Roanoke (The Keepers of the Ring) (34 page)

He had lost an appreciable number of prospective settlers when Grenville
’s Virginia expedition was cancelled by royal decree, but seven men and the four wives of men waiting in the colony—Mistress Sampson, Mistress Prat, Mistress Cooper, and Mistress Stevens—were still determined to make the journey.

From his tiny office on the docks of Bideford Bar, White oversaw the rapid provisioning of the
Brave
, a ship of thirty tons, and the
Row
, a clumsy-looking pinnace of twenty-five tons. Seeds, tools, munitions, livestock, and the baggage of eleven passengers were loaded onto the ships as quickly as possible, for White feared that Raleigh or the queen might yet postpone his journey.

On April twenty-second John White boarded the
Brave
with hope in his heart and a very important letter in his satchel. Sir Walter Raleigh had sent a dispatch at the last moment, a letter to cheer the colonists, in which he promised that with all convenient speed he would prepare “a good supply of shipping and men with sufficiency of all things needful” which, God willing, should be with them the summer following.

The cool April breeze ruffled John White’s white hair as Arthur Facy, commander of the
Brave
, gave the command to raise the anchor. As the ship raised her sails and slipped from her moorings at the docks, John White prayed that his colonists would be able to survive until he reached them. Springtime in the wilderness, when stores of winter were depleted and the new crops not yet sprung, oft proved to be a starving time.

They had barely been under sail for one full day when John White sensed the familiar stirring of trouble.
Like Simon Fernandes of the
Lion
, Arthur Facy considered piracy his first priority. And his seamen, who were but castoffs since Grenville had been instructed to reserve his best men to confront the Armada, were little more than cutthroats and thieves.

As the two English ships emerged from the Bristol channel, they chased and then boarded four vessels, taking three sailors prisoner to fulfill the necessary complement of seamen.
On the second morning, without conscience or character, Facy lobbied a cannonball at a small pinnace from Scotland and robbed her of everything of value; that afternoon he brazenly attacked and looted a Breton vessel.

In White
’s pleas for restraint Arthur Facy seemed to find only further excuse for foolhardiness. ‘Twas as if the men and women who waited below were nothing but incidental cargo, thoughts of the colony were the last thing on his mind. When Facy gave the order to chase and attack a two hundred ton ship, a move as logical as a minnow attacking a whale, White launched a verbal assault that only broadened the swarthy sailor’s impenitent grin. In the end, White went below deck to await disaster and pray; mercifully, the larger ship escaped. Separated now from the
Row
, the
Brave
sailed on toward Madeira.

Thirty-three

T
he new Virginian village, or City of Raleigh, as Ananias declared it, rose from within the palisade more quickly than Jocelyn thought possible. The prefabricated walls that had served them so well in Roanoke made home building easy, and Thomas was pleased when the settlers did not hesitate to lend a hand in reassembling the church. Wells were dug, outhouses built, and the young boys set to building enclosures for breeding rabbits and wild turkeys. Jocelyn had to smother a grin when young George Howe brought her a turkey for dinner and expected that she’d cook it with the feathers still attached.

Young George, as he was still called, had taken up residence with the unmarried men and seemed to have aged two years in the eight months since his father
’s death. Because she knew how bereft a fatherless child could feel, Jocelyn worried about young George and often invited him to have dinner with her and Thomas. But George usually declined, preferring to eat with the other men. All the children of the colony, Jocelyn noticed, grew up too quickly, with chores and lessons and the danger of death looming constantly in the distance.

But Ananias and the council followed Raleigh
’s instructions and the colony was well prepared for the future. To prepare for planting, additional fields were burned outside the palisade to clear the land of brush, and the trees that remained in the fields were girdled.

Jocelyn thought the act of girdling strange at first, but she understood why the procedure was necessary.
With no horses or mules available, girdling was quicker and easier than felling or uprooting trees, and achieved the desired effect. After a continuous ring of bark was chipped or torn from trees, the trees slowly died where they stood. Leaves fell from the dead limbs to provide a rich compost for the soil beneath, and sunlight poured through the leafless branches to warm the ground. But Jocelyn could not shake an eerie murderous feeling as she helped the other women strip the bark from trees in the burnt field. Many of the trees were giants that had stood for scores of years before the colonists’ arrival. In time, the blackened, dead trees would stand as ghostly sentinels over the fields.

By the end of April the village had been fully erected.
True to his word, William Clement took Audrey Tappan to the church to approach the council. Ananias Dare, Roger Bailie, Christopher Cooper, Thomas Stevens, Roger Prat, and John Sampson sat at their places around the long council table at the front of the building, and as interested parties, Jocelyn and Thomas sat in the back of the church and listened intently.

William Clement lifted his golden head confidently.
“I’d like to request permission from my master, Roger Bailie, and the council to marry Audrey Tappan,” he said, smiling.

Jocelyn wryly noted that the smile that drew women like moths to a lamp did little to impress the council.
“How can an indentured servant marry?” Christopher Cooper asked, doubtless worried that his servant, James Hynde, might be unduly influenced by William’s brashness.

John Sampson shook his head in stern disapproval. “May I remind you, sir, that you were a convict? Sentenced to prison for the rest of your life? And that you came here willingly to serve your lifetime—”

“
Beggin’ your pardon, Master Sampson, but my crime was stealin’ forty sheep. Are forty sheep worth a man’s life?”

“
Could be,” Roger Prat answered slowly. “Marry, it all depends. If forty sheep are all a man has, and they’re stolen by a couple of blackguards, then yes, I’d have to say the knaves should pay with their lives.”

