Daniel Read online

  When she had seen them fed and taken in charge by Hodges, she told him to tell one of the stable boys to turn to and drive her to Dr. Vernon’s. As for myself, she said that we would talk next day.

  In the morning I was up and dressed earlier than usual, but rather to my surprise on going into the yard, I met Hodges coming out of the stable door. Before I could speak he remarked sourly, “And what the devil you up to, Darkie, eh?”

  “I was wondering, Mr. Hodges, about the — er — the people that Lady Penelope said were to be lodged in the hayloft,”

  “Oh – the people, huh — you was wonderin’, was yer? Did she tell yer to come and ask me about them?”

  “No, Mr. Hodges; she’s not up yet, as far as I know. But last night she told me she wanted to talk to me about them first thing this morning, so I thought before I saw her I’d better find out what’s what.”

  “What’s what, eh? ‘E’d be a good ‘un as knowed that.”

  I waited silently while he scratched his neck.

  “Well, I reckon they’re animals, just about. Can’t talk any sense, can’t understand what they ’ears no more’n a dog. Tried to run away but I stopped ‘en. Anyways, they’re up there now, you can tell ‘er.”

  “Have they had anything to eat?”

  “Not since last night they ’aven’t.”

  “D’you reckon I’d best have a look at them before I see Lady Penelope?”

  “Do as you like, boy.” And he turned away with an air of irritated indifference.

  Going into the stable, I saw at once why they hadn’t run away. Hodges had taken down the ladder that usually led up to the hayloft and left it lying on the cobbles. With some difficulty I put it back – it was heavy – and climbed up.

  In the loft there was no one to be seen and not a sound to be heard. I tried calling out in a friendly voice, but as this got no answer I had to search. They had hidden as best they could, but after looking up and down for a while I found the girl. I made no attempt to drag her out, but simply sat down nearby.

  “Listen,” I said, raising my voice so that they could all hear, “I’m the black lad you saw last night outside the tavern. I’m a servant of the kind lady who took you away from Mr. Grench and had you brought here. She’s going to look after you now. She’s sent Mr. Grench away and he’s never coming back; never. She wants you to come down with me now and eat some food. Will you do that?”

  She didn’t answer, and neither did the boys. I tried again two or three times, but could get no reply at all. Finally I called out “I’m going away now, but I’ll come back later. Try to understand that the lady’s your friend and so am I.”

  With that I went down the ladder, took it down and returned indoors.

  Lady Penelope was finishing breakfast. The door was standing open so I tapped and went in.

  She smiled. “Good morning, Daniel. I can see you’ve been up in the hayloft. Are the young black people all right? Have you spoken to them at all?”

  “They’re still up there, my lady, but I’m afraid I couldn’t get them to talk to me nohow. They seem to be terrified of everything and everybody. ’Won’t speak; ’won’t move.”

  She drank her coffee and paused, frowning.

  “Do you think they understood you?”

  “Yes, my lady, I’m sure they did, but I reckon they’re more or less frit out of their minds.”

  “Ring the bell.”

  I did so and she stood up and went out of the room, gesturing to me to follow her into the garden as Lister came in to clear away. I placed a cushion for her on the seat under the silver birches.

  “Well, Daniel,” she said, “we obviously can’t send them away while they’re in that state. It looks as though getting across to them’s going to be a long and trying job, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Yes, my lady, I would.”

  “Well, this is what I want done. Obviously you’re the best person to gain their confidence because you’re black. So, for the time being, you’re to stop being my page and concentrate on getting them to see sense. Do you think you can do it?”

  “Well, my lady, from what I’ve seen this morning, I honestly can’t tell, but I’ll do my best.”

  “Twenty-four hours a day?”

  “Certainly, my lady, if you wish.”

  “Get some food for them from Mrs. Beddoes, and come and see me again this evening. If you need money, ask Mr. Graydon.”

  As I bowed and walked back to the house, she called after me, “And Daniel, don’t hurt anybody and don’t get hurt yourself.”

