The Loving Cup by Winston Graham Read Free Book Online

Geoffrey Charles said.
    'Who?'
    'Drake and Morwenna. I must write to ask them to Trenwith. Or we could ride over and see them.' 'How far is it?'
    'Thirty miles. Maybe less. But we should have to spend the night.'
    They descended a valley, where trees suddenly grew again in green bird-haunted clumps, passed a fine house, only just removed from the attle and the waste.
    'Thomas Wilson lives there,' said Geoffrey Charles. 'He is the mineral lord for this area, and so takes a dish from what is raised on those mines you have just passed.'
    'Dish? Plato Again strange. Dish is what you eat off, no?'
    'A dish is what you eat off. But in this country there is another meaning to it. It means a share. A portion. The mineral lord takes a fraction - perhaps one ninth - of the value of the ore raised.'
    'So he is rich?'
    ‘I f the mines prosper, yes.'
    'But there is no such dish at your house - Trenwith?'
    'At one time there was. The Poldarks owned a large share of the mine too - it was called Grambler - but twenty-odd years ago it failed; and so we have been poor ever since.'
    'But can you not begin other mines, like your cousin, the Captain Ross Poldark? Does he not open one mine upon another?'
    'He has only tried three, and has been lucky with two of them. Unhappily on Trenwith land we have only Grambler, which would cost a fortune to unwater - that is to drain. For it was always a wet mine and needed pumping at an early level. No one has been successful with any new working in the vicinity; though one or two attempts have been made. My father attempted by gambling to recoup his losses and so to prospect for new lodes; but alas this only led him further into debt.'
    'Qui la stima! Well, well, who knows? Perhaps we shall try again when this war will be over.'
    The moorland now was not so desolate; they dipped into valleys through narrow tracks and between high hedges whose brambles and thorns plucked at their hats and cloaks.
    'We are skirting Killewarren,' said Geoffrey Charles. 'Where the Enyses live. He is a doctor, a surgeon, greatly respected and liked. It is said, such is his repute, that he was called to London to see the old King when he first lost his reason.'
    ‘I am in difficult,' said Amadora. 'How to remember these names.'
    'Don't try. They will come to you quick enough when you meet them.' 'The King he lose his reason?'
    'Oh, yes. And that was years ago. He is still alive, but sadly lacking.'
    'Then how shall this fat man be King?'
    'He is not. He is Prince Regent, and will remain so until his father dies. But he is king in all but name.'
    'Sadly lacking,' said Amadora. 'That is new. Sadly lacking. I like. It has a pretty sound.'
    'You have a pretty sound, mi boniato.'
    'When you call me that I know you shall be a tease.'
    Geoffrey Charles laughed and tried to pat her hand, but her mare lurched away from himTHe said in Spanish: 'I can only tell you, my little, what joy it gives me to see you riding with me in my own country, in my own county, towards my own home.'
     
    III
     
    Geoffrey Charles avoided the well known landmarks, coming in by the cross-roads at Bargus and so missing Sawle Church. It pleased his fancy that no one who knew him should see him arrive, though he did not deceive himself that it would remain a secret for long.
    He made no attempt to call at the lodge, in the expectation that the place would not be locked-it never had been in the old days. When they came in sight of the house Amadora gave a little gasp of pleasure.
    'Qu é hermoso! You did not tell me so much! Qué magni fico! Y gracioso!'
    'Wait,' said Geoffrey Charles. 'It is still lovely from a distance, but ...'
    They reined up outside the front door, and he helped her to dismount, holding her a long time in his arms before he let her down. By now the sky had lifted its lid but the sun was not yet out and the front of the house was in shadow. He turned the ring of the door and pushed. The door groaned open upon the small and unimpressive