Beyond The Setting Sun: A Tudor naval adventure (The New World Nautical Saga Book 2) by David Field

Author:David Field [Field, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2023-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

12

‘You say that there was no indication of their true fate?’ Raleigh asked solicitously.

White wiped a tear from his eye and nodded. ‘Apart from the destruction of most of the houses they had built, it was as if they had simply gone away for a picnic in the woods. However, it appeared to my eye that the stockade around the settlement had recently been reinforced, although of course it had been three years since I was last there.’

‘But there was nothing to suggest slaughter by the native tribes?’ Raleigh pressed him. ‘No bodies — not even skeletons?’

‘Nothing, God be praised,’ White told him.

Raleigh smiled. ‘This is all to the good, since it cannot be claimed by anyone that the colony is not still existing.’

‘But the people?’ White persisted.

Raleigh’s face set slightly. ‘You must tell no-one what you have told me, understand? If anyone should ask, you simply advise them that you were unable, due to the adverse weather, to remain to await the colonists’ return from what was no doubt a short expedition in search of game.’

‘Would they have taken the children with them?’ White asked. ‘There were at least two of them approximately the same age as my granddaughter Virginia, who would be barely three years old.’

‘Would you, as a parent, have gone off for even a short trip and left your child defenceless?’ Raleigh challenged him.

‘Of course not, but…’

‘Then it is settled,’ Raleigh said, cutting him off with a stern glare. ‘We shall of course send other explorers out in due course, in order to establish, beyond peradventure, what has happened to your people, but should we let it be thought that they have perished, then there would be those who would argue against any such expedition, would there not? Your best interest would seem to lie in reporting that you failed to reunite with those you left behind, but that you had no reason to believe that any evil had befallen them. We are agreed?’

‘Yes,’ White confirmed weakly. ‘But how soon before we may equip another expedition?’

‘You must leave that with me,’ Raleigh told him. ‘The current time is not auspicious, given our ongoing disputes with Spain, despite the defeat of the Armada, and the hazards to be encountered on the Western Ocean. But I will ensure that Her Majesty is kept well aware of the need to foster our colony across on its other side. I still enjoy her confidence, and mine is the best voice to be heard in your cause.’

White left the supper table shortly thereafter in order to return to his temporary London lodging. Raleigh ordered the remaining candles to be extinguished in the main hall as he took one of them to light his way upstairs to the bedchamber to which Bess Throckmorton had excused herself prior to supper being served, on the grounds that she was somewhat disordered in the stomach. He undressed as silently as he could and slipped in beside her, turning the information he had received over and over in his mind.

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