  I explained matters to Mrs. Beddoes, who cooked my breakfast and then gave me three or four generous hunks of bread and cheese and half a dozen apples. “Just you sit tight, Dan’l,” she said. “They’ve got to eat some time. I must say it’s a right old job Lady P.’s given you, but I reckon patience is the answer, same as a dog or a cat, like.”

  I returned to the loft, piled up some hay and lay down.

  “I’m the same fellow,” I called out, “the lady’s black servant. I’ve brought you some food, but if you want it you’ll have to come here and talk to me. Just understand that I’m a friend. I’m going to bide here until you come.”

  So I bided. Yes, I bided all right, until the tedium seemed interminable. As I couldn’t see the sun or even any shadows, I had no way of keeping count of the time. I could hear the stable lads below talking to each other and the horses stamping and blowing as they were fed and groomed. I heard two of them led out, but the lads didn’t come back and virtual silence fell, except for the scuttering of mice and now and then the sharp caw of a jackdaw on the roof. At last I fell into an uneasy doze, troubled by the biting of ticks attracted, I suppose, to the warmth of my body.

  After a long time I became aware of low voices not far from me. My companions – if that is what they were – were whispering to one another, but in their own lingo and not a word could I understand. The intonation, however, was more-or-less plain, redolent of exhaustion and desperation. Questions and answers were alike faint; but not the smell of ordure.

  Still I waited without moving; but I had to breathe and somehow I felt that even this was being listened to and weighed in the balance.

  Suddenly there was a sharp movement and one of the boys appeared, dashed up to me, grabbed a handful of bread and cheese and was gone.

  I should have thought of that. I bundled the rest of the food together and enclosed it between my legs. After a little while the girl crawled out of the hay, trembling and weeping. Her words bubbled out through slobbering lips.

  “No beat us, master. Pliss no beat.”

  “I no beat you,” I answered. “No one beat you any more, ever. I want you come and eat food. Look, food here.”

  At this, all three of them came hesitantly towards me. As though feeding half-tamed birds, I held out bread and cheese on the palms of my hands, to be snatched and swallowed.

  At length, when all the bread and cheese was gone, not a core of the apples remained and all the water in my flask had been drunk, they looked at one another as though trying to decide whether to stay or go. Now that they were more-or-less close beside me, I could see that they were little more than children, and scrawny children at that, with thin arms and spindly legs. The girl, I thought, was about fourteen or fifteen.

  I smiled at one of the boys and after a moment he returned my smile uncertainly. I said, “You know now, Mr. Grench gone away, him finish, you belong to the white lady, same as me.”

  They all three nodded and remained still as I stroked them, one by one, on the shoulders. “No one going to hurt you,” I said, and then asked, “Where you come from? What country?”

  “Not know,” answered one of the boys.

  “Where were you before you belong Mr. Grench?”

  “Home,” the other boy said. “White men come, take us away. We walk long way, go ‘cross water, plenty white men, give us to Mr. Grench.”

  “He beat us,” said the girl. Then they all began t
alking together in their own language which, it seemed to me as I listened, could only be some African tribal patois.

  “Where you going yesterday, with Mr. Grench?” I asked.

  “Not know.”

  They fell silent and I did so too. Suddenly one of the boys said, “Fah-dah, Fah-dah.”

  “What’s Fah-dah?” I asked.

  He put a hand on the girl’s arm. “This Fah-dah.”

  I smiled at her — she was trembling, her eyes glistening with tears — and said, “Fahdah. Very good. The lady happy you come live with us. She tell me look after you, make you happy.”

  I thought she would be rather nice-looking, if only she was cleaned up and not so miserable.

  The other lad began speaking once more in their language, pouring out a stream of frenzied talk, at moments tossing his head and clapping his hands as though for emphasis. As he continued Fahdah still wept, burying her head in her hands. When at length the outburst came to a stop, the first boy said to me, “You know what he say?”

  “No,” I replied.

  “He say Mr. Grench treat her bad bad.”

  “What do you mean?”

