The Black Moon (4 page)

Although the letter had been written in all friendship, Ross would have been glad
not
to

have received it. It lit the scene and revived memories of the house and the people he knew, so well. The one person Caroline did not mention in the letter was Elizabeth herself. She did not of course know half' the story, but clearly she knew, enough to exerci
se tact in a letter to Demelza.
He could not and would not have gone to the christening had
they been invited; but it irked
him more than he had ever thought probable that he was debarred from the family home, from calling on, old Agatha, from seeing his nephew, from viewing the renovations and repairs that were taking place. He had seen enough; when he made his last uninvited call at Christmas to know that the house was already changing its character, was taking on an alien personality.

As he passed the window of the parlour he glanced in and saw his wife seated in conversation with two strange young
men.

He turned at, once and
went into them,

Jeremy wriggled
off her kn
ee and ran to him crying Papa! Papal!
He picked him up and hugged him and set him down while the two
young men stood awkwardly, not
quite sure what to do with their hands. Demelza was wearing the bodice of fin
e white poplin she had made out
of two of Ro
ss's shirts and decorated with lace from an old
shawl; a cream linen skirt,: a green apron; a bunch of keys dangled from her waist. They had not yet found the opportunity to replenish her wardrobe,

`Do you remember my brothers, Ross?' Demelza said. `This is Samuel, the second oldest, and Drake, the youngest. They have walked over from Illuggan to see us.'

A
hesitation. `Well,' said Ross.
`It has been a long time.' They shook hands, but guardedly, without warmth.

`Six year,'' said Sam. 'Or thereabout. Since I were here, that is. Drake hasn't been afore. Dr
ake was too young to come then.
`Tis a tidy stroll for a little one even now,' said Drake.

Demelza said: `I believe your legs are longer than Sam's!

'We've all got long legs, sister,' said Sam soberly. `Tis something our mother give us. And you the same, no doubt, if the truth be seen:'

Ross said: `Have you been offered something to drink? Geneva? Or a cordial?'

‘
Thank ye. Sister did ask., But later maybe, a glass
of milk. We don't touch spirits
!
’

'Ah,' said Ross. `Well, sit-down.' He glanced at Demelza And hesitated whether to leave them;, but her lifted eyebrow invited him to stay. So he sat too.

'Tis not that we mind drink in others,' Drake explained, lightening his brother's tone, `But we bette
r
prefer; not to take it ourselves.'

`How is your father?' Ross asked, with a
natural association of ideas,

`The most high God was pleased to taken to Himself last month,' Sam s
aid. `Father died well prepared
for his meeting wi' his blessed Saviour. We
come to tell sister. That and
other things.',
`Oh,' said Ross. `I'm sorry.' He looked again at Demelza.: to see how this news had affected her, and he saw not at all. 'How
-
what was amiss?'

`He died of
the pox. He hadn't never had it, and it came sudden and he was buried within the week.'

Ross decided that the elder brother's voice, though fervent, was not charged with
emotion. Filial love had
been a duty, not a choice.

`We all had it when we was young,', said Drake. `It marked us but little. Did you have it, sister?'

`Nay,' said Demelza, `but I nursed you through
it, Three of you at one time,
and Father stone drunk every night'

There was a pause. Sam sighed, `Well, give him his due, those days has been past these purty, many year. Not since he wed again did he ever touch liquor.'

`And Step-Mother Nellie?' said Demelza. `She is well?'

'Bravish. Luke,' is wed and from home. William and John and Bobby have followed father
and would be down min
e, but the mine is closed. The
re's rare poverty in Illuggan.'

`Not merely in Illuggan,' said Ross.

`True 'nough, brother,' agreed Sam. `Round Illuggan and Camborne way, when I were a little tacker there was upwards of five-and-forty engines working. Day and night. Day and night. Now there's four. Dolcoath's gone, and North Downs,
Wheal Towan, Poldice, Wheal Damsel, Wheal Unity. I could read ye
a list so long as my arm!
'

`And what do you do?' asked Ross.

'I'm a tributer like the rest,'
said Sam. `When I
can lease a pitch. But the Lord
in his great mercy have seen fit to afflict me too.: Drake here were apprenticed to a wheelwright for seven year. He d'work on and off., but most lately there has been naught for he neither.'

Ross began to suspect the purpose of their visit but refrained from saying so. `You
are both
of the Methodist connexion?' he asked.

Sam nodded his head. `We both; have a new spirit and walk in the path of Christ, following his statutes.'

`I thought you w
ere
the one that hadn't seen the light,' Demelza said. Yes ago, when Father came once asking me to go home, he said all were converted but you, Samuel.'

Sam looked embarrassed, ran a hand over his lined young face. `That is so, sister. You've a rare memory. I lived without God amidst innumerable sins and provocations for upwards of twenty year. I existed in the gall of bitterness and
in the bond of iniquity.- But
at last God pardoned all my sins and set my soul at liberty.'`

`And now;'
said Drake, `Sa
m, has found salvation
more stronger than the rest of us.'

Ross glanced at the other boy. There was a suggestion of irony in the tone but
none in the pale composed face -
This one had a look of Demelza; the colouring, the eyes, the clarity of skin. Perhaps too in a sense of humour. `You're not so sure for yourself?' he asked.

