A Dinner Of Herbs (69 page)

the only one.”

“They tell me you are doing a kind of book on this part of the country. Were your

forebears from

here?”

“Yes, hereabouts.”

“What name?”

“By the name of Fountain.”

“Fountain.” Hal screwed up his eyes as if trying to recollect the name, and he said, “I seemed to

remember that name, but there’s no Fountains hereabouts. Horse troughs but no

fountains.”

There were a number of groans and “Oh, Dad,” from around the room. And now he cried

at them,

“Well, I’m allowed to have a joke. And I’ve got Mr. Hamilton laughing, if not you lot.

By the way, have

we got to call you Mr. Hamilton?”

“I’d rather you called me Ben.”

“Short for what?”

“Benjamin.”

“I’m in good company.” They turned and looked at Gabriel now, and he, grinning, said,

“Another one

from the Bible.”

During all this time, Kate had been sitting opposite to Maggie and Florrie. She had her hands folded on

her lap and it wasn’t evident that her nails were pressing into her flesh. She kept telling herself that

nothing could happen, he would make no slips. The name Bannaman would not be

mentioned, at least

not by him. Yet, she could not help but feel uneasy, and she kept looking at Hal. If he only knew who

the visitor really was, his anger could be such that he would do something terrible, were her thoughts.

“What is your line of business?” It was Tom speaking now, and Ben said, “My father’s

business was

coach building a firm owned by his father. My father died before my grandfather, who

eventually sold

out. I stayed on for a time with the company, but my heart wasn’t in it. I I decided to travel a bit before

settling down to another occupation.”

“What kind of occupation?”

He turned to Hal and shrugged his shoulder before he said, “Quite candidly, I haven’t as yet made up

my mind. It would be very nice to say farming, but I know nothing whatever about

farming. It may be

writing, I don’t know yet.”

“Well—’ Hal now hunched his shoulders, saying, ‘if you’re in a position to keep yourself without

working, well and good. Of course, it won’t cost you much up there in the wilds, in that but and ben.

How did you last out the winter?”

“I really don’t know. Sometimes I didn’t think I would make it.”

“Then why did you stay?” asked Hal bluntly.

Ben glanced towards Kate. Her face looked anxious. Then he lowered his head before he

said, “It’s a

long story, but I went through a very traumatic experience some time ago, and I needed a period of

recuperation, to be on my own and ... well, work things out. Do you know what I mean?”

Hal didn’t really know what the fellow meant. One thing he did know, he was puzzled

why this man

who talked and acted like an educated gentleman was living under conditions that a

drover would scorn.

There was something here that wanted sorting out. It was just as well that Kate and he were merely

friends, for a bloke with no livelihood would be no good to her. And here they had been for the past two

days, ski ting from one end of the house and the land to the other, as if getting ready for a visit from the

lord of the manor. And here was a fellow without a job, living practically rough, yet.

Wait a minute. He

had said, living practically rough. Look how he was dressed. You didn’t buy that kind of suit in

Allendale or Hexham. Arid he had a gold chain hanging across his waistcoat, likely a

similar quality

watch on the end of it. And his boots, they were spanking leather. There was something fishy here. He

was a good-looking bloke altogether. He was the kind of fellow, he imagined, that could get any woman

he set his mind to. So why this friendship talk with their Kate? Not that Kate wasn’t

worth the best.

He’d have to get to the bottom of it or he wouldn’t be able to sleep the night.

He got to the bottom of it sooner than he expected.

When Annie unceremoniously pushed open the sitting—room door and said in no small

voice. The tea’s

ready,” Mary Ellen, rising quickly to her feet, said, “ Well, that’s something we’re all ready for and I’m

sure you could do with a cup, Mr. Hamilton. “

“He said to call him Ben.” Hal was getting to his feet, and he cast a sidelong glance at Kate saying,

That’s. right, isn’t it? We are to call him Ben? “

When she returned his glance but said nothing, he thought to himself, She’s worried,

she’s on edge.

On entering the dining-room, Ben once again paused and looked around him, saying now,

“I suppose

it’s very bad manners of me, but these are such lovely rooms, and so tastefully

furnished.”

Hal drew in a long breath. The fellow was a little too polite for his fancy, but, making light of it, he

looked at Mary Ellen, saying, “Be on your guard, lass, he’s after something.” Whereupon Ben, looking

at Mary Ellen, answered quietly, “He’s quite right, ma’am, I am. And I’ll come to that shortly.”

The whole family paused and turned their full attention on him and he let his gaze slip over them, and

when it came to rest once again on Mary Ellen, he said, still quietly, “But what I would like now is that

promised cup of tea and some of the delectable eatables.” And he indicated the table with the movement

of his hand. Then a moment later, seeing that Kate was about to sit next to him, he held the chair out for

her, and when she was seated, she lowered her gaze for a moment, thinking. They won’t

understand

him. He doesn’t speak their language . delectable eatables. And his courtesy will be

foreign to them.

Even this part of it is not going to work out.

But as the meal progressed it seemed that she could be wrong, for he caught their

attention with his

description of the vast areas outside the towns of Houston and Galves—ton. Even as she listened to him

she could see the vast stretches of country, much of it inhabited by Indian tribes with names like

Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes. And when Gabriel asked if it

was true that

the Indians painted themselves and raided homesteads and villages, he touched on it

lightly, out of

consideration, she thought, for the women present, saying now, “The Rangers have things pretty much

under control.” Then on Gabriel’s further enquiry he described the type of men who

became Rangers.

