Beauvallet (5 page)

Beauvallet fell to stroking his pointed beard, seeing him at which significant trick Joshua backed strategically to the door. ‘An evil chance will without any doubt at all shortly befall you, my friend,’ said Sir Nicholas, and came to his feet, ‘At the toe of my boot!’

‘If that is your humour, sir, I withdraw with all speed,’ said Joshua promptly, and retired nimbly.

Beauvallet swung out in his wake, and went up on deck to oversee an inventory of the
Santa Maria
's cargo in the waist.

Thus Dona Dominica, when she came up on deck to take the air, chanced upon a sight that made her curl her lip, and lift her chin. She wandered to the quarter-deck and stood looking
down into the waist, where bales of cloth were lying, and where ingots were being weighed upon a rough scale. Master Dangerfield had a sheet of paper and an inkhorn upon an upturned cask, and wrote carefully thereon while a stout, hairy fellow called weights and numbers. Near him, upon another cask, lounged Beauvallet with a hand on his hip, and a booted leg swinging. His attention was held by what was going forward about him; he did not observe my lady upon the deck above.

You are to know that this seeming piracy was a sort of licensed affair, a guerilla warfare waged upon King Philip II of Spain, who certainly provoked it. Englishmen had a lively hatred of Spain, induced by a variety of causes. There was, many years ago, the affair of Sir John Hawkins at San Juan de Ulloa, an instance of Spanish treachery that would not soon be forgot; there was grim persecution at work in the Low Countries which must make any honest man's blood boil; and a Holy Inquisition in Spain that had swallowed up in hideous manner many stout sailormen captured on English vessels. If you wished to seek farther you had only to observe the way Spain used towards the natives of the Indies. It should suffice you. On top of all there was the abundant pride of Spain, who chose to think herself mistress of the Old World and the New. It remained for Elizabeth, Queen of England by God's Grace, to abate this overweening conceit. In this she was ably assisted by such men as Drake, bluff, roaring man, and Beauvallet, his friend; Frobisher and Gilbert; Davis and the Hawkins, father, sons, and grandson. They put forth into Spanish waters without misgiving and harried King Philip mightily. They laboured under a belief – and you could not rid them of it – that one Englishman was worth a round dozen of Spaniards. Events proved them to be justified in their belief.

Nicholas Beauvallet, a younger son, spent the restlessness of his youth in wanderings upon the Continent, as befitted his
station. He left his England a boy overflowing with such a spirit of dare-devilry that his father and his elder brother prophesied it would lead him to disaster. He came back to it a man seasoned and tried, but it was not to be seen that the dare-devilry had departed from him. His brother, succeeding to their father's room, shook a grave head and called him Italianate, a ruffler, a veritable swashbuckler, and wondered that he would not be still. Nicholas refused to fulfil his family's expectations. He must be off on his adventures again. He went to sea; he made some little noise about the New World, and in due course accompanied Drake on his voyage round the world. With that master mariner he passed the Straits of Magellan, saw the sack of Valparaiso, reached the far Pelew Islands, and Mindanao, and came home round the perilous Cape of Storms, bronzed of face, and hard of muscle, and rich beyond the dreams of man. This was well enough, no doubt, but Gerard Beauvallet, a sober man, judged it time to be done with such traffickings. Nicholas had won an honourable knighthood; let him settle down now, choose a suitable bride, and provide the heirs that came not to my Lady Beauvallet. Instead of this, incorrigible Nicholas had sailed away, after the briefest of intervals, this time in a ship of his own. So far from conducting himself like a respectable landowner, such as his brother wished him to be, he seemed to be concerned only to make a strong noise about the world. This he did with complete success. There was only one Drake, but also there was only one Beauvallet. The Spaniards coupled the two names together, but made of Beauvallet a kind of devil. Drake performed the impossible in the only possible way; the Spaniards said that El Beauvallet performed it in an impossible way, and feared him accordingly. As for his own men, they held him in some affection, and believed firmly in his luck and his genius. They thought him clearly mad, but his madness was profitable, and they had long ceased to wonder at
anything he might take it into his head to do. They might be trusted to follow where he led, knowing by experience that he would not lead them to disaster. His master, Patrick Howe, of bearded mien, would wag a solemn finger. ‘Look you, we win because our Nick cannot fail. He is bird-eyed for opportunity, and blind to danger, and he laughs his way out of every peril we come to. Mad? Ay, you may say so.’

