The Rape of Venice (20 page)

Of these, the Honourable Gerald Keeble had a big advantage, as he also sat at the Commander's table; but Clarissa was inclined to prefer Robert Mclvor, a young Scot who by patronage of Dundas was being sent out to fill an administrative post—because he had more brains—and Mr. Fenton, of the 61st Foot—because he had a readier sense of humour. A heavy featured Captain of Dragoons and a wiry little Lt-Colonel from the Ordnance Department made up her regular court, but a number of others were generally hovering in the offing.

With regard to Roger himself, she also played her part well—almost too well he was inclined to think as the voyage progressed. It was one thing that she should never permit her glance to linger on him with any hint of more than a niece's affection, but another that she hardly spoke to him unless he first addressed her. It was not that she was deliberately rude to him, but she was so fully occupied talking to other men; and his situation made it impossible for him to appear a competitor for her interest or company.

As a means of keeping his mind off her, he determined to learn Persian. That was then the diplomatic language of India and spoken at all its Courts; so, even during the brief stay he contemplated, he thought it might come in useful if he visited any of them. Warren Hastings, himself a fine Persian scholar, had initiated and encouraged the study, by Servants of the Company, of languages used in India; so Roger had no difficulty in finding among those aboard the
Minerva
one who could speak Persian fluently. He was a middle-aged man named James Griffin and under his tuition Roger, having a flair for languages, was soon making good progress.

As far as the weather was concerned, they were remarkably fortunate. After they had been at sea a week, they met with one bad patch which, for a few days, caused them a certain amount of discomfort and resulted in a sharp decline in the variety of the dishes served at dinner; but it was not anything
approaching a tempest, and Roger succeeded in stalling off his dreaded seasickness. After calling at Madeira, they picked up the South-West Trades, to be wafted by them right across the Atlantic and over the Equator till they sighted Cape St. Roque, the westernmost point of Brazil.

When they crossed the Line, several sailors disguised as King Neptune and his Court clambered up over the ship's side and the usual ceremonies, followed by much rough horseplay, were performed. As similar rites were customary in ships sailing to the West Indies on crossing the Tropic of Cancer, Roger had already ‘met' Neptune; so he was not expected either to participate or to exercise his privilege as a first-class passenger of paying a forfeit to be excused a ducking. All the same, he made the Sea King a handsome present, and was given a front row seat to watch the fun.

As was almost always the case with East India convoys, when they reached the neighbourhood of Cape St. Roque they lay for some days almost completely becalmed. It was intolerably hot; so much so that the pitch became soft in the caulking of the upper decks and their planks so roasting that even the sailors, with their hardened feet, could not bear to walk about them for any length of time without shoes. Normally, the crew and the troops slept in hammocks, slung head to tail, and so close together that they resembled sardines in a tin; so, even at the best of times, their quarters were terribly overcrowded. Now, the greater part of them slept near naked on deck and the passengers, in their stifling cabins, envied them.

As long as the
Minerva
was becalmed, her boats were kept lowered, tow ropes were attached to all of them and relays of the crew laboured at their oars, dragging the heavy ship a mile or so an hour while her sails hung slack but still set to catch the faintest puff of breeze. For ten days, with the sweat running from them at every movement, the passengers and crew endured this inferno; then at last the South-East Trades picked up the ship and life aboard once more became livable.

Cape Town was their next scheduled port of call, but again, by custom dictated by the prevailing winds, the convoy did not head straight for it. Instead, it let the Trades carry it in a great sweep far to the south of the tip of Africa and some way round the corner, until it reached the ‘roaring forties'; only then did it turn north-west in the direction of the port.

It was now early September and so on the verge of spring in the Southern Hemisphere. This saved them from the winter
gales they might otherwise have encountered; although the climate had become chilly compared with that to which for so many weeks they had been accustomed. But it was still warm enough to spend long hours sitting about the deck, and the competition for a place near Clarissa showed no signs of lessening.

