Andrew Swanston - The King's Exile

The vexed issue of labour got the Gibbes really heated. Thomas had heard it all before. ‘We have fifty acres planted and we need at least thirty men to work them and more to man the mill and the boiling house. We need slaves, and lots of them. A black slave is better suited to the work than an indentured man and he’s a better investment. He’s here for life and if we want him to, he breeds more workers.’

Adam Lyte spoke mildly. ‘You may well be right, Samuel, and of course you know your business best, but Mary and I have mixed views on slavery and we’ve been fortunate with our indentured men. Most of them chose to come here as indentured servants, none of them has been involved in an uprising and, as far as we can tell, none of the convicts was guilty of anything more serious than petty theft or poaching. They know they’re better off here than starving in some prison at home and they’re good workers.’

‘That’s as may be, but indentured men cost a good twelve pounds each and they’re only here for a few years. We’d rather do without them.’

‘What about your man Hill?’ asked Lyte. ‘Where did he come from?’

‘Hill’s our only indentured man. We bought him because he can write and figure and he can cook. He keeps the books and cooks when we tell him to. We bought him from an agent who got him from Winchester gaol. Can’t stand the prissy little scab myself but he’s useful enough.’

‘I daresay he’s better than the Irish they send us, although that isn’t difficult.’ John Gibbes, half comatose from the drink, stirred himself to join in. ‘They’re coming over in shiploads now, men and women, the women no better than whores, and they’re troublesome pigs. They hate honest Englishmen and don’t mind saying so. Land of papists, Ireland is. Papist pricks and poxed whores. They have a word for being sent here. Barbadosed. Barbadosed, my liver. It’s Hellosed they deserve.’

‘Hellosed. Ha. That’s a good one, brother. Hellosing for the Irish. Fine idea.’ Samuel paused in drunken thought for a moment, then let out another bellow. ‘Hill, Hill, get off your arse and bring us a bottle of that excellent rum we made from the molasses last year. A glass of rum, gentlemen, before you go? Fetch the rum, Hill. Or is it Hell? Ha, fetch the rum, Hell, or to hill with you.’ Now completely drunk, Samuel was delighted at his own wit.

Thomas fetched the rum and four glasses. If that doesn’t finish them off, nothing will, he thought. Sweet Barbados rum was fierce stuff and on top of all that claret must surely bring the dinner to an end within the hour. God willing, it might even bring the brutes to an end.

‘Your sister’s much admired, I do hear, Adam.’ John was slurring his words but could still just about string them together intelligibly. ‘A lovely girl by all accounts. It’s a wonder she’s not married. Queues of young men at the door, eh? There’s taverns-full of them to choose from. What is she, nineteen, twenty? Perfect age for a woman. Fully grown in every department but still fair and supple. Just the thing to keep a man happy on a hot night.’ Thomas, cringing behind the tree, reckoned that this would break up the party even sooner.

‘Mary will be nineteen in June.’ Adam’s voice was icy. The thought of either uncouth Gibbes so much as thinking of touching his sister must be abhorrent.

‘Expect you’ll be wanting a young wife to warm your bed soon, Charles. Could do worse than Adam’s sister, eh? The Lyte family after all, no paupers, good breeding stock and a fine-looking woman, they say. Might be willing to take her on myself.’

That should do it, thought Thomas, and about time. He risked a look around the tree.

‘I do not have the honour of knowing Miss Lyte at all well,’ replied Charles with quiet force, ‘but on the few occasions that I’ve had the pleasure of her company, I have found her to be a lady of charm and virtue. I believe she merits the respect of all, not lewd suggestions.’

‘Indeed not,’ agreed Adam, ‘but she needs little guidance from me. Mary is an honourable and spirited lady. She would deal swiftly with any unwanted attentions.’

John Gibbes was unabashed. Incapable of embarrassment, he leered suggestively and took another swig of rum.

Charles rose to go. ‘Time for us to take our leave, Adam. I thank you, gentlemen, for your hospitality if not your conversation.’

‘As do I.’ Adam managed, just, to remain civil but he was already on his feet. ‘My thanks for dinner. And kindly thank Hill for his excellent pudding.’ Thomas knew that thanking Hill was not something that either brute would be doing.

The two guests walked briskly to a stand of trees where their horses were tethered in the shade. Darkness was falling and the tiny frogs had begun their chorus. They stood there for a moment and spoke loudly enough for Thomas to hear. ‘God in heaven, Charles, never again. It may be our duty to do what we can to keep the peace and protect our trade but I for one am not willing to sacrifice myself like that again. If our prosperity breeds animals like those two, better that we are poor.’

‘Fortunately, my friend, there are few in Barbados as evil as the Gibbes but, of course, you’re right. They are gross and despicable. I pity poor Hill; he’s plainly a decent man and well educated. I hope he’s stronger than he looks or the climate and the work may get the better of him. Now enough of them. How’s Mary?’

‘Well, thank you. She sends her compliments.’

‘Please return them,’ said Charles, ‘and if either Gibbes so much as looks at her you will have to be quick to run him through before I do.’

Adam laughed. ‘I know. Let us pray it does not come to that.’

‘Goodbye, Adam,’ said Charles, mounting his horse. ‘Let us meet again soon.’

‘Indeed. Go safely, Charles.’ Behind his listening tree, Thomas kept quiet. There had been no mention of helping him. Perhaps Patrick had not yet had a chance to speak to Adam Lyte.

As soon as his guests were out of earshot, Samuel spat on the floor and swore loudly. ‘What a pair of pomposetting pricks. Royalist piss-pots think they’re too good for us. I’ll wager the girl’s been bedded by half the young men in Holetown. And a few filthy slaves too, I shouldn’t wonder. What was it? Mixed views about slavery? My eye. That’s the last time we give them turkey and pork, by God. And we’ll see about “unwanted attentions”, eh, brother?’

But his brother was past caring. Snoring loudly, his big, red, louse-infested head resting on his arms, he had passed out. Samuel shrugged, left him there and staggered off to his bed.

Thomas slipped off to his hut, expecting to be asleep within seconds. But exhausted though he was after an afternoon in the sweltering kitchen, he found, when he lay on the bed, that his thoughts skipped from one thing to another, as a restless man’s do, and images of people and places flittered in and out of his mind’s eye, returning repeatedly to his home and the horrors of a war as bloody and pointless as any war could be. He tried not to dwell for the hundredth time on his arrest and imprisonment, the sudden separation from his family or on the miserable voyage that had brought him here. It had happened. Now survival was everything. He must hope Patrick could persuade Adam Lyte to help. He must hope.

1649

It had started well enough. The king, having been ferried by barge from St James’s Palace to Whitehall Steps, was marched into Westminster Hall by a troop of halberdiers. Two hundred men stood guard inside the hall, and two hundred more outside. There was barely an inch of space.

For the king’s trial it had been stripped of the low partitions that usually separated one court from another, and of the booksellers’ stalls and coffee shops among them. In their place a stage had been erected at the north end of the hall, on which sat the Lord President of the Court and the rows of commissioners who would decide whether or not the prisoner should be allowed to live. Rush had bought a seat in one of the stands set up around the hall rather than be forced to stand with the rest of the audience behind a screen high enough to obscure all but the king’s head. No one knew how long the trial would last and he did not relish the prospect of having to mingle with the common herd for any length of time. He really should have been about his business but the prospect of the entertainment on offer had been too much of a temptation.