Settlement. Ann Birch
a leg, woman. Or we’ll have our walking papers.”
A striking clock woke Anna up. She felt much warmer, almost too warm under her coat. The housekeeper and her husband had evidently applied themselves to their labours while she slept. Fires had been lit in each of the fireplaces, and her bedchamber was in order, though there was little in the way of real comfort. Perhaps there were merchants who would supply comfortable chairs or bookcases for her volumes.
The woman brought hot water to Anna’s room, set the pitcher down with a thump, and left, muttering something about recipes. Anna removed her travel-stained clothing and washed herself in the basin. She had kept a new silk dress for the reunion with her husband, and she took it from her trunk. It was of two pieces, with a close-fitting bodice and a full, pleated skirt. The sleeves were narrow at the shoulders and wide at the wrists, and when she raised her arms, the sleeves fell back to show to advantage her white wrists and arms.
While she waited for Robert, she looked around the house. She found a rough pine table in an unused bedchamber and had the manservant put it in her room. At least she now had a desk of sorts. She unpacked some of her books and her drawing materials and spread them out on its surface.
The case clock in the drawing room struck eight, then eight thirty. The door opened. Anna moved into the hallway to greet her spouse. For a moment she stood, unable to speak, seeing afresh after three years’ separation his tall, elegant form, his curly hair and large brown eyes, the right one with a slight strabismus.
“My dear,” he said, extending his fingers so that they brushed her sleeve. “I am happy to see you looking so well.” He smiled.
“I am glad to see you in evident health and good spirits, too, Robert.” She raised her arms to embrace him, but he was already removing his coat with the help of Hawkins. There was a long pause. The servants hovered. “Go belowstairs,” Anna said to them, “and bring up our dinner.”
“I see you have already taken charge, Anna. I fear I am too tired at the end of the day to give instructions. Hawkins and his wife provide a dish of gruel and a decanter of wine.” Robert threw his coat onto a chair. “Let us move into the drawing room.”
He took the comfortable armchair for himself, and she perched opposite him in a straight-backed Windsor chair. He looked her over. “How strange it seems to have you with me again, Anna.”
“If I may borrow a phrase I overheard from one of the boat passengers today, ‘Where the deuce were you when I was freezing my balls off on that blasted wharf?’”
“I am sorry, my dear. I had hoped to be there. But at the last moment, His Majesty’s representative, Sir Francis Bond Head, requested my presence at Government House for coffee. I foresee an opportunity for advancement to Vice-Chancellor of the Province—if the winds are favourable. If one hopes for promotion, one cannot be too assiduous in attendance when the Governor summons. Such are the realities of life in this place.” He paused, his attention diverted by a newspaper beside his chair.
“But why did you not send someone to meet me? Why did you leave me to stand on that freezing wharf dependent on the kindness of a stranger?”
“Ah, that was an oversight for which I must beg your pardon. But apart from my dereliction of duty, I trust your voyage was satisfactory? Not too many impediments to your comfort?”
“I have been two months in transit. I shall spare you the details. Except to say that surely Franklin’s charting of the Arctic seaboard was scarcely more arduous than my trek across the Atlantic to this godforsaken town. But I survived, Robert. I thank you for asking.”
Her husband smiled. “Still the jokester, dear Anna. We must talk further at dinner.”
He picked up the newspaper that had engaged his interest and began reading. Anna counted slowly to ten in English, French, and German. Then she closed her eyes for a few moments, trying to shut out of her vision the strangling vines on the wallpaper and the snow collecting on the inner ledge of the ill-fitting window.
“Dinner, master.” Mrs. Hawkins set a platter of sausages and a dish of boiled potatoes on the buffet. “And I made a nice bread pudding for you, ma’am, in honour of your homecoming.”
“One of my favourite things. Thank you. That will be a treat.”
The woman smiled, her lined face transformed into prettiness. She went again belowstairs.
Robert forked sausages onto his plate. “Sir Francis asked me to extend a welcome to you. He said that he looks forward to meeting you at the soirées at Government House. Lady Head arrives in a few weeks.”
“One of the men I spoke to today on the boat from Niagara called His Lordship a nincompoop. Was he right?”
“I can have no opinions. And I must caution you, Anna. While you are here, I ask you to keep clear of any expression of contention.”
“While I am here? What do you mean, Robert? You see this as a temporary arrangement, do you?”
“Please do not pounce on a stray phrase. Of course, I want you to stay.”
“I know you need me to lend credence to your pretence to have a normal married life. That’s what you had in mind when you asked me to come across the sea. But I have nonetheless hoped for more. Some warmth of welcome. Some sympathetic discourse.” She laid down her fork and pushed her plate away.
“You are right, Anna. I want to rise from Attorney-General to Vice-Chancellor of the Province. You are an essential part of my plan. We must try to get on together. I shall do my best to be a good husband. But I doubt, my dear Anna, that you have come across the sea solely for altruistic reasons.”
“So let us lay down our cards. In the twelve years we have been married, we have lived apart for almost eight years, and during all that time, I have been reliant on my own resources as an author, but—”
“Ah yes. You want money.”
“The writing business is uncertain at best. I have been lucky with my books so far, but who knows how long the reading public will stay with me. So here it is, Robert. I shall need three hundred pounds a year to maintain myself and to provide for my parents and my unmarried sisters. My poor father has suffered a stroke.”
“Three hundred pounds!” Robert’s normal pallor disappeared under a pulsing wave of crimson.
“You will be able to afford it. I learned some facts before I left England. The salary of the Attorney-General is twelve hundred pounds a year including fees; the salary of the Vice-Chancellor is twelve hundred a year, not including fees. Your income will more than double. You’ll be a rich man. I ask for a mere three hundred.”
“Never. But as long as you stay with me, I shall give you an allowance suited to your status as Chancellor’s wife. Some of that may certainly be dispatched to your family. If you leave, you are on your own.”
Robert poured another glass of wine, then another and another. Anna spooned some of the bread pudding onto her plate. The rest of the meal passed in silence.
As they parted for the night, Robert stopped outside his bedchamber. “I promised you a pleasant little house, Anna. Alas, it is not ready. The carpenters and bricklayers took a month off for the hunting season. You can’t hurry the hoi polloi in this town.”
“Never mind. This place is just fine. The street is no doubt named after London’s best prison.”
“Would you like me to come to your bedchamber for a while?”
“Perhaps we are both too tired. Let us rest for tonight.”
In her bedchamber, Anna found that Mrs. Hawkins had left two flickering candles. By their light, she removed her dress. Her husband had not noticed her white arms and hands in the new gown. Perhaps he had once found her physically attractive, but that had been long ago.
She remembered his letters during their courtship. They had been delightful, full of warmth