Philippa Carr - The Drop of the Dice

Sabrina had changed. She looked younger than her thirty years; there was a new bloom on her cheeks. I had become used to her but it was as though her beauty struck me afresh.

I should have known. I should have seen it. Heaven knew, it was obvious enough. But I had to hear them before I accepted it. I had been living in a false world of my own making. It was not real. I should have seen it.

I was coming downstairs and they were in the hall. They had just come in. I was about to turn the corner of the staircase, which would have brought me into view, when I heard her say: ‘Oh, Dickon, be careful. What are we going to do?’

He said: ‘Clarissa will understand.’

I stood there, holding the banister, listening. It was almost as though I knew what they were going to say before they said it.

‘All those years she has never forgotten. She waited for this, you know. I know her well… none better. She loves you, Dickon. She always has.’

‘I love her too. I always shall. But, Sabrina, I love you… differently. Clarissa is a memory from the past. You are here… the present. Oh, my beautiful Sabrina…’

I turned and went quietly back to my room.

Fool! I thought. Didn’t you see it? Didn’t you know? You are an old woman and he has been dreaming of a young one. You have lived your life. He came back to you… for a dream… and he found Sabrina.

That it should be Sabrina was a twist of the knife in my wound.

Could I see them happy together while I myself would be longing for all Sabrina had?

How could I bear to lose them both!

They acted well. They attempted to disguise their feelings for each other, but it was becoming more and more obvious. But perhaps it seemed so because I knew.

Sometimes the desire came to me to do nothing… to wait. How could he ask Sabrina to marry him when I was there? This was the reason for his hesitation, for the haunted shadows in his eyes.

I struggled with myself. It was not easy. I had waited so long, dreamed too much. I could not give him up. Perhaps he would realize that. I could not see him married to Sabrina. How could I live near them and see them together, and yet how could I bear to lose them both?

You have your daughter, I told myself. Zipporah, who would live nearby and always welcome you to her home. You have your interests here.

No, I could not bear it.

I wrestled with myself. I knew what I ought to do, but how hard it was.

I awoke one morning with a strong resolve in my heart. I was going to be unhappy whatever happened. It was inevitable that I should be. I loved Dickon. I wanted Dickon. I wanted to start a new life with him. I wanted Sabrina, too; we had been together so long. What could I do?

I could see only one way. It was hard, but I took it.

I told Sabrina I must talk to her. She came to me uneasily and I said; ‘Sabrina, I am in great difficulty. It’s about Dickon.’

Her eyes opened wide and I could see the excitement in them.

‘You know how I have always thought of him, dreamed of him.’

‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘I know.’

‘But things don’t always turn out as one thinks they would. It’s a mistake really to expect to be able to take up things where you left them off years ago.’

She was looking at me disbelievingly.

‘Do you mean…’ She gulped a little. ‘Do you mean that you don’t… care for him in the same way?’

I lowered my eyes. I dared not look at her and tell this blatant lie, which was what I must do.

‘I am fond of him. He has grown into a fine man… but I have grown used to my freedom. I want things to go on as they have been. I want to stay mistress of myself.’

‘I understand, Clarissa.’

‘I thought you would. But how can I let him know…’

‘He will understand, I’m sure.’

She was wanting to leave me, to go to him, to tell him what I had said.

I stood up. She was beside me. She flung her arms about me.

‘Oh, I do love you, Clarissa,’ she said.

How happy they were! Sabrina had changed. She seemed to have flung off every one of those inhibitions which had plagued her from childhood. She was in love and because she was no longer very young, she loved with a great intensity. Dickon adored her. That was obvious. He was a little worried because he was some thirteen years her senior.

‘What is age?’ I asked. ‘You are ideal for each other.’

My seemingly delighted attitude at the way things had turned out was a perpetual joy to them. They kept looking at me as though they were grateful and so delighted just because I did not want to marry Dickon.

I would smile brightly to hide the fact that I was brokenhearted. It was no mean feat, and I was rather proud of myself. It was only when I was alone in my bedroom that I allowed the mask to drop and sometimes wept a little in the darkness of the night.

The end of a dream!

There was nothing left of it now. I must settle down and perhaps when Zipporah’s children began to arrive I should find some solace in them.

Sabrina and, Dickon were married quietly at the village church and then she left with him for the North.

It was one night in the July of that year when Charles Edward Stuart landed in one of the small Western Isles of Scotland with only seven men and a few hundred muskets and broadswords, and the money lent to him by the King of France. He had come to wrest the crown from our King George the Second and claim it for himself. It was like a pattern to me. It was when the Prince’s father had come that Dickon had been involved and sent to Virginia. Now Dickon was back, and here was the son come to fight for what he considered to be his right.

Everyone was talking about the new insurrection. We had had thirty peaceful years with little mention of Jacobites, but this seemed a serious threat.

Proclamations were issued. Rewards were offered for the capture of Charles Edward Stuart. In Scotland they called him Bonnie Prince Charlie because he was said to be young and handsome.

When visitors came to Clavering they talked of nothing but the Jacobites.

‘It seems,’ said one of our guests,’ that we might be getting the Stuarts back.’

‘Feckless family!’ said another. ‘We’re better off with German George.’

People were not taking the rising very seriously, however. Many of them remembered what they called the ‘Fifteen, referring to the year 1715 when this Prince’s father had come to Scotland in the hope of gaining the throne. Nothing had come of that. What were the Prince’s Highland supporters compared with the trained English army?

There was some consternation when Sir John Cope was beaten at Prestonpans, and Charles Edward started to march south and actually reached Derby.

Everyone now knows the outcome of that adventure and how the Duke of Cumberland marched to join the main army and so catch the Prince in a pincer movement. They knew that he could have reached London, and that he might have succeeded had he not been persuaded to return to Scotland and fight the decisive battle there.

He was back in the North in December.

I heard from Sabrina. She was in distress. Dickon was a Jacobite at heart and she knew that she could not stop his joining the Prince.

I reminded him [she wrote] of what happened before. He said that a man must fight for what he believed in, and that the throne belonged by right to the Stuarts.

Dear Clarissa, he is with them now and I am desolate and full of fears. I have been so happy since I knew that you no longer cared for him and now he has gone away. I don’t know when I shall hear from him again. I am here in the North right away from you. If only I could be near you I could bear it better. I play with the idea of leaving and coming to you. But I must be here… for when he comes back.