to die, so that there were no witnesses. He could send her away, but what if she lived to tell the tale?

"Not yet," he said. "Let her stay awhile."

"She is with child."

He was silent for a few seconds, then he said: "When is the child due?"

"It is difficult to say. I should think the birth may be some two months away."

He remained thoughtful and then he said: "She may stay at least until the child is born. Have you spoken to her?"

"She is in no condition to speak. She looks ... foreign."

"A Spaniard," he said, his lips curling.

"It was a Spanish ship?"

He did not answer that.

"Keep her for a while," he said. "There is no need to decide yet."

"I am sure she is of n.o.ble birth."

"Then we will make her work in the kitchens to forget that."

I thought: At least he will not turn her out until her child is born. Poor woman, where would she go then? There were dismal tales of Spanish sailors who had been wrecked on our coasts at the time of the Armada, but they were men. The idea of a woman turned out in an alien land to beg her bread with a small child to care for made me feel sick with horror.

He said: "You say she has a foreign look. Where is she?"

"In the Red Room."

"My first wife's room. The one you think is haunted. Well, perhaps the ghost will drive our visitor away. I'll look at her. Come with me."

Together we went into the Red Room. He threw open the door and walked to the bed.

She lay there, looking as though she had been carved out of alabaster. Her hair, now dry, lay about her shoulders. The perfect symmetry of her features was more than ever apparent. Her heavy lashes lay against her skin. I wished that she would open her eyes. I was sure that if she did the effect would be dazzling.

Colum stood staring at her.

"By G.o.d," he said, "what a beautiful woman."

In a few days she was able to get up. It was astonishing how a woman in her condition could have come through such an ordeal. I sent for the midwife who had attended me at the birth of my children and asked her to examine our patient. The verdict was that she was in a good condition and that her ordeal appeared to have had no ill consequences for the child.

She spoke a little halting English. She was Spanish, as I had thought, a fact which would not help her, for the hatred of that race persisted in our country although we had beaten the Armada.

She could tell us little. When I asked questions she shook her head. She could not remember what had happened. She knew that she had been in a ship. She did not know why. She could remember nothing but that she had found herself in Castle Paling.

I asked her what her name was, but she could not remember that either.

During the first week in November when the sea was as calm as a lake I made one of the men row me out to the Devil's Teeth. It was perfectly safe, for those men knew every inch of that stretch of sea; they knew exactly where the treacherous rocks lay hidden beneath the water.

I saw the ship caught there on the rocks, a pitiful sight. She was broken in half; the sharp rocks must have been driven right through her; and I read on her side the words Santa Maria.

I wondered why that woman had been on the ship. She must have been travelling with her husband; perhaps he was the captain of the vessel. How strange it was that she could remember nothing. She would in time. Such a shock as she had experienced could rob a woman of her memory.

Perhaps, poor soul, it was as well that she could not remember; perhaps it would stop her grieving too much until she recovered a little.

Her child was due towards the end of December, the midwife told me. I think that perhaps the fact that she was pregnant was the reason for her serenity. I imagined that the greatest importance to her was the welfare of her child, and I determined to make her as comfortable as I could for I felt a great responsibility towards her. There was one picture which kept coming into my mind and which I could not dismiss. It was that of the men returning to the Seaward Tower with their donkeys and lanterns. Where had they been? I had an idea but I would not face it. I could not bear to because I thought that if I did I could not stay here.

The woman had to have a name and because the name of the ship was Santa Maria I called her Maria. I asked if she would mind if I called her by that name.

"Maria," she said slowly and shook her head. I did not know whether she meant we could call her by that name but we did. And very soon she was known throughout the household as Maria.

By December it was clear that the birth of her child was imminent. My mother came to spend the Christmas with us and Edwina and Romilly accompanied her. Penn had gone to sea. He had been so excited to be allowed to join one of the ships. The cargoes that had been brought back after the first voyage had proved valuable and they were eager to repeat their success, although not their losses.

We did not talk very much about the voyage because it always meant a certain anxiety; and I wanted them to enjoy the festivities.

It was a week before Christmas and I was expecting Maria's child to be born any day. I had insisted that the midwife stay at the castle, for I still feared that Maria's adventure when she was so advanced in pregnancy might have had some effect which was not apparent. I was frantically anxious that nothing should go wrong. It was not that I had any great affection for Maria. She was not an easy person to know. Her aloofness might have been due to her ignorance of our language, but it was certainly there. She accepted our concern and help as though it were her right and she never seemed over grateful for it. I felt however that her child must be born and live. The uneasy thoughts which had come into my mind on the night when the Santa Maria had sunk, persisted, and I could not dismiss them.

When my mother was introduced to Maria she was clearly surprised. I had mentioned her in a letter but only briefly; and I had discovered that everyone who met Maria was astonished by her. It was something more than mere beauty but I could not yet quite understand what.

"What a beautiful woman," said my mother when we were alone. "So she is the lady of the shipwreck. And she cannot remember who she is. One thing is certain. She is of high birth, patrician to the fingertips. Where will she go when the child is born?"

"I don't know. She cannot remember whence she came."

"And she was on the ship. How very strange."

"I think she must have been the wife of the captain, and I think too that after the child is born her memory may return."

"Then she will wish to go to her family, I doubt not."

"If she is Spanish that could be difficult."