Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth [299]
The beautiful, vague eyes of the fiddler sharpened with a sort of triumphant satisfaction. ‘I told him I was the one looked after you before,’ he said. ‘I went up to him an’ I introduced meself an’ enquired if he had seen anythin’ of me fiddle an’ he said he had not seen hide nor hair of it an’ he was very much afraid I would have to consent to be hanged without it. So I looked him in the eye an’ I told him hangin’ was a matter for the judge an’ if I got off I would want to know what had become of me fiddle. While he was thinkin’ over this I told him I looked after you before when you was sick an’ he damned my eyes an’ give me permission to do the same now.’
‘That was well done,’ Paris said, smiling. ‘My cousin wants me looked after so that he can the better hang me, though why he has pursued me so I cannot tell. There is not much you can do for me in any case. I applied a tourniquet as soon as I was able, to stop the bleeding, and the sergeant – who knows the business better than a number of surgeons I have met – helped me to set the leg in splints before I was carried aboard. So long as I keep still, I shall be tolerably comfortable.’
‘I thought you might like to have the comfort of washin’.’ Sullivan said. ‘I have brought a bowl of warm water. An’ I can fetch you vittles from the galley as required – he has give his permission to that.’
It was Sullivan’s standard medical procedure, which Paris remembered now from the time of his fever. ‘It is very good of you, Michael,’ he said. More in order not to disappoint than for any other reason – he felt weak and disinclined to move – he submitted to the bathing of his face and arms and chest. Sullivan was gentle and deft and kept up a stream of talk. There had been two deaths among the people of the settlement in addition to those of Billy and Kireku. Cavana had been fatally wounded when he tried to break out with Danka and Tiamoko on the other side of the compound; Neema, seeing him fall, had lost her head and rushed out after the men and been killed before she had gone a dozen steps. Her baby, which they had named only the night before, was being suckled by Sallian. Nadri had succeeded in reaching the trees but he had been tracked down and taken by the Creeks.
‘And Tabakali?’
‘She is there with the rest of them,’ Sullivan said. ‘Kenka is with her, an’ the other two children. They are all together on deck under guard of the sojers. The crew people are kept separate.’
‘Yes,’ Paris said, ‘we have a separate future now. They cannot sell us, you see, so they will try to hang us as the next best thing.’
‘Koudi is there, among the others,’ Sullivan said. ‘She looked at me kindly while I was playin’. I should have gone to her straight, but I did not. We are not allowed near them now. After we get to St Augustine I’ll never see her again in this life.’ He paused a moment and his face brightened a little. ‘Mebbe I will, after all,’ he said. ‘I have had a good omen.’
‘What was that?’
‘There is a bit of a story to it. When I was first brought aboard the Liverpool Merchant in company with poor Billy, God rest his soul, I was wearin’ a fine coat with brass buttons down the front. Now this coat was took from me without so much as a by-your-leave, along with ivery stitch I had on, an’ I was given slop clothes from the ship’s store. That was bad enough for a start, but the worst of it was, they niver give me back the buttons. Thim buttons was niver mentioned again. Now you know the world, Matthew, like meself, an’ so you will know there is always somethin’ that will rouse a man, howsoever patient an’ long-sufferin’ that man may be.’
Thus appealed to, Paris nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘sooner or later there will always be something that we cannot overlook