Georgette Heyer (56 page)

  'I hope your Majesty will be pleased to do so – ah, if Colonel Gounter permits!'

  The Colonel was standing with his back to the door, his hand resting suggestively on his sword-hilt, two circumstances which seemed to amuse the merchant. He replied, in a level tone: 'I believe you to be an honest man, sir. I should not else have employed you in this business. What reason had Stephen Tattersal to say this gentleman is the King?'

  'Why, it seems he had a very good reason, sir, for upon my denying it, he answered that he knew him well, for his ship had been taken by him, along with other fishing vessels, in the year 1648.'

  'That was when I commanded the King my father's fleet,' remarked Charles thoughtfully. 'But, as I remember, I very kindly let them go again.'

  The Colonel laughed at this, and, letting his hand fall from his sword-hilt, came forward into the middle of the room. 'I hope your kindness may now stand you in good stead, sir. Mr Mansel, the King is in your hands. Will you serve him?'

  'I think,' said the merchant, 'that it is better for Mr Mansel to have the King in his hands than for Mr Mansel to be in Colonel Gounter's hands.'

  'Faith, this is a man after my own heart!' said the King. 'My friend, tell me what kind of a fellow is Stephen Tattersal?'

  'As the world goes, he is honest, sire. Yet, the risk of any way assisting your Majesty being very great, I would humbly suggest that you do not make yourself known to him, but will permit me instead to do what I can to reassure him.'

  'Go, then,' smiled the King. 'But see to it you do not let him leave this house, for it may be that he has a wife, and I am not minded to lose him as I lost one other that was pledged to carry me to France.'

  'I will do my possible, sir,' replied Mansel, and, bowing, went back to Tattersal in the taproom.

  The King and Gounter rejoined Lord Wilmot in the larger parlour. When he heard that, besides the landlord, Tattersal had recognized the King, and that Mansel had been admitted to the secret, Wilmot gave a groan, and clasped his head in his hands, saying that all would yet go to rack. 'Again and again have our hopes been dashed!' he declared. 'Alas, under what evil star were you born, sir?'

  'But, Harry, my hopes are not dashed, I do assure you! I am very well pleased with this merchant who has a sting under his tongue, and as for the master of the sailing vessel, we have him safe, and shall not let him go until we go with him.'

  'We shall fail!' Wilmot said gloomily.

  'Well, we have failed before. Keep a high heart: I was not born to lose my head on a block!'

  'Your Majesty must forgive my lord, and all your poor servants,' said the Colonel, with the hint of a smile. 'Though you may be like Elisha's servant, that saw an heavenly host about him to guard him, to us it is invisible. We must think every minute a day, a month, until we see your sacred person out of reach of your enemies.'

  'Yes!' said Wilmot. 'That is what he shall not under stand!'

  'I thank you, I thank you! But indeed you are too fearful.'

  Mansel coming back into the room with Stephen Tattersal at that moment, the King strolled towards the window, and stood there, holding back the curtain, and looking out into the moonlit yard.

  The Colonel observed that the corners of Mansel's mouth were slightly pulled down, but without seeming to notice it, he stepped forward, saying: 'You come in pudding-time! Now, tell me, Captain, in what readi ness are you to set sail?'

  Tattersal cast a glance towards the tall figure by the window, but the King's back was turned to him. He said gruffly: 'Nay, there's no getting off without the tide. Look 'ee, master, to your better security I haled the
Surprise
into the creek, and the tide has forsaken her, so that she lies aground. I know not when I may set sail, for the wind's contrary, besides.'

  The King had opened the casement. 'The wind has turned,' he said.

  'If you will get your boat off tonight, you may have ten pounds more than was promised you,' said the Colonel.

  Tattersal shook his head. 'Nay, I tell ye she's aground, master! The tide must take her off, and that'll not be till eight in the morning at soonest.'

  'But you could take us aboard before dawn?' Wilmot demanded.

  'I could do so,' said Tattersal, 'if, maybe, your honour was wishful none should see you step aboard.'