Lady Beaumont had long proclaimed her to be the ‘dearest girl' and she certainly gave no trouble to her chaperone by being discovered with chosen admirers on deck after lights out at night, or being found in other such compromising situations. For that Roger had little doubt about the reason, and now and then he felt a cynical satisfaction in the knowledge that he had only to say the word for her to brush aside all her beaux and come running to his arms.

Yet that was a poor compensation for the fact that, except at table, he hardly had a word with her. Her face, now tanned by the sun and framed in her pale gold hair, which had grown again, was more than ever lovely to look at, and he knew her to be an intelligent and charming companion. Through the long weeks of his automatic exclusion from her playtime circle, he had gradually developed a sub-conscious jealousy of the men she favoured with her smiles, and he even envied old Sydney Winters the
tête-à-têtes
she still accorded him now and then to natter to her about India.

The Cape was barely half-way to Calcutta; so there were at least another two months to go before there could be any change in their relationship and, even then, the final result of any such change provoked speculations about which he did not care to think. He only knew that being within sight of her nearly all of every day, yet debarred from the friendly intimacy they had previously enjoyed, made him see her differently and had immensely increased his desire for her.

At dinner on the 10th September, Captain Finch told them that he estimated the
Minerva
now to be no more than forty-eight hours out of Cape Town. That evening, about nine o'clock, the portly Mr. Winters came up to Roger in the saloon and asked him if he would favour him with a short conversation up on deck. Somewhat surprised, but by no means averse to a breath of fresh air, Roger agreed; so the two men collected their cloaks and met again at the top of the hatchway.

After they had covered a few paces side by side, Winters said: ‘I understand that we shall reach Cape Town the day after tomorrow; and I owe you a sincere apology, Mr. Brook,
but he replied politely, ‘No matter, Sir. Be kind enough to inform me of it.'

‘It is,' Winters coughed, then went on suddenly, ‘a formal request that you will permit me to pay my addresses to your niece.'

The idea seemed so preposterous that Roger did not take it seriously. Swiftly suppressing a desire to laugh, and wishing to let the elderly merchant down lightly, he said: ‘Your proposal being an honourable one, I feel sure Miss Marsham will be flattered by it; but before replying to your request, I must speak to her on the matter.'

Winters coughed again, then said hurriedly, ‘You must be aware, Sir, that during the voyage, I have spent many hours in conversation with Miss Marsham. I had no intention of marrying again, but I have found her such a paragon of virtue, sensibility and charm that I can now think of no greater bliss than to make her Mrs. Winters. I should add that I am in a position to support her, even to the extent of providing her with every reasonable luxury.'

‘Yes, yes.' Roger now spoke a shade testily. ‘But you must forgive me for pointing out, Sir, that attentions of the kind you have in mind from a gentleman so much her senior might prove unwelcome to her.'

‘It was with reference to that, Sir, that I made you an apology. As Miss Marsham and I conversed we became ever more fully aware of the similarity of our feelings upon a great variety of subjects. Almost with …'

‘I pray you do not build false hopes on that,' Roger cut in.

Ignoring his remark, Winters continued. ‘Almost unrealised by me, a point was reached at which, without awaiting your consent, I laid my heart and fortune at her feet.'

Roger halted in his tracks. Only the darkness hid his expression of swift apprehension. After a moment he regained sufficient control over himself to ask in a normal voice, ‘What reply did she make to your proposal?'

‘Why, Sir!' exclaimed the merchant rapturously, ‘to my eternal joy she has accepted me.'

A dozen different emotions, none of them pleasant, simultaneously whirled and fought for first place in Roger's mind. It was obvious that Clarissa had determined to adopt the course she had implied she might on the first night of the voyage and that she had ensnared the poor fool who stood before him in order to achieve her object more quickly as, with him already
course she had implied she might on the first night of the voyage and that she had ensnared the poor fool who stood before him in order to achieve her object more quickly as, with him already engaged to her, she could be married within a week of their arrival in Calcutta. But Winters was far from being the sort of man Roger had had in mind when he had so thoughtlessly put the idea into her head. The merchant was neither old enough to be impotent, nor of a fitting station in life to make a suitable
parti
for her. Roger could only thank his stars that there were at least two months yet to go before the
Minerva
reached Calcutta. The time should be ample for him to dissuade her from the folly of taking such a husband, even for the purpose she had in mind. After a moment he said:

‘It seems then that I have little option but to sanction this engagement, Sir; but I would ask you to keep it secret for a while, in case Miss Marsham should change her mind before we arrive in India.'