  To this he answered with a sequence of gestures which made his meaning unmistakably clear, while the wretched girl rocked herself to and fro, scarcely able to draw her breath for sobbing.

  “She think this very bad bad,” said the boy. “Think maybe you beat her. You want beat her?”

  “No!” I shouted. “All bad finish now. You good all time now. Lady make you happy.”

  “You know,” continued the boy, “you know long time off, we live in black people place, all black people, then bad bad come, white men come.”

  “Why you tell me this about Fahdah?”

  “I tell you, maybe you say you no beat her. Then she no be afraid more.”

  “I see,” I said. “Fahdah, you no bad. Here you good. No one hurt you. White lady say you good. You belong her now, like me.”

  Our jumbled talk ran on, but I gained almost nothing from it, except that they were brothers and sister. All the same, I went on trying to gain their confidence and, if I could, to make them feel more secure.

  It seemed to me that my first task was to get them to come down from the hayloft and into the stable. After a long time, the elder boy ventured to follow me down the ladder; but no sooner had he reached the stable floor than he insisted on going up again to the loft. I restrained my impatience as best I could; and my restraint paid off, for it became plain that he had gone back to induce the other two to join him. After much talk in their own tongue, they all came down very hesitantly and stood side by side, looking at me and plainly wondering what I was going to require of them next.

  It was obvious that in spite of Lady Penelope’s instructions, they had not washed the previous evening. The relatively clear light of midday in the stable showed them covered in grime. To my surprise they followed me out into the yard and assembled round the pump. I stripped, went under the pump, soused myself thoroughly from head to foot and signed to the older boy to do the same. He took a good deal of coaxing but finally allowed me to help him off with his horrible rags and keep still while I drenched him. His brother followed his example and when I had thrown their clothes on the midden, both seemed content to sit in the sun to dry off.

  Poor Fahdah resisted all my gentlest efforts to persuade her to undress, until finally I left her to her brothers and took a turn round the stable block, by way of implying that I was ready to indulge her modest scruples, if indeed they - and not fear - were really the reason for her reluctance.

  As I was returning I saw the boys stripping off her wet clothes and settling her in the sun. Her back was turned towards me and it was now that I underwent a kind of momentary hallucination, inasmuch as in all honesty I thought I was looking at the surface of the moon. The illusion was gone in an instant. What were really confronting me were Fahdah’s shoulders, back and buttocks. All were covered with great weals, the flesh barely resembling a human body. With a horrible shock I realised that this could only be the result of a brutality almost past belief. Between the ridges ran deep grooves, lined in places with dried blood. My head swam; why was the girl not dead?

  She lay down in the sun while her brothers stood beside her to drive off the flies. As I came up to them I realised that I was trembling. I laid a hand on the elder boy’s shoulder and pointed down at her.

  “Mr. Grench, he do this to her?”

  “Mr. Grench, he want fuck Fahdah. She say no and he beat her.”

  “All the time?”

  “Many, many time. Stop only he no want her die.”

  My horror and revulsion were slightly mitigated by an inkling that the two boys were beginning to believe that they had nothing to fear from me and that I wanted only to help them. They might not understand all I said, but the mere sound of a kindly voice was no doubt reassuring. Relying on this, I took a chance, gestured to them to stay where they were, went back into the stables and helped myself to some swaddling clothes and a couple of horse blankets. These provided enough clothing for the time being, and all three seemed relaxed and calm. So I took another chance, went into the kitchen and begged Mrs. Beddoes for enough cold meat, cheese and bread for their second meal of the day. She was tickled.

  “Gettin’ ’em up together then, Dan’l, are you?” she asked.

  “I hope so,” I replied, “but it’s no wonder they’re all on the jump; and the wretched girl’s as good as mad.” Thereupon I proceeded to tell her about Mr. Grench and Fahdah’s back. As I had expected, she was both horrified and indignant.

  “You’re goin’ t’ave a bit of a job with ’er, then,” she said. “Wait on, young Dan’l; I’ll find ’em a drop of soup out of the stockpot.”

