The Black Moon (30 page)

`The, impudent, arrogant….
. Coming here, when he knows
be, is not, wanted
- forcing his way, in, tramp
ing
over m
y
property, wanderi
ng about the house, making free
of it, ordering and bullying my servants, observing, what has been done here, no doubt looking in our desks and sitting in our chairs and
-
and using the house as if it were his own. By God! it is beyond bearing!'

Elizabeth
bent over her child, affecting to study
his sleeping face. 'My dear…’

`Yes?'

'I share your irritation, and understand it, though I feel it perhaps less acutely. He had no right to enter this house without your permission. But unfortunately we gave him an excuse
-
no more, but it was an excuse - by l
eaving Aunt Agatha unattended'

'There were servants! She has her own maid-'

'If you will let me finish, I was going to say, unattended by any relative or friend. Of course she had servants and a personal maid, and that should have been sufficient, but you do see, don't you, that this offered him just the opportunity to behave in the high-handed fashion that is his want. Also, without
justification, he regards this
as his family house because it was his grandfather's and he spent much time here as a boy. He knows it intimately - I believe better than I do - and I have no doubt that if he had been refused admittance at the front door he would have found his way in by some other means. You will remember how
- he came upon us once.'

`Are you saying that even now, even when we are in residence, I have no means of keeping him out?'

`I do not think he will, attempt to come. Not if he is wise. Not if he meant what he said last year. But I think if Agatha lives another year we must make other plans for her. He mustn't be granted the excuse.'

George too looked at his child. Since his illness Valentine had put on weight and, sleeping, looked quite beautiful. Like one of those angels George had seen on t
he painted ceiling of a mansion
, in Greenwich. The chubby hands clasped, the lips pursed
to blow Gabriel's trumpet. He
was dark
-
haired like his father, but very fair of face, the fine curling hair framed ear and eye and nape. As always this sight gave George pleasure and a sense of achievement. It damped down but could not altogether quell the double angers of the day. He had spoken out against Ross more vehemently than he had ever done before in their married life, and, although he
could not quarrel with Elizabeth's
sentiments;
he would have liked to quarrel with her coolness.

'If Agatha lives another year! No. doubt you will be fully aware of what she is planning for A
ugust l.’

The sleeping child stirred, and Elizabeth, pulled up the blanket. `She told me. 'I suppose it is natural to wish for such a celebration.'

`In our
house. With our servants!'

`It is her house, George. Before me, before you, before Ross. She says she will pay the-'

`Oh, pay! That is the least of it. You must be aware that ever since I came here, since long before we married, she has conducted a personal feud against me. She hates me and my family and resents my possession of what she considers the Poldark house. Yet now she is claiming the right to celebrate her hundredth birthday here, using the house as if it were her own and inviting all her stinking and decrepit friends!'

Elizabeth smiled. `My dear, all her stinking and decrepit friends are long since dead and gone. Those she would invite are likely to be elderly people of the country whom we know too.'

`And Ross Poldark?'

`Ross Poldark?'

'She has just told me that she intends to ask him to her party.'

Elizabeth put her hands on the side of the cot. 'Oh, dear.'

'And his wife. And his two children.'

Valentine began to stir and woke. The voices had roused him. It was in fact time he was up and fed, but Dr Behenna had advised them to let him sleep on just as long as he could, and had added a little diluted tincture of opium to his nightly medicine to make his advice more effective.

`I don't think he would come,' Elizabeth said.

`You underestimate him.'

She shook her head. `No. I don't think he will come
-
not and bring Demelza.'

`Why not? It will give him the opportunity he wishes to add to his recent insult.'

She sighed. 'Perhaps we ought to see it, as a chance to mend the old feud.'

He watched her carefully. 'Do you wish that?' It was a very important question to him.

Valentine opened his eyes and saw them looking at him
and: suddenly sinned. The illusion of angelic innocence, was quite gone. George picked him up at once and held out one of his lingers 'for the chubby hand to grasp.

Elizabeth said: `I would be happier if I never saw them again. I would be happier if I were not living so close to them. But if Agatha wishes it, they surely must be invited. And if they come, we surely must attempt to hide our dislike and let the occasion pass as it may. The feud two years ago was the talk of the county. A superficial reconciliation will at least still the remnants of that talk:'

`And that is what you wish?'

`I don't say that it is what I wish. But we cannot deny Agatha her birthday party
. It would get about everywhere
that we had refused her, and do us more harm than half a dozen feuds.'

Later that morning after his ride, during which, accompanied by Tankard, he visited a number of the outlying hamlets and distributed a little judicious charity, George came back and saw four men still searching with their nets in the pond. A thought came to him. Ross Poldark had frequently been to the house this winter. He had frequently talked to old Agatha up in her room. When the pool was first being cleared of toads Agatha had complained that they were a special kind brought here by her father from Hampshire and that it was disgraceful to have them killed. During her communings with Ross this winter she might well, have complained to him. Might he not perhaps be responsible for this wanton and childish practical joke?

