Riverbreeze: Part 1 (5 page)

As it was, the day would be fresh and clear,
a fine day for a journey, their first journey on the horses. He
couldn’t wait to get on his way. He, Robert and Robin were all
going to the party together, actually leaving the plantation,
something the three of them hadn’t done together for over a month.
Jamie had gone to church each week with Mrs. Chilcott, allowing
himself one day off a week, but the rest of the week he and Rob had
been too busy taking down the dried tobacco plants from the rafters
in the shed, stripping the leaves from the stalks and pressing them
into hogsheads for shipment and just generally trying to get
through each day without dropping dead from exhaustion. These last
four weeks Robert had gladly paid the fines while he stayed home,
working harder than ever before to keep his plantation running as
smoothly as possible.

Jamie was ever so glad the tobacco season was
over. Raising tobacco wasn’t his favorite thing to do, to put it
lightly, but it was the one and only way to make a good enough
profit to fund his true passion.

Everyone knew the Dutch paid well for
Virginia-grown tobacco, better than England, offering sixteen to
eighteen pence a pound compared to two pence, and even though there
was a statute on the books directly from King Charles stating not
to trade with any foreign ship, Jamie and Robert ignored it much to
the dismay of their adoptive father who, along with his business
and political allies, believed in trading exclusively with London
merchants in England. But even the Governor favored open trade with
Holland, realizing the benefits for the citizens of his colony. As
a young man in his early twenties Sir William Berkeley had traveled
to Holland and seen how Dutch merchants were expanding their trade
routes to faraway lands, making them substantial profits. He wanted
those same profits for his citizens and to increase Virginia’s
commerce.

Robert and Jamie, with minds of their own and
a keen business sense and out from under Tyler’s strict hand, for
the past two years had aligned themselves with some very prominent
Councilors who had been trading with Holland for years. For the
past two years Robert’s and Jamie’s profits had been sufficient
enough to allow them to buy the horses and a few other luxuries,
and as long as they had the support of the Governor and as long as
the English government was more occupied with the problems of the
civil war than to monitor what was going on in a faraway colony,
the brothers would continue to trade with the Dutch and reap the
benefits.

Jamie stopped for a moment to wave at their
new indentured servant who had just emerged from the original
wattle and daub cottage which had stood on this property for the
last fifteen years. John Connelly was a sixteen-year-old lad from
the town of Itchington in the county of Devon, the son of a poor
farmer, looking for adventure. He had arrived a fortnight ago, on
the same ship with the horses, also chosen by their agent, William
Clayton. (Despite the fact that Robert and Jamie traded with the
Dutch, they kept their associations with some English merchants
through Tyler and Clayton.)

This morning Connelly was wearing an old,
course buckram nightshirt that reached down to his skinny knees and
nothing else, and he looked sleepy and disheveled with his long
stringy brown hair falling over his eyes. Normally he would have
been up hours ago, ready to work alongside either Jamie or Robert,
but last night Robert had told him he could sleep late this morning
and to come to the house for breakfast whenever he woke up.
Connelly wouldn’t be going with them to the gathering, and Jamie
didn’t know if that was a good idea or not.

Connelly waved back, a lazy lifting of his
hand, then he turned his back on Jamie in order to take a piss
right outside the door. Jamie didn’t like that; it was all right to
do that sort of thing out in the woods or out in the field when
they were far from the house and yard, but they had a privy for
that, or at least he could’ve gone around to the back of the
hut.

“Oy!” Jamie shouted, but Connelly ignored
him, taking his sweet time. When he was finished, he merely let his
shirt drop down and turned to Jamie, shrugging his bony shoulders
insolently and calling back, “Sorry!” But Jamie knew the boy didn’t
mean it.

Nevertheless Jamie let it go; so far the boy
had been pretty good and thankfully not too sickly. This was due to
the fact that the trading ships’ captains and other officials had
finally learned that the best time to arrive in Virginia was in the
fall and not during the sweltering heat of the summer when disease
ran rampant.

