HF - 04 - Black Dawn (25 page)

'But. . .' Harriet's brows drew together, slowly, in bewilderment. 'That's a criminal charge.'

'Indeed it is. And perpetrated by a man like Dick Hilton, why . . . imagination does not cope with the scandal. As he no doubt realizes. He has disappeared.'

'Disappeared?'

'He was last seen making for the waterfront. Certainly he is not to be found in Kingston. I have spent this last hour making inquiries.'

'But
...
oh, my God.'

'Suicide? Not Dick. On the other hand, he was drunk. He might have fallen in, and drowned. There's tragedy for you.'

'You can sit there? And say that, about your own brother?'

'An odd chap. Not really a Hilton. On the other hand, Harriet, a ship cleared last night about ten. The
Corm
orant
for Bristol.'

'And you think he's on that? Oh, thank God.'

'It is a possibility. A guilty man, running, oh, yes, it is a possibility. But what a time to go, with a crop to be cut and ground.'

Harriet once more licked her lips. 'You
...
he ordered you from the plantation.'

'Ah. I was wondering, do you remember that, Harriet?' She gazed at him.

'Because I was thinking, he has also ordered you from the plantation. In effect. Now, even were I to be allowed to act for him, and in the circumstances, with him gone, and us not knowing whether he is alive or dead, and being unable to know until the
Cormorant
makes Bristol and returns again—why, twelve weeks at the very least—I could not take you back out there.' He leaned forward, gently cupped her right breast in his hand, adjusting its sag. Her eyes widened. 'But at the same time, being a very generous fellow by nature, were I put in charge of Hilltop I certainly would not think of letting you starve, especially after what Dick did to your daughter. And there is another point. With you making a formal accusation of rape, and concerning your daughter, it is doubtful whether Dick will ever dare return to Jamaica, and if he did, he would very probably go to gaol. Twelve weeks, was I saying? Twelve years more like.' He turned his attention to her left breast, stroked the nipple erect. 'I do not see, in the circumstances, how Reynolds could do anything different. Dick has made a will you know, leaving everything to me. Well, perhaps he isn't dead. But there it is. I am his appointed heir.' Harriet gazed at him. 'How much?'

'Your own house, for a start. And shall we say, a thousand a year? There'll be no quarrelling with Judith, mind. She'll live with you, and you'll be the perfect mother, as regards her.

What else you do with your time, and who else you do it with, is your business.'

'A thousand pounds?'

'A thousand guineas.'

'My God,' she whispered. Then her head jerked. 'Boscawen. Merriman. They were there when you left.'

Tony Hilton smiled. 'Boscawen and Merriman are slaves, Harriet. And Dick was an indulgent, an over-indulgent master. Why, those two, they'd perjure themselves to have him back. But I know how to deal with perjury. So do the Custos, I imagine. They're all planters.'

Harriet Gale licked her li
ps. 'You are a devil from hell, Mr Hilton.'

Tony Hilton stood up. 'I'm a Hilton, Mistress Gale. No doubt Reynolds will be in touch, for a statement.' He went to the door. 'I'll send Judith up. Be sure you treat her kindly.'

The sun was swinging low in the western sky when Anthony Hilton rode up the slope. The rain of yesterday had left the air clean. The rain and the wind. There had been a lot of wind, although it was too late in the year for a full hurricane. And indeed, the gale had already blown itself out. But it could not have sprung up at a better time. It occurred to Tony that he might be an unlucky gambler, but there was nothing wrong with his fortune in other directions.

He drew rein before the Great House. Instantly the yardboys surrounded the horse to take his bridle and give him a leg down. And instantly, too, Boscawen appeared on the verandah. 'Mr Hilton, sir? Man. I'm glad to see you, master. The master done gone to town, three days, and I ain't seen him.'

Tony climbed the steps, took off his hat to fan his face. 'Fetch me something to drink. None of that damned sangaree. A bottle of good wine from the cellar.'

