Prue Phillipson - Hordens of Horden Hall (8 page)

Thinking of her he found himself clenching his fists. He would struggle not to slap the girls across their impudent faces if they dared to laugh at her. The sad thing about Nana Sula was that her face was terribly deformed. Her mouth was twisted so that some words were hard for her to say, her chin was practically non-existent and her nose crooked. None of this mattered in the least to those who knew her. They saw nothing but her brilliant blue laughing eyes which spoke love to all humankind. Her real name was Ursula and he had been taught she was his Nanny which in his first speech had become Nana Sula. Without any shame he still called her that. Running in on his Saturday afternoons home from the Grammar School his first words had always been, “Nana Sula, I’m back.” What would
she
say to him joining the navy?

Quite unable to sleep now his thoughts turned to other facets of his home life. There were his other grandparents, Joseph and Anne Wilson who always dined with them after Sunday service. They didn’t live in the Hall but in the vicarage at Nether Horden where the Reverend Joseph had quietly stepped into the empty benefice, laid aside his surplice for the Puritan times and would perhaps be wearing it again now the King was back.

It was a relief to remember that his French grandmother, Lady Maria Horden, Aunt Henrietta and the girls were all Catholic and would perhaps find a clandestine Mass somewhere in Newcastle. Nana Sula was Catholic too and was encouraged to attend from time to time though she did not demand the privilege often. At least she would know where a Mass could be had if they were keen to find one, though he had seen no great eagerness yet on his cousins’ part to flaunt their religion. But they would not attend the Nether Horden church and Daniel would not have to be embarrassed at the brief simplicity of his Grandfather Wilson’s sermons, always on the theme of love and peace. It was easy to see how his father had absorbed that message all his childhood.

What he did wonder was how his Grandmother Wilson would tolerate Lady Horden. Grandmother Wilson despised all airs and graces and believed every woman however high borne should be devoted to good works. Shattered in her mind for a while by the terrible fate of her son Daniel, most loved because he was weak in the head, she was still liable to changes of mood and all too outspoken at times. Sunday lunches, her grandson Daniel foresaw, would be very uncomfortable.

He wished he had not been named after his uncle. Grandmother Wilson was sparked into recollections of that unfortunate young man whenever she heard his name spoken. Would she recount the terrible injustice of his hanging on the very first occasion that she met the newcomers? Although she had managed to accept the innocence of his mother’s tragic part she could never forget that Grandfather Horden was the magistrate and his son, Robert, the one who had stirred the crowd to the lynching. Being under the roof of Horden Hall was liable to bring on one of her reminiscences and meeting Lady Horden, the widow of Sir John and mother of no-good Robert could be a harrowing experience.

Daniel, tossing and turning, finally pulled off his nightshirt and slid his naked body between the sheets. Had his parents considered what a hornet’s nest they might be creating by mixing up the two families for an indefinite period?

Of course he wanted to see them all at home again but if he volunteered for the navy now he would be spared the unpleasantness of seeing two incompatible worlds collided. Boys became midshipmen younger than he . . . .With that thought he finally fell asleep

CHAPTER 7

Daylight the next morning showed him that his dream of entering the navy now would have to wait. Everything the French family said about their forthcoming visit to Horden included him. His parents spoke of hiring extra horses for Madeline and Diana so they could ride with him as he showed them the farms and woods on the estate. He was still viewed as a boy and the family’s plans were his plans.

It was the same with the proposed visit to William and Eunice.

His mother said, “Your father and I have decided against accepting Cousin Celia’s offer of the coach to visit William and Eunice. We will go on foot in our plainest garments. Put on the clothes you came in and be ready to go immediately after breakfast.”

Celia told then William went out in summer very early to preach in the markets but would be back for some breakfast. “He’s at it most mornings though he has no licence to preach. If he is stopped he tells them he must obey God rather than man. Mostly they tolerate him because he keeps himself clean and speaks politely. Besides they know he helps the poor and thinks nothing of giving his last crust to a beggar. Mind, you will be appalled where they live but our man knows the house and will guide you. I dare not come with you. It distresses me too much to see what my son has come to, the dear compliant boy that he always was. But I have writ him a letter which you may give him.”

Daniel was both excited and apprehensive. Eunice had said so little to him but every word was clear in his memory. He could not forget the intense look she had given him before suddenly deciding to go with her father. Was there a second or two when she might have rushed into his arms and said, “Save me from him”?

Perhaps he would find out very soon.

Nat said as they left the house, “We are going to see a man who is trying to serve God. Let us not forget that.”

They were guided by Clifford’s serving-man, walking ahead of them and turning constantly to point out foul places. From the Strand they passed into Fleet Street and the City by Ludgate Hill. This was retracing the way they had come the first day and since then they had visited St Paul’s with Madeline and Diana who were rightly shocked, Nat observed, at the noise and bustle of traders in the very nave. So they did not stop today but skirted the great sprawling edifice, surrounded outside too by many stalls, and so up to Cheapside. Daniel noted the way so that he could find it again. When they turned up Milk Street the man pointed along a narrow alleyway off it and indicated a tiny house between a leather-worker’s and a baker’s. It seemed to embarrass him that his master’s son should live in such a place.

“That is their abode, sir.” He addressed Nathaniel. “Do you wish me to wait outside?”

“No. We thank you for coming and will find our own way back.”

The man bowed and scurried off.

Bel looked at the house and then at Nat and Dan. “It is not so far in distance but the gulf between the dwellings is immense. What will our reception be? If we are thrown out at once it is but a morning’s walk.”