“Have you ever ridden out after Indians?” Tom was smiling at him, and he returned his

smile with a

grimace as he said, The ride out after Indians! More like running the other way. I’m a peaceful man,

which is only another name for a coward. “ The men laughed. All except Hal, who,

looking down the

table from under his brows, thought again, he’s too smooth. He’s too clever, making out he takes to his

heels when faced with danger. He didn’t have that impression at all of the fellow, not with that shaped

jaw and eyes as black as chiselled coal..

The meal lasted for nearly an hour. Three times Annie rose from the table and refilled the big brown

teapot and the silver hot water jug.

The plates that had held slices of pork and ham, meat pies, fruit pies, conserve tarts, seed cake, rice

loaf, and an outsize loaf, were almost denuded now. And the atmosphere was relaxed:

even Maggie was

showing her better side, and had been for some time now, putting quite intelligent

questions to the guest,

and listening most attentively to his answers, her long lashed lids napping, as Annie said later, like aspens

in the wind.

Maggie’s play was not lost on Kate, and she guessed what was in her mind, that if she

herself was

merely a friend of Ben’s, there was every chance of someone else becoming closer to

him, and why not

her? Indeed, why not her? For was she not pretty and vivacious? And she wondered what

Maggie’s

reaction would be when Ben stated the reason for his visit here today. And she hadn’t to wait much

longer.

It began with Hal saying, “Well, now, here’s one who must get out of his Sunday togs

and continue the

business of the day. And that goes for you three weaklings an’ all.” He nodded towards his sons.

“And what about you, eh?” He was now addressing Ben.

“Would you like to come along with us, and see how things are run on a farm?”

“I should indeed. Thank you very much.”

Hal made as if to rise, then sat back, saying, “But before we go about our several

businesses, there was

something you were going to ask of us. Well, would you like to ask it now; or is it a

private matter?”

Ben did not answer for a moment, but, turning towards Kate, he took her hand and, lifting it up onto the

white table cloth, he held it there, saying quietly now, “It was to be a private matter, yet it concerns all

your family, because I hope to take Kate’—he glanced at Kate’s almost white face now

jaway from you

all. I’ve asked her to marry me, and she has done me the honour of accepting. Now all I want is your

blessing.” He had not said, consent.

There was not a murmur or a movement around the table, for nothing he could have said

would have

surprised them more. Here was this fellow, a foreigner plainly from the way he talked, and a bit

dandified into the bargain, but it came over more in his manner, like the way he was

holding Kate’s hand

now in front of them all, not on the table any more, but against his chest. Then look at the difference

between him and her. All right, Kate was a fine woman, none better, but sitting there, they looked like

chalk and cheese: him as flat and as lean as a stripped willow, and Kate . well, she was a big wench,

there was no doubt about it, she was a fine big wench.

It was Hal who seemingly got his breath back first, for now getting to his feet and

thrusting the armchair

aside, he said, “Aye, I think it should have been done in private. There are things to say, young fellow,

things I want made clear, and now.”

“Just as you say.” Ben got to his feet. He still had hold of Kate’s hand and he

embarrassed the

company still further by bringing it up to his cheek, the while looking down at her and saying, “Don’t

worry, my dear, don’t worry. It’s going to be all right.” Then he followed Hal out of the room.

In the hall, he stood for a moment looking first one way, then the other, and saw that his host was

standing outside a door at the end of a small corridor. When he joined him, Hal thrust open the door of

his office and went in. He did not take a seat but, standing with his back to the desk, he began

immediately, saying, “Now, mister, let’s get this thing clear. You spring this thing on us, saying you are

going to take Kate away. Where to, may I ask? Up into that shepherd’s hut in the wilds?

Kate’s been

used to a good home, a good upbringing. And anyway, nobody knows nowt about you.

Who are you

anyway?”

This, in a way, would have been the opportunity for Ben to say quietly who he was,

trusting that this man

would be sensible enough to let the past bury itself, and let him expiate, as it were, any residue that was

left. Yet he had promised Kate, and he saw now, as she had indicated, that this man was of a fiery

disposition; it would be best to tread warily with him, so he answered him quietly, saying,

“I’ve told you

who I am, sir. And as for taking Kate to the shepherd’s hut, that was never my intention, even if she had

consented. I happen, sir, for your information, to be a man of means. In this country I am banking with

Lloyds. They have offices in London, and also in Newcastle. I give you leave to enquire into the

finances I have had transferred from my home. There, I still hold shares in the coach

business. I am the

owner of a house of considerable style and value.

My grandmother is there at the moment. I have enough money to keep myself and Kate

in idleness for

the rest of our lives if I so wished. But I had considered taking up residence in this country. “

His manner had become stiff and formal, and it was certainly having an effect on Hal, for now, flopping

down into his desk chair, he said, “If all this is true as you say, why are you living like you do? Why

haven’t you shown your face here afore, if you felt that way about Kate and it was not just a boo ky

friendship, as she said?”

“To answer your latter question, Kate wished it that way. She’s had an unfortunate

experience as you

so well know, and she was fearful of what significance you would place on our

association, and she was

content to let it be one of friendship. But for my part, from our first meeting, my feelings for her went

beyond friendship.”

“Aye, well.” Hal took lip a feathered pen and started stabbing the quill end into the back of a brown

ledger, and he seemed at a loss for words until, his chin jerking up, he said, “But that doesn’t account for

a man of means, as you say you are, living rough.”

“I wouldn’t call it living rough! It’s a sparsely furnished, but comfortable little room. It met the needs of

the time, because I had come to England in ... well, I can only say, a disturbed emotional state.”

“What do you exactly mean by that? I would rather you spoke plain. You been married

afore?”

Ben now smiled and shook his head.