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‘I’m sorry, but maybe it’s too late to save the mine. Alex told me it wasn’t doing well.’
‘So you’re going to turn your back on your family and play at being a gun runner. I used to look up to you when I was a child. I can see how mistaken I was.’
‘Look here, mister. I know I’m not part of this, but it seems to me you could at least give what Nancy asks some thought. My ma isn’t a young woman and she’s come all this way to try to persuade you to go home. At least give her the courtesy of hearing what she has to say.’
‘Hester never approved of me. She’s not interested to know what I think or want. I’ll tell you what I told Alex. I was sent to the penal colony on false charges, or at least they were exaggerated by Ewart. No one in the family spoke up for me.’
‘But, Piers, you own Trevenor and the land surrounding it. Don’t you have any feelings for your old home?’
‘I might have died in Australia and no one at home would have been any the wiser. I doubt anyone really and truly missed me, so why should I put myself out now?’
‘Don’t you care at all about your grandmama, Piers?’
‘You won’t get to me by appealing to my better nature, Nancy. I lost that breaking up rocks in the penal colony.’ Piers shook free from her restraining hand and turned away. ‘If you want to find Alex and Leo, they are staying in style at the Charnley sugar plantation. Apparently, Alex was at school with their son, so he and Leo have been having the royal treatment, which of course was not extended to me.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ Nancy said angrily. ‘Let’s go, Tobias. We’re obviously wasting our time here.’ She marched off with Harding on her heels.
Hester was still prone on the bed when Nancy reached the hotel.
‘I’m not asleep, just resting my eyes.’ Hester raised herself on one elbow. ‘I don’t know how these people stand the heat. Did you find Piers?’
Nancy took off her straw bonnet and laid it on the ottoman at the foot of the bed. ‘We did but he won’t come home with us. He’s a very bitter man and he doesn’t seem to care what happens to his family.’
‘I can’t say I’m surprised. That man always had a hard streak. He used Rosie to better himself. All he cared about was making money and it seems he hasn’t changed.’
‘There is slightly better news, Hester. I know where Alex and Leo are staying.’
Hester reached for a cloth and wiped her brow. ‘Where are they?’
‘Piers told us that Alex knows the son of the owner of Charnley sugar plantation. They were at school together. Anyway, Tobias says it’s the biggest plantation on the island and the Bonaventure ships cargoes of their molasses and rum back to England. It seems as though Alex and Leo have landed on their feet.’
Hester scratched her shoulder. ‘I think there are bedbugs in this mattress. I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.’
‘It’s too late today, but I suggest we put on our best gowns and pay a visit to the plantation first thing tomorrow morning. We need to persuade Alex and Leo to come home. They won’t change Piers’ mind, so it’s a waste of time them being here.’
‘I agree. Anything to get out of this heat and this flea-ridden hotel. Maybe we can sail back on the Bonaventure. Where is Tobias, by the way?’
‘He had to return to his duties on board.’
‘I don’t want to lose him again, Nancy. I never forgave myself for giving him up, even though it would have been impossible for me to raise him. I need to get to know my son.’
‘Of course you do. I just wish I knew who my parents were. Not knowing is awful.’
‘I never considered your feelings before, and I’m sorry,’ Hester said softly. ‘I could have been kinder to you when you were growing up.’
Nancy laughed. ‘You took me in and you fed and clothed me. I had a good education so I am not complaining. I was very lucky that Rosie saw fit to rescue me from a life of servitude.’
Hester swung her legs over the side of the bed and it creaked ominously. ‘Do they provide food in this establishment? I’m starving.’
That night neither Nancy nor Hester managed to get much sleep. The noise from the ground floor of the hotel kept them both awake into the small hours, and then they were plagued by bites from bedbugs. Mosquitoes were also a problem, despite the netting draped over the bed, and the heat was intense. When Hester did finally doze off she mumbled in her sleep and Nancy lay awake, longing for the coolness of her room at home.
Next morning, Nancy rose early and washed in tepid water from the ewer on the washstand. She dressed and went downstairs to order coffee, which she had to carry upstairs herself as the maids were busy elsewhere, although she suspected that most of them were still in their beds.
Hester was groggy from lack of sleep but a cup of strong black coffee revived her enough to get up and dress in the best clothes she had brought with her. Nancy found the sleepy-eyed concierge and persuaded him to find them transport to the plantation. He eyed her curiously and demanded payment for the room before he would do anything. She gave him the money and he sloped off to find someone who would take them to Charnley. Eventually a shifty-looking individual drew a sad-looking sway-back horse to a halt outside the hotel, and the concierge sent a boy to help Nancy and Hester with their luggage.
‘What do we do if they don’t invite us to stay?’ Hester asked in a stage whisper.
‘We find another hotel. I’m not spending another night in the one we’ve just left.’