Looking about him, Daniel was overwhelmed by a sense of darkness and oppression. The street was so narrow that the overhanging upper storeys shut out the sunlight. Only the house they were looking at did not protrude over the street. While some were three storeys high this had two levels with its steeply sloping roof many feet below the roof lines of the adjoining houses. Obviously built to fill in the gap between them it was almost a toy house with its narrow front door and small window across which a piece of canvas was hanging for privacy.

Nat put his ear to the door. “I can hear William’s voice so they are within.”

He lifted his hand and knocked.

There was a silence and then a few more sonorous words and a loud “Amen.”

They waited as a bolt was being thrust back and the door opened a crack. Eunice’s little pointed face peeped out. Her eyes opened wide in astonishment, she uttered an exclamation of dismay and closed the door.

Daniel looked sadly from his mother to his father but only for a moment as the door was pulled wide and William stood there. He bowed so low that the crown of his cropped head was level with Daniel’s chest. Then he straightened and addressed them collectively.

“The child did not understand. If visitors come to our door they are to be welcomed. We were at our prayers. That is good. You find us at one with the Lord. Pray enter and be seated.” He stood aside and bowed them in. “Eunice, uncover the window to let in more light.”

Daniel stepped to help her. The wooden rod slotted through the sack was only just within her reach but when he held up his hands to it she shrank back so that he wouldn’t touch her. He lifted it off its hooks and held it out to know where it was to go. Keeping her eyes down she took it quickly, rolled it up and stood it in the corner beyond the window. Then she retreated to the dark nook under the stair and taking a small brush, swept the top of a wooden box there and sat down on it.

Daniel, looking about in exasperation, saw his father and mother seating themselves on the bench at one side of the table where there was room for him too. William having blown out the candle which stood beside the open Bible placed himself opposite them and gravely laid the palms of his hands together.

Daniel wanted to pick Eunice up and shake her. Why will she not look at me? Why will she sit in the corner when there is room beside her father at the table?

Nathaniel had handed over Celia’s letter. “Your mother asked us to give you this and suggested you read it while we are here.”

William took it and stood up. “I will take it to the door for the daylight but first I must offer you what refreshment we have. This morning at five of the clock I was in Covent Garden preaching and the basket of fruit you see on that shelf was my reward. Pray help yourselves from it. I can offer no strong drink but this jug contains milk from the dairy nearby.”

“Oh William,” Bel exclaimed. “We haven’t come to eat and drink. We have had more than enough of that in The Strand. We wanted to see you and Eunice before we return home the day after tomorrow. We had hoped to get to know you a little in our time here.”

William merely inclined his head and stepped to the door with the letter.

Bel said, “Will you not come nearer, Eunice?”

When she still sat with her head bent Bel got up and went over to her and held out both her hands.

“I am not a monster, little Cousin, please can we not be friends?”

Daniel watched for a reaction in the small hunched figure. Was she so ashamed of their poverty that she could not speak? He had never seen so cramped a living space and with the same area above, presumably divided into two smaller chambers, this was the whole house. She knows we have come from that mansion in The Strand and she simply cannot bear us to see how they live.

But at that moment William turned from the door and addressed Nat.

“Do you, sir, know the contents of this letter?” His tone was harsh.

Nat stood up with his usual cheery open smile.

“No indeed, Cousin. We presumed it was natural for your mother to wish to send a word to you. She might have come herself but for her other guests.”

“Then this proposal she puts forward is not of your making?”

“Proposal?”

Daniel’s stomach contracted. What could that foolish, presumptuous woman have written?

William went on in a level voice, “My mother wishes me to consider seriously” – he checked the letter for the exact words – “the proposition that I should give my daughter to your son in marriage when he graduates from Cambridge University. Do you endorse this?”

Daniel didn’t dare to look at Eunice but a suppressed gasp came from that corner. He heard a soothing murmur from his mother before she stepped back to the table. She and his father both began to speak at once.

Bel exclaimed, “You should know, William, that I am no lover of arranged marriages,” while Nat was answering mildly, “I am sure we would have no objection if the young people wished it but they scarcely know each other –”

To Daniel’s astonishment Eunice jumped up from her seat and screamed across the room, “Daniel said the idea of loving me was preposterous.”

She stood for a second open-mouthed at her own extraordinary eruption, then turned and clattered up the steep wooden stair and slammed the door at the top behind her so that the flimsy house shook.

Daniel, appalled, felt all their eyes turn on him.

“I – I did say something like that but those maddening French girls were tormenting me. I didn’t mean – it is as Father says – we don’t know each other. I have no thoughts of marriage for years to come.”

William held up his hand for silence.

“If such words were spoken at all it suggests to me that an inappropriate conversation had already taken place. What is the truth of this?” His face was reddening and his voice rising a pitch. “Has my mother already been plotting this and you, boy, have turned her down? Why then would she persist?” He slapped the letter. “Oh I can well see that a baronet would view marriage with a daughter of this house as preposterous. But that he should tell her to her face –”

Daniel drove his hands desperately through his hair. “Mother! It wasn’t as it seems. Oh, sir,” to William, “I wouldn’t for the world have caused her pain. And I am far from regarding
rank
– why, she is my equal in every respect – if I could only explain to her – will you not call her down?”

“I will not, sir.” William took a step closer and his teeth were clenched. “I have striven to keep her away from temptation but she enters that house and all this has followed. I smell a conspiracy of the devil. My mother’s deviousness I know well but there has been cruelty here too. Within a few hours of meeting with my daughter’s innocence you have trampled on her feelings. God forbid that worse has been done.” He shook his head with an expression of agony. “She has not told me all. I see there was more, much more. But why has my mother done this thing now?”