Du Maurier, Daphne (19 page)

“And when you heard one of his dreams, you shut yourself up in your bedroom for four days, is that it?” said Jem.

“That’s as near as you’ll ever get to it,” she replied.

He leant over her suddenly and took the reins out of her hands.

“You don’t look where you’re going,” he said. “I told you this pony never stumbled, but it doesn’t mean you have to drive him into a block of granite the size of a cannon ball. Give him to me.” She sank back in the jingle and allowed him to drive. It was true, she had lacked concentration, and deserved his reproach. The pony picked up his feet and broke into a trot.

“What are you going to do about it?” said Jem.

Mary shrugged her shoulders. “I haven’t made up my mind,” she said. “I have to consider Aunt Patience. You don’t expect me to tell, do you?”

“Why not? I hold no brief for Joss.”

“You’re his brother, and that’s enough for me. There are many gaps in the story, and you fit remarkably well into some of them.”

“Do you think I’d waste my time working for my brother?”

“There’d be little waste of time, from what I’ve seen. There’s profit enough and to spare in his business, and no payment in return for his goods. Dead men tell no tales, Jem Merlyn.”

“No, but dead ships do, when they run ashore in a fair wind. It’s lights a vessel looks for, Mary, when she’s seeking harbour. Have you ever seen a moth flutter to a candle and singe his wings? A ship will do the same to a false light. It may happen once, twice, three times perhaps; but the fourth time a dead ship stinks to heaven, and the whole country is up in arms and wants to know the reason why. My brother has lost his own rudder by now, and he’s heading for the shore himself.”

“Will you keep him company?”

“I? What have I to do with him? He can run his own head into the noose. I may have helped myself to baccy now and then, and I’ve run cargoes, but I’ll tell you one thing, Mary Yellan, and you can believe it or not, as the mood takes you: I’ve never killed a man—yet.”

He cracked the whip savagely over his pony’s head, and the animal broke into a gallop. “There’s a ford ahead of us, where that hedge runs away to the east. We cross the river and come out on the Launceston road half a mile on. Then we’ve seven miles or more before we reach the town. Are you getting tired?”

She shook her head. “There’s bread and cheese in the basket under the seat,” he said, “and an apple or two, and some pears. You’ll be hungry directly. So you think I wreck ships, do you, and stand on the shore and watch men drown? And then put my hands into their pockets afterwards, when they’re swollen with water? It makes a pretty picture.”

Whether his anger was pretended or sincere she could not say, but his mouth was set firm, and there was a flaming spot of colour high on his cheekbone.

“You haven’t denied it yet, have you?” she said.

He looked down at her with insolence, half contemptuous, half amused, and he laughed as though she were a child without knowledge. She hated him for it, and with a sudden intuition she knew the question that was forming itself, and her hands grew hot.

“If you believe it of me, why do you drive with me today to Launceston?” he said.

He was ready to mock her; an evasion or a stammered reply would be a triumph for him, and she steeled herself to gaiety.

“For the sake of your bright eyes, Jem Merlyn,” she said. “I ride with you for no other reason,” and she met his glance without a tremour.

He laughed at that, and shook his head, and fell to whistling again; and all at once there was ease between them, and a certain boyish familiarity. The very boldness of her words had disarmed him; he suspected nothing of the weakness that lay behind them, and for the moment they were companions without the strain of being man and woman.

They came now to the highroad, and the jingle rattled along behind the trotting pony, with the two stolen horses clattering in tow. The rain clouds swept across the sky, threatening and low, but as yet no drizzle fell from them, and the hills that rose in the distance from the moors were clear of mist. Mary thought of Francis Davey in Altarnun away to the left of her, and she wondered what he would say to her when she told him her story. He would not advise a waiting game again. Perhaps he would not thank her if she broke in upon his Christmas; and she pictured the silent vicarage, peaceful and still amongst the cluster of cottages that formed the village, and the tall church tower standing like a guardian above the roofs and chimneys.