The truth was that Sir Nicholas would swoop lightning-swift into some hare-brained emprise and be off again victorious while you stood agape at his hardihood.

Thus with his sweeping off of Dona Dominica, before she had time to fetch her breath. And all with no more than a careless snap of the fingers, as it were. Oh, a hardy fellow, God wot!

Dominica thought of all this as she stood looking down at him now, and since Beauvallet paid no heed to her, nor ever looked up towards the deck where she stood she presently gave vent to a scornful little laugh, and remarked to the chasing clouds: ‘A merchant, counting stolen goods!’

Beauvallet looked quickly up. The sun was on his uncovered head, and in his blue eyes; he put up a hand to shade them. ‘My Lady Disdain! Give you a thousand good-morrows!’

‘The morrow will not be good while I am upon such a ship as this,’ she said provocatively.

‘Now what's amiss?’ demanded Sir Nicholas, and sprang down from the cask. ‘What ails the ship?’

He was halfway up the companion, which was maybe what she wanted, but she would not have him know that. ‘Pray you, stay below amongst your gains, señor.’

He was beside her on the deck now, swung a leg over the rail, and sat there like some careless boy. ‘What's amiss?’ he repeated. ‘More dust in the alleyway?’

She gave the smallest of sniffs. ‘There is this amiss, señor, that this is a pirate vessel, and you are mine enemy!’

‘That in your teeth, my lass!’ he said gaily. ‘I am no enemy of yours.’

She tried to look witheringly upon him, but it seemed to have no effect. ‘You are the declared enemy of all Spaniards, señor, and well I know it.’

‘But I have it in mind, sweetheart, to make an Englishwoman of you,’ said Beauvallet frankly.

She was fairly taken aback. She gasped, flushed, and clenched her little hands.

‘Now where's that dagger?’ said Beauvallet, watching her in some amusement.

She flounced round upon her heel, and swept away to the poop. She was outraged and speechless, but she could still wonder whether he would follow. She need have been in no doubt. He let her gain the poop, out of sight of his men, and came up with her there. He set his hands on her shoulders, and twisted her round to face him. The teasing light went out of his eyes, and his voice was softened. ‘Lady, you called me a mocker, but for once I do not jest. Here my solemn promise! I will make you an Englishwoman before a year is gone by. And so seal my bond.’ He bent his handsome head quickly, and kissed her lips before she could stop him.

She cried out indignantly, and her hands flew to avenge the insult. But he had her measure, and was ready for the swift reprisal. She found her hands caught and imprisoned, and his face close above hers, smiling down into her angry eyes. ‘Will you rate me for a knave, or pity me for a poor mad fellow?’ said Sir Nicholas, teasing again.

‘I hate you!’ she said, and spoke with some passion. ‘I despise you, and I hate you!’

He let her go. ‘Hate me? But why?’

She brushed her hand across her lips, as though she would brush his kiss away. ‘How dared you – !’ she choked. ‘Hold
me – kiss me! Oh, base! It's to insult me!’ She fled towards the companion leading down to the staterooms.

He was before her, barring the way. ‘Hold, child! Here's some tangle. I would wed you. Did I not say it?’

She stamped, tried to push past him, and failed. ‘You will never wed me!’ she defied him. ‘You are ungenerous, base! You hold me prisoner, and do as you will with me!’

He had her fast indeed, with his hands gripping her arms above the elbows. He shook her slightly. ‘Nay nay, there's no talk of prisoners or of gaolers, Dominica, but only of a man and a maid. What harm have I done you?’

‘You forced me! You dared to kiss me, and held me powerless!’

