The Four Swans (9 page)

But she said nothing of this to Ross because it might have given him another lever to refuse, and she did not feel that he ought to refuse, and she knew he would not go without her.

It was a Thursday they had been asked for, and the time one o’clock, so they left soon after eleven in light rain.

Tehidy Park was by far the largest and most affluent seat anywhere along the north Cornish coast from Crackington to Penzance ‘Although surrounded at a short distance by moorland and all the scars of mining, it was pleasantly wooded, with a fine deer park and a pretty lake overlooked by the house. Seven hundred acres insulated it from the industry that brought its owner an income of above Ł12,000 a year. The house itself was an enormous square Palladian mansion sentinelled at each of its corners by a `pavilion’ or smaller house, one of which was a chapel, another a huge conservatory, and the other two accommodation for the servants.

They went in and were greeted by their hosts. If they knew anything of Demelza’s origins they did not betray it by so much as the flicker of an eyelid. All the same, Demelza was greatly relieved to see Dwight and Caroline Enys among? the guests.

Among others there was a Mr Rogers, a plump middleaged man from the south coast, who was Sir Francis’s brother-in-law, two of Sir Francis’s sisters, his fourteen-year-old daughter, and of course Lady Basset, an attractive, elegant little woman whose diminutive size nicely matched her husband’s. Making up the company was a florid gentleman called General William Macarmick and a young man called Armitage, in naval uniform, with the epaulet of a lieutenant on his left shoulder.

Before dinner they strolled about the house, which inside was so luxurious as to make the big houses round the Fal seem modest by comparison. Handsome pictures hung on the walls and over the marble chimney-pieces, and names like Rubens, Lanfranc,, Van Dyke and Rembrandt were bandied about. On introduction Lieutenant Armitage had not meant anything to Demelza, until she saw him greet Ross, and then she realized that this was the kinsman of the Boscawens whom Ross had liberated from the prison camp of Quimper. He was a striking young man whose pallor, still possibly the result of his long imprisonment, accentuated his large dark eyes, with lashes that any woman would envy. But there was nothing girlish about his keen sharp-featured face and quiet brooding manner, and Demelza caught a gleam of something in his eye when he looked at her.

By the time they sat down it was three o’clock. Demelza was opposite Lieutenant Armitage and between Dwight and General Macarmick. The latter, in spite of being elderly, was cheerful and outgoing, a man with a lot off opinions and no lack of the will to voice them. He had at one time been Member of Parliament for Truro, had raised a regiment for the West Indies and had made a fortune for himself in the wine trade. He was polite and charming to everyone, but in between courses when his hands were not engaged he repeatedly felt Demelza’s leg above the knee.

She sometimes wondered what there was about herself that made men so forthcoming. In those early days when she. had gone to various receptions and balls she had always had them two or three deep asking for the next dance - and often for more besides. - Sir Hugh Bodrugan still lumbered over to Nampara hopefully a couple of times a year, presumably expecting that sooner or later persistence would have its reward. Two years ago at that dinner party at Trelissick there had been that Frenchman who had larded his entire dinner conversation with improper suggestions. It didn t seem right.

If she had known herself to. be supremely beautiful or striking - as beautiful, for instance, as Elizabeth Warleggan, or as striking as Caroline Enys - it might have been more acceptable. Instead of that she was just friendly, and they took it the wrong way. Or else they sensed something particularly female about her that set them off. Or else because of her lack of breeding they thought she would be easy game. Or else it happened to everybody. She must ask Ross how often he squeezed women’s legs under the dinner table.

Talk was much of the war. Mr Rogers had had the, most recent dealings with French emigres and was of the opinion that the newly formed Directory was on the point of collapse, and with it the whole republic.

`Not only,’ said Rogers, `is there moral and religious, decay; this has become a decay of will-power, of a desire to accept any duty, or responsibility whatever, of a willingness to take any action on behalf of the few Godless fanatics who cling to power. You, sir - to Ross will I am sure bear me out in this.’

Ross’s nod was one of politeness rather than agreement. `My contact with the French republicans has been slight except for the very few I met in - in what I suppose could be called combat. Alas, my experience of the French counter-revolutionaries has been such that I would apply most of your description to them also.’