There was a haven of rest for her in Altarnun—the very name spelt like a whisper—and the voice of Francis Davey would mean security and a forgetting of trouble. There was a strangeness about him that was disturbing and pleasant. That picture he had painted; and the way he had driven his horse; and how he had waited upon her with deft silence; and strange above all was the grey and sombre stillness of his room that bore no trace of his personality. He was a shadow of a man, and now she was not with him he lacked substance. He had not the male aggression of Jem beside her, he was without flesh and blood. He was no more than two white eyes and a voice in the darkness.

The pony shied suddenly at a gap in the hedge, and Jem’s loud curse woke her with a jar from the privacy of her thoughts.

She threw a shot at a venture. “Are there churches hereabout?” she asked him. “I’ve lived like a heathen these last months, and I hate the feeling.”

“Get out of it, you blasted fool, you!” shouted Jem, stabbing at the pony’s mouth. “Do you want to land us all in the ditch? Churches, do you say? How in the hell should I know about churches? I’ve only been inside one once, and then I was carried in my mother’s arms and I came out Jeremiah. I can’t tell you anything about them. They keep the gold plate locked up, I believe.”

“There’s a church at Altarnun, isn’t there?” she said. “That’s within walking distance of Jamaica Inn. I might go there tomorrow.”

“Far better eat your Christmas dinner with me. I can’t give you turkey, but I can always help myself to a goose from old Farmer Tuckett at North Hill. He’s getting so blind he’d never know that she was missing.”

“Do you know who has the living at Altarnun, Jem Merlyn?”

“No, I do not, Mary Yellan. I’ve never had any truck with parsons, and I’m never likely to. They’re a funny breed of man altogether. There was a parson at North Hill when I was a boy; he was very shortsighted, and they say one Sunday he mislaid the sacramental wine and gave the parish brandy instead. The village heard in a body what was happening, and, do you know, that church was so packed, there was scarcely room to kneel; there were people standing up against the walls, waiting for their turn. The parson couldn’t make it out at all; there’d never been so many in his church before, and he got up in the pulpit with his eyes shining behind his spectacles, and he preached a sermon about the flock returning to the fold. Brother Matthew it was told me the story; he went up twice to the altar rails and the parson never noticed. It was a great day in North Hill. Get out the bread and the cheese, Mary; my belly is sinking away to nothing.”

Mary shook her head at him and sighed. “Have you ever been serious about anything in your life?” she said. “Do you respect nothing and nobody?”

“I respect my inside,” he told her, “and it’s calling out for food. There’s the box, under my feet. You can eat the apple, if you’re feeling religious. There’s an apple comes in the Bible, I know that much.”

It was a hilarious and rather heated cavalcade that clattered into Launceston at half past two in the afternoon. Mary had thrown trouble and responsibility to the winds, and, in spite of her firm resolution of the early morning, she had melted to Jem’s mood and given herself to gaiety.

Away from the shadow of Jamaica Inn her natural youth and her spirits returned, and her companion noticed this in a flash and played upon them.

She laughed because she must, and because he made her; and there was an infection in the air caught from the sound and bustle of the town, a sense of excitement and well-being; a sense of Christmas. The streets were thronged with people, and the little shops were gay. Carriages, and carts, and coaches too, were huddled together in the cobbled square. There was colour, and life, and movement; the cheerful crowd jostled one another before the market stalls, turkeys and geese scratched at the wooden barrier that penned them, and a woman in a green cloak held apples above her head and smiled, the apples shining and red like her cheeks. The scene was familiar and dear; Helston had been like this, year after year at Christmastime; but there was a brighter, more abandoned spirit about Launceston; the crowd was greater and the voices mixed. There was space here, and a certain sophistication; Devonshire and England were across the river. Farmers from the next county rubbed shoulders with countrywomen from East Cornwall; and there were shopkeepers, and pastry cooks, and little apprentice boys who pushed in and out amongst the crowd with hot pastries and sausagemeat on trays. A lady in a feathered hat and a blue velvet cape stepped down from her coach and went into the warmth and light of the hospitable White Hart, followed by a gentleman in a padded greatcoat of powder-grey. He lifted his eyeglass to his eyes and strutted after her for all the world like a turkey cock himself.

