The covenant - James A. Michener [126]
As soon as Paul was free of the Compagnie quarters he ran to the weigh-house to consult with Vermaas: 'I heard the Widow Bosbeecq with my own ears warn me that Van Doorn was a thief, that he could not be trusted . . .'
'And you come home to find she's about to marry him?'
'Yes! It passes understanding.'
'Except for what I told you, Paul. Every widow who ever lived wants to get married again. I said even you could marry one of them, if you were single.'
'But I know she despises Van Doorn.'
'If a widow can't find a real man, she'll take Van Doorn.' Then, with a cry of animal delight, he shouted, 'Good God, Paul! Don't you see how it happened?'
When De Pre looked blank, the big warehouseman cried, 'They took you over to Van Doorn's to work his garden because they wanted to be close to him in case his wife did die. They were using you as bait.'
Paul reflected on this for some time, then asked, 'Do you not think, Vermaas, that Dutchmen make use of everybody?'
'They're in business, Paul.'
The wedding was a solemn affair, with most of the business leaders of Amsterdam in attendance at the Old Church beside the canal. Some came in barges, poled along by their servants, but many walked, forming long processions in black, as if this were a funeral. The church was filled, and when the choir chanted the metrical Psalms so beloved of Calvinists, the place reverberated. The Widows Bosbeecq did not weep; they marched steadfastly to the front of the church, where they waited for the arrival of Karel van Doorn, tall, stately, handsome and whiskered. The marriage couple made a fine impression, two old people joining their lives and their fortunes for the remaining years of life.
'Oh, no,' the roundish widow said that night in the old house as she talked with De Pre about his adventures in France. 'They're not uniting their fortunes. You think a woman as clever as my sister would allow a scoundrel like Van Doorn to lay his hands on our ships?'
'But Mijnheer van Doorn told me himself'
'When did he tell you?'
'Last week.'
'Aha!' the woman chortled. 'That was last week. Well, this week we presented him with a contract, specifying everything. This house? We sell it and keep the money. The farmland? We join it to his. The seven ships? They're all put in my name, not his.'
'I should think he'd back out.'
'He wanted to. Said we were robbing him. So we revised the contract to keep him happy.'
'Did you give him the ships?'
'Heavens, no! But we did agree that when my ships took their salted herring to Sweden, he should be the agent for selling them, and he keeps the commission.'
Paul was amazed at the cold-blooded quality of this transaction, and started to comment upon it, when the old woman placed her hand on his arm and said softly, 'You know, Paul, it was partly your fault that Abigael decidedthat we decided, reallyto get married.'
'How me?'
'Because Mijnheer van Doorn came to us the night of his wife's burial and said, "Good women, your man De Pre is sailing shortly for the Cape. You'll be alone again, so why don't we arrange something?" And he was right. We would be alone again, and you reminded us how pleasant it was to have a man in the house.' She laughed. 'Any man.'
When the Bosbeecq house was emptied and the shutters closed, the widows suggested that the De Pre family move with them to the Van Doorn house for the few days before the ships loaded for the Cape, but Mijnheer would have none of this. 'Let them sleep in the old place,' he said, and a few blankets were taken there. But the widows did carry hot food to them, which they ate sitting on the floor.
'You must be sure that Van Doorn pays you all he owes,' they warned Paul, and on the last day in Amsterdam, Paul went to the Compagnie offices and reminded Van Doorn that the third part of the payment was still due him.
'I have it in mind,' Mijnheer assured the emigre. 'I'm handing this packet to the captain of our ship, and the moment you land the vines at the Cape, you get your final payment. See, it says so here. Ninety