The Armada Legacy

Chapter Fifty-Five

Ben was sitting with Brooke in the sick bay the next morning, clasping her hand, when Father Scally knocked at the door and stepped inside.

‘Good morning, Padraig,’ Brooke said.

‘You look stronger,’ the priest noted with pleasure. ‘The colour’s back in your cheeks.’

‘I feel it,’ she said, and squeezed Ben’s hand. It was as if they’d never been apart.

‘Came to say I’m off,’ Father Scally told them cheerfully. ‘For what it’s worth. What cash there’s left for supplies would barely weigh down a butterfly.’

Without hesitation, Brooke reached to the side of her bed and picked up the glittering necklace and bracelet she’d taken from Serrato. ‘Here. These are worth a lot of money.’

‘Now, child—’

‘Take them,’ she insisted. ‘Let them be used for something good. It’s the least I can do.’

The priest gazed at the glittering jewels and whistled. ‘Then on behalf of the Sapaki people, I thank you kindly. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what diamonds. I wouldn’t trust meself not to go dropping them in the river, clumsy old fool that I am. But Uchu, Rumi and his girl Chaska are coming with me and they’ll guard these baubles with their lives.’

Minutes later, Father Scally set off down the path towards the river, accompanied by the two tribesmen Uchu and Rumi, along with Rumi’s twelve-year-old daughter. A whole crowd of Sapaki went to see them off; Ben and Brooke could hear their clamouring from the sick bay.

‘They love him. He’s a wonderful man, isn’t he?’ Brooke said.

Ben nodded. ‘Yes, he is.’

All through that day, he could see Brooke getting stronger. By the afternoon she was able to take a few steps outside. He walked with her, holding her hand, and they gently explored the village. It was far more extensive than it had seemed at first. There were cultivated gardens filled with fruit and vegetables, and even a small cotton plantation from which the tribe produced their clothing. ‘It’s so beautiful,’ Brooke said.

It was during those peaceful, happy hours that Ben toyed on and off with the idea of telling her about Jude. He still wasn’t sure how she’d take the news; and in the end he decided now was the wrong moment. He resolved to break it to her another time, maybe once he got her home to London.

And anyway, there were other things he was burning to say to her first.

The evening saw them joining the rest of the tribe for a communal feast of spit-roasted tapir, grilled fish and a kind of sweet potato mash that tasted far better than it looked. Ben introduced Brooke to Nico and Pepe and they all sat together to eat. Even with the pall of the recent massacre hanging over them, the atmosphere among the tribespeople was buoyant and upbeat. Only Tupaq, the chief, seemed preoccupied.

‘No problemo,’ Pepe replied through a mouthful of fish when Ben told him that the priest had said Brooke needed a few more days in the village to recuperate. ‘I’m in no hurry to go back,’ Pepe added mysteriously. Ben didn’t quite understand what he meant, until he noticed the covert glances and smiles that the young guy was exchanging with K’antu throughout the meal.

When everyone was full of meat and fish, some Sapaki girls brought out beautifully spun baskets filled with bananas and papaya. By then, Ben thought Brooke was looking weary again, and insisted on walking her back to the sick bay to rest. ‘I feel so much better,’ she kept protesting.

‘I promised Father Scally I wouldn’t tire you out.’ He made her lie down, and used his Zippo to light the candle.

‘Will you stay with me a while?’ she asked, clasping his arm and tugging him down to sit by her on the bed.

‘Are you kidding? I told you I wasn’t going to let you out of my sight again. And I meant it.’ He paused, then added, ‘I really meant it.’

She smiled. ‘What’s that mean?’

He took a deep breath and thought, here goes. ‘It means I want to be with you, Brooke. As in …’

‘As in … ?’

‘I meant as in, will you have me?’ he said.

The candlelight was shining in her eyes. ‘Have you?’ she repeated, cocking her head to one side.

‘Are you teasing me, or has this illness made you slow-witted?’

‘Hey, watch it,’ she warned him playfully.

‘I don’t want to be apart from you again,’ he said. ‘Not ever. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

‘Ben Hope; in your own very strange way, are you by any chance proposing marriage to me?’

It was the second time in his life he’d done this. It didn’t get any easier with experience. He felt no less bashful and awkward than he had that day years ago near Lake Bled, in Slovenia, when he’d asked Leigh Llewellyn the same question. ‘Maybe it’s not the right time,’ he mumbled.

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Yes what?’ he asked, confused.

‘Yes I want to be with you too,’ she said. ‘Yes, I’ll marry you.’

‘It’s a deal, then,’ he said with mock indifference. His heart was thumping. It would have been the worst moment to keel over dead from a cardiac arrest.

‘But you have to promise me,’ she said. ‘No more adventures. No more running off and scaring the shit out of me. I don’t think I could handle it again.’

‘Look who’s talking.’

‘I’m serious,’ she said.

‘I’m serious too,’ he replied. ‘Serious about wanting to have a life with you. Forever.’

‘Then you promise. No matter what happens?’

‘No matter what happens,’ he said. ‘From now on my place is at home, with you. In fact …’ He hesitated.

‘What?’

‘I was thinking …’ He paused again, was about to go on and then thought better of it. ‘No, you’ll probably just laugh.’

‘How do you know I’ll laugh? Try me. Tell me what you were thinking.’ She ran her hand down his arm. ‘Please, Ben.’

‘I was thinking about giving up Le Val. Letting Jeff take over; I know he’s full of his own ideas for the place. And maybe going back to finish my studies. We could rent a house in Oxfordshire, out in the country somewhere. I wouldn’t be in college more than a few hours each day, and the rest of the time we’d be together.’

‘You mean finishing your theology degree?’

He nodded. ‘I know, you think it’s stupid – and maybe it is. But talking to Father Scally brought it all back to me. I can see a future for me there, Brooke.’

‘Ben, I think it’s wonderful. It’s what you always wanted, deep down.’

He grinned ruefully. ‘Then again, you can’t always have what you want.’

‘You have me, don’t you?’

‘Do I?’

‘Oh, Ben, you know you do.’

‘What about your place in Richmond? Your career?’

‘I’d give them up tomorrow to be with you.’

He looked at her. ‘You would?’

‘Of course I would, silly. Come here.’ She pulled him towards her and they kissed.

‘I’ve just remembered,’ he said, gently breaking their embrace. ‘I have something of yours.’ He took it from his pocket and showed her.

Brooke gasped. ‘My little chain! Where did you find it?’

‘Just something I picked up along the way,’ he said. ‘Here, let me put it on you.’ He reached round her neck to fasten the clasp. She kissed him again, flung her arms round him and pressed herself up against him. ‘Oh, Ben. I still can’t believe you’re here with me.’

‘You can believe it,’ he said between smothering kisses.

‘Still don’t. You’re going to have to prove it to me.’

‘Stop it. You’re not strong enough for this.’

‘Try me,’ she murmured, pressing him down on the bed.

A soft knock interrupted them and a figure appeared in the doorway.

It was Pepe.

‘Shit. Sorry, guys. Ben, they’re asking for you over at the big hut.’