Presently Jamie watched the boy disappear
back inside the cottage presumably to dress, reminding himself to
speak to Robert about the little incident later.

When he arrived at the stables, the servant
was quickly forgotten as he opened the large, crosshatched double
doors eager to greet his new acquisitions. The familiar smells he
loved so well wafted over him and he breathed in deeply of the
pungent scents of horses, hay and manure. The horses nickered and
pranced excitedly in their stalls causing him to smile. He knew how
restive and impatient they were for their morning visit from
him.

They were just as eager for his company as he
was of theirs. It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust and
then it was time to get down to business of readying the horses for
their first real ride since arriving only two short weeks ago.

As he approached the two animals, they
nickered again in anticipation of their morning carrot. Jamie’s
blue eyes went soft and he clicked his tongue at them. “How’re my
precious babies this fine morning?” He asked.

The
babies
were
beautiful Andalusian cross-breeds, both of them a rare bay color, a
male and a female, chosen specifically for their breeding
abilities. The male was only two years old and not at his full
height yet, but would reach perhaps fifteen hands full grown. The
female was also two years old, smaller, only fourteen hands high,
and Jamie already knew he would have to wait at least another year
before breeding her. They were extremely fine horses, strongly
built and elegant and Jamie had felt some satisfaction that he had
arranged their purchase through their agent from their father’s
estate without ever letting it be known to that bastard brother,
Wesley. As much as Jamie loathed the thought of paying his
hard-earned money to the man; he knew the reputation of the horse
farm and had wanted stock from that line of Spanish
Andalusians.

He brought each of them a large carrot from
the kitchen garden and chuckled affectionately as they devoured the
crunchy vegetable. He rubbed their velvet noses, crunching a fresh
carrot of his own, thinking of the times when he had eaten the
withered and dried up leftover carrots just to put something in his
belly. But now he actually ate them because he liked them, the
sweet, crunchy ones fresh from Robert’s kitchen garden, not because
he had nothing else to eat.

What he was really looking forward to was the
day when he could offer them fresh apples as treats. Right now his
brother bartered for barrels of apples from another planter named
George Menefie, and being as precious as they were, Robert had
clearly made his wishes known that the apples were for human
consumption only. Jamie had thought he could gather the bruised
apples that had fallen to the ground for the horses on Menefie’s
land, but even those were used to make cider and juice. But Robert
had just planted a dozen saplings this past week in the newly
established orchard along with peach and cherry trees obtained from
cuttings from Menefie, and in a few years he didn’t think Robert
would mind if he snatched a few for the horses.

Jamie was surprised that Menefie had even
agreed to trade with Robert this year. But then again maybe he
wasn’t so surprised. Not so long ago Menefie had been like an uncle
to the brothers, almost as close as any family could be. Throughout
their teenage years Francis Tyler had often taken them to
Littleton, Menefie’s plantation on the lower James River; but now
that the brothers had found their independence and openly disagreed
with Menefie’s commercial views, their relationship had become
slightly strained.

Jamie and Robert both continued to respect
Menefie and admired him for what he had accomplished in the colony.
They knew through Francis and from personal stories from Menefie
himself that Menefie had originally been a lawyer in England before
he had come to Virginia in 1623 and that he had wasted no time in
establishing his plantation, growing tobacco and planting large
orchards of apple, cherry, pear and peach trees. He had become
politically involved, serving a single term as a Burgess before
being chosen as a Councilor. He had brought numerous laborers to
the colony, adding to his original land grant with each passenger.
He was one of the wealthiest planters in Virginia so there was
really no need for him to barter with two cocksure youths. So
perhaps it was out of feelings of friendship or of honoring his
association with Tyler, but whatever the reason, Jamie was grateful
for the continuing association and grateful to Robert for his
singular love of husbandry.

