By the end of the month the spring despatches had been variously sent to the port for loading, and onto the loaded waggons for trundling upcountry to the Staffordshire potteries. The orders had been completed, and there was still a mountain of clayblocks idling at the works.
As always, Hal Tremayne came to New World for the post-despatches discussions. Ran had long since moved the Killigrew Clay offices to his own home where everything was at hand. As the third partner, Morwen was also entitled to sift through the delivery orders and invoices, but she invariably declined, waiting for the outcome rather than add her voice to the inevitable wrangling.
After the two men had been locked in the study for several hours thrashing out the situation, and going through the disappointing figures and the dwindling orders, they joined Morwen in the drawing room.
‘I’ll ask Mrs Enders to bring in tea and coffee for us all,’ she said at once. ‘You’re probably parched after all that talking.’
‘So we are, honey, but tea can come later. It’s a stronger drink that we need now, wouldn’t you say, Hal?’
‘A brandy would do me fine,’ Hal agreed, to Morwen’s surprise. Her daddy wasn’t much of a drinking man, but the tautness of the two faces told her they’d been doing some serious talking, and her heart sank.
She so wanted everything on the horizon to be sunny, with Justin’s birthday imminent, and Matt and his family due home a few days before it. And with the glorious idea that Freddie had put to them all, when he’d finally gone to Killigrew House himself to tell his parents of his plans.
‘We want to offer Hocking Hall to Matt for the three months he’ll be here,’ Freddie said. ‘They can move in wi’ us right away to get the feel of the place, and ’twill give the land agent time to find a suitable person to rent it from us on a more permanent basis. But ’twill keep the property in the family for the time being, and also give us all some breathing space from one another.’
It was a perfect plan, especially remembering how they had all begun to get on one anothers’ nerves on Matt’s last visit, incredible though it seemed. But even then, they realized how they had all changed in the intervening years, and now they had moved on another ten.
But it did no good to brood on something that couldn’t be changed, and she thought instead that when Louisa and Cress had departed on their European tour, Matt would have the freedom of the lovely estate of Hocking Hall to himself. And she could visit him there as often as she chose, and hopefully recapture the special sibling friendship that had always existed between them.
She watched now as Ran poured the two large glasses of brandy for himself and his father-in-law, while she waited for the tea to be brought in. Only then did she burst out with what she was dying to know.
‘Well, are you going to tell me or not? Is it bad news? Or will we survive another year?’
Her father snorted. ‘There’s no foretelling the future, me dear, but I’d say we’re keeping our heads above water – just.’
‘Your family were always optimists, honey,’ Ran drawled. ‘But Hal knows as well as I do that if prices fall even further we’ll be heading for real trouble. And we’d have to think seriously of the options to put things right.’
‘But you wouldn’t lower the men’s wages? Daddy, we can’t do that,’ she said passionately, turning to her father, and remembering only too well the bare feet of most of the kiddley-boys in wintertime. If she had her way, she’d fit them all with boots…
‘No, I don’t mean that,’ Hal said shortly. ‘I’d rather lay a few of them off than cut the wages of all on ’em, though your husband don’t see it in the same way.’
‘I do not. It makes more sense to me to cut the wages of all, as sparingly as possible, and still keep the lot of them in work,’ Ran said, just as curtly, and it was obvious that this had been a major clash between them, and that their meeting had gone far from smoothly.
‘But for the time being, things can stay as they are?’ she persisted quickly, sensing that nothing had been resolved.
‘Well, providing that damn Pendragon woman don’t come along wi’ her offers of higher pay and better conditions,’ Hal grunted. ‘The clayers are loyal enough as long as they can feed their young uns, but when they can’t, they’ll be tempted right enough, and who can blame ’em?’
Now was the time, Morwen thought. She had never breathed a word of Harriet Pendragon’s visit to Ran, believing now that she had merely been trying to alarm Morwen, since nothing more had been heard from her. She hadn’t wanted to bring the woman’s name into her consciousness, but it was here now, and perhaps it was just foolish to go on pretending the visit had never happened. She took a deep breath.
‘Mrs Pendragon came to see me,’ she said flatly. ‘I never told you, Ran, but she was quite threatening – oh, not in a physical way – but she made it clear she was used to getting her own way, and that she wanted Killigrew Clay.’
