Page 10 of Dark Tides
“You are silent?”
“Yes.”
The pretty young woman considered this. “Was it your fault?” she asked baldly. “Since you have made a silence of an accident?”
Alys’s face was stricken in the candlelight. “Yes, exactly. It was my fault. And I never speak of it, and nor does Ma.”
The younger woman nodded as if secrets came naturally to her. “Very well. I shall say nothing also. So, tell me about the rest of your family. You have an uncle, do you not? Rob’s uncle Ned?”
“Yes, but he is not in London. He would not live here, under a king. He writes every season from New England, and he sends us goods. Mostly herbs, he sends us rare herbs that we can sell to the apothecaries…”
“He leaves his home because he does not like the new king? But why should he care?” She laughed. “It’s not as if they are likely to meet?”
“He’s very staunch,” Alys tried to explain. “He believed in the parliament, he fought in the New Model Army, he hates the rule of kings. When his leader Oliver Cromwell died, and they broughtPrince Charles back, my uncle left the country with others who think like him—great men, some of them. They would not live under a king and he would have executed them.”
“He is wealthy in the New World?” she inquired. “He has a plantation? He has many slaves? He makes a fortune?”
“No, he has half a plot and the rights to the ferry. No slaves. He would never own a slave. He went with almost nothing, he had to leave our home.”
“But it still belongs to the family?”
“No, it’s lost. We were only ever tenants.”
“I thought it was a great house, with servants and its own chapel?” she demanded.
“That was the Priory, where Rob stayed as a companion to the lord’s son. My uncle Ned just had the ferry-house, and Ma and Rob and me lived in a little fisherman’s cottage nearby.”
Livia’s pretty mouth pursed. “I thought you were a greater family than this!” she complained.
Alys gritted her teeth on her shame. “I’m afraid not.”
But Livia was pursuing the family history. “Ah well, but you have children! Are they doing well? I so long to meet them! Where are they?”
“They are twins. My son, John, is at work, apprenticed to a merchant in the City. My daughter, Sarah, works as an apprentice milliner, she’s nearly finished her time at the shop. She’s very skillful, she takes after her grandmother—not me. They come home on Saturday after work.”
“Heavens! You let her live away from home? In Venice we would never allow a girl such freedom.”
Alys shrugged. “She’s had to earn her own living, she has to have a trade. She’s a sensible girl, I trust her.”
Livia’s laughter grated on Alys. “Allora!It is the young men I do not trust!”
Alys managed a smile; but said nothing.
“You do not arrange for her marriage to a wealthy gentleman?”
Alys shook her head. “No. It is better for her that she has her own trade, we think. And we don’t know any wealthy gentlemen.”
“But what about your visitor? Is he not wealthy?”
“We don’t really know him.” Alys ended this inquiry. “You must be very tired from your journey? But tomorrow I would be glad if you could tell me about your life with Rob. And… and… how he died.”
“You surely had our letters?”
“We had letters from him when he first took up his post in Venice, and then he wrote that you would marry. He told us of little Matteo’s birth and your happiness. But then we heard nothing until you wrote that he had drowned. We only got that letter last week. And then three days ago we had your letter from Greenwich telling of your arrival.”
“Ah, I am so sorry! So sorry! I wrote from Venice at once, after my loss, and sent it at once. I did not think it would be so slow! I wrote again the moment that I landed. How good you are to welcome me when I bring such bad news!”
The maid came into the room and cleared the dishes. Nobildonna da Ricci looked around as if she were expecting more than the single plate of fruit and pastries.
