The Miller's Dance (37 page)

‘
I
should be a thought heavy for you,' said Demelza, 'considering what I bear too. Did your father send you?'

'Concern for your well-being, woman, is not confined to one man. The whole family shares it. Think if you were
taken queer at Jud's. I wouldn't wish a brother or sister of mine reared among Prudie's ducklings!'

He had taken her arm and they had stopped.

Demelza looked up at him. The Devil can cite scripture for his own purpose. I never imagined you were so well read.'

'Ah, another mother who doesn't know her own son!'
I
thought it was all to do with engines.' 'Nearly all, yes.
’

Demelza found herself facing the way she had come,
I
still have a sense of direction,' she said. 'All the same...'

'All the same I want to see Prudie. I gave her no money last week.'

'I'll take it. This very afternoon, I swear to you. Let me tell you about my engines. Let us stroll back in genteel style and I will tell you about this whim engine I am now going to build for Wheal Leisure.'

'This is why you were at Harvey's last week?'

'Yes, the preliminary design has been agreed.'

'All right, then tell me about it.'

‘I
nstead of the horse whim to draw up our ore, such as we now have both there and at Wheal Grace, we shall do it all by steam. We shall build
the
engine round the Trevithick boiler that I intended to have used for a road vehicle. It will -the boiler will now of course have to be bolted down to the floor. The crankshaft will be sited under the cylinder end of the boiler in much the same way as in the steam carriage. The fly wheel will run in a semi-circular slot let into
the
floor. We intend to put up a separate small house to contain it,
with the drum behind on
which the cable winds, and another chimney - oh, of brick probably - twenty-five or thirty feet high. Do you follow me ?'

'More or less.'

'Now that the Trevorgie workings have been uncovered it is worth the extra expense to have the kibbles drawn up by mechanical power. I am going again tomorrow when William West is at Hayle. The Harveys have invited me to stay the night, so ...'

‘
Why do you not make it two?' 'Oh, as near as that, is it?'
I
did not say so.'

'Well, a nod is as good as a wink. I know when I'm not wanted. Though I shall not be at all happy to be away from it all.'

It is a horse whim of mine,' said Demelza. 'Oh, my dear Mama, now I know you are not feeling well!'

They had returned to where a few scattered stone walls marked all that was now left of Wheal Maiden. A shaft of
sunlight - the first visible that day - provoked a rainbow to emerge briefly in the wake of the passing shower. A single giant black-backed gull hovered overhead: it looked as big as a goose. Demelza perched herself on a
wall.

'Do you see just so much as ever of Stephen, Jeremy?'

'A modest amount. Has
she
been telling you?'

‘I
t only came out in talk. Does he say much of his plans?'

'Only that he will not stay here after the end of the three months — that is, when he leaves the Gatehouse. That is, of course if...'

‘I
f Clowance does not forgive him.'

‘I
t is not forgiveness, Mama, as you know. Clowance is not so pious as to see it in those terms. She said to me it was that in some respects they did not seem to mean the same things when they used the same words. With her I think it has been cumulative, over the months, a slow realization that his ways are not, and never will be, her ways. She has rejected something just before it became too big for her. Something was w
rong. The fight - the quarrel over Ben only
brought it to a head... Of course, Stephen is furious.'

'Furious?'

'Yes. You see, to him the causes of the break were at the best flimsy. He had got into a temper waiting an hour at the mine, and had had a rough and tumble with poor Ben. That was all. He has written to her a sort of apology and now is furious that she has not accepted it. You see, dear Mama,
he
has his pride,
he
has his dignity. His pride is not in what he possesses, not his name or his reputation or his manners, but in himself as a man. He knows his own worth as a man. He knows how other women look at him. He's old enough and experienced enough to know what they see in him. He loves Clowance - I believe he loves Clowance dearly. .And he knows that he would be marrying above his station. But he has a very distinct awareness of - of the value of himself, so to say. This is what he would bring to the wedding: good looks, good health, strength, experience, manliness — out-manning most people around here. He's — he's a frigate, armed to the teeth, well-found, in perfect condition, wishing to board the beautiful white schooner. But - but, now they have exchanged gunfire, he is no more prepared to strike his colours than she is.'

Demelza said: 'So it will not come easy to either of them.'

'No.'

'Perhaps it will give th
em both time.' 'Did you ever want it to happen?' 'Did you?
’

I
don't know. I see exactly what Clowance means. Yet all the time I find Stephen's company a stimulus, a goad...'
I
only want her to be happy.'

'So do we all. Except Stephen. Who wants her in an altogether different way.'

Demelza slipped off the wall. Except for resting her feet, the position had not been comfortable.
He—she
— had not liked it at all.

'And Cuby?'

'You know I met her at the races?' 'Yes, yes.'

'Well, not since then, but that meeting greatly helped. It was - frivolous. We had both wined well and the sun was out, but I can't believe...'

'Good. I'm that glad... I
wish
I could meet her.'

'So you shall... if my suit prospers a little more.'

They began to walk down towards Nampara. Again he linked her arm.

Demelza said: 'When a family is close-knit, such as ours, it is terrible vulnerable. Whoever comes from outside to marry into it
must
be welcomed, must be made to fe
el a part’
But the risk is...'

'The risk is?'

'That he or she who comes from outside is interested only in the one person they wish to marry and resentful of everything that happened before they met
Really
resentful, to the extent they wish to blot it out All, all those distasteful faces around their loved one belong to another age, which is past They want to take their husband or wife and walk with him alone into the future.'

