Page 41 of Dark Tides
She walked beside him, her hand lightly on his arm. “I will tell you it all,” she promised him. “When I am on my little seat.”
He forced himself to speak of the weather and of the flock of sheep in the distance. She asked how far it was to the warehouse from his home, and how long it took him by boat, or by horse.
“About half an hour by boat. If the tide is with me,” he said.
“And if you wanted to send something from the warehouse to the City?” she said. “Some big, bulky things? Would you send them by boat or by wagon?”
He guessed she was speaking of her antique objects. “I think they would have to go to the Custom House near Queenhithe,” he said. “To pay duties.”
“I have to pay duties before they are sold?” she asked. “I pay duties on the value of them before I sell them? They think I can afford to pay duties before I have made any money?”
“I don’t know.” He felt very tired. “It’s not something I’ve ever gone into.”
As if she sensed his mood, she glanced up at him and smiled. “Ah, business!” she said with a wave of her gloved hand. “We will not talk about business. It is beneath us.”
They had reached the fallen tree where she had sat before. Again, he spread a fresh silk handkerchief and she perched on the trunk of the tree while he stood before her, and the nursemaid put a shawl on the grass and laid the baby down, bending over to see his smile. She gave him a leaf and took it from him when he put it in his mouth. She showed him a twig. She tickled his round cheeks with a buttercup, smiling at his rich chuckle.
Livia held her parasol over her head and peeped up at Sir James. “I have found out about your child,” she said. “As I promised I would.”
Now that he was about to know, he found that he almost wanted to be left in ignorance. “Tell me,” he forced himself to say.
“They trusted me with the truth, so that I might tell you.”
“Yes,” he said. “And?”
“You know that Mrs. Reekie was carrying your child before the accident?”
The drop of his head told her that he had known this, and that still he had failed to save her.
“After the accident she nearly died.”
“The child? What happened to the child?” he whispered.
“She miscarried the baby. It died. There is no child. You have no son.”
He gave a little stagger, as if a blow had finally fallen. “You are sure? There is no doubt? No… deceit?”
“I am sure. They would not lie on a matter so sacred.”
“But Johnnie? I was so sure he…”
“He is Alys’s boy. Sarah is hers too. Alys was carrying twins when she left her husband.” She paused. “I don’t know about him,” she said. “I’ll ask if you want.”
“No, it doesn’t matter. It was their wedding day. I’m not interested in him.”
She was shocked. “Their wedding day? Heavens! What happened?”
“It was their wedding day—the day it… all happened.”
“A winter wedding?” she asked, thinking of the ribbon and the dried berries in Alys’s cupboard. “How sad. Very sad and tragic.”
“Are you sure of this?” he asked her. “It is not a lie they have made up together?”
“Why would they lie about something like this, against their own interests? They would be far more likely to say Johnnie is your child and claim your fortune!”
He tried to speak; he turned away. “So I have no son,” he said, almost to himself. “All these years when I have been hoping… and I sent money. But there was no child. There never was.”
She gave him a moment to walk up and down, he went past Matteo, who crowed to see him and waved a blade of grass; but James was blind to everything. He came back to stand before Livia. “Forgive me,” he said. “It’s a blow.”