Drake smiled. `Upo
n times I d' fall from grace.'

`Don't we all,' said Ross.

`You're of the connexion too, brother?' Sam said eagerly.

'No, no,' Ross said., 'It was meant as a general comment on life, no more.'

Jeremy ran back and pulled at his mother's skirt. `Can I go now, Mama?' he asked,, `Can I g'n play with Garrick?'

`Yes. But mind for yourself. No mor
e walls; till that has healed.'

When he had gone Sam said: `You 'ave others, sister?'

'No, the only
one. We lost a girl.' Demelza
smoothed her skirt. 'And Father
and the widow? They have others, I recollect?'

`A little cheeil
rising five, named Flotina. Three others was all called to God.'

'God has a lot to answer for,' said Ross,

There was an embarrassed silence. In the end neither boy rose to the bait, as their father would certainly have done.

Demelza said: `What time did you leave home this morning?'

`Left home? Soon after cocklight. We took but one-wrong turn and was sent back by gamekeepers. I was in the error for I thought,
twas the way we had come last
time"

`You possibly had,' Ross said. 'But there are new owners at Trenwith wh
o are blocking paths that have
been rights of way for generations.'

'It is too far to, walk back today,' Demelza said. 'You must stay over.'

Well, thank ye, sister.' Samuel cleare
d his throat. 'I' fact, sister and brother too
w
e was come to ask a favour of you
. In Illuggan there's many as has not tasted flesh meat in three months. We d'li
ve on barley bread and weak tea
and pilchards when they can be got. That's not to complain, mind. Merciful Jesus saves us from any hunger of .the soul. We are refreshed by the clear fount of His eternal love. But many die of want and disease, and have fallen asleep in their sins.'

He dried up and grimaced. 'Go on,' Ross said quietly.

`Well, here, brother, we hear tell, there's work.' Word reached us last month t
hat your mine was doing bravely.
It was said as you'd took on twenty new hands last month and twenty the month afore. Me and Drake. I'm so good a t
ributer as you'll find, though
I says it myself. Drake's a
handy man, handy at all manner
of things, aside from the turning of a wheel. We come to see if there's work for us here.'

Jere
my had just taken Garrick, into
the garden, and Garrick was bouncing around him and barking. Jeremy was the only one now who could make Garrick behave like a puppy. Ross bit a
t his finger and looked' across
at Demelza. She had her hands folded in her lap, her eyes demurely down. This did not at all disguise from him the fact that a lot would be going on in her head and that she would have a number of precise and coherent views on the subject of this request. But she was giving him no inclination of what they were. This presumably meant that she wanted him to make up his mind.

All very well, but it directly concerned her. This was a difficult request for him to refuse: relationship, need on their
part, prosperity on his. But Demelza had had to fight to get away from her family
-
chiefly her father. She was still remembered everywhere, no doubt, as a miner's daughter; but as his wife she had been accepted in most society over these last four years. Now that they had money they could progress further. Good clothes, some jewellery, a renovated home. They could entertain and be entertained. She would not be human if, after years
of near poverty, she did not
now have ambition. Did she at th
is stage want, to be trammelled
wilth two brothers living near-by, working men, poorly spoken, claiming relationship and privileges which would embarrass her and everyone else? Not merely would this raise contacts with the people who. worked for them the miners, the engine men, the streamers, the blowers, the bal-boys and bal-maidens,, the farm labourers, the cottagers, the house servants., At the moment, although it was known she was one of them, it was accepted
that she was Mistress Poldark.
The present relationship with everyone was a singularly good, one; there was real liking and fr
iendship but also real respect. How might it be altered
by t
he arrival of the two Carn
es? And these two might be followed by three or four others. What if they married round here? Would it suit Demel
za to have a brood of mining in
laws, necessarily poor, necessarily ill-found, naturally claiming something different from the rest? Particularly the women. Women didn't have the same tact and sense of position as men.

He said 'This is a small mine.
We do not employ above a hundred, counting all both above and below grass. Our prosperity is of very recent growth. Nine months ago I was in Truro arranging for the sale of the engine and headgear of our mine to the venturers of W
heal Radiant. Now we have found
tin in such quantity that, even at the une
conomic price of tin today, we
are making a substantial profit. All the signs are that the two lodes are widening and deepening a
s we advance. There is at least
two years' work ahead for all. Beyond that I cannot say. But with the price of tin so low, with the margins of profit so narrow, it is cocoon sense not to expand more. First, because the more tin there is on the market the less it will fetch. Second, because the longer the war lasts the more likely there is to be need of metals, and the more chance then of a rise in price. So we have had to turn many people away when they came to seek for work.'

He paused and looked at the two young men. He wasn't
sure how much they would grasp of this, but -they seemed to
be following
well enough.

Sam said: `We would not
wish for to take other men's
work.'

`I think,' said Ross,
`it is something on
which I shall have to consult Captain Henshawe. This, I can best do in the morning. Therefore I'd
suggest that you spend
the
night here. I think we can put
you up either in the house or in the barn.'

`Thank you, brother.'

`Captain Henshawe has all, the hiring of the workmen, and I shall know better when,
I
have spoken to him.
And in the meantime we will give you dinner.'