'Man, Mr Tony, sir, Mr Richard done give instructions no wine to be taken from the good cellar unless he saying so.'

'Listen, old man,' Tony said. 'Fetch me a bottle, and jump to it. And then get the drivers and that Merriman up here, and send for Mr Hardy.'

Boscawen hesitated, looked down the steps as if hoping to see Dick materialize out of the dusk, then turned and went into his pantry. Tony entered the withdrawing room. The candles had just been lit, and burned brightly. The entire room glowed. It was a room meant to be crowded, with handsome, elegantly dressed men, and with beautiful, gayly dressed women. It had stood empty for too long.

And now it was his. His now, and, if he played his cards right, his forever. And he played cards well. There was no sharper sitting opposite him this time. All the high cards were tucked away in
his
sleeve.

Hardy hurried into the room. 'Mr Hilton? Thank God. If we only knew what was going on . . .'

'It seems my brother has fled the island, or committed suicide,' Tony explained.

'Good God. Because of that Taggart woman?'

'Have you met her?'

'Yesterday. She came out here, for the second time, I believe, looking for Mr Richard. It seems he had been meant to call on her in town.'

'Ah. Was she worried?'

'She was indeed, Mr Anthony. Well, she took the road in all that rain. Afraid for her safety, I was. But she would come. And then go again. What's to be done?
^’

'There is little can be done, about poor Dick. It is also a criminal matter, James. A business of rape, on Judith Gale.'

Hardy frowned. 'Judith? I would hardly call that. . .'

'Rape is rape, James. The innocent must be protected. A complaint has been laid, and the Custos would certainly have to take Dick into custody should he reappear. But I have a feeling that he won't, for some time. In the meanwhile, I am to manage Hilltop.'

'You, Mr Anthony? But, I did hear . . .'

'Rumours spread by the blacks, James. You'll not believe nigger rumours, now will you? Of course, there will have to be certain changes. I doubt I possess my brother's patience with lazy swine. I have also long felt that you have been insufficiently rewarded for all your efforts on our behalf.'

Hardy gazed at him for a moment, and then smiled. 'Rumours, Ml Anthony. I'll get to the bottom of them.'

Tony also smiled. He had been looking past his manager to the verandah, where Joshua Merriman was hurrying up the steps; behind him were Absolom and several of the drivers. 'Then I suggest you begin.'

'Mr Anthony?' Merriman stood in the hall, his hat in his hands. 'But what is this I hearing, Mr Anthony?'

Tony went outside. 'Nothing that need concern you, Josh. Save that I shall be in charge of Hilltop for the next few years.'

'You, Mr Anthony? But the master done say . . .'

'I am the master, Josh. You'd do well to remember that.'

Josh frowned at him. 'I got for hear that from the master, Mr Anthony.'

'Another opinion I have long held, Mr Hardy,' Tony said, 'is that this fellow is unsuited to the authority my brother saw fit to give him. From this moment he will take his place in the field.'

'You can't do that, Mr Anthony,' Joshua declared. 'I going talk with Mr Reynolds about this.'

'You can talk to the sky,' Tony said. 'Mr Hardy, that man is at the bottom of all the rumours spread about my brother and me. I want him punished. Fifty lashes, Mr Hardy.'

'Yes, sir,' Hardy cried.

'You can't do this,' Merriman insisted. 'The master done say . . .'

Hardy was at the balustrade, looking down at Absolom. 'Take him down, Absolom. Strip him and have him on the triangle.'

Absolom glanced at his fellow drivers. 'When Mr Reynolds hears about this . . .' Josh said. But he was not a Hilltop slave. He was Dick Hilton's man, not theirs.

'You coming, man?' Absolom asked. 'Or we carrying you?'

Thank you, Mr Hardy,' Tony said, and went inside. Things to be done. Mama. She must be told. He must write her a letter, explaining Dick's crimes. And then, Ellen Taggart? She looked like a horse. But a very handsome horse. And a strong, purposeful woman, of whom Dick was very obviously terrified. Why, the poor woman must be absolutely distraught at what had happened.

