Scott Mariani - The Armada Legacy

‘It has.’ Ben took a sip. ‘Wow. I haven’t tasted poteen since I left Galway.’

Scally chuckled. ‘I get the potatoes from a fellow in San Tomás. Got me old still set up in the shed outside. So you lived in Galway, did you?’

‘Half Irish,’ Ben said.

‘Thought there was something good about you. Or half good, at least.’ Scally laughed. ‘Here, drink that up and I’ll pour you another. It’s not often I get to share a drink with a fellow countryman.’

‘Don’t you ever go back?’ Ben asked him.

Scally shook his head. ‘Last time was almost twenty-seven years ago. But who’s counting? Not me.’

‘You’ve been living here all that time?’

‘Just about. Doing God’s work is all I ever want to do with meself.’

‘How well do the Sapaki take to having a missionary in their midst?’ Ben asked, genuinely curious.

‘For the first fifteen years or so they tolerated me; since then I don’t suppose they even notice me. I don’t interfere with their ways, and Heaven forbid I should ever go about preaching the Gospel at them. My work isn’t about foisting a foreign religion on these fine people. God wouldn’t want that, and neither would the Sapaki. They have their own gods – the spirits of the forest, of the animals and the river. No, I’m simply here to serve them as I’d serve all God’s children, not to brainwash them.’

Ben looked around him at the primitive hut. ‘You gave up everything for this life.’

Scally smiled. ‘It all seems very distant to me now. I can barely remember the Padraig Scally who served with the Royal Irish all those years ago.’

‘The Royal Irish Regiment?’ Ben asked in surprise.

‘Medical Corps, First Battalion, part of 16 Air Assault Brigade.’

‘I know it is,’ Ben said. ‘I was a soldier, too.’

‘Well, there you are. Two Irish squaddies sitting in the jungle.’

‘A long way from home,’ Ben said.

‘For you, maybe. For me, this is home.’

‘I admire you for having left it all behind,’ Ben said. He was being sincere.

‘To be honest, there wasn’t much holding me there any more. You get used to all the high living and Ferraris after a while, you know?’ Scally chuckled, then looked serious. ‘When the Lord called me to a better purpose, how could I refuse Him?’

‘I thought about it once,’ Ben admitted. ‘About the church. As a career, I mean. In fact I still think about it sometimes. Life just always seemed to have other plans for me.’

‘It’s never too late to let God into your life, son. He’s just waiting for the chance.’

‘I think even God would lose patience in my case,’ Ben said.

‘He never loses patience,’ Scally replied. ‘He loves us all. We just need to reach out to him. Here, have another drop of this.’

‘I could get used to it,’ Ben said. He took another sip. ‘Father, I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for Brooke.’

‘I’m just glad she’s so much better. The fever was so strong at one point I was scared to leave her bedside. I get the impression you’ve been through a lot to find her.’

‘You might say that,’ Ben said. ‘She was in a lot of trouble.’

‘I won’t ask. Whatever it was, she’s safe here. And now she’s on the road to recovery, I’ll be taking me little boat down to San Tomás in the morning for supplies. I’ll be back the following day. Give you and our patient a chance to catch up, as long as you promise not to tire her.’

‘I’ll take good care of her,’ Ben said. ‘You can be sure of that.’

Chapter Fifty-Five

Ben was sitting with Brooke in the sick bay the next morning, clasping her hand, when Father Scally knocked at the door and stepped inside.

‘Good morning, Padraig,’ Brooke said.

‘You look stronger,’ the priest noted with pleasure. ‘The colour’s back in your cheeks.’

‘I feel it,’ she said, and squeezed Ben’s hand. It was as if they’d never been apart.

‘Came to say I’m off,’ Father Scally told them cheerfully. ‘For what it’s worth. What cash there’s left for supplies would barely weigh down a butterfly.’

Without hesitation, Brooke reached to the side of her bed and picked up the glittering necklace and bracelet she’d taken from Serrato. ‘Here. These are worth a lot of money.’

‘Now, child—’

‘Take them,’ she insisted. ‘Let them be used for something good. It’s the least I can do.’

The priest gazed at the glittering jewels and whistled. ‘Then on behalf of the Sapaki people, I thank you kindly. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what diamonds. I wouldn’t trust meself not to go dropping them in the river, clumsy old fool that I am. But Uchu, Rumi and his girl Chaska are coming with me and they’ll guard these baubles with their lives.’

Minutes later, Father Scally set off down the path towards the river, accompanied by the two tribesmen Uchu and Rumi, along with Rumi’s twelve-year-old daughter. A whole crowd of Sapaki went to see them off; Ben and Brooke could hear their clamouring from the sick bay.

‘They love him. He’s a wonderful man, isn’t he?’ Brooke said.

Ben nodded. ‘Yes, he is.’

All through that day, he could see Brooke getting stronger. By the afternoon she was able to take a few steps outside. He walked with her, holding her hand, and they gently explored the village. It was far more extensive than it had seemed at first. There were cultivated gardens filled with fruit and vegetables, and even a small cotton plantation from which the tribe produced their clothing. ‘It’s so beautiful,’ Brooke said.

It was during those peaceful, happy hours that Ben toyed on and off with the idea of telling her about Jude. He still wasn’t sure how she’d take the news; and in the end he decided now was the wrong moment. He resolved to break it to her another time, maybe once he got her home to London.

And anyway, there were other things he was burning to say to her first.

The evening saw them joining the rest of the tribe for a communal feast of spit-roasted tapir, grilled fish and a kind of sweet potato mash that tasted far better than it looked. Ben introduced Brooke to Nico and Pepe and they all sat together to eat. Even with the pall of the recent massacre hanging over them, the atmosphere among the tribespeople was buoyant and upbeat. Only Tupaq, the chief, seemed preoccupied.

‘No problemo,’ Pepe replied through a mouthful of fish when Ben told him that the priest had said Brooke needed a few more days in the village to recuperate. ‘I’m in no hurry to go back,’ Pepe added mysteriously. Ben didn’t quite understand what he meant, until he noticed the covert glances and smiles that the young guy was exchanging with K’antu throughout the meal.

When everyone was full of meat and fish, some Sapaki girls brought out beautifully spun baskets filled with bananas and papaya. By then, Ben thought Brooke was looking weary again, and insisted on walking her back to the sick bay to rest. ‘I feel so much better,’ she kept protesting.

‘I promised Father Scally I wouldn’t tire you out.’ He made her lie down, and used his Zippo to light the candle.

‘Will you stay with me a while?’ she asked, clasping his arm and tugging him down to sit by her on the bed.

‘Are you kidding? I told you I wasn’t going to let you out of my sight again. And I meant it.’ He paused, then added, ‘I really meant it.’

She smiled. ‘What’s that mean?’

He took a deep breath and thought, here goes . ‘It means I want to be with you, Brooke. As in …’

‘As in … ?’

‘I meant as in, will you have me?’ he said.

The candlelight was shining in her eyes. ‘Have you?’ she repeated, cocking her head to one side.