A Place Called Freedom - Ken Follett [71]
“How will we stop them?”
“We’ll send someone up there to dismiss them.”
Sir George said: “That could work. All right—we’ll do it.”
Alicia turned to Jay and smiled triumphantly. She had got him his patrimony after all. She put her arms around him and kissed him. “Bless you, my dear son,” she said. “Now go to her and tell her that you and your family are desperately sorry about this mistake, and that your father has given you Mockjack Hall as a wedding present.”
Jay hugged her and whispered: “Well done, Mother—thank you.”
He went out. As he walked across the garden he felt jubilant and apprehensive at the same time. He had got what he had always wanted. He wished it could have been done without deceiving his bride—but there was no other way. If he had refused he would have lost the property and he might have lost her as well.
He went into the little guest house adjoining the stables. Lady Hallim and Lizzie were in the modest drawing room sitting by a smoky coal fire. They had both been crying.
Jay felt a sudden dangerous impulse to tell Lizzie the truth. If he revealed the deception planned by the parents, and asked her to marry him and live in poverty, she might say yes.
But the risk scared him. And their dream of going to a new country would die. Sometimes, he told himself, a lie was kinder.
But would she believe it?
He knelt in front of her. Her wedding dress smelled of lavender. “My father is very sorry,” he said. “He sent in the surveyors as a surprise for me—he thought we’d be pleased to know if there was coal on your land. He didn’t know how strongly you felt about mining.”
She looked skeptical. “Why didn’t you tell him?”
He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “He never asked.” She still looked stubborn, but he had another card up his sleeve. “And there’s something else. Our wedding present.”
She frowned. “What is it?”
“Mockjack Hall—a tobacco plantation in Virginia. We can go there as soon as we like.”
She stared at him in surprise.
“It’s what we always wanted, isn’t it?” he said. “A fresh start in a new country—an adventure!”
Slowly her face broke into a smile. “Really? Virginia? Can it really be true?”
He could hardly believe she would consent. “Will you accept it, then?” he said fearfully.
She smiled. Tears came to her eyes and she could not speak. She nodded dumbly.
Jay realized he had won. He had got everything he wanted. The feeling was like winning a big hand at cards. It was time to rake in his profits.
He stood up. He drew her out of her chair and gave her his arm. “Come with me, then,” he said. “Let’s get married.”
17
AT NOON ON THE THIRD DAY, THE HOLD OF THE DURHAM Primrose was empty of coal.
Mack looked around, hardly able to believe it had really happened. They had done it all without an undertaker.
They had watched the riverside and picked out a coal ship that arrived in the middle of the day, when the other gangs were already working. While the men waited on the riverbank, Mack and Charlie rowed out to the ship as it anchored and offered their services, starting immediately. The captain knew that if he held out for a regular gang he would have to wait until the following day, and time was money to ships’ captains, so he hired them.
The men seemed to work faster knowing they would be paid in full. They still drank beer all day, but paying for it jar by jar they took only what they needed. And they uncoaied the ship in forty-eight hours.
Mack shouldered his shovel and went on deck. The weather was cold and misty, but Mack was hot from the hold. As the last sack of coal was thrown down onto the boat a great cheer went up from the coal heavers.
Mack conferred with the first mate. The boat carried five hundred sacks and they had both kept count of the number of round trips it had made. Now they counted the odd sacks left for the last trip and agreed on the total. Then they went to the captain’s cabin.
Mack hoped there would be no last-minute snags. They had done