THE GUN KETCH

glum expression, and that Harry Embleton was glaring daggers at him, his face gone paler.

'Since February, milord, but I was visiting in the west country with my grandmother. I don't believe Devon has the soil for grains and hops that Surrey has. Certainly not to make such a splendid ale as this,' Alan stated. 'Now the Chinese have good ale, surprisingly.'

'You were with Burgess Chiswick in the Far East,' Sir Romney nodded, dominating the conversation. 'A trading expedition?'

'An attempt to increase British trade, milord,' Alan said in reply. He could never discuss what occurred in the past two years until England was once more at war with France. The activities of English warships disguised as merchantmen, had they been known, would be a violation of the treaty terms ending the recent war. 'To… uhm… open new markets and trading stations, in cooperation with the East India Company.'

Trade was not a gentlemanly calling, though profit from an investment in trade was quite acceptable, as long as a proper gentleman did not soil his hands with the sordid details of buying and selling.

This facile explanation, breezed off with a languid wave of a hand, sounded semiofficial, requiring the presence of a naval officer, and Alan had gotten quite good at trotting it out since his return.

'Calcutta, Canton…' Governour said with a wistful look. 'I believe you saw both, did you not, Alan?'

' 'Deed we did, Governour,' Alan turned a thankful grin on his compatriot. 'And a host of trading posts you wouldn't believe for horrid heat and rain, too. Took me a month to squeeze the last water out of my hats. But tell me, how does the Chiswick family fare? Is Caroline well?'

'Quite well,' Governour almost snapped. 'Father, though… well, there was bad snow last winter, and his horse fell with him. Laid out for an hour or so before anyone missed him, and… the surgeon had to take his leg where it had been broken by the weight of the horse.'

'Governour, how truly awful, I had no word of it!'

'He recovered at long last, thanks be to God, but… if you do recall how he was in Wilmington when you first saw him…'

'Ah,' Alan nodded. Sewallis Chiswick had been half out of his mind back then, brought on by the death of his youngest son George, of being burned out and impoverished by Rebel irregulars led by his own relations because he was a Tory, a Loyalist, and had equipped the regiment in which Governour and Burgessserved. 'A heavy burden on you, Govemour, which I am sure you managed well,' Alan concluded, laying a supportive hand on Governour's broad shoulder.

'Thank you for that, Alan, 'twas well said. And well meant, to be certain. So, how long can you stay with us?' Govemour brightened.

'Three or four weeks, if you can tolerate me that long,' Alan laughed. 'Then it's off to Portsmouth and a new ship, Alacrity. To be with the Bahamas Squadron. I'll need a good last dose of country life to do me.'

'That we can, that we can,' Govemour promised. 'We'll have you aching for the sea by the time we're done carousing.'

'Sounds as if you gentlemen were doing a bit of carousing of your own as I rode up,' Alan smiled. 'Did you race those fine horses I saw outside?'

'Court day, Mister Lewrie,' Sir Romney beamed. 'We dealt with a couple of ruffians, and were just recalling their appearance.'

'Two poachers,' Harry Embleton explained. 'We've been missing a rabbit or two from the warren, a deer's carcass was found stripped of meat. Well, last night…' Harry had to wheeze in fond remembrance for a moment. 'Last night, Douglas here, our gamekeeper, sets a mantrap or two, and bang on midnight, 'blam' goes the trap! We run out to see what we caught, and no sign of 'em. But this morning, bold as brass, they turn up at Mister Gallworthy's the surgeon's, rattling with buckshot, and he sent his man to fetch us. Caught 'em with the pelts, the meat, an' all in their larders, and had 'em into court!'

'One fellow's bloody eye was gone!' chortled Sir Romney. 'Took the blast right in the face, I suppose, as he crawled up the path in the woods to lay a snare. And will you believe, sir, that he claimed… hee hee… he claimed he knocked his own eye out!'

' 'Cause the Good Lord told him to, haw haw!' another stalwart chimed in. 'Said he'd looked at a dirty book o' pictures…'

'With only the one eye, mind,' Sir Romney snickered.

'An' th' good book says, sir, it says…' Harry continued, trembling with pent-up laughter, 'iffen yer eye offends ye, then yer s'posed t' pluck it out, ain't ye now, sir? Right, yer honor, sir?'

'As if that offending eye wasn't holed dead center with shot,' Sir Romney frowned. 'Shot from my spring-gun, damme if it wasn't.'

'And the other could do no better than to say he'd pelted himself whilst taking a loaded fowling piece down to show it off,'

Harry grumbled, as though the second victim had been no amusement at all, not even bothering to mock a 'country' accent.

'So what was the punishment?' Alan asked, appalled by them all. He'd seen men quilled with splinters, limbs ripped off with grape-shot, or puking blood from stomach wounds suffered in battle. He'd been hit enough to know what agony those men must have endured already.

'Transportation,' Sir Romney said. 'And the families to be put out of the parish. I'll have no poaching on my lands, and by Jesus, they know it.'

'And those two tenancies'll be enclosed. Last of the common lands this side of the stream anyway,' Govemour stated calmly. 'And they were always behind on their rents. Well, Alan. I have to get back home. Finish up your ale and ride with me.'

'Only if you promise you have some more waiting,' Alan managed to smile. 'Good morning to you, gentlemen, milord. I trust I'll be seeing you again in the next few weeks. We'll hopefully have merry times?'

Chapter 2

'Bloody squires,' Cony grumbled as they were fetched their horses. 'A spring-gun. A mantrap! Jesus, sir.'

'And transportation to where, I wonder, with America lost,' Lewrie speculated in a soft voice, 'the Fever Islands? That new Van Diemen's Land? They'll rot in the hulks for months. Years.'

'And the fam'lies turned out, sir, just 'cause they ain't free-holdin'. Damn th' bloody Enclosure Acts, too.'

'Easy now, Cony,' Lewrie warned.

'Oh, I knows, sir,' Cony huffed, swiping his hair back from his forehead and putting on his hat. 'Might o' been practiced sin-ners'n layabouts. But they might o' been poor folk what needed the meat t'keep their young'uns fed, too, sir, an' not able t'grazebut one cow on th' commons. Rabbits eatin' up what little garden they got, an' them not able t'lift a finger, 'cause they's th' squire's rabbits. Life c'n be hard fer poor crofters, sir.'

'And a damn sight harder now they broke the law poaching,' Alan declaimed with a nod of understanding. 'But, they knew the risks. And they lost.'

'Aye, sir. Makes a man sad, even so, sir.'

'That it does, Cony. Let's get mounted, then, and go see nicer people than Sir Romney bloody Embleton.'

'Aye, aye, sir.'

'That's Embleton land yonder,' Governour pointed out as they rode west out of the village and crested one of those rolling hills. 'Our land starts at that creek mat feeds the stream. Up and over two hills west, about a mile. Then down south to the Chiddingfold Road, and another stream. There were two estates in the beginning, from our grandfathers on down. Two manors, two famines. Father was due his parcel in '46, but he wanted to stay in North Carolina, so he sold it freehold to Uncle Phineas to work as one farm. Paid a good price to us, he did, and brought it up to snuff. Altogether, we've about 900 acres in freehold or copyhold. And when we came back to England, Uncle Phineas rented 120 acres back for a token guinea a year.'

'The copyhold recorded at which manor?' Alan asked, seeing that only the thin silver line of the small creek