  'Well! Then we will go aboard with you, and there await the tide!'

  Tattersal looked under his brows at him. 'Ay, and you may do so, if the Colonel will insure the barque,' he said.

  'Insure the barque!' exclaimed Gounter. 'What maggot have you in your head to think I should do so? You are being handsomely paid for your pains, so let that be the end of it!'

  'Your demand, my friend,' said Mansel, 'is, as I have told you, out of all reason. You have had many freights of me, but I have never yet insured your vessel, nor shall not, believe me!'

  'I have not had a freight the like of this one,' replied Tattersal sturdily. 'If I'm to take dangerous stuff aboard, I'll be insured, or I'll not set sail, do what you will.'

  Nothing could move him from this resolve, and after arguing it for ten fruitless minutes, the Colonel, at a warning look from Mansel, yielded. Tattersal valued his boat at two hundred pounds, which Mansel admitted to be a fair price, and the Colonel promised, much against his will, to stand surety for that amount.

  'And I will have your bond, master,' said Tattersal, with a stubborn look about his mouth.

  'No,' said Mansel coldly. 'That you shall not. The Colonel's name shall not appear in the business.'

  The Colonel's eyes began to sparkle. 'You have my word, and if that should not content you, there are others whom it may!'

  'I'll not sail without I have your bond.'

  'There are more boats besides you, Captain Tattersal. If you will not act upon the word of a gentleman, I will find those that will!'

  'That's as you please, master. I'll have your bond, or go my ways.'

  The King shut the window, and turned, and came deliberately into the full candlelight. He met Tattersal's searching stare with a faintly satirical gleam in his eyes, and said with a smile curling his mouth: 'The Colonel says right: a gentleman's word is as good as his bond – especially before witnesses,' he added, somewhat naïvely.

  There was a moment's silence. Tattersal drew in his breath, and said in an altered tone: 'I'll carry you to France, master.'

  'Why, that is very good hearing,' said the King. 'We will drink to the bargain. Mr Barlow, call up the land lord, if you please!'

  His decision having been made, Tattersal began to be in a better humour, and by the time he had drunk a glass or two of wine, he talked no more of going away to provide further necessaries for the voyage, but took a pipe, and was soon lured into a game of cards with Wilmot and Francis Mansel.

  When he had seen him fairly settled, the King went apart with Colonel Gounter, to take order for the moneys to be expended. Giles Strangways's broad pieces were not enough to defray both Tattersal's and Mansel's fees, so the King wrote out a bill of exchange drawn upon a certain London merchant, saying, as he scrawled his name across the paper: 'For God's sake, be rid of this as soon as you may, Gounter! They say a King's signature has the power of life or death. I know not what power of life mine may hold, but I assure you it is very potent for death.'

  The Colonel put the scrap of paper in his pocket. 'I will keep it safe, sir, have no fear! But I am a little uneasy, and upon a different count. Dare we trust the boatman? His stomach came down mighty quickly – too quickly for my peace!'

  'Yea, for I let him see my face, and he very well knows me for the King,' replied Charles.

  'That brings me no comfort, sir,' said the Colonel.

  'I think him honest enough. We will keep him with us, making merry, until we go aboard his barque.'

  'You may leave that to me, sir. Will you not rest awhile?'

  'Nay, I'll take a hand at cards,' replied the King, adding with one of his droll looks: 'You and my lord are so high in the instep you will very likely frighten the poor man.'

  He went back into the parlour, and soon joined the card-players. His coming infused the game with a spirit of good-fellowship which had been lacking from it. He lounged at his ease, as though he had not a care in the world, and straightway won Tattersal's heart by letting fall a jest coarse enough to double the mariner up.

  It was not until two in the morning that the party set out for Southwick. The horses were brought round to the back of the inn; Lord Wilmot paid the shot; and the sleepy landlord contrived once more to kiss the King's hand, declaring that it should not be said that he had not kissed the best man's hand in England.