It did not seem quite in his line; yet the more George thought about it, the more the events seemed to link together. Who else could know of his personal aversion? Who else, among the village people, would know or care about the clearing of the pool? Who else, certainly, would have the mind to think this thing out, to bring the toads back to the pool especially to greet his return. Although it was a ludicrously childish joke, it showed a d
egree of thought and ingenuity a
nd malice.

Round at the stables he sent for Harry Harry.

'
Sur?’

`Look now. I want those two men who are going to guard the pool at night reinforced. I want five men. And I want you to be among them.'

`Me, sur? Yes, sur."

`Understand? Five of you. Every night for the next week.

From dusk til
l dawn.. Cancel your day duties
?
altogether I want you all to be fresh and alert for a whole night's watch"

`Yes sur.'

`And, Harry. If you catch someone and he offers any resistance do not
deal with him
lightly. Remember he is
trespassing, poaching and
resisting arrest. A bloodied head and a few broken bones will not be out of keeping at all.'

`No, sur. Rely on me, sur.'

`But
try not to rouse the house. We do not wish to upset the ladies.'

There had been a moon last week, but now it rose too late to be of use in the early part of the night. But there were a few stars about in a. patchy, windy sky. It was light enough for the purpose and perhaps safer than moving among the high shadows cast by the moon.

Drake slept early and woke about ten just as his brother was soundly in his first sleep. It was difficult to quarrel with Sam, and indeed there had been no real quarrel between them from the beginning of this affair. Only grief. Only sadness. Only regret, that Sam's own brother, whose uttermost acceptance of Christ had seemed so sure, so rooted in his heart and in his soul; should have allowed his conviction to wear away until he was in the very valley of the shadow,
For a time Sam had prayed with him and argued with him, explaining that his heart was like a garden from which the tree of evil had long been cut down. But the stump remained, and that stump, though lightly strewn with the earth of repentance, could send out, and clearly had sent out, strong and sinful shoots which threatened to choke and kill the flowers of the spirit.' Let Drake beware. Let him pluck it out in time lest the deadly remains of his carnal mind become rampant and he be lost for ever to Satan -and the Pit.

Drake's arguments in this case were that he did not feel his actions were in sin. That he was meeting a young woman of another religious way of thinking was perhaps unfortunate; but if it ever went beyond that, who knew but that
she might i
n time, be converted? Marriage
was not sin,'

Wedlock was not sin.; Love was not sin,' That he was meeting a young woman of a com
pletely different class and in
a situation which made marriage almost impossible, was still more unfortunate. But it was innocent. (Or almost innocent.) That becau
se of this preoccupation he was taking a too carnal
view of life he was prepared
to admit. But he was not pre
pared to admit, as Sam argued, that this life was only a preparation for the next. Drake loved this life; he loved everything about it: the sunsets, the moonrises, the ruffled golden glow on ripe corn; the ink-black sheen of a bluebottle's wings, the taste of fresh spring water, lying down and stretching on your back when you were tired, getting up in the morning with a whole new day ahead, eating fresh-baked bread, feeling the cold sea rushing round your legs, roasting a potato in the embers of a fire and peeling it and eating it while it was still too hot to hold, walking on a cliff, lying in the sun, turning a good piece of wood, beating the sparks from iron. He could have listed fifty more pleasures.

And among the things he loved was a girl, and this was the greatest love of all. There were many aspects of the affair which were unfortunate, but he felt no sin. Paradise might hold greater glories but he could not imagine them.

So Sam and Drake had agreed to differ. When he was home Drake still participated in the, full life of the circle; he, still did his weekly volunteer, work on the foundations for the new meeting house on the hill; he still prayed with Sam nightly. But Sam had given up trying to control Drake's movements at other times; and when he chose to rise in the early hours of the night and absent himself from the cottage Sam did not comment. He could not believe real evil of his brother; and indeed from Drake's face in the morning Sam thought he could judge that the devil had not got him in too tight a grip.

Th
is was the third time Drake had
been out. It was the
sort of high-spirited joke that appealed to him. George Warleggan, whom he had never spoken to and only seen in
church, had become something of a dragon figure. This was the only way in which he could attempt to spear the dragon.

Drake had first thought to do it only once. He had borrowed two fish jousting baskets from old Betsy Triggs and a piece of pilchard net from a man in Sawle. W
ith the
latter and with the help of a pole and a couple of pieces of wood,
he had
made a sort of coarse shrimping net. Thereafter it was easy. The frogs and toads were mating late this year and the three connecting ponds at Marasanvose were alive with them. He caught a couple of dozen and put twelve in each basket and tied a piece of sacking over the top. Then up and
away. He was back in his bed in
little more than two hours.