She avoided his eyes. It had been clear to her that she wanted all that went with it too, and that included Ran Wainwright. A thrill of jealousy ran through her, seeing the anger in Ran’s eyes, and knowing that he too would be remembering the arrogant splendour of the Pendragon woman.
‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me this before? When did it happen?’
‘A couple of weeks ago, soon after the meeting in St Austell,’ she muttered.
‘You should have told us, Morwen,’ Hal said.
‘What was the point? What could you have done about it? Gone to see her and told her to stop harassing me? A fine ninny I’d have looked then, needing my menfolk to look after me, when she – she—’
She stopped, but her thoughts finished all that she didn’t want to say out loud. When Harriet Pendragon was so all-fired self-assured, and could probably twist any man around her little finger as soon as look at him…
Her eyes blurred, and then she felt Ran’s arms go round her. She leaned against him, feeling his strength flow into her, and unembarrassed that her father was witnessing this show of affection.
‘She’ll not get it, nor anything that goes with it,’ he said, and there was a meaning in his voice that she knew and understood and accepted. ‘I know what Killigrew Clay means to you – to all of us, and I’ll fight tooth and nail with the rest of you to see that it remains where it belongs.’
Morwen looked up at him, her face flushed. Her daddy had moved tactfully away to look through the long windows at the spacious well-kept gardens of a gentleman’s house, and she spoke softly to her husband.
‘I already told you that Killigrew Clay means a great deal to me, dar, but you mean more. I meant it then, and I mean it now. I always will.’
She touched his cheek with her lips, not daring to be any more demonstrative at this hour of the day, and with her father the width of a room away. But the promise of love was in her eyes, and all the loving strands of their lives that bound them together were as strong as steel once more.
Walter came bursting into the house a short while later, his eyes shining, and all three of them turned to him in relief. Any kind of good news from the clayworks would be just what was needed at this time, Morwen thought, but it wasn’t clay business that he’d come about.
‘Congratulate me, Grandad!’ he said directly to Hal, but encompassing all of them. ‘I’ve just become the father of a fine young sprig, and he’s the spit of his great-grandaddy!’
He was embraced by three pairs of arms then, and Morwen thought fleetingly how strong were the family ties too.
‘But it wasn’t due to happen for three weeks!’ she gasped. ‘Is Cathy all right? And the baby?’
Walter laughed, and clearly nothing was going to cloud his pleasure today.
‘They’re both wonderful. It happened so fast that there was no time to let anybody know. She felt odd all evening, but assumed it was a just a bit of colic. Then in the middle of the night she thought we should send for the doctor and midwife to be on the safe side, and they only just arrived in time for the birthing.’
‘And there was no trouble?’ Morwen persisted, seeing all this rush from a woman’s point of view, and praying there hadn’t been any tearing or undue bleeding.
‘Not wi’ my Cathy,’ Walter said, as proud as if no other woman had ever given birth before. ‘She were a real Tremayne, and Grandma Bess would have been proud of her.’
Hal laughed, pleased at the compliment, and slapping him on the shoulder, while Ran pressed a glass of brandy in his hand to wet the baby’s head.
In the midst of her delight, Morwen couldn’t ignore the thought that another set of grandparents would also be pleased at hearing their daughter had come safely through the ordeal of childbirth. Tom Askhew and his wife, Miss ‘Finelady’ Jane… She tried to forget the ridiculous name she’d given the girl she’d thought so enamoured of Ben Killigrew all those years ago, and smiled at Walter, sharing in his joy.
‘When can I come and see them?’ she said eagerly. ‘And what are you calling him?’
Walter drank deeply before he answered, obviously enjoying Ran’s good brandy, but intoxicated enough without it.
‘Come as soon as you like, Mother. Cathy’s longing to show him off. We thought we’d call him Theodore, but Theo for short, since ’tis such a mouthful for a tiddler.’
‘Theo Tremayne,’ Hal echoed. ‘’Tis a good name, Walter, and I’m glad you weren’t persuaded to give un one o’ they northern handles.’
But no oblique reference to Tom Askhew was going to upset Walter today, and he merely laughed.
‘You should know by now that nobody persuades me and Cathy to do anything we don’t want to do,’ he said with a grin, and Morwen knew how true that was.
