Love's Will by Meredith Whitford Read Free Book Online Page A

enough to escape, clerked for him. Richard did the unskilled work.
    One night they were working late, the older man doing the close work on a pair of gloves for a special order, the younger trying to make sense of the accounts. John Shakspere had a habit of whistling under his breath as he concentrated. It annoyed William and grated on his nerves until he lost track of the numbers he was trying to tally and he turned and snapped at his father to stop it. Like most boys of his class he had been bred to treat his parents with courtesy and he was astonished when there was no rebuke. Instead his father had put down his work and asked if he wanted a drink.
    “Yes,” said William, puzzled.
    “I keep a bottle in here. No need to tell your mother.”
    “I shan’t, sir.”
    “Oh, sir, sir, sir. Let’s have a little less sirring and a bit more talk, as men. The cups are behind that roll of taffeta.”
    It was French brandy, and from the quality he was used to in the north William recognized it as rather fine. Expensive.
    “Talk of what?”
    “Anything. Chat. Tell a joke. Because, boy, I have enough of glum faces and cold silences and being reminded I’m a failure.” He tossed off his brandy and poured another.
    “Not a failure.”
    “But nothing worked out the way I planned it. Most of my money is gone and I spend my time hiding from my creditors. Your mother reproaches me, my friends make excuses for me and I do not like my life. So talk to me. With me.”
    “Well then… why did you give up being a farmer? Why move into Stratford and take up the glover’s trade, and all the rest?”
    “I thought I could better myself. And for a long time I did. Your mother was a pretty girl with a little money, my father’s landlord’s daughter, a little above me, and I wanted to give her everything. I liked making things. I liked doing something I am good at. I enjoyed the dealing and taking chances. Never gamble, son.”
    “I don’t. I think I’ve no taste for it.”
    “Just as well. Some people will bet on a game of cards or a football match, or two raindrops running down a window. Others, like me, enjoy the risk of investing money, going a little outside the law, playing both ends against the middle. And see where it gets you. Never gamble, and don’t lend money. If your debtors don’t get you, the law will. Another drink?”
    William had never had more than one brandy at a time, but recklessly he held out his cup for more.
    “Good lad. What’s all this your mother tells me about you wanting to go to London?”
    “I don’t know what she has told you but it’s what I would like to do.”
    “Why? All this play-acting nonsense?”
    “Perhaps. Yes.”
    “Any money in it?”
    “I’m not sure, Father. Well, players are paid, of course. And if I could sometimes write material for them – plays – there would be money in that.”
    “Is it a matter of an apprenticeship? To one of these playing companies?”
    “Well, yes, I think so.”
    “But I suppose they don’t take just anyone.”
    “I suppose not.”
    “Your mother said you spoke to her of having done something of this kind at Sir Alexander’s house. Apparently you told her you’d met people who could be of use to you.”
    “One or two, perhaps.”
    Pushing away his work, his father refilled his cup and sat back, his legs stretched out. “We feel it, you know, that we couldn’t send you to university. That schoolmaster you had, Whatisname, said you were one of his cleverest pupils and could have a great future. The law, perhaps. Or some government position. But it wasn’t to be. Money is all, and I hadn’t enough. But none of your brothers shows much promise in that sort of way, although I admit it’s too soon to tell about the little boy. But Richard just plods through his schoolwork and Gilbert’s lazy and too keen on girls. By the way, have you got any particular girl?”
    Wherever William’s acting talent came from, it wasn’t from his father.