“Nevertheless, sir, I always knew you to be a man of good principles, of character, and honour, and it was always my desire to please you and learn from you.”
Sir Thomas also shared with her his misgivings about the slave trade, his regret that the family fortunes were bound up in it, and his desire to escape its coils. “My new partners and I have gone into a new venture—the importation of palm oil from Africa, which as you may know, is used for making soap and candles. They expect our investment will yield handsome returns within a twelvemonth and then, I propose to sell the remainder of my Antigua holdings and have done with it.”
In this fashion, on really becoming acquainted with each other, the mutual attachment of uncle and niece became very strong.
Together, the four young people—Fanny, Julia, William and Susan—made the empty halls of Mansfield Park come alive once again. The weather was fine enough for picnics and riding, and croquet on the lawn, and the evening brought them together for music with Julia at the piano and William’s fine tenor voice accompanying hers. Even Fanny was prevailed upon to perform some of the simple pieces she had learned, to much praise and encouragement.
One sunny morning in late October, as the family sat at breakfast, Susan proposed that the young people go for a long walk along the hedgerows and gather rosehips for tea.
“I don’t care for rosehip tea,” observed Lady Bertram, shaking her head and making a little grimace. “It is very disagreeable.”
“As you like, ma’am, but if you have no objection, we shall go gather some for ourselves,” said Julia. Upon William’s professing himself to be an enthusiast for rosehip tea, it was decided.
Fanny kindly volunteered to remain behind to attend on Lady Bertram. “You will find it more pleasant than gathering roses in the heat of the summer,” she smiled, privately remembering a miserable afternoon last year with Aunt Norris.
“Oh, but only a ninny would pick flowers in the heat of the day!” declared Susan with a laugh. “Everyone knows that the best time to cut flowers is early in the morning.” Fanny nodded and said nothing, but thought—the younger sister could speak for herself in a way that the older sister would not have dreamt of. How helpless and overwhelmed had she been last year when faced with the demands of her aunt! How silly, how trifling, these disputes seemed to her now, how easily swept aside by a character possessed of firmness and resolution.
The young people, armed with scissors and baskets, having departed, Sir Thomas sat with the ladies, and placidly read his book, until a special dispatch arrived for him, whereupon he excused himself and retired to his study, and the family did not see him again until they all sat down to dinner. Fanny was acutely aware that something grave had occurred, but it seemed only she shared a consciousness of feeling with her uncle—William and Julia being too engrossed in each other’s company, laughing and comparing the scratches on their hands from their encounters with the wild rose bushes, Susan was too young, and Lady Bertram too indolent, to be aware that the head of the household was more silent and thoughtful than usual. Fanny boldly followed him into his study at the conclusion of the meal and asked him, “Sir, is there anything the matter? Will you be needing Edmund? Shall I send William for him?”
“In good time,” was all Sir Thomas would say at first, and Fanny saw that he was deep in thought. In a moment he roused himself, smiled weakly and said, “It is of no use, I perceive, to attempt to evade you, but the intelligence I have received is not easily comprehended in one afternoon. The full consequences are yet unknown. Fanny, I have learned that the Vice-Admiralty Court in Sierra Leone has found that the brig Clementine was unlawfully engaged in the slave trade, contrary to the new Act, and its owners will suffer the confiscation of the ship, in addition to heavy fines.”
“Oh, yes, sir, the brig which William captured, from on board the Derwent.”
“Yes, that much was not unknown to me. And until today, my only reflection upon the matter, was that those persons who had sent a new brig to convey more slaves to the Indies, uninsurable because engaged in unlawful trade, were all of them reckless fools, whose greed and cupidity overcame their prudence. But today I discover…” He paused, rose and strolled to look out the window.
“Sir?”
“Today I discover that I am one of those reckless fools. I am a silent partner in the enterprise which, unbeknownst to me, acquired this new ship, and was heavily indebted for its purchase price, and sent it to acquire its illegal cargo—instead of palm oil, as I had been led to believe—in anticipation of handsome profits. My partners did not inform me of this stratagem. I shall be liable to pay the debts of the partnership as well as the Crown penalties. At this juncture, I cannot say with exactitude what portion will fall to my share, but the debt will be prodigious, and may well entirely consume my investments.”
“But sir! If you knew not of this venture, how could you be held responsible?”
“There is justice, Fanny, and there is the law, which are sometimes two different things. What once was legal, is now illegal; and we are all