'How do you think these things?' Jeremy asked. 'Seeing that it could never have happened to you?'

‘I
t never happened to me,' Demelza said. 'But I have seen it happen.'

'Seriously,' Jeremy said,
I
would rather see Clowance married to Stephen than to some vapid, goody-goody young man whose only thought was to please her. Yet, like a responsible brother, I had anxious thoughts about the marriage. Maybe this way will do no harm - give them a little more time.'

Demelza watched something stirring in the tangled undergrowth beside the wall. 'By the way, Emma tells me she heard there had been a victory, a big victory - by the Russians over Napoleon. I don't know if it's true. She said Stephen had told her.'

‘I
t would be amazing if one of our allies could do something useful at last! I was reading the other day about the "subsidies England was paying to every country in Europe which will fight Napoleon. It is costing us millions every year - and we so small a country! Precious little so far we have had in return.'

I
was a thought dismayed at Geoffrey Charles's letter yesterday. It looks as if they are back where they began, and all's to do again.'

I
hope it is not as bad as that,' said Jeremy. 'But I still wonder from time to time...'

'What?'

'You know. Whether I should not be with him.' Demelza thought perhaps she should not have spoken.

Yet was this not all better out in the open?

I
suppose your father will be leaving for London early in
the
new year.'

'Yes... Sometimes there are two dudes, aren't there. It depends which comes uppermost...' Jeremy kicked at a stone,
I
wish Ben were not such a fool. I wish he would come back, as we all want. He's so stiff-backed, so pigheaded ... He knows enough about the mines to
run
them. And Carnow and Nanfan can tend the engines just as well as I.'

'And -
the
new whim engine?'

'Can be operating by March of April. It is really quite straightforward, once one has accepted the basic design - it should present no problems. But to be truthful...'

'Yes?'

‘
I
confess I have no towering ambition to become a soldier. It is not in my nature to fancy winning death or glory. Even the discipline would, I believe, greatly irk ... And of course I can make the excuse to myself that the mine engine at Leisure is still young, has to prove herself over a longer period of time. And while I have this sort-of-friendship with Cuby ... If I went away now I should be abandoning what chance I have of making something of that... Cowardice, you see, can find many reasons...'

'What has cowardice to do with it? Is it not a choice you are free to make? You know well, Jeremy, that if - if it was really your wish to become a soldier neither your father nor I would stand in your way. But if it is not particularly your wish, then the fear of being thought afraid should not enter into your mind. It does not appear to have occurred to Stephen Carrington that he must join the Navy - indeed, according to Clowance, he fought hard to stay out! So did your other friend, Paul Kellow. Horrie Treneglos has not bestirred himself. Nor has - well, I could name a dozen other young men of your age—and so could you:'

'Yes,' said Jeremy.
‘
Oh yes. Perhaps they do not have a soldier for a father.'

'That's not clever,' said Demelza, 'that's proper stupid. Your father was in the army only for four or five years. He is
known - at least in Cornwall - as Captain Poldark more because he owns a mine than because he served in the American war. If your father is to be the example, you could as well put up for Parliament!'

Jeremy laughed.
'Along with Valentine.'

'Emma tells me,' Demelza said, moving herself uncomfortably, 'Emma tells me that you and Paul and Stephen sit in the Bounders Arms together as if you were having a council of war.'

'Does she now?'

'Yes, she does.'

Jeremy laughed again, but more grimly this time. 'Believe me, Mama, it is not that sort of war we discuss. And anyway the greatest part of it all is hot air.'

I
hope so.' They began to walk down the valley. Demelza swayed.

'Mama, are you ill?'

'No
' she said, 'of course I'm not ill. But I believe this baby must be a little lop-sided within me and weighs me over from time to time. Small wonder with such a family possing around him.'

I
shall be jealous if it's another boy,' Jeremy said. 'He'll want those wooden toys I have. Those that I would not let Clowance and Bella get their grubby hands on.'

I
see Dwight now,' said Demelza, 'and your father. How anxious they are looking! Do they not look like two mother hens, Jeremy? Do they not now?'

She was sweating slightly, aware that the fever had come back.

III

Geoffrey Charles had written:

Well, it was to have been" a great triumph. To have ended the year on such a note of victory as Salamanca sounded. But in the end all went wrong before the fortress of Burgos. I do not know if his Lordship
over-reached himself, for I was not there; but it is clear we have many more battles still to fight before we have the Frenchies out of Spain.

The Light stayed behind with Hill in Madrid, to their great disgust, and, abandoning the capital six weeks later and marching northwest, we rendezvoused with Wellington and his retreating troops on I believe the
8th
November on the River Tormes, by which time his First Division was in a very poor state, thousands of the
m having drunk themselves into i
nsensibility in the wine vats of Torquemada and been picked up by the French, who were following close behind.

'Even so all would have been well but for this unprintable fool Gordon - Colonel Gordon. Our part of the army - Hill's army - was in good Fettle. Wellington's - when we joined it - was losing discipline but would have stood and fought well enough if the French had come too near. But Gordon, our quarter-master-general, misdirected our food supplies by twenty miles, so that after short rations for
the
first week we then marched the last four days of the retreat with
no
food
at all, except for the wild nuts in the fields and anything that could be culled or stolen. So we became a broken rabble, rain-drenched, fever-ridden, sinking ankle deep in mud, quarrelling, fighting and dying by the thousand. When at last we reached Ciudad Rodrigo it was as if we had suffered a Crippling Defeat at the hands of the French, instead of there only having been a few skirmishes and
no
battle
at all!