The horses were doing fine this morning. They
seemed to be in good spirits, nudging Jamie repeatedly as he
checked them over, running his practiced hands over head, neck,
shoulders, withers, back, legs, and backside. He had known
beforehand the toll the long ocean voyage could take on a horse’s
health and strength. He had heard of some horses even dying from
the ordeal, but he had had to take the risk. He had been lucky that
their agent, the same William Clayton who had brought them to
Virginia, had consented to procure the horses and accompany them
back to the colony. When they had arrived they had been extremely
weak from being confined in slings to protect their legs but proper
feed and much-needed exercise soon restored their strength. Jamie
had walked them every morning and evening since they arrived, and
he was thrilled to see how much they had improved, so much so that
he believed they were strong enough for a lengthy ride.

There was a fenced area about thirty feet in
diameter to one side of the barn with a trough to one side of the
gate. Jamie noticed the rain had filled it to overflowing and there
was a large mud puddle around it. He had wanted to place the horses
in the paddock while he cleaned out their stalls, but he wasn’t
sure if he wanted them standing in that puddle. He needed to
examine the horses’ hooves in the light of the day. He had done it
the night before, but since the horses were unshod, it was very
important to maintain their hooves on a regular basis.

Finally he just led the horses out of the
barn one at a time by their rope harnesses, tied the lead rope to
the outside of the fence and brought them each a bucket of water
filled from the trough. Then he went back in to rake out the soiled
hay and replace it with fresh. He also checked their feed bins and
hay racks and noted that the horses had been eating regularly.

Still inside the barn he heard footsteps on
the path and he actually stiffened, the old reflex returning
unbidden. It had taken him quite a few years to get over that fear
of his older brother tracking him down even though he knew he was
far, far away from that place. But even now, every once in a while
when he least expected it, that moment of terror could return. He
knew it could only be Robert, after all, who else would be coming
around? He cursed himself for being such a fool. “Stupid idiot.” he
muttered under his breath.

* * *

On his way to the stables, Robert kicked a
branch out of his path and nearly lost his balance. “Damn leg.” he
cursed. Last night he had twisted his ankle stepping into a rabbit
hole; however at the time it hadn’t pained him all that much. This
morning though, much to his dismay, his ankle was swollen to nearly
twice its normal size.

He didn’t normally limp now that it had been
nearly two and a half years since his accident, but the slightest
of mishaps or just mere tiredness could cause his leg to ache as if
the accident had only happened yesterday. Of course stepping into a
rabbit hole didn’t help his condition at all.

Jamie came running out of the stables. “Rob,
are you all right? Your leg didn’t hurt like this last night or
this morning, did it?” He asked, moving quickly to Robert’s side.
“Here, lean on me.”

Robert took advantage, put his arm over
Jamie’s shoulder and leaned heavily on him. Even though he was a
couple of inches taller than Jamie and a little over two stone
heavier, he knew Jamie could easily support him. “It must have
stiffened up over night, the rain and all. It hurt more than usual
when I got up, but I didn’t feel it was bad enough for me to
mention it. I’ll be all right. More importantly, how are the horses
this morning?” He asked, seeing the horses at the fence. With a
teasing grin, he continued, “All ready for their big introduction
to the great wilderness of Virginia?”

“They’re ready.” Jamie answered with a proud
grin. “As you know, they handled beautifully yesterday when I rode
them around the outer edges of the property. Pisador is still a
little excitable and can be a mite mean when he’s in a mood, but
he’s plenty strong enough and Penny is too.”

By this time they had walked the last few
yards to the stables and Robert sat down heavily on a bench to one
side of the doors, stretching his aching leg out in front of him.
He bent forward to rub his calf through the leather of his new
boots and Jamie watched him with a frown on his face.

“What?” Robert demanded.

“Are you sure you’re going to be able to
ride? Maybe we should take the shallop.”

“No, I’ll manage.” Robert straightened and
waved away Jamie’s suggestion. He knew how much Jamie wanted to
ride the horses to their adoptive father’s plantation so he could
show off his new acquisitions. “In fact, I came down here to see if
you might need help with anything. I know not what I could do…” He
said, hesitating, seeing Jamie raise his eyebrows at him. “Maybe
get in the way?”