From the moment they met and fell in love, they had been determined to be together, no matter what the opposition. And it had been very bitter opposition at first, but love had weathered all the storms and separations, and been all the stronger for it.
She had a sweet glimmer of memory of the two of them, hiding from prying eyes in the secret, turreted room in this very house, just so they could be together. And then Freddie had come to the rescue of the young lovers, offering a sensible solution to all the opposition.
Morwen drew in her breath, as the glimmerings of another idea came to her mind. Perhaps it was impossible, but Freddie seemed destined to be the solver of so many things… but she wouldn’t even let herself ponder on it yet. It was something to keep private until it was properly thought out.
She gave her best-beloved another hug, congratulating him again on his new role as father.
‘I’ll come to see Theo this very afternoon,’ she said.
‘Good. Cathy will be pleased.’
He was obviously finding it difficult to get his thoughts onto anything but his wife and son, but now he turned to Ran. ‘I’m forgetting everything but my own good news, but since I’m here, do you want me to make any comments on the despatches? I can’t promise to keep my mind on it, though, since I was up all night.’
‘For goodness’ sake, man, I wouldn’t expect anything else. Get yourself off home to your wife and family,’ Ran said with a smile. ‘There are more important things in life than dull old books and figures, and there’s no other day in the world to compare with the day your first-born arrives.’
Sometimes, Morwen thought, Ran showed an insight that reminded her just why she had fallen so madly in love with him, and she felt a lift in her heart. Maybe Theo’s arrival heralded a new beginning in many ways. A new baby in the family was always a good sign. It meant that life and hope in the future were being renewed, and life was good.
Morwen went into St Austell that afternoon, to the small house where Walter and Cathy lived. They had waited a long time for Theo, but now the family was complete.
Her face dropped a little as she saw the carriage standing outside the house. The Askhews were here, and for a moment she wondered if she should go away and come back later. She could always go and see her mother… but then she told herself not to be so spineless. They all shared a common stake in young Theo Tremayne’s future, and she would have to come in contact with these people sometime or other, so it might as well be now. She knocked at the door, and Walter himself answered it.
‘Cathy’s parents have been here a while, Mother, but I’m sure they’ll be leaving soon,’ he said, once he’d greeted her. She immediately felt awkward.
‘Don’t be silly, Walter. All the grandparents will be anxious to see the new baby, so I certainly don’t want to push them out.’
Dear Lord, she was a grandparent, thought Morwen. The excitement had carried her along all day, but now she had time to stop and think about the new status Walter had given her. Even while she knew she would love the baby, she didn’t care too much for the title of grandmother.
She went upstairs to the bedroom Walter and Cathy shared, feeling her heart pound a little. There was excitement, yes. There was awe, of course, because every birth was a little miracle. And there was also the wish that she’d managed to come at some other time when she didn’t have to meet the eyes of Miss ‘Finelady’ Jane Askhew…
She forgot all of that when she entered the bedroom. The two people sitting on one side of the bed meant nothing. The only thing that mattered was pretty Cathy Tremayne, sitting up in bed with the shawl-wrapped bundle in her arms.
Morwen moved quickly forward and bent to kiss her daughter-in-law. She smelled of soap, talcum powder and rose-water, and that indefinable scent of new motherhood that every woman’s own baby recognized so miraculously.
‘I’m so glad you came to meet your grandson,’ Cathy said, smiling. ‘He’d very much like you to hold him.’
Morwen drew in her breath. Her arms were suddenly hungry for the baby. Having given birth to five of her own, and been surrogate mother to three more, she knew the God-given sense of belonging when you held a newborn child in your arms. And this one was part of her… she reached out for Theo, and as she did so, a little tremor ran through her, as keen as a knife.
This baby was no more part of her than any other child in the county. Walter wasn’t her birth son, and therefore Theo wasn’t her true grandson. These Askhews, that she had never been able to accept, were the true grandparents.
The momentary shock of realization passed, as Cathy pushed the baby into Morwen’s arms. She gazed down mutely on the perfect little features, and as she felt the tiny fingers curl around her own, her throat thickened. And then when the baby’s eyes opened and gazed unseeingly into hers, her world righted itself again. They were the bluest of blue Tremayne eyes, and the features were far more like Walter’s than Cathy’s, though she could see why Walter had said the baby’s little wrinkled old man’s face was the image of Hal’s.