`Nevertheless,’ Rogers was undeterred, `the collapse of the present regime in France can’t be long delayed. What’s your view, Armitage?’

The young lieutenant took his eyes off Demelza and said : `D’you know, although I was nine months in France, I saw no more of it than the first nine days when I was moved from prison to prison. Did you, Enys?’

`Once inside Quimper,’” Dwight said, `and you could as well have been in purgatory. True, one heard the guards talking from time to time. The cost of many things had’ multiplied twelve times in a year.’

Rogers said : `In 1790 you could buy a hat in Paris - a good one, mind you for fourteen livres - now, I’m told, it is near on six hundred. Farmers will not bring their produce to market, for the paper money they are paid for it has lost value by the following week. A country cannot wage war without a sound financial basis to support it.’

`That’s Pitt’s view too,’ said Sir Francis Basset.

In the silence that followed Ross said: `This young general who crushed the counter-revolutionaries in Paris, has he not now been put in charge of the French Army to Italy? This month. Sometime this month. I always forget his name.’

‘Buonaparte,’ said Hugh Armitage. `It was he who captured Toulon at the end of ‘93.’

‘There’s a whole group of young generals,’ Ross said, `Hoche the most gifted of them. But while they live and command troops and are undefeated in battle it’s hard to believe that the dynamic of the Revolution is altogether dead. There’s a risk that, by ignoring the orthodox view of war and finance, they may keep up the momentum a while longer. For years the army has been paid only from the pickings of conquered countries.’

Basset said ‘This Buonaparte put down the counter-revolutionaries by .. firing cannon at them - he cleared the streets of Paris with grapeshot, killing and maiming hundreds of his own countrymen! Obviously such men have ‘to be reckoned with. And their Directory of Five, who deposed those other bloodstained tyrants, these five are criminals in any sense of the word. They cannot allow the war machine to stop. In them, as, much as for the young generals, it is conquer or die.’

`I’m relieved to hear your say so much, sir,’ said Lieutenant Armitage. `My uncle speculated that in dining with so prominent and distinguished, a Whig, I might hear talk of peace and references favourable to the Revolution.’

`Your uncle should have known better,’ said Sir Francis coldly. `The true Whig is as patriotic an Englishman as anyone in the land. No one loathes the Revolutionaries more than I, for they have broken every law of God and man.’

`As a lifelong Tory,’ observed General Macarmick, `I, could not have expressed it better myself !’

Demelza moved her knee.

`A whiff of grapeshot,’ he went on, cheerfully finding it again, `a whiff of grapeshot would not come amiss in this country from time to time. To fire at the King’s coach when he went to open Parliament ! Outrageous!’

`I believe it was but stones they, aimed,’ Dwight said. `And someone discharged an airgun. .’

`And then they overturned the coach on its way back empty - and near wrecked it! They should be taught a lesson, such ruffians and miscreants!’

Demelza looked at the boiled codfish with shrimp sauce that had been set before her, and then glanced at, Lady Basset to see which fork she was picking up. Despite, the austerity of the times, when the consumption of food was being voluntarily restricted and it was patriotic to reduce one’s style, this was still a handsome meal. Soup, fish, venison, beef, mutton, with damson tarts, syllabubs and lemon pudding; and burgundy, champagne, Madeira, sherry and port.

For a time talk was the gossip, of the county of the sudden death of Sir Piers Arthur, one of the Members of Parliament for Truro, which would require a by-election there, and whether the Falmouths would choose their new M.P. from inside the county to companion Captain Gower in the House. When they looked at him – Lieutenant Armitage smiled and shook his head. `Don’t ask me. I’m no candidate, nor have I any idea who may be. My uncle does not use me as his confidant. What of you, General?’

`Nay,’ nay,’ said Macarmick. `I am past all that. Your uncle will be looking for a younger, man.’

And of the earnest discussion in the county as to the need for a central hospital’ to deal with the widespread sickness among miners; and of the argument put forward among others by Sir Francis Basset and Dr Dwight Enys that such a central hospital should be sited near Truro.

And of. how Ruth and John Treneglos’s eldest, Jonathan, had taken the smallpox, and that Dr Choake had pronounced them of a good sort; and of his three sisters who had been brought into the sickroom at a proper stage in the disease and had all received the infection and were doing very favourably.

