day. From conversations with Anne, Gideon realised where she had really gone and why. 'Your wife has a group of friends who say the world is a common treasury. They say that if the people band together in self-sufficient communities, the ruling class must either join in or starve because there will be no labourers for hire. Meanwhile the common people can support themselves and enjoy true liberty'
'She has run away to anarchy!'
'No, she has run away to St George's Hill in Surrey' snapped Gideon. 'She has gone to plant beans, carrots and parsnips.'
Lambert threw himself across the kitchen table, with his head in his hands. 'Then I would rather she was an adulteress!' he decided bitterly.
Chapter Fifty-Nine — Lewisham: 1649
To be a Royalist in the Commonwealth — whether by belief or because you were your husband's wife — had serious disadvantages. Sittings of the House of Commons were full of debates about Delinquents: how to secure their estates or extract their fines, and whether to execute, exile or pardon them. It was a time of retribution — but also a time when many Royalists came home and buckled down to living as best they could under the new Commonwealth. Not so Orlando Lovell. For the next six months after the King's execution, his wife never heard a word from him.
Then, at the beginning of June, Juliana was surprised by a visitor. As she returned home from a nearby farm, bearing the kitchen staples of milk, cream and eggs, she saw a lone horseman ride up to the house. He had bulky baggage packs strapped behind him, and was dressed in a plain suit buttoned to the neck like a respectable traveller, yet she could see he was heavily armed with a sword, pistols hung at his saddle, plus a poleaxe and what could be a musket-barrel protruding from his pack. Wide-topped riding boots and a broad-brimmed hat with an ostrich plume spoke of his being, not a wandering minister or land agent, but a cavalier. From his build and demeanour, it was not Lovell. Lovell never looked furtive either; this man kept looking back behind him anxiously.
Juliana felt extreme alarm. She had left Tom and Val playing in the orchard; she was afraid they would have heard hoofbeats and might run to investigate. As she approached cautiously, the rider noticed her; he dismounted, exclaiming, 'Juliana!'
When he swept off his hat and made a gallant bow, she saw his red hair. It was Edmund Treves. He seemed as startled as she was.
Juliana hurried him indoors. The boys came in and were greeted.
Tom thought he remembered Edmund from their trip to Hampshire. Val asked his usual question: 'Are you my father?'
They laughed it off. 'No, Valentine, this is your godfather.'
Juliana sat Edmund down and produced food for everyone, reserving her curiosity until a quieter moment. The boys accepted her warning that Edmund was exhausted by travel, so eventually she persuaded them to go to bed. As she tucked the children in, both were highly excited, hoping that the arrival of a cavalier — any cavalier — meant their father might also come. Juliana had curiously mixed feelings.
She made preparations for her guest, moving her own things from her room. She would sleep with the boys, while Edmund could take her bed. She had no other space to give him.
When she went downstairs she could tell he had been weighing up how frugally she lived in this tiny dwelling: her lack of possessions, how carefully she had to measure out food, the cheap wooden bowls she served it in. More realistic than he would have been once, Edmund did not waste time on naive expressions of horror, but simply asked curtly, Are you managing?'
'By the skin of my teeth.'
'Your lads look healthy'
'They are thriving. They have never known any different, not that they can remember… They long to see Orlando. Any visitor raises their hopes.' Juliana let her despair show as she relaxed with Edmund at her kitchen hearth. 'I have a little parlour, or we can talk here with the pans bubbling. This is where I often sit once the light goes. The fire gives some comfort on lonely evenings.'
Edmund inclined his head and stayed put. Perhaps he realised that if they moved to the parlour they would have to carry their chairs with them.
Juliana quietly let herself enjoy the luxuries of adult company and old friendship. Edmund Treves must be in his late twenties now. It was seven years since he was a witness at her wedding and over three since Juliana last saw him, in the gloomy months after Naseby, before Lovell took her to Pelham Hall.
Had Edmund aged? After spotting only old scars, Juliana decided he had merely become much quieter. Had she? Edmund would be too polite to say.
She braced herself. 'Have you brought me bad news, Edmund?'
He looked surprised. Juliana now became certain that Edmund Treves had not expected to discover her here — and he was deep in some trouble of his own. In her usual frank way, she tackled her suspicions: 'I suspect you have been in this little house before, my friend. You lived here with my secretive husband, while he was stirring up rebellion in Kent. Tell me the truth, Edmund,' she said sternly. 'Was Lovell here, and were you with him?'
Edmund's brow cleared. He obediently confessed what she had already worked out: Lovell and a group of men had stayed there last year. Edmund was recruited to join them. Lovell had been made a colonel and, using Sir Lysander Pelham's money, raised a troop for the rebellion. 'You must have known!' marvelled Edmund, still something of an innocent. 'Lovell, of course, had the house as your dowry — I believe he found it somewhat smaller than we once supposed!'
'This house', Juliana returned crisply, 'was my father's, property. Still, Papa died at Colchester so Lovell can come back here and lord it as soon as he likes… If he still lives?' she tried out again on Edmund.
He gave her a swift, sweet smile, eager as always to dispel anxiety for her. 'Oh be sure he does. I saw him alive in January'
'Tell me!' Juliana ordered. 'Go back to the beginning.'
In 1648, Lovell and his troop had assembled here. They took part in the Kent fighting, and were driven out of Maidstone by Fairfax. After reconnoitring at Rochester, where many men deserted them, a large group followed Lord Norwich towards London, but Lovell peeled off from the old commander. He had despised Norwich's son, the debauched Lord Goring, though Goring at least could fight when he was sober; the professional Lovell would not take orders from an ancient nobleman who had never engaged in war. He and Treves went with a group that captured the castles at Walmer, Sandwich and Deal, castles which guarded the naval anchorage called the Downs. Fairfax left a Parliamentary force to besiege them. Eventually, while Fairfax was on the other side of the Thames attempting to take Colchester, the Prince of Wales appeared off the coast with a little fleet. Prince Charles tried to relieve the castles, to build a bridgehead through which England could be invaded. His attempt at an amphibious landing with fifteen hundred men was repulsed by stiff enemy opposition. However, Lovell and Treves broke out and managed to get themselves aboard one of the ships.
'So the prince took us off, to our great relief. We drifted north to Yarmouth, which might have been taken but for loss of resolution — then we drifted south back to the Downs, where we might have destroyed the Parliamentary fleet but for a storm. Prince Rupert advised an attack on the Isle of Wight to carry off the King, who was then still there. But Rupert was talked down by doubters, so we ended up in Holland. We were pursued by the Parliamentary navy, which bottled up our ships in port until this January.'
'The exiled court moved to Holland.' Juliana had read it in a news-sheet.
'The Hague. The new King stays there while he assesses who will help him to regain the kingdom.'
'Edmund, do not refer to him as 'the new King' while you are in England.'
'Damme — '
Juliana held up her hand firmly. 'Do not.'
Edmund, whose views had always been straightforward to the point of naivete, resisted angrily. 'Are you a Commonwealther?'
'I choose to live a quiet life — in safety! Finish telling me about Orlando.'