“
I cry you mercy, sir!” William answered, offended. “Have I not worked as willingly as any man in this colony? Have I not given good service to my master?”

The members of the council turned to look at Roger Bailie, who scratched his white beard and said nothing.

William turned in exasperation to Thomas and Jocelyn.
“There!” he said, pointing to them. “My lady’s master and mistress have consented to let her be free to marry. In Virginia, a man is supposed to be free to make what he likes of his life—”

Thomas Stevens held up a gnarled finger.
“Miss Tappan’s life was not claimed by the courts of England before coming to Virginia,” he pointed out, practically snarling at William. “She is a free and moral woman, sir, and you paid for your passage and your freedom with indentured service to Roger Bailie for the rest of his natural life. I am inclined to believe that you should render this service without the distraction of a wife until you are released from your bond.”

William thrust his hands on his hips, pouting, and Jocelyn turned her gaze toward Roger Bailie.
The old man’s eyes flickered from William Clement to Audrey, who sat silently on a bench, her face flushed, her hands clasped as if for prayer. Her red hair glowed in the lamplight, and something akin to pity flitted across Roger Bailie’s gentle face.

‘
Pon my soul, he would let them be married
, Jocelyn thought, inwardly rejoicing. The council members continued in noisy debate, then Ananias raised his hand for silence. “This debate belongs to Master Bailie,” he said, nodding gravely to the elder council member. “William’s his servant, and there’s no doubt he’ll be the most affected. Roger, what say you?”

Roger Bailie
stood and nodded pleasantly to Audrey, then to William. The long strands of wispy blonde hair straggled over his shoulders while his bald head gleamed in the dim light. “I would agree to this request,” he said simply, his fingers nervously tapping the top of the table before him, “but I am an old man, and likely to need help in the years to come. But I’ll not stand in the way of young love, nor would I forbid this union and drive them to immorality or some such thing.”

Audrey bowed her head and blushed, and the effect was not lost on Roger Bailie.
His eyes gentled as he spoke: “‘Tis this I propose, then: when I die, and William Clement is released from his bond to me, then he may marry Audrey Tappan if he so chooses.”

William expelled a loud breath of frustration, and Roger held up a restraining hand.
“Be not so impatient, my friend. If your love is as strong and eternal as you say it is, and if the young lady desires a new home, then I pray she will consider another proposal.”

Roger looked toward Audrey and squinted in embarrassment.
She raised a questioning brow. “Another proposal, sir?”

“
Yes, Miss Tappan. You may wed William at my death, but you may come to live at my house if you will marry me now.”

A collective gasp shattered the stillness of the room, and Jocelyn sat immobile in the chill shock of surprise.
The old man wanted Audrey for himself! Who would have ever imagined such a thing?

Red-faced, William lunged toward the council table, and for an instant Jocelyn thought he would hit his master.
But Thomas sprang forward to hold William back, and Ananias stepped in front of Roger Bailie.

“
‘Tis an interesting proposal, certainly,” Ananias said, looking at the other council members with a smile in his eyes. “I’m sure Miss Tappan would like time to think about it. What say you, Roger, shall she have time?”

“
Two days,” Roger Bailie answered, taking his seat behind the table. “I will hear her answer in two days.”

Audrey
’s weeping could be heard from the attic throughout the night, and Thomas rolled out of bed the next morning muttering. “Talk to her, Jocelyn, and help her decide yes or no,” he said, his eyes red from a lack of sleep. “But beg her to stop crying!”

When he had left the house, Jocelyn greeted the bleary-eyed Audrey, who apologized for not rising sooner.
“I just can’t stop seeing the old man’s face,” she said, blowing her nose into a square of linen. “I would liefer die than marry old Roger Bailie!”

“
So you would wait until William is freed?” Jocelyn asked, raising an eyebrow as she placed a fresh log on the fire. “That might take years, Audrey. You might be twenty, twenty-and-five, even thirty years old before you married.”

Audrey burst forth into fresh wailing, and Jocelyn rolled her eyes.
Some comfort I am
, she thought,
‘tis a good thing Thomas is not here to see how well I encourage the downtrodden.

“
Soft, Audrey,” she said, leaving the fire. She reached for Audrey’s hand. “I can tell you this—marry neither Roger Bailie nor William Clement, in truth, marry no man unless God has given you a deep love for him. For ‘twill take every ounce of love in your heart to survive the things that will come.”

Audrey stopped crying.
Sniffling, she asked, “But what of me husband’s love for me? I know William loves me, but Master Bailie—”

“
Who can know what thoughts guide a man’s heart?” Jocelyn asked, smiling through tears of her own. “But as God has called me to love Thomas, I trust that God will someday bring Thomas to return my love.”

Audrey
’s eyes widened. “Yes, I know you have seen the state of my marriage,” Jocelyn said, releasing Audrey’s hand. She caressed her mounded belly, round with her unborn child. “And yet God gives me the grace to wait, to hope and pray for the day that will come. Thomas is God’s child, and the Father will bring him home.”

“
Faith, what a way to talk about the minister!” Audrey blurted out, then clapped her hand over her disobedient mouth.

Jocelyn said nothing, but banked the morning fire.
After breakfast William Clement himself knocked at the door to see Audrey, and Jocelyn watched them walk away, certain that William would advise Audrey to wait for marriage or else run away with him. But where, in this wilderness, could they run?

William wrapped his hand around Audrey
’s long fingers and pulled her behind a tree for a forbidden kiss. “William!” she fussed through her tears, turning her head from his. “What if somebody’s watchin’?”