Bell Rock

As you can see, I had changed my appearance. Ruth decided we should make ourselves as unlike female convicts and a ship's officer as we could. Anne cut my hair. The women cut their hair shorter too. On the Esmeralda their hair had just been left. By the time they reached Australia their hair would have been very long. I shaved my beard off. That was a mistake. My face was weather beaten where the beard hadn't been, and very pale where the beard have covered it. Susan made up some concoction to make the colour contrast less obvious just while I was in town.

Mrs Leigh and I went into the bank. The manager was surprised to see her, gave his condolences on the loss of her husband, and took us into his office. He was obviously pleased when I produced the money to pay off the loan. His wife took Mrs Leigh to their private quarters to make tea and freshen up after the journey while the manager and I smoked cigars.

"I am very relieved that loan has been repaid, Mr Jones," he said. "I was very worried about it. It was one of our larger outstanding loans. If we had taken over the Inn we were unlikely to be able to sell it. Or maybe not. There is a rumour that the turnpike road improvement might be revived. Even so that won't happen for several years. If and when it does? The Inn might be what Mr and Mrs Leigh wanted it to be -- a useful staging post on a good road."

"It needs major repairs," I said, "but the materials are already there. I... Sorry, we, will need reasonable workmen but I think it could be sound in a couple of years."

"Do I assume you will be running the Inn, Mr Jones?"

"Running it? No. We are buying it from Mrs Leigh. We won't reopen it as an Inn until it is fit for purpose."

"I wish you good fortune with it, but..." The bank manager stopped.

"But?" I queried.

"But this bank would not be in a position to help. We are pleased that our loan ended so well. Until that road is improved we wouldn't be able to advance any money..."

"No need, Sir," I interrupted. "We have enough capital. Three of us are fortunate heirs of a deceased Scottish gentleman. I have independent means. We can finance the work ourselves, thank you."

Later that day Mrs Leigh and I visited her lawyers. Although her husband's will was still being executed she and her lawyers agreed to sell the Inn to the four of us for hard cash. I paid forty guineas on top of the forty to redeem the loan. But we had bought more than the Inn. When Mr and Mrs Leigh bought the Inn for fifty guineas they had also bought other parcels of land around the Inn for another ten guineas. That land was included in our purchase from Mrs Leigh and Mr Leigh's estate. It would take about three months for all the legalities to be completed but we could take possession from now, today.

I walked Mrs Leigh to her daughter's house, carrying a cloth bag with her immediate needs. Just before we arrived I had persuaded Mrs Leigh to take five guineas as 'rent' until the legal transfer was completed. She was reluctant but delighted to be arriving at her daughter's house as a woman with money in her purse. Once the sale of the Inn and land had been completed she would be self-sufficient and able to help her daughter and grandchildren financially. I agreed to get the women at the Inn to bundle up Mrs Leigh's possessions and send them with the farmer's cart on next market day. I left mother and daughter together and returned to the Inn on the empty farmer's cart. He and I were pleased with our day's transactions.

While I had been away the three women had been cleaning and tidying the Inn. Mr and Mrs Leigh had stopped taking care of the property for months. Just cleaning dirt from the windows had made the useable parts of the building seem much lighter inside. But they had also shown how much rubbish and debris was scattered around.

While they took a tea break Ruth and Susan had counted the money taken from the Esmeralda. We had thousands of guineas in mixed old coinage, not new coins that could be traced. They kept the equivalent of two hundred guineas for our living expenses for the next couple of years, and had found an old iron bound strong box to put the rest in. They wanted me to hide it somewhere inside the Inn, safe from thieves but accessible if we really needed it."

Richard/Robert looked at me.

"Henry? You like Amanda, don't you?"

I felt silly answering a dream but I said 'yes'.

"Would you marry her? She needs a father for her baby."

"I think so, Robert. It's too soon to say."

"Have you wondered why you are having this dream and not Amanda or her mother?"

I had to think before answering.

"I suppose I have."

Robert laughed.

"What you don't know, Henry, is that I'm one of YOUR ancestors too. Amanda is descended from my first son with Anne. You are descended from our first daughter. That's why I and the others can appear in your dream. When Abigail/Anne was riding you, she was riding her several times great grandson. If you do your family history on your mother's line you'll find Anne Jones, formerly Smith née Owens."

"Oh." What else could I say?

+++

Robert went on to explain how he and Anne married. Anne's baby, actually the son of the Esmeralda's mate Albert Smith, died of a fever age two. Richard and Anne went on to have children. About three months after the Inn sale had been completed Robert met two men at the crossroads beside the Inn. They were tired and hungry. Robert recognised them as seamen. They explained that they had left Cardiff to avoid a press gang. They were walking towards any port that might take them to Ireland.

Robert took them in to the Inn and the women fed them. A few questions established that John had been a carpenter's mate and Silas had been an apprentice served blacksmith when they had been first press ganged into the Royal Navy. As competent seaman with a trade they were vulnerable to being pressed again.

