Nevertheless her nerves were jumping uncomfortably. Eli was her own flesh and blood after all, John’s son. What would John, in heaven, say to all this? She had grasped the marvelous opportunity of getting rid of Eli without thinking of the consequences; she was an opportunist by blood and training, could not help herself.
Well, it was done now; there was no going back—and it would clear the way for Ortho.
Yet she could not rid herself of a vision of the evil midshipman crouching in the adit with his four manhandlers and sand-bags waiting, waiting, and Eli striding towards them through the dusk, whistling, all unconscious. She began to blubber softly, but she did not go home; she waddled on up the valley, sniffling, blundering into trees, blinking the tears back, talking to herself, telling John, in heaven, that it was all for the best. She would not go back to Bosula till after dark, till it was all over.
Eli strapped the blankets on more firmly, kicked the straw up round the horse’s belly, picked up the oil bottle and stood back.
Bohenna nodded. “’Es, but ’twas a mercy I catched you in time, gived me a fair fright when I found en.”
“I’ll get Ortho to speak to mother,” Eli said. “’Tisn’t her fault the horse isn’t dead. Here, take this bottle in with you.”
Eli piled up some more straw and cleared the manger out. A shadow fell across the litter.
“Might mix a small mash for him,” he said without looking round.
“Mash for who?” a voice inquired. Eli turned about and saw not Bohenna but Simeon Penaluna dressed in his best.
“Been to market,” Simeon explained; “looked in on the way back. What have you got here?”
“Horse down with colic. Mother turned him loose into the stable, corn bin was open, he ate his fill and then had a good drink at the trough. I’ve had a proper job with him.”
Simeon shuffled his expansive feet. “Don’t see much of you up to Roswarva these days.”
More shufflings. “We do brearly miss ’e.”
Simeon cleared his throat. “My maid asked ’e to supper some three months back . . . well, if you don’t come up soon it’ll be getting cold like.”
There was an uncomfortable pause; then Eli looked up steadily. “I want you to understand, Sim, that things aren’t the same with me as they were now Ortho’s come home. My father died too sudden; he didn’t leave a thing to me. I’m nothing but a beggar now. Ortho . . .”