Do you recollect in my last letter I believe I told you that I was billeted in this town upon a Señor de Bertendona? Do you recollect that I told you he had a wife, two sons and a Daughter? Can you suppose other than that in the course of the last six weeks I have fallen in love with the daughter, Amadora, and – far, far more astonishing – she with me? She is nineteen years of age and beyond measure beautiful and charming, with all the dignity and pride of the Spanish but all the slender elegant beauty of a woman! I must say no more, otherwise you will think I have become a schoolboy again and lost my senses. It is not so. She is all that I could have dreamed of.
I have but a short time to write to you now for I am on Parade Duty this week, but I must tell you simply that we were wed on Tuesday morning, first by our chaplain, the Reverend Mark Foster, and then in the Gothick Cathedral by Father Antonio Carreros, for good measure. Señora de Bertendona is deeply distressed that her daughter should have married a Heretic, as is the elder brother, Martin; but her father is so much an Anglophile in all things that he can see only good even in Me as a Son-in-Law! And Amadora herself, though brought up strictly in the Other Faith, swears to me privately that – well, I dare not tell you what she swears to me privately lest I be considered a man of overweening Conceit – but I trust and believe that with the sort of love we have for each other, tolerance and common sense will smooth over such difficulties as may arise.
I cannot tell you what our plans are, except that for the time being we continue to live in her parents’ house along with David Hamilton, Father Antonio Carreros, seven Spanish guerrillas, a Portuguese shepherd-boy and a host of servants! Further plans will be much influenced – for me at least – by the decisions shortly to be taken about our spring campaign by the new Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, the Generalissimo of the Spanish and British forces, none other than the Marquess of Wellington.
Great Tidings from the Russian front! Perhaps soon it will all be over!
Our most affectionate New Year and other greetings to you all,
from
Geoffrey Charles and Amadora Poldark.
‘What news!’ said Jeremy, again making the effort. ‘What surprising news! So some day, perhaps soon, we shall have a Spanish cousin at Trenwith!’
‘He provokingly says nothing about that,’ said Demelza. ‘I wonder if she has money.’
‘What?’ asked Jeremy, startled.
‘I wondered if the girl had money.’
‘Oh. Oh yes, I see.’
‘It would be lovely if she were able to help Geoffrey Charles to restore Trenwith. He will have very little of his own.’
‘I know the name de Bertendona,’ Ross said. ‘I can’t remember in what connection, but it is a distinguished name.’
‘Well, I hope they will come soon,’ Demelza said. ‘I am thankful that he says she has a little English, for I doubt my ability to learn anything else.’ She stopped. ‘Have you hurt your hand?’
‘What?’ Jeremy stared at his scarred knuckles. ‘Oh, that. A lever slipped when I was trying to force something open.’
‘When was it done?’
‘Yesterday.’
‘It hardly looks as if it has been cleaned! Have you put any balsam or ointment on it?’
‘No . . . I sucked it clean, but it has got rather dirty riding home.’
‘What time did you leave?’
‘Where? . . . Oh, Hayle. Soon after dawn.’
‘Well, when we get in wash it thoroughly and I’ll put a plaster over.’
‘It is not necessary to fuss, Mama,’ he said irritably. ‘It is scarcely painful now. Nature will take its own remedies.’
They had reached the stile dividing the beach from their own land. She looked at Jeremy again, no longer conscious of well-being and the warmth of the sun.
She said: ‘Have you seen Cuby?’
He looked up. ‘What? No. Oh no. Not at all.’
‘Everything is just the same as before?’
‘Yes.’
‘No change?’
‘No change,’ said Jeremy, looking over her head at the distant sea.
The two girls were now approaching rapidly and shouted for them to wait. They waited by the stile, and then went in to dinner all together, laughing and joking, a cheerful and a united family.
THE MILLER’S DANCE
The ninth Poldark novel
Winston Graham was the author of forty novels, including The Walking Stick, Angell, Pearl and Little God, Stephanie and Tremor. His books have been widely translated and his famous Poldark series has been developed into two television series shown in twenty-four countries. A special two-hour television programme has been made of his eighth Poldark novel, The Stranger from the Sea, whilst a five-part television serial of his early novel The Forgotten Story won a silver medal at the New York Film Festival. Six of Winston Graham’s books have been filmed for the big screen, the most notable being Marnie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Winston Graham was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 1983 was awarded the OBE. He died in July 2003.
ALSO BY WINSTON GRAHAM
The Poldark series
Ross Poldark • Demelza • Jeremy Poldark • Warleggan •
The Black Moon • The Four Swans • The Angry Tide •
The Stranger from the Sea • The Loving Cup •
The Twisted Sword • Bella Poldark
Night Journey • Cordelia • The Forgotten Story •
The Merciless Ladies • Night Without Stars • Take My Life •
Fortune Is a Woman • The Little Walls • The Sleeping Partner •
Greek Fire • The Tumbled House • Marnie • The Grove of Eagles •
After the Act • The Walking Stick • Angell, Pearl and Little God •
The Japanese Girl (short stories) • Woman in the Mirror •
The Green Flash • Cameo • Stephanie • Tremor
The Spanish Armada • Poldark’s Cornwall •
Memoirs of a Private Man
First published 1982 by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd
This edition published 2008 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2011 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-330-52423-0 EPUB
Copyright © Winston Graham 1982
The right of Winston Graham to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Winston Graham, The Miller's Dance
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