‘I cry pardon. But you may stab me with mine own dagger, sweeting. See, it is ready to your hand. A swift, sure revenge! No? What will you have me do then?’ His hands slid down her arms to her wrists; he bent, and kissed her fingers. ‘There! let it be forgot – until I kiss you again.’ That was said with a quick whimsical glance, daringly irrepressible.

‘That will be never, señor.’

‘And so she flings down her gauntlet. I pick it up, my lady, and will give you a Spanish proverb for answer:
Vivir para ver!
’

‘You will scarcely wed me by force,’ she retorted. ‘Even you!’

He considered the point. ‘True, child, that were too easy a course.’

‘I warrant you would not find it so!’

‘Marry, is it yet another challenge?’ he inquired.

She drew back a pace. ‘You would not!’

‘Nay, have I not said I will not? Be at ease, ye shall have a royal wooing.’

‘And where will you woo me?’ she asked scornfully. ‘My home is in the very heart of Spain, I’d have you know.’

‘Be sure I shall follow you there,’ he promised, and laughed to see her face of incredulous wonder.

‘Braggart! Oh, idle boaster! How should you dare?’

‘Look for me in Spain before a year is out,’ he answered. ‘My hand upon it.’

‘There is a Holy Inquisition in Spain, señor,’ she reminded him.

‘There is, señora,’ he said rather grimly, and produced from out his doublet a book bound in leather. ‘And it is like to have you in its clutches if you keep such dangerous stuff as this about you, my lass,’ he said.

She turned pale, and clasped her hands nervously at her bosom. ‘Where found you that?’ The breath caught in her throat.

‘In your cabin aboard the
Santa Maria
, child. If that is the mind you are in the sooner I have you safe out of Spain the better for you.’ He gave the book into her hands. ‘Hide it close, or sail with me to England.’

‘Do not tell my father!’ she said urgently.

‘Why, can you not trust me? Oh, unkind!’

‘I suppose it is no affair of yours, señor,’ she said, recovering her dignity. ‘I thank you for my book. Now let me pass.’

‘I have a name, child. I believe I made you free of it.’

She swept a curtsey. ‘Oh, I thank you – Sir Nicholas Beauvallet!’ she mocked, and fled past him down the companion.

Four

D
ona Dominica thought it imperative that Beauvallet's impudence should be suitably punished, and took it upon herself to perform this pious office. Master Dangerfield was a tool ready to her hand; she sought him out, cast a thrall about that susceptible lad, and flirted with him, somewhat to his embarrassment. She brought her long eyelashes into play, the minx, was all honey to him, and flattered the vanity of the youthful male. She used a distant courtesy towards Beauval let, listened when he spoke to her, folded meek hands in her lap, and turned back to Master Dangerfield at the first chance. Beauvallet had stately curtseys and cool impersonalities from her; she let it be clearly seen that Dangerfield could have if he chose a hand to kiss, her smiles, and her chatter. Master Dangerfield was duly grateful, but showed a lamentable tendency to set her high upon a pedestal. At another time this might have pleased her, but she had now no mind to play the goddess. She was at pains to show Master Dangerfield that he might dare to venture a little farther.

But all this strategy failed of its object. Dona Dominica, out of the tail of her eye, saw with indignation the frank amusement of Sir Nicholas. Beauvallet stood back and watched the play with a laughing, an appreciative eye. The lady redoubled her efforts.

She was forced to admit Dangerfield dull sport, and chid herself for hankering after the livelier company of his General. With him one met the unexpected; there was a spice of risk to savour the game, an element of adventure to whet the appetite. She would come up with Dangerfield on the deck, stand at his side and ask him questions innumerable upon the sailing of a ship, and appear to listen rapt to his conscientious answers. But all the time she had a quick ear and a vigilant eye for Sir Nicholas, and when she heard his ringing voice, or saw him come with his quick light step across the deck she would feel her pulses beat the faster, and dread a rising blush. Nor could she ever withstand the force in him that compelled her to meet his look. She might fight against it, but soon or late she must steal a glance towards him, and find his eyes, brimful of laughter, upon her, his hands lightly laid on his hips, his feet firmly planted and wide apart, mockery in his every line.