The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor by Sally Armstrong Page B

you, lad. You may go, and see you get some sleep.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    Walker fills Charlotte’s glass with claret.
    “Your health.”
    “And yours, commodore.”
    They eat a while in silence.
    Hoping to avoid the conversation about her so-called circumstances she guesses she’s here to have, Charlotte asks him about Nepisiguit.
    “I’ll get to that detail in due course, but now I want to talk about you.”
    She sits very straight in the chair he has provided and waits for him to take the lead in the discussion. She knows he’s a man who doesn’t dawdle with words and she’s quite certain now that he knows more about her than she has considered.
    “Are you by chance the daughter of Charles Howe Taylor?”
    Her cheeks flush. She drops her head and in a barely audible voice says, “Sir, I am his daughter.” Charlotte doesn’t know how to continue the conversation and sits staring into her skirts until finally conjuring up the courage to ask him how he had discovered the truth.
    “Lutz told me more than your widowhood. He said he was suspicious about your circumstances from the moment you turned up at his plantation. He saw you as a woman of some means and, how can I put this—your man as one of fewer means.”Walker takes care to describe the predictable background of couples who flee their homes for the New World. He doesn’t want to back her into a corner or force a lie, so continues gently, “Invariably they are running away from something. In your case, Lutz wondered if it was a forbidden marriage or, perhaps, no marriage at all.”
    But how did he tie this presumption to her proper name, she inquired. “Lutz told me that the plaque on your trunk is inscribed with the name Charlotte Howe Taylor. Now I have seen it for myself. In truth, your person—your flame-coloured hair, your height, give your identity away. You are the image of your father.”
    Now clearly anxious but in some ways relieved, Charlotte has questions of her own. How does he know her father and what will he do with her when this voyage is over?
    The commodore assures her that his intentions are honourable. “You couldn’t be left with that reprobate Lutz. He would have used you unpleasantly. I am hoping that I can still convince you to return to your father’s home on the ship sailing from Nepisiguit next month.” Charlotte is trembling. Her father would shun a pregnant daughter. Can she tell the commodore the truth? Instead she asks, “How has my father come to be your acquaintance?”
    He tells her they were in business together in the merchant marines. In describing the business arrangements, he also submits his concerns about the lagging economy the men worked in. “England is suffering in financials. Trade isn’t as profitable as it was. And the threat of war with the colonies takes ships and men from the trading business.” She asks about Misters Baillie and Schollbred and whether they would have been visitors at her father’s home. “Yes, they are known to the general as well, businessassociates they are. They may have frequented your home but that I doubt, as they conduct their affairs in grand offices in London.”
    He changes the subject, saying, “Tell me of your life in Sussex.”
    Charlotte persists as there are details she needs to get on the table.
    “George, as you now know, I left my family in haste, without my father’s approval. What I can tell you about the life I left behind is that I have an inheritance, a sizable sum from my maternal grandmother. As a woman alone, I need to secure my lawful right to that income.”
    There, the matter is on the table at last. Then as though considering her surprising commentary, the commodore shares a tale of his own.
    “Well then, now that we are sharing more intimate details, let me sound you out on a matter. I have received recently a letter from a very dear friend in Edinburgh. He is a man of sixty-five and never married, but enjoys the fruits of a long life