He had th
ought it fun and hoped it would
work. The toads might well not like their move and be off back to their old haunts by morning. But the Trenwith pond had been their natural home, and he thought they would not object. Of course he knew he was taking a risk, and a risk out of proportion to the laughter and the satisfaction to be found in it. Trespass was a serious crime, particularly trespass at night. But he knew the Trenwith grounds well by now, having explored them both to and from his Sunday visits to the house. Although tall, he was a quick and quiet mover, and he felt sure he could outwit any clumsy keeper who did happen to be abroad. The risk of dogs was small, for George did not like dogs. There were only a couple of terriers belonging to the Harrys, and they seemed to be shut up most of the time.

On the Wednesday he wondered if his visit had been noticed, but on the Friday, returning to their cottage, he found a note waiting for him from Geoffrey Charles. Presumably it had been delivered by one of the house servants.

`Dearest Drake,

`I was so escited on Wensday! Toads were in the pool and Uncle George was besides himself with
fury
! Was it you? I larfed so much I was sent to my room. Tom and Paul have been in dire trouble for not clearing the pond. They were in it all day, catching the Toads. They have catched them all I believe. Dearest Drake, when can we meet and go to Marasanvose?

Love, Geoffrey Charles.'

In another hand, scribbled hastily underneath. `If it were you, you should not have done it. M.'

So on the Saturday night he did it again. There seemed little more risk, for clearly the gamekeepers were getting the blame, and Geoffrey Charles was getting the fun. This time, although darker than the Tuesda
y, the moon, had risen before he reached the Trenwith pool,
and Drake
proceeded with a good.,
deal of caution. But no one saw him come and go, and his second legacy of
toads wa
s left for Geoffrey Charles's
diversion,
So it might have ended, with no further letter to spur him or to warn him. But things got out, as they always will when villagers are employed at a house. Polly Odgers talked to her father, Lucy Pipe talked to her brother. Char Nanfan had the story from Beth Bate, whose husband, Saul Bate, was a gardener at the house. There were whispers and speculation. The country folk had no belief in an invasion of toads from the outer fields. These were Marasanvose toads, and they hadn't hopped there on their own four legs. It was a joke and a good joke, and what made it more in
teresting was that nobody knew w
ho. There was talk and laughter about toads and frogs raining out of a clear sky, and how Mr Warleggan had best open up one of his mills for making them into meat for his kitchen. And so on.

And therefore, Drake felt, it was worth doing just once more,

The frogs and toads were in full voice tonight. This sort
of weather suited them: fresh and damp though still chilly.

Drake set down his two baskets and went about his task.

He hardly had to get his feet wet. They croaked and
bubbled and snored all around him in the half dark, and although silent at his approach were easily caught as they hopped away. As before he was careful not to net all the noisiest ones, otherwise he would have a bag of males who, finding themselves bereft of their opposite numbers, would see no cause to continue their love songs.

When they were full he tied, a piece of hessian over the tops of the baskets, then hid the net in the fork of a tree and began his laden walk. His captives, quietly tumbled together in the bottoms of the baskets, were themselves quiet.

It was nearly three miles to Trenwith land, and he edged himself over the gate not far from the copse where he had first spoken to Morwenna and Geoffrey Charle
s. Now he went more carefully,
avoiding dead sticks and watching for the unexplained shadow. He thought it likely that someone would be watching tonight; but if they did it would be near the fringes of the pool.

The pool itself was bordered on two sides by lawns, on a third by a piece of open land well trodden by cattle in the old days; and with the farm buildings near. The fourth, where the pool was at its narrowest and where the tiny
st
ream that fed it trickled, in
a narrow pebbled gulley, was grown about
with hawthorn, gorse and, a few
wind-harried pines; and it was from this angle that he had approached before to let his captives plop gently one by one into the freedom of the reedy grass at the pond's edge. This time he took the precaution of setting his baskets down about thirty yards back against the side of an isolated shed and making a preliminary circuit.

It was after midnight and the house was in darkness except for a single gleam in an upper room that Drake had not seen used before. He made his way to the left and saw that there were no lights, at the side of the house or over the stables where the servants slept. A thin dry night-wind rustled the grasses, a wind still without comfort to the struggling spring. The rain of yesterday made the g
oing soft and spongy, so that there was less chance
of stepping on a brittle twig. In the f
ar distance the sea
reverberated.

He saw the first man almost at once: a figure leaning against the nearest stable door. The man was too far away to be at his most effective, but had probably retreated there to get out of the chill wind. It wouldn't be difficult to deposit the frogs without disturbing him. But did gamekeepers keep watch alone? Usually, like pigeons, they came in pairs.

