Chapter 25 #2
Daniel rose to his feet and paced the room, struggling to find the words for the events that had followed. ‘I interrupted him sporting with one of the girls, and while he had his breeches around his feet, gave him a beating. I hardly need to add that she was not a willing party to the transaction.’
Kit let out a harsh breath. ‘I had him down as a bastard the moment I met him.’
A wry smile twisted Daniel’s lips at the memory of Outhwaite rolling on the ground, his eyes bulging in pain as he clutched his privates, into which Daniel had sunk his boot.
‘He made me pay for that moment of triumph. He had me whipped and thrown into the Pit … ’ Kit’s head jerked up at recognition of the word and Daniel shook his head.
‘You’ve seen it? A space not large enough to stand in or to lie down — exposed to the elements.
’ He shuddered at the memory, unable to even begin to describe what it meant to endure the Pit for a day, let alone many days.
‘After a week, he hauled me out and sent me out into the fields with the other slaves.’ He looked away.
‘I should have just bided my time, kept my peace, turned a blind eye … ’
‘To the murder of an innocent man?’ Kit put in.
Daniel shot his brother a sharp glance. ‘You know?’
Kit nodded. ‘You had friends willing to tell the story. According to their account, you witnessed Outhwaite beat one of the other prisoners to death.’
‘Outhwaite and two of his overseers killed one of the Scottish prisoners. The man had tried to escape, and it was supposed to be a lesson to us all. Unfortunately not one I took to heart. I attempted to get away, to raise help in Holetown, but Outhwaite set the dogs after me. They hunted me down like an animal.’
Kit rose to his feet and laid his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. ‘You don’t have to tell me anymore.’
But the veil of his silence kept so closely for all the intervening years, had been breached, and the words tumbled out.
Shaking off his brother’s hand, Daniel continued.
‘This time he beat me with a scourge, left me in the Pit, and when he thought I was dead, threw me into the jungle like a piece of refuse to rot into oblivion.’
Wine slopped on his hand and he put the cup down, clutching at the table to stop himself from shaking.
‘I don’t remember much, except that the base instinct to survive must have prevailed.
I dragged myself through the jungle to the beach.
That’s where Broussard and the crew of the Archangel found me, barely alive.
They took me back to the boat, nursed me back to health …
’ He took a deep, shuddering sigh. ‘I owed those Frenchmen my life, and I repaid it as a faithful member of Broussard’s crew for the last four years.
’ He looked up, aware that tears were streaming down his face and he was helpless to stop them.
‘And now I find I have been a free man all that time. I could have returned to England … I could … ’ He broke off, unable to continue.
So many could-have-beens.
Kit’s voice cut through, harsh with emotion. ‘God knows we tried to find you,’ he said. ‘We left Barbados with the faintest of hope that you may have survived, but as the years passed and we heard nothing more, that hope died.’
He drew Daniel toward him and into his embrace. Daniel surrendered to the gesture.
‘Forgive me?’ Kit’s voice cracked.
Daniel broke the embrace and held his brother by the forearms. ‘Forgive you for what? You have nothing to blame yourself for. It was my decision to follow you to Worcester. Mine alone. I never once blamed you for what befell me. It’s you who must forgive me.’
Kit sucked in a shuddering breath and laid his hands on his brother’s shoulders. No more words were needed.
‘It’s almost over,’ Kit said at last, breaking the moment and turning away. ‘Do you suppose we can start again in a peaceful world?’
Daniel forced a smile. ‘It is something of a shock to find myself a free man and, apparently, Lord Midhurst. But you … ?’
Kit shook his head and turned back, spreading his hands in a gesture of defeat.
‘My life has always been a tangle. To the world I am a dead man, but I married a wealthy woman and we live a comfortable life, so I have little to complain about, alive or dead.’ He smiled.
‘I look forward to you meeting Thamsine. You’ll like her.
She has had her share of trouble in the past, but we are content now. ’
‘You mentioned daughters?’
A fond parent’s smile softened his brother’s sharp features.
‘Two. The youngest, Maria, is but a baby and then there is Jane, named for Tham’s sister.
She is my heart’s delight, but unlike her namesake, I fear she takes after me.
I worry for any man who would take her on.
’ Kit stretched his arms and folded himself into the nearest chair as if finally allowing himself to relax in his brother’s presence.
‘We also have two wards — Tham’s nieces — as well your mother and Frances … ’
The breath tightened in Daniel’s throat. ‘Did you tell Mother that I have returned in one piece?’
Kit shook his head. ‘She didn’t take the news of your death well the second time. I dared not risk a third resurrection unless I was certain.’
There were hundreds of questions battling in Daniel’s mind, but there would be time enough to fill in those missing years.
He studied his brother for a long moment, his gaze moving from the crooked fingers of his right hand — another gap in the story that needed to be told — to the deep lines etched on Kit’s face.
Daniel considered that the decisions he had made in his life had never simple choices between life and death. Yet Kit had thrown away everything he believed in, and his actions had led directly to the judicial deaths of three innocent men. Small wonder he lived with their ghosts.
‘Come back to Seven Ways with me,’ Daniel said, adding. ‘Lady Thornton insists the beds here are lumpy.’
A slow smile lit his brother’s lean face. ‘They are indeed, but there’s no hurry. Pass that wine jug.’.