‘Isn’t he adorable, Morwen?’ Jane Askhew said softly. ‘We’re so lucky to have such a handsome grandson.’
Morwen gave a half-smile. It was undoubtedly the offer of friendship, but then, Jane came from a more genteel family than a clayworker’s daughter, and found such platitudes easy.
‘He could hardly be otherwise,’ she replied, annoyed at her own thoughts, ‘with two such handsome parents.’
Tom Askhew’s nasal northern voice broke into the women’s admiration of the baby.
‘Aye, well, he’s got a good solid background to live up to, I daresay. On the one side there’s the clay doings of his father’s family, and on t’other side there’s the brains of the newspaper business.’
Morwen refused to take the bait, and neither did Walter, even if Tom made it obvious which business he considered superior. He’d made it so obvious over the years, it hardly counted for anything now.
‘It’s time we went, Tom, and let Morwen have her time with the baby,’ Jane said at once, and her very understanding of her husband’s sneers was enough to irk Morwen. But then, everything about Jane had always irked her, and probably always would.
She watched as Jane bent to kiss her daughter, and the old elegance hadn’t deserted her one-time rival, even in her early forties. She had been a fair-haired beauty as a young girl, and she was a fair-haired beauty now. While Tom Askhew had become grossly fat, and more pig-like than ever.
Morwen wondered how the fastidious Jane could bear to have him near her, let alone paw her with those great fat fingers, and lust for her with that heavily asthmatic breathing. She felt her eyes glaze, wishing such thoughts didn’t spring so imaginatively to her mind.
They revolted her one minute, and in the next they made her want to burst out laughing at the incongruous thought of Tom Askhew bouncing up and down on Miss ‘Finelady’ Jane and squeezing all the breath out of that so genteel body…
‘You’ve gone all soft-eyed, Morwen,’ Jane was saying gently now. ‘Babies have that effect on a woman, don’t they?’
‘Yes,’ Morwen said, in an oddly choked voice, but it wasn’t young Theo who was causing her to squirm with thoughts far too embarrassing to acknowledge. She bent to look into his wise young-old face, and let the Askhews make their private goodbyes.
Freddie and Venetia were going to Falmouth to meet Matt and his family, and bringing them to New World for the first family get-together. Hal and Bess had driven over during the afternoon, and they were all in a flurry of excitement by the time the carriage drew up outside the house.
The children were too excited to wait inside, especially Bradley. Though his eagerness was more for his beloved Uncle Freddie and Aunt Venetia, rather than these strangers he didn’t know.
Even the charm of their distant land had paled for him, now that Freddie’s departure to Ireland was coming ever nearer. By now, Ran had declared that rebelling over it had turned an obnoxious child into a monster. It was something that had to be dealt with, and soon. But not today. Not on this day when Matt was coming home.
She followed the children out into the garden, her heart pounding. She had been devastated when Matt had gone to America all those years ago, with Ben’s cousin, the hated Jude Pascoe. The two of them, in some disgrace over a suspected crime nobody could prove… and Morwen being the only person to know of the greater crime Jude Pascoe had committed – that of raping her friend and causing Celia to drown herself rather than face the shame Jude had brought on her. It had been a terrible burden for both girls to bear…
She shook herself, seeing the tall figure of her brother emerge from the carriage. So tall and so elegant, in his fine clothes, and still with those charming blue eyes of the dreamer she always associated with Matt. But older… with a shock she saw the creased lines in the Californian suntan, and the receding hairline… and then she saw nothing but the gladness with which he held out his arms to her, and she fell into them with a little cry of joy.
The rest of the family came out of the house, and hugs and tears and laughter mingled in fair measure. Hal and Bess hugged their boy, and they hugged Louisa too, making her just as welcome. And Cresswell…
He was the last to emerge from the carriage, and Morwen felt her heart leap as she saw him.
‘Dear Lord, Matt,’ she breathed. ‘But that’s a handsome boy you’ve got there, and no mistake.’
‘Does he remind you of someone, honey?’ he said, in the American accent that sat so naturally on him now.