Besides, he had no idea what arrangements Dick might have made, either with her or concerning her.

'You'll fetch the port, Boscawen.' Anthony Hilton leaned back in his chair, smiled down the sweep of the huge dining table. Ellen Taggart smiled back. She sat immediately on his right. Her mother sat on his left, and James Hardy sat beside Mrs Taggart. The table continued to look utterly empty, save for this corner. But it was an expanse Tony enjoyed. 'So there it is,' he said. 'Perhaps it is difficult to explain, and yet, you know, all my sympathy, all my heart, goes out to poor Dick. Living here, in all this splendour, absolute master of everyone and everything, one loses all sense of perspective, all sense of reality. The same thing apparently happened to Uncle Robert. Isn't that so, Mr Hardy?'

'Oh, indeed, Mr Hilton,' Hardy agreed. 'The former Mr Hilton was renowned for his eccentricity, and his arrogance.'

'And you think my appearance may have pricked Dick's little bubble?' Ellen inquired, softly. She wore a white evening gown, decorated with pink lace flowers at the hem, and pink lace gloves. Her bodice was square, but low. Her hair was up; and also decorated with flowers. She was a quite superb horse. And a woman of character. A woman who would never be mastered? Who would never wish to be mastered? What a splendid thought.

'Oh, undoubtedly. Looked at objectively, of course, it was the best thing that could happen to him. There is yet time. But then, to rape that poor child
...
I do beg your pardon, Mrs Taggart.'

'A spade may as well be called a spade, Mr Hilton,' Mrs

Taggart said. 'I never did like that young man, if you'll excuse my opinion. I always found him odd.'

'Oh, Mother, you hardly knew Dick.' Ellen frowned at Tony. 'But then, it seems, neither did I.'

Boscawen had placed the decanter of port beside Tony; now he filled Ellen's crystal goblet before passing it to her mother. 'We shall, of course, endeavour to find him, and to be honest with you, Ellen
....
you don't mind if I call you Ellen, I hope
...
I shall endeavour to keep him safe away from Jamaica and the law. Blood is thicker than water, what?'

Ellen sighed, and sipped, and sighed again. 'I could forgive him anything,' she said. 'Even assaulting that poor child. But those lies he wrote in his letters, year after year after year.'

'Unforgivable,' Mrs Taggart boomed.

'Incredible,' Tony said, having discovered the opening he had been seeking. 'One can hardly think of a more peaceful place than Jamaica, and in Jamaica a more peaceful place than this plantation. I'd enjoy showing it you, Ellen.'

'I'd love to see it,' she said. 'I've only glanced at it from the windows of the coach, as we came in, and the first time, well . . .' a pretty flush scorched her cheeks, 'I was so angry . . .'

'With reason. With reason. Shall we retire?' Tony stood up, pulled out Ellen's chair; Hardy did the same for Mrs Taggart. 'If you ladies would like to see the bedrooms . . .' He smiled. 'I am afraid I don't have such a thing as a housekeeper.'

'And very wise, too,' Mrs Taggart said. 'Will you accompany me, Ellen?'

Ellen had caught Tony's eye. 'I think a little later, Mother. But you go ahead. I'd like some air.' She walked towards the verandah. 'That was a superb meal, Mr Hilton.'

Tony nodded to Hardy, who withdrew into the drawing room. Mrs Taggart was already half way up the stairs.

He joined Ellen on the verandah.
‘I
th
ink you could try calling me Tony.'

She glanced at him, moved to the rail, look
ed down at the night, at the twi
nkling lights in the houses of the town, and at the torches burning in the slave village. 'It is magnificent,' she said. 'So quiet. . . and yet, not so quiet, surely. There was a man, suspended from some posts, when we came in. He had been whipped I think.'

'Oh, indeed, an utter scoundrel named Merriman. Do you know, I have had to flog him every day this past week? The fact is, it was another of Dick's aberrations that these people did not require discipline. But I should have had him taken down before you came. I do apologize.'