Tom immediately wrote Philippa a letter, which she received the following morning.
No harm can come to me or any of us dear, be sure and trust in God to give you strength to bear the horrid lies that are in the papers. They say it was my statement that has caused the inquiry. I have told the truth. If I had told a lie I should be sharing the comforts of home instead of being here. Don’t think about coming down; it would only make you ill, the journey and seeing me here.
He took it for granted that she had already read the details of their ordeal in the press reports but she had refused to read any of them, preferring to await Tom’s own version of events. The little knowledge she had gleaned of ‘the thrilling and harrowing story’, as she called it, had come only from what friends had told her and the brief references in Tom’s letters.
Stephens wept as he read the newspaper interview with his wife. She was,
in a state of great mental distress and burst into tears at the mere mention of the troubles of her husband. She has received several affectionate letters from him since his detention at Falmouth. He says he is still so ill that he has had the attendance of the doctor every day since landing. He begged her not to believe all that had been said about him in the papers and to bear up until she hears from his own lips the story of the fearful trials he had gone through.
At Madeira he wrote saying he would stop in Australia if she would join him as there seemed to be no luck for him in England. She had replied that with her five little children she would come out as soon as possible. The letter never reached him. She declared he was one of the kindest and noblest of husbands who would not harm a living creature willingly.
Tom had only just finished reading the reports when the turnkey opened the door and led him downstairs to the ground floor, where the lawyer and his clerk were waiting for him.
‘You are up betimes, Mr Tilly.’
‘There is much to do, Captain Dudley, and I cannot deny that I will take a certain pleasure—’ He paused. ‘Forgive me for saying that about so grave a misfortune for you and your crew, but for forty years I have attempted to settle squabbles between neighbours, husbands and wives, or farmers arguing over grazing rights. I have drawn up wills, conveyanced properties, and defended drunkards, smugglers and petty thieves. It is a rare pleasure, and again I apologize for the use of the word, for me to be involved in a case of such great import as this.’ He flushed. ‘That is not to say I have not the skills and experience to defend you, of course.’
Tom was forced to smile. ‘Of course, of course.’
‘I promise you that we shall not fail for the want of effort on my part. May I take it, then, that you are content for me to continue as your lawyer?’
‘For the moment, yes, but I am yet to be fully convinced of its necessity.’
Tilly inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘In due course I shall need from you a list of those gentlemen who might testify to your good and Christian character, but first I would wish you to tell me in your own words the story of the voyage of the Mignonette. Omit no detail germane to the charge you face.’
He poured Tom a glass of water from an earthenware jug. The clerk dipped his pen in the inkwell, then waited with an expectant look, his pen poised over a sheaf of blank paper.
Tom gazed out of the window. Through the gap between the buildings on the opposite side of the street he could see a flight of steps running down towards the waterfront. Ships jostled for space at the quay and beyond them he glimpsed a three-master sailing on the morning tide, making for the open water beyond the Roads.
‘You are a sailing master?’ Tilly prompted.
‘Latterly, yes. I’ve been a sailing master these last ten years, like my father before me. But I’ve served my time on fishing smacks, coasters and cargo ships, as cabin boy, able seaman, cook-steward, boatswain and mate.’
‘So you had to learn to butcher animals?’
Tom turned a cool gaze on the lawyer. ‘I learned that knack, yes.’
‘And the Mignonette was your ship?’
Tom shook his head. ‘It is a rich man’s sport and I am far from a rich man. A few yacht-owners skipper their own vessels, but most hire a master and crew for the yachting season. I hire myself as sailing master to one of them from March to September and in winter I take whatever work I can find — on fishing boats, oyster dredgers, or as a merchant seaman. Sailing master is a safer and better living than any of those. It’s a good wage and there’s a share of the prize money too. I’ve known owners give the whole purse to their captain and crew.’
‘A good wage, yes,’ Tilly said. ‘But safer?’
Tom gave a rueful smile. ‘If you stay in inshore waters. Racing yachts don’t even put to sea in storm conditions. They carry too much canvas.’ As he spoke, his gaze travelled upwards, as if he expected to see the sails and rigging of a yacht rather than a plaster ceiling.
‘Yet you were sailing a yacht to Australia.’
‘The Mignonette was built as a cruiser and fishing-boat. Only later was she turned into a racing-yacht.’ His eyes strayed back to the window, following the three-master as it approached the mouth of the Roads. As he began to recount the story of the voyage, he could almost hear the creak of wood and crack of canvas as the sails filled with wind and the ship picked up speed, passing out of sight down the Channel towards the open sea.
Chapter 14
When Tom had finished his tale, Tilly sat in thought for some time. ‘Why did you stop Brooks from throwing the fragments of the boy’s flesh overboard when you were rescued?’
‘Because it had been my intention from the first to retain them if we should fall in with a vessel, so that we could state the circumstances under which we acted.’
Tilly gave a slow nod, then began searching through the papers in front of him. ‘And after you landed you went with Brooks and Stephens to the Customs House and made the statement before the shipping master, of which I have a copy here? “On the twentieth day the lad, Richard Parker, was very weak through drinking salt water. Deponent with the assistance of the Mate, Stephens, killed him to sustain the existence of those remaining, they being all agreed the act was absolutely necessary.”
‘Stephens’s statement was equally candid. “On the twentieth day deponent agreed with the Master that it was absolutely necessary that one should be sacrificed to save the rest and the Master selected Richard Parker, boy, as being the weakest. Deponent agreed to this and the Master accordingly killed the lad.”’
He sat back and studied Tom for a moment. ‘What do you know of Brooks?’
‘He’s an Essex man, like me. I’d never sailed with him but I’d known him for a dozen years or so. He’s sailed on some of the best racing yachts and is a first-class hand. He worked as a rigger at Fay’s Yard on the Itchen during the winter. That’s where he heard I was looking for hands.
‘He’d been offered a berth on a new yacht, the Irex, but he told me he was thinking about emigrating. There were rumours that he had deserted a wife and children. I charged him with it, but he denied it on his oath. I cannot speak to the truth of it.’
‘A copy of Brooks’s statement to Mr Cheesman is not yet to hand,’ Tilly said. ‘Do you have any idea what he said?’
Tom shook his head. ‘Neither myself nor Stephens was in the room when Brooks made his statement, but he would have said the same.’
‘Are you sure of this?’
For the first time a shadow of doubt crossed Tom’s face. ‘I’m sure. Why?’