The second man might be more conscientious than his companion. Or each might be taking it in turn to keep the closer watch. Now if one sheltered by the stable door, the other would be likely to be somewhere in his range of vision, so that a pre-arranged signal ... Drake went carefully over the few places of concealment that were available. Tree, wall, bush, stone pillar, tree, tree, cart, wall, shed, bush, ah
He saw him. The other man was sitting quite near the pool, so that his head was not above the level of the bush that hid him. He had been very still, and it was only a momentary movement of his head that betrayed him.

This was going to be more difficult. He could not possibly put the toads in the take without being seen. All he could now do would be to approach under cover of the bushes and slip them quietly into the stream, hoping they would in the natural course of things make their way to the pool by following the stream down.

Drake turned sharply and bumped into a man.

`Got you!' growled a voice, and a hand grasped at his arm.

That sharp movement, which had been made without any
apprehension of danger, just saved him from
immediate capture, h
e wrenched, his arm away, boat sleeve tearing; a great stick whistled past his ear to glance off his forearms, clattered into the wall. He ducked and fell, scrambled on hands and knees, half running, half fal
ling towards the house. Another man suddenly in his
way; he
swerved just in time. The place
alive with men. Gamekeepers, he saw rather late, did not always hunt only in pairs.

He was now in the main drive, plain for all to see; they were converging on him from different sides. He turned at right angles, darted for the low wall beyond the flower beds, Two of the men ran to cut him off, but fear and his long legs beat them: he was over the wall and in open country, running for his life across the first of two fields that led to the copse where he had first met Morwenna. They had no dogs;, for that he had to be thankful.

But he was not out of the wood yet - nor even in it - for another figure broke into the field from the direction of the main drive - on horseback, and riding to cut him off from his best way of escape. Drake veered for the far corner where the ground fell sharply away. Here wa
s the ruin of an old windmill,
long untended and scarred sometime by fire. Lack of shelter anywhere in this direction, but temporarily, after he had scrambled over the low stone wall he was approaching, he would not be seen. The windmill ruin an obvious hidin
g place, but beyond it the land
undulated away towards St Ann's, fenced off, for the first time in living memory, ploughed and sown with spring wheat.

This old Cornish wall was not more than three feet high; it ran in broken patches back towards the farm buildings. He somehow fell over it, turned right, and scrambled along on hands and knees, cutting them on stones and sharp stumps of cut-back gorse. It was a frenzied crawl, which had to be not only rapid but quiet. Had the horseman jumped the wall his efforts would have failed. But the man clearly did not like putting his pony at it in the dark; he jumped off and then climbed over the wall, followed by two running panting men who had now caught him up.

As they came over Drake lay flat among the gorse-and the stones, rationing his breathless lungs, only now conscious of the pain in his forearm where he had been struck.

`This way, I reckon ...'

`Bastard's in mill, I don't wonder ...'

`We'd beat split.'

"Got a
knife
?
as 'e? Rats when they're cornered.'

`Tom, take the mill. And you, Jack. I'll ride down, see whether there's sign or sight .

They were splitting, but only into two. They'd no fancy for a fight in the ruin, one against one. A respite. But only for a couple of minutes.

While their feet were clattering he moved. It was just luck: he could not see which way their faces, were turned. But no shout came.

He went on, bent double now. He was trying to work out how many men were out. Five or six at least. 'Three were temporarily accounted for. But almost certainly the horse rider when he could find no
trace of him towards the copse
would realize he could not have gone so far and come back. Where were the others? Still by the house?

Temporarily silence had fallen on the scene. As his lungs slowed, his arm throbbed more. He reached the end of the wall. If he cut away from here and reached the stables there were, as far as he remembered, two orchards behind the house, then another couple of fields climbing to the moorland which gave on to the cliffs.

He stared at the dark stables. A horse whinnied and an owl fluttered from one of the roofs, otherwise quiet. If they were waiting for him they were waiting for him. In a few minutes the other men would be back. He glanced behind. The horseman was not yet on his tail. He looked up a
t the house. From here he could
not see whether the single light still glimmered. Which was Morwenna's room? He had never seen it, never knew where she slept. Geoffrey Charles's looked over the back of the house. Strange, his friendship with the boy
-
never just a cloak for the other thing.

He moved, b
ut not now towards the stables.
At the front of the house the light had gone out. He slid across towards the pond, target for a musket or another pursuit. But they were all away, chasing him in another direction.

Past the pool and up the stream. His two baskets were where he had left them, but there was movement inside. The inhabitants were losing their fear and becoming restless. He picked up the baskets and carried them to the pool, removed the hessian, plopped the toads into the shallow water at the edge. One croaked alm
ost as soon as it was set free.