She frowned, but no, Cresswell didn’t honestly remind her of any one person. He was a mixture of them all – of Matt, and Sam, and Freddie and Jack… but above all, he was a true Tremayne, from the thick black hair and vivid blue eyes, to the proud set of his shoulders.
To her astonishment, he came straight to her, put his arms around her and kissed her. The last time he’d been here, she had shamefully hated him. But as she had so rightly said to Albert and Primmy, Cresswell had gone away a boy, and here was a man.
‘I’ve so longed to see you again, Aunt Morwen,’ he said, with all the aplomb of the American college graduate.
‘Have you?’ she said in some surprise.
‘Oh yes. We have many things to talk about, and above all I intend to make my peace with your family for what I did to them. It was totally unintentional, but it still weighs heavily on my conscience.’
Dear God, but he had his father’s artless charm, she thought, and the gift of conversing without embarrassment that was so lacking in many of his age. And she forgave him everything in an instant. She hugged his arm.
‘The children are dying to see you, Cresswell—’ she began as they all went indoors, at which he laughed.
‘I doubt that, but I hope to make my peace with them. And it’s Cress, by the way.’
The younger children were in awe of him, but Matt and Louisa were soon at home, especially with Ran, since they spoke virtually the same language now.
There were four Americans here, Morwen reminded herself, not just three. Her brother had become completely colonized, as the more sneering of acquaintances would say. But it suited him. He’d flourished and grown rich in his adopted land, and he’d done it by his own efforts, and no Cornishman would begrudge him that.
When all the gifts they’d brought had been distributed and the hubbub of noise had died down a little, the children were sent upstairs for their tea to give the rest of them a bit of peace. And while the various plans were suggested and accepted, it was noticeable to Morwen that her parents were content to take a back seat and simply listen, preferring to move a little apart from these energetic folk.
‘Justin’s birthday party is taking place at Killigrew House, courtesy of Hal and Bess,’ Ran said, smiling. ‘And since it’s Cress’s birthday soon too, we’ll be making it a joint celebration.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Matt said.
‘It sounds just wonderful, and you people are all so generous,’ Louisa murmured.
‘We want to give Cress a portrait of himself for his birthday,’ Morwen said, before she let herself think there was anything condescending in Louisa’s words. ‘Albert’s a very fine artist now, with exhibitions in Truro twice a year, and the best people going to his studio. He’s agreed to do the portrait for Mammie and me, if you’ll sit for him, Cress.’
She held her breath. The boy could refuse, since there had been so much bitterness between them. But the man smiled and said he’d be glad to do so.
‘And we’ve already told Matt about our proposition for moving into Hocking Hall,’ Freddie put in. ‘He thinks ’tis a good idea, and has agreed to it.’
‘But we’ll want to see plenty of you all before Louisa and Cress go off to Europe, and after their trip too,’ Matt said quickly. ‘The plan now is that they’ll be gone a month, and spend the rest of the time back here. And I shall want to go up to Killigrew Clay, of course, but there’ll be plenty of time for that.’
Even so, Morwen could see the tiny sense of relief on Louisa’s face that they didn’t have to stay in the house of these quaint clayfolk who were Matt’s parents, nor even here with her cousin Ran and his brood of children. But it was Cress who surprised her the most.
‘I’ve told Mom and Dad that I intend to explore the neighbourhood by myself, and Uncle Freddie’s putting a horse at my disposal, so I won’t be a bother to anyone,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I especially want to re-acquaint myself with all my cousins before we leave for Europe, and it will be fun to call on them informally.’
It wasn’t the English way, but Americans were obviously different. Morwen found herself warming to the unconventional, refreshing attitude of this handsome young man, and gave him her full approval.
There was so much talking to be done that it was late in the evening by the time the American family finally left for Hocking Hall with their hosts. Hal and Bess had left much earlier, and it had occurred to Morwen that her Mammie and Daddy were a little intimidated by the impressive businessman Matt had become, and by his self-confident family. But they were still family, for all that, and she refused to be overawed by them.
Justin had come home before they left, and after an initial wariness had become surprisingly agreeable towards Cresswell. He found him an interesting, highly intelligent character, with the ability to converse about many things other than the endless talk about china clay.
Morwen was mightily relieved to see that at least one of her older brood had been able to put the ghosts of the past squarely where they belonged.