Winters gave a sudden laugh. ‘There is no fear of that, Sir. I gather that revictualling at Cape Town will require the
Minerva
to lie in the port for some ten days; and it is Miss Marsham's own wish that we should be married there.'

Roger's life had hung too often on his ability to absorb an unpleasant shock without giving himself away for him to be stampeded into showing his surprise and fury on this occasion. Instead, he said in a not unfriendly voice:

‘Then I must offer you my congratulations, Sir.'

Winters thanked him effusively and began to babble about his good fortune, but Roger cut him short by saying: ‘I think, Sir, this conversation has fulfilled its purpose. We will speak further on the matter when I have discussed it with my niece.'

Taking quick alarm, Winters stammered, ‘I … I trust, Mr. Brook, you … you do not intend to use your influence with your niece in an attempt to make her change her mind?'

‘I have so far to meet the woman who has a stronger mind than Miss Marsham,' declared Roger, with cynical truth, ‘and without consulting me she has already made her intentions clear to you. Let us go below.'

Down in the saloon, Clarissa was playing a game of backgammon against Robert McIvor, while three officers stood behind her chair, giving her good advice and endeavouring to make witty remarks that would discomfit her opponent. Roger's bow to her included the whole group, and he said in the authoritative voice that he occasionally used to her in his guise of uncle:

‘Gentlemen; perhaps one of you would take over my niece's hand. I regret to break up her game; but we shall shortly be in Cape Town and I wish to discuss with her how we can best employ our time there.'

Demure as ever, Clarissa rose, made her apologies to McIvor, and laid a hand on the arm that Roger offered her. As
soon as they were out of earshot of the group, she whispered:

‘So Sidney has told you?'

‘Sidney, forsooth!' he hissed back. ‘Clarissa, how could you? But this is no place to discuss it. Get your cloak and meet me up on deck near the main mast.'

Five minutes later he saw the pale blur of her face above the outline of her long grey cloak as she came towards him in the semi-darkness. Stepping forward, he took her by the arm and drew her into the still deeper shadow behind the bollards with their masses of rope and tackle.

‘Well, dear Uncle?' He could guess at her wicked smile from her tone as she asked, ‘Was it really necessary to get me up here in order to congratulate me?'

‘Clarissa!' he said earnestly. ‘This is no laughing matter. You are proposing to do a great wrong to a very decent man and also make a mess of your whole life.'

She shrugged. ‘He's mad about me, but knows that I am not drawn to him by passion. How could I be? I do him no wrong, but on the contrary bring him great happiness. Think of the pride he will feel on producing me in Calcutta as his wife, and the joy he will get from seeing the amazement arid envy of his friends.'

‘Maybe; but their envy will turn to derision the moment it gets out that you have provided him with a pair of horns. Besides, he is utterly unsuited for the rôle that I most foolishly put into your head.'

‘Why so?'

‘To start with he is only in his late forties and has already been married once, so there is no reason whatever to suppose him impotent.'

‘I have dealt with that.' Clarissa gave a low laugh. ‘I told him that, as first pregnancies were often difficult, I considered it a great unkindness to get a new-made bride with child, and that doing so had ruined many a marriage. I asked a year to enjoy myself before starting to provide him with a family; and it is part of our agreement that our marriage should not be consummated for twelve months.'

‘For cleverness I vow you beat the Devil!' Roger exclaimed in grudging admiration. ‘But what when the twelve months are up? And that's not all! He is not, as I suggested, an old fellow with one foot in the grave whose last hours you could make happy in exchange for the fortune he would leave you.'