Later in the morning, Stukeley tried his tobacco alone, on the cabin
cushions, looking through the windows at the town. He added up the
chances for and against himself, smiling with satisfaction at the
kindly aspect of the planets. His chief fear had been an arrest on
arrival. That fear had been proved to be groundless. Then there was
the chance of arrest after the arrival of the summer fleet with the
mails. That chance, though possibly dangerous, was not to be dreaded.
Old Howard, the Governor, was a friend of Maggy’s, and Maggy had
bribed him to obtain illegal rights of trade. He could put the
Governor into some trouble, should he press for an arrest on the
arrival of orders from the Board. But he wasn’t likely to press for an
arrest. He would give a quiet hint for them to go. But even if the
arrest were ordered, he had allies in the _Broken Heart_. He knew that
Margaret and the others would do anything to shield and spare Olivia.
They thought that she was going to have a child. Good Lord, they were
a comical trio. They thought that an arrest would probably kill her.
And Maggy, that stiff, shambling, stuck-up, conceited prig, Maggy who
had been going to fight a duel with him. Swords and pistols, damme;
swords and pistols, damme. Well. What had it all come to? Why, Maggy
would stop him in the alleyway, taking him gently by the arm, as one
takes the doctor by the arm, when he comes out of the sick-room. “How
is Olivia, Stukeley? How is she this morning?” Bated breath, good
Lord. Best doctor’s manner. And Perrin running ashore for fruit and
fresh fish and eggs. And Cammock. Well, Cammock was a bit of a dark
horse; so he would make much of Cammock for some days. Besides, that
little ruined city, full of gold, might turn out to be worth looking
for. As for Olivia, she would have to come to Darien, whether she
cried or not. He rather liked living at free quarters, as cock of the
walk. He wasn’t going to go ashore in Virginia to settle among the
colonists. Besides, in Darien, there would be a bit of sport, by all
accounts. There would be shooting; perhaps a little shooting at
Spaniards; plunder to be made; good living generally. The only bitter
sediment in this cup of pleasure was Mrs. Inigo. He had been very
nearly caught with Mrs. Inigo. He knew that he had raised suspicions,
that he would have to walk warily for some little time. He wished that
he was married to Mrs. Inigo. All this talk of love, such talk as
Olivia loved, this talk of trust and sacrament and the rest of it. He
was sick of it. He thought that men were naturally polygamous. A few
fools and perverts. What right had they to dictate to him? Mrs. Inigo
would be just the sort of wife for him. She would understand. And she
wouldn’t make him sick with talk about Beauty. She hadn’t mixed with
the gang of twisters Olivia had known. Maggy was the boy for Beauty.
There was where Olivia learned her beauty talk. Twisters. That was all
that Maggy’s gang were.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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