Demelza was relieved when dinner broke up. Not that she so much minded General Macarmick’s intimacies, but his hand was growing progressively hotter, and she was afraid for her frock. Sure enough when she was able to look at herself upstairs there were grease stains.

While they dined the clouds had altogether cleared, the wind had dropped and a warm yellow sun was low in the sky, so the Bassets suggested they should take a stroll in the gardens and walk up through the woods to a `terrace` from which one could see all the North Cliffs and the sea.

The women took cloaks or light wraps and the party started off, to begin with in a strolling crocodile, led by Lady Basset; and General Macarmick, but splintering up, as this or that person stopped to admire a plant or a view or wandered down a side way, as the fancy took him.

From the beginning Demelza found herself partnered by Lieutenant Armitage. It was not deliberate on her part, but. she knew it was on his. He was silent for the first few minutes, then he said:

‘I am under a great obligation to your husband, ma’am.’

`Yes? I’m that happy that it turned out so.’

It was a noble adventure on his part.’

`He does not think so.’

`I believe it is his nature to deprecate the value of his own acts.’ You must tell him so, Lieutenant Armitage.’ `Oh, I have.’

They ‘ walked on a few paces. Ahead of them some of the others were discussing the birth of a child to the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Armitage said : ‘This is a delightful prospect. Almost as beautiful as that from my uncle’s house Have you ever seen Tregothnan, Mrs Poldark?

`No.’

`Oh, you must. I ‘hope you both will soon. While I’m staying there. This house, of course, is much finer. - My uncle speaks sometimes of rebuilding his.’

Demelza said: `I think I disfancy so large a house for so small a family.”

`It’s expected of great men. Look at that swan flying; she has just come up from the lake, how her wings are gilded by the sun !’

`You are fond of birds?’

`Of everything just now, ma’am. When one has been in prison so long all the world looks fresh minted. One observes it with wonder - with a child’s eyes again. Even after some months I have not lost that appreciation.’

`It’s good to enjoy a little compensation for that ill time.’

`Not little compensation, believe me.’

`Perhaps, Lieutenant, you would recommend it for us all.’

`What?’

`Some months in prison to sharpen our savour for ordinary life.’

`Well … life is contrast, isn’t it? Day is always the more welcome, after a long night. But I think you joke with me, ma’am.’

`Not so. Not at all.’

Ahead of them Miss Mary Basset said : `Well, it is a pity it is a girl; for at the rate Prinny topes on one wonders if he will survive his father.’

`He’s deserted Princess Caroline altogether,’ said Mr Rogers. `It happened just before we left Town. Almost so soon as the child was delivered he deserted them both and went to live openly with Lady Jersey.’

And Lady J. so flagrant about it all,’ said Miss Cathleen Basset. `It would matter far less if it were done in a decent discreet fashion.’

`I’m told,’ said Caroline Enys, `that my namesake stinks.’

There was a brief silence. `Well she does!’ Caroline said with a laugh. `In addition to being fat and vulgar, she smells to high heaven. Any man would spend his wedding night with a bottle of whisky and his head in the grate if he, were expected to couple with such a creature! However handicapped by her humours, I do not think a woman ought to be offensive to a man’s nose.’

`Else it might be put out of joint, eh?’ said General Macarmick and broke into a guffaw., “By God, you’re right, ma’am ! Not to a man’s nose-ha! ha! - not to a man’s nose - else it might be put out of joint ! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha’

His laughter echoed back from the young pine trees and was so infectious that everyone joined in.

Hugh Armitage said : `Shall we walk to the lake first? I think Lady Basset told me there were some interesting wild fowl.’

Demelza hesitated, and then went with him. Their interchange so far had been pleasant, formal, and light. A pleasant post-prandial stroll in a country garden in the company of a pleasant polite young man. Compared to the predatory conquerors she had kept at bay in the past, such as Hugh Bodrugan, Hector McNeil and John Treneglos, this was completely without risk, danger or any other hazard. But it didn’t feel like it - which was the trouble. This young man’s hawk profile, deeply sensitive dark eyes and gentle urgent voice moved her, strangely. And some danger perhaps existed not so much in the strength of the attack as in, the sudden weakness of the defence.