It didn't take long for the women to decide that John and Silas could help repair the Inn for wages. As they worked over the next few months Susan decided she wanted John in her bed; Ruth took Silas.

Two years later some of the Inn's outbuildings were Silas' forge and John's carpenter's shop. At first they were working only on the Inn but gradually they picked up work from the surrounding farms.

Four years after the purchase of the Inn the road was finally improved and travellers began to use it. Gradually the Inn became profitable. The three women had children to look after. Some of the farmer's daughters worked in the Inn but lived at home.

The land they had bought included the whole valley down to the sea and the fisherman's hut but a neighbouring landowner had a right of way down the path. Together with him the path was improved to a basic road. Sand and stone from the beach helped with the repairs to the Inn.

"I'll end the story there, Henry." Robert said. "If you want to know more the records exist of births, deaths, marriages and property transactions. But now my Anne wants you for the last time..."

As he stopped speaking and gradually faded I seemed to be naked with Anne who had been Abigail straddling my erection. I was soon lost in the fury of our coupling as she rode me. I was vaguely uneasy that my several times great-grandmother was bouncing up and down on me but it was a dream, wasn't it?

+++

That was not my last dream about the survivors of the Esmeralda. Two days later I was back at work but seeing Amanda several times a week.

Two months later Amanda and I were engaged with her parents' willing approval. She was seven months pregnant. We had booked a quiet Registry Office wedding for three weeks time. Four days before the wedding I was attending a lecture at the college Amanda had been attending in Bristol. It was an open lecture that Amanda had wanted to go too but she was too tired. I had gone for her and was taking extensive notes. As requested we had all turned off our phones, in fact I had left mine in my car. The lecturer had finished and was taking questions when I suddenly heard Robert Jones' voice loud in my head.

"Amanda needs you NOW!" He seemed to shout at me.

I didn't think. I gathered up my papers and ran out of the room. A few people looked at me oddly as I went.

I drove to Amanda's flat and let myself in with the key she had given me. I found her in the kitchen leaning against a work surface. Blood was running down her legs.

"Wha..." I started to ask.

"I've called an ambulance," Amanda gasped, "but they're delayed, dealing with a massive crash on the M4. They suggest the minor injuries unit."

She gasped as pain hit her again.

"Get me there. Now! It's only fifty yards away but it closes in minutes."

I just picked Amanda up and ran with her. I crashed through the door of the unit. A nurse talking to an elderly man took one look at Amanda's blood stained skirt before shouting:

"Cubicle One! Now!"

I followed her. As we entered the nurse hit a large red button and a bell started ringing loudly.

"She's pregnant?" The nurse asked me. Amanda was almost unconscious.

"Seven and a half months," I said.

"Any impact or accident?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. She was at home. She was able to call an ambulance..."

"But they're too busy?"

I nodded.

The nurse took a pair of scissor and cut Amanda's skirt open. Amanda wasn't wearing panties. The nurse pushed Amanda's top off the bump before using a stethoscope.

"I'm sorry," the nurse said. "I can't find a foetal heartbeat. Yours?"

"She will be," I replied. "The baby isn't. We're marrying in four days' time."

A woman doctor arrived and the bell stopped ringing. The next quarter of an hour will stay in my memory for life. Amanda was sedated with blood expander being fed through a drip as the dead baby gradually emerged from her uterus. It had been a boy child. I stood at Amanda's head, holding her unresponsive hand as the baby and afterbirth were caught in blood soaked towels.

The nurse pushed me out of the room as the doctor stitched Amanda up. I had to complete the paperwork because Amanda was still unconscious. Most of the minor injuries unit was in darkness, closed for patients. I sat and waited while the nurse made phone call after phone call desperately trying to find a bed for Amanda. Eventually she put the phone down and dropped her head into her hands.

"I'm sorry," the nurse said. "All the beds for miles around are full from the M4 accident. All I can do is book for our doctor and nurse to come to Amanda first thing tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. You'll stay with her?"

"Of course I will," I answered.

"We'll help you get her home and set up with another drip. If she deteriorates, ring for an emergency ambulance. But she should be OK. At least I hope she will be. She's lost the baby but most of the blood was from the baby, not her. We don't know what happened, or how, but the baby's link to the cord detached. It bled out from there."

Two nurses and the doctor helped me to move Amanda on a trolley back to her flat. I was grateful that it was on the ground floor. I was left with a semi-conscious fiancée with a drip attached. I was told how to turn it off and detach it when the bag was emptied. I brought an armchair from the living room and sat up watching Amanda as she slept.

I detached the drip about one o'clock. In the early hours of the morning I was almost asleep but trying to remain awake. I heard Robert in my head again.

"Don't worry, Henry. All four of us will keep watch over her. If she needs you, we'll wake you up."

I trusted Robert. I seemed to feel Abigail/Anne kissing me as I went to sleep.

I woke up again at seven. I walked over to Amanda. She was still asleep and looked peaceful. Her normal colour had returned unlike the grey face when I arrived yesterday evening. I went into the kitchen, made myself some instant coffee and grabbed some cereal. I was gone about five minutes. When I returned Amanda's eyes were open. She smiled at me.