  By the time they had finished their meal, the boys were showing something faintly resembling human good spirits, and even Fahdah was at least composed and seemed to have ceased, for the time being, to look about her for the next infliction of ill-treatment. We were all sitting peacefully together when Hodges came into the yard. As he paused, looking askance at us, I went up to him.

  “Mr. Hodges, sir, I’ve had a hell of a job to get them to come out of the hayloft and wash under the pump. They’re warming to me a bit now, I think. I’d like you to come and have a look at the girl’s back.”

  Despite himself, Hodges’s reaction was not unlike my own.

  “Christ almighty!” he said. “Who done that, then?”

  “Their previous owner, the man you saw last night outside the pub. And I’ll tell you why he did it, if you like.”

  As I told him, he hit his lip and clenched his fist. I followed up the advantage.

  “Mr. Hodges, I’m trying to do what Lady Penelope wishes. I daren’t leave them alone for the present; they might very well try to run away again. I know it’s asking a lot, but could you please find Lady Penelope and ask her to come and see them?”

  I kept silent while he demurred and then talked himself round. “Not goin’ t’expect me to run up and down all day for ’en, are yer?”

  ‘Oh, no, Mr. Hodges, sir. Believe me, it’s only just this once.”

  As it happened Lady Penelope was not far to seek. She had evidently been reading on the lawn, and came out to us soon after Hodges had returned. I stood up and after a moment my three waifs followed my example.

  “Well, Daniel,” she asked, “How are you getting on?”

  “It’s early to say, my lady,” I replied, “but I’m daring to hope they’re beginning to trust me a little. They’ve had a very bad time, though, at the hands of that evil man you sent away yesterday evening.”

  As she looked at Fahdah’s back, she closed her eyes and turned her head away. Then, as she bent down to embrace her, the poor girl started up and would have run away if I had not restrained her. Lady Penelope had to content herself with kissing each of the boys.

  “Have you thought what you’re going to do about them tonight, Daniel?” she asked.

  “Wel
l, my lady,” I replied, “do you think we could make over one of the smaller rooms at the back of the stables for them to sleep in? And I’d like to sleep there with them, if you approve.”

  “Yes, Daniel,” she said. “I think that’s an excellent notion. You’ll need some mattresses, and blankets too. I’ll tell Graydon to start Lister and Hayward on getting them down now. Have you any other ideas?”

  “Well, your ladyship,” I answered, “I think they ought to be seen by an apothecary, especially the girl. She’s in a pretty bad way, if I’m any judge.”

  “I’ll get Dexter to come tomorrow morning. I’ll tell Mrs. Beddoes about feeding them, too. Have you talked to her?”

  “Oh, yes, your ladyship. She’s been very helpful, thank you.”

  “Good. But what about clothes?”

  “Well, your ladyship, I’ve thrown away the clothes they were wearing. That was the only thing to do. They may have been infested; I didn’t look. Would it be possible to get them some more tomorrow?”

  “Yes, of course. Can you see to that yourself?”

  I had no idea how I was going to see to it, but I said, “Certainly, your ladyship. Shall I ask Mr. Hodges to come and see you now?”

  “Oh, perhaps you can tell him what I want, can you?”

  “Well, begging your pardon, my lady, but I think it might be better coming from you. I – er – well, I’m not sure that Mr. Hodges has quite – er – quite come round to them yet.”

  She laughed. “You mean he doesn’t fancy hearing my orders from you?”

  “Well, your ladyship, I’m anxious to keep on the right side of the other servants insofar as I can.”

  “Well, you stay here with your new friends, and I’ll go and get hold of him. Oh, there’s one of the stable boys. Boynton, tell Mr. Hodges I want to see him here.”

  I felt guardedly pleased with my first day in the new job. Hodges was still surly, although he clearly agreed that Fahdah was in need of help. The two boys actually came into the kitchen for their supper, although they were tongue-tied in the face of Mrs. Beddoes’s kindly banter. But nothing could persuade Fahdah through the door, and finally I took her supper out to her myself, and more-or-less stood over her while she ate it.