  Francis Mansel then took leave, since his part in the business was done, and he had (he said) little desire to hazard his life unneedfully; and the three other men left the inn, taking Tattersal with them.

  Colonel Gounter being the lightest man in the company, Tattersal climbed up behind him on to the back of the sturdy nag barrowed from Lawrence Hyde. They made their way along the shore in the moonlight, and arrived at Southwick to see the
Surprise
, a barque of not more than sixty tons, lying high and dry on the mud in the creek. Tattersal having directed the Colonel to a derelict hovel a little removed from the huddle of cottages that constituted the hamlet, the horses were stabled in it, and the Colonel accompanied the King and Lord Wilmot to the ship.

  The crew were all sleeping, and Tattersal at once led the King (who seemed inclined to inspect the vessel more thoroughly) down the steep companion-way to a little stuffy cabin that was lit by a lantern hanging from a beam.

  Lord Wilmot looked about him with an expression of patient long-suffering, but the King saw nothing amiss in his surroundings, and said, stretching himself out on the bunk: 'Harry, how long is it since I was upon the sea! Mark me, if I do not sail this barque to France!'

  'You are not upon the sea, sir,' replied Wilmot tartly. 'You are heeled over upon the mud, and in a cabin which stinks! And if so wretched a boat can reach to France, I for one shall deem it miraculous!'

  'Nay, she's a right seaworthy vessel!' said the master, who had come into the cabin in time to hear these remarks. 'Your honour's no seaman, I see plain.' He looked at the King with a smile hovering about his mouth, and trod over to the bunk and knelt down beside it. 'Your Majesty knows better,' he said simply. 'I would not tell ye so, back in that inn, but I know ye well, my liege, ay, and I will venture life, and all that I have in the world to set you down safe in France.'

  'I thank you, friend,' the King said, giving him his hand to kiss.

  'Look 'ee, my liege, it's thought I'm bound for Poole, with a load of sea-coal,' said Tattersal. 'I am not wishful the folks at Shoreham should take note that I don't go upon my intended voyage, so if your Majesty pleases, we'll stand out with an easy sail towards the Isle of Wight till afternoon, and then make for Fécamp.'

  'It pleases me well,' the King replied.

  It did not please my Lord Wilmot, but the King told him that he was a landlubber, and bade him hold his peace.

  The tide was creeping in, and it began to be time for Colonel Gounter to go ashore. He would have knelt to kiss the King's hand, but Charles swung his legs to the ground and stopped him, grasping both his hands in his, and saying: 'Nay, you shall not kneel to me, who have preserved my life! How may I thank you, Colonel?'

  'Sire, by pardoning me for all that has gone amiss in our journey, and believing it was through error, not want of will or loyalty,' the Colonel said, a little unsteadily.

  'Nay, none has served me so well. It is my earnest prayer you may not hereafter suffer for it, my dear friend.'

  'It imports little. Yet, if I may beg one favour of your Majesty, it is that when you come to France you will conceal the instruments in your escape.'

  'Have no fear: until I come to my throne, I will not divulge to any the names of those who have helped me, and so I promise you!' the King said.

  The Colonel lifted one of his hands to his lips, and gripped it there for a moment.

  'God bless and preserve your Majesty, and bring you back to us!' he said, and releasing the King's hand, turned sharp on his heel and left the cabin.

  At eight o'clock, the incoming tide lifted the
Surprise
off the mud, and the Colonel, seated before the hut where he had stabled the horses, saw her on sail. Slowly she drew away from the land, a dingy little barque, carrying a precious burden to safety.

  The wind was cold, but the Colonel sat on, watching the
Surprise
move slowly seaward. It was lonely on the shore, with only the scream of the gulls wheeling against the dull sky, and the breaking of the waves on the sand, to break the silence. A deep thankfulness filled the Colonel's breast, but he felt a little sad as well, and suddenly very tired. His life, which had been quick ened for a brief space by peril and sharp care, and made bright by the magic of an ugly young man's smile, now seemed empty, and rather bleak.