"Coffee?" she said. "Yes please."

I gave her my mug before going back to the kitchen to make myself another.

"I've lost the baby, haven't I?" Amanda asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Good. I didn't really want a reminder of that arsehole. It was my baby too. I'll grieve for what might have been but not for the half of its genes that were his. But why aren't I in hospital?"

I explained about the M4 accident and the lack of beds. I told her the doctor and nurse would be with her soon.

"Eight o'clock! That's twenty minutes away. Clean me up at least, please. Bring me a bowl of warm water, a flannel and a nightdress out of that drawer..."

I protested that she wasn't fit enough. I was wasting my breath. Amanda wanted to be clean. I had to wash the blood off her, strip her completely and find a button through nightdress for her to wear. I had just finished when the door bell rang to announce the arrival of the doctor and nurse.

Half an hour later Amanda was pronounced very fit and well considering what had happened. She should stay in bed for the next forty-eight hours and the district nurse would come in the afternoons.

I rang my employers and told them what had happened. The personnel manager came on the line and told me to stay away from work looking after Amanda for the rest of the week. I had already booked next week off for a honeymoon after Saturday's wedding. I rang my friends and cancelled Thursday evening's low-key Stag do. They understood and wish us well.

Amanda spent a long time on her phone talking to her parents. They would collect her on Thursday because she would be going to the wedding from there. I could come and stay too. I accepted their invitation. I didn't want to leave Amanda before we married.

That night I slept on the settee in Amanda's living room. I would hear her if she needed to call for me. She didn't call.

But Abigail/Anne did come to me in my dream. She was very gentle with me, riding me slowly and sensuously until I went to sleep with my head resting against a soft breast. I wasn't really sure whether she was Anne, or was I dreaming of Amanda? The dream version of Abigail/Anne seemed to have gradually merged into a dream of the real Amanda.

Mr Jones collected Amanda on Thursday afternoon. I went to my flat, cleaned myself up, packed my best suit and other clothes, and arrived at the public house a couple of hours after them. Amanda was in a comfortable armchair in their private sitting room.

I had cancelled our honeymoon booking at a hotel in South Devon. The cost was covered by our travel insurance. Eventually I'd get the money back when the paperwork had been completed. Instead we'd stay with Amanda's parents for the week to give Amanda time to recover.

Thursday and Friday nights I slept alone, as did Amanda. Or, in theory, I slept alone. I was visited by Abigail/Anne and the sisters Susan and Ruth who made love to me in my dream.

The wedding was very quiet. Amanda needed her father's arm to walk up the aisle at the Registry Office, my arm to support her during the ceremony, and my arm again as we walked out as man and wife. I drove her back to the public house in my car. Amanda remained seated during most of the reception except for slow dances with her father, and with her new husband.

We went to bed together. We knew Amanda wasn't in a state to make love. We just held hands and cuddled before going to sleep in each other's arms.

The first few days after the wedding we spent quietly. We sat side by side at a laptop looking for my family history. Was I really descended from Richard and Anne as Amanda was? It took some research but by the Wednesday we had proved it. Amanda and I were third or fourth or fifth or whatever cousins. We were the same generation of descendants but far removed from each other's direct line.

On Wednesday evening Robert returned in my dream.

"You've proved it," he said as he appeared. "I knew you would. So I have a wedding present for my descendants."

I didn't know what he meant. He laughed at me.

"Remember the guineas from the Esmeralda? We hid them. They're still here and now they belong to you and Amanda. We left a note with them. If you go into the private sitting room, lift the carpet in front of the fireplace, and the linoleum -- you'll see some short planks. Unscrew the fixings and the box with the guineas is there. Enjoy your wealth, Henry and Amanda. We did..."

He vanished from my dream. I never dreamed of him again.

Next morning I told Amanda what Robert had said. We went downstairs and told her parents. An hour later we had the heavy box sitting on a table in the living room. All four of us were standing around it. Amanda lifted the lid. Inside was an inner lid. Resting on it was an envelope addressed to "Our recently married descendants".

Amanda opened the unsealed envelope carefully. There was a stiff piece of paper. It was dated 1858. It was very simply worded.

"To whichever of our descendants has most recently married.

These coins are your inheritance as a wedding gift. We put them aside for you as we never needed them. We hope you will be as happy as we are."

It was signed by Richard and Anne Jones; Sarah and Ruth Simpson.

It took months of discussions with the relevant authorities about what should happen with the coins. I didn't reveal the connection with the Esmeralda. Even if I had, I had no proof except a series of dreams. All we had was proof that Amanda and I were descended from Richard and Anne Jones.

Eventually our ancestors' wishes were honoured. The coins belonged to Amanda and I. We kept the box and the letter but the coins were bought by a London coin dealer for enough money for us to buy a modern detached house in Bristol outright and invest for our future.

The survivors of the Esmeralda had done well for themselves, and for us.

Soon there will be another generation descended from them.

The End