This was a gay and happy world to Mary. The town was set on the bosom of a hill, with a castle framed in the centre, like a tale from old history. There were trees clustered here, and sloping fields, and water gleamed in the valley below. The moors were remote; they stretched away out of sight behind the town and were forgotten. Launceston had reality; these people were alive. Christmas came into its own again in the town and had a place amongst the cobbled streets, the laughing jostling crowd, and the watery sun struggled from his hiding place behind the grey banked clouds to join the festivity. Mary wore the handkerchief Jem had given her. She even unbent so far as to permit him to tie the ends under her chin. They had stabled the pony and jingle at the top of the town, and now Jem pushed his way through the crowd, leading his two stolen horses, Mary following at his heels. He led the way with confidence, making straight for the main square, where the whole of Launceston gathered and the booths and tents of the Christmas fair stood end to end. There was a place roped off from the fair for the buying and selling of livestock, and the ring was surrounded by farmers and countrymen, gentlemen too, and dealers from Devon and beyond. Mary’s heart beat faster as they approached the ring; supposing there was someone from North Hill here, or a farmer from a neighbouring village, surely they would recognise the horses? Jem wore his hat at the back of his head, and he whistled. He looked back at her once and winked his eye. The crowd parted and made way for him. Mary stood on the outskirts, behind a fat market woman with a basket, and she saw Jem take his place amongst a group of men with ponies, and he nodded to one or two of them, and ran his eye over their ponies, bending as he did so to a flare to light his pipe. He looked cool and unperturbed. Presently a flashy-looking fellow with a square hat and cream breeches thrust his way through the crowd and crossed over to the horses. His voice was loud and important, and he kept hitting his boot with a crop, and then pointing to the ponies. From his tone, and his air of authority, Mary judged him to be a dealer. Soon he was joined by a little lynx-eyed man in a black coat, who now and again jogged his elbow and whispered in his ear.

Mary saw him stare hard at the black pony that had belonged to Squire Bassat; he went up to him and bent down and felt his legs. Then he whispered something in the ear of the loud-voiced man. Mary watched him nervously.

“Where did you get this pony?” said the dealer, tapping Jem on the shoulder. “He was never bred on the moors, not with that head and shoulders.”

“He was foaled at Callington four years ago,” said Jem carelessly, his pipe in the corner of his mouth. “I brought him as a yearling from old Tim Bray; you remember Tim? He sold up last year and went into Dorset. Tim always told me I’d get my money back on this pony. The dam was Irish bred, and won prizes for him upcountry. Have a look at him, won’t you? But he’s not going cheap, I’ll tell you that.”

He puffed at his pipe, while the two men went over the pony carefully. The time seemed endless before they straightened themselves and stood back. “Had any trouble with his skin?” said the lynx-eyed man. “It feels very coarse on the surface, and sharp like bristles. There’s a taint about him, too, I don’t like. You haven’t been doping him, have you?”

“There’s nothing ailing with that pony,” replied Jem. “The other one there, he fell away to nothing in the summer, but I’ve brought him back all right. I’d do better to keep him till the spring now, I believe, but he’s costing me money. No, this black pony here, you can’t fault him. I’ll be frank with you over one thing, and it’s only fair to admit it. Old Tim Bray never knew the mare was in foal—he was in Plymouth at the time, and his boy was looking after her—and when he found out he gave the boy a thrashing, but of course it was too late. He had to make the best of a bad job. It’s my opinion the sire was a grey; look at the short hair there, close to the skin— that’s grey, isn’t it? Tim just missed a good bargain with this pony. Look at those shoulders; there’s breeding for you. I tell you what, I’ll take eighteen guineas for him.” The lynx-eyed man shook his head, but the dealer hesitated.

“Make it fifteen and we might do business,” he suggested.

“No. eighteen guineas is my sum, and not a penny less,” said Jem.

The two men consulted together and appeared to disagree. Mary heard the word “fake,” and Jem shot a glance at her over the heads of the crowd. A little murmur rose from the group of men beside him. Once more the lynx-eyed man bent and touched the legs of the black pony. “I’d advise another opinion on this pony,” he said. “I’m not satisfied about him myself. Where’s your mark?”

Jew showed him the narrow slit in the ear and the man examined it closely.

“You’re a sharp customer, aren’t you?” said Jem. “Anyone would think I’m stolen the horse. Anything wrong with the mark?”