Bella Poldark Read Free Page A

was well enough last time, though still committed to her ships. Or perhaps you should go, Ross, for a change.'
    'I might if I could persuade her to sell up and come back here.'
    'She seems - as I say - committed.'
    'She made a loss last year.'
    'That was chiefly because of the weather.'
    'Hm.' He pulled on the short nightshirt that Demelza had made for him and then slipped into bed beside her. She blew out two of the candles and put her book on the floor beside the bed.
    'I heard the first cricket tonight,' she said.
    'Did you? Yes, I suppose it's about time.'
    'Do you want to talk?' she asked.
    'You choose.'
    'Then I think I'm ready for sleep.'
    He kissed her and snuffed out the final candle. Except when there was temporary war between them - and the last time was years gone - theirs was never a perfunctory goodnight kiss: it was the resealing of a partnership, a restatement of a sexual friendship. Ross lay back on his pillow and took a deep breath of something not far from satisfaction. Despite the tragedies and traumas of life - far away the greatest among them the death of his elder son at Waterloo - he felt he had a deal to be thankful for. It was of course his nature to be restive; but he often found when an attack of what Demelza called the lurgies was pending, a long fast walk, preferably across the beach at low tide, and preferably alone, helped to drive it away. This had happened tonight - temporarily at least. He put his hands behind his head and tried to think about his mines and his farm and his interests in boatbuilding, rolling mills and banking. He was close to becoming a warm man - though if the truth be told it was Wheal Leisure that made him warm. Wheal Grace kept going mainly as an act of social conscience - and the other interests were peripheral. The curtains were drawn, but as his eyes got used to the total darkness he found it as usual not to be total. The curtains were stirring from an inch-open window and allowed a faint slit of light to creep into the room. One of the sash windows was trembling slightly as the wind too tried to get in. It had in fact been trembling for years, and he always meant to have it seen to. But perhaps if it was stopped now they would both miss it. The sound had become part of their sleeping lives. Demelza said: 'Carla May.'
    'What?'
    'Carla May.'
    'What of it? I thought you were asleep.'
    I don't know any May family in this district, do you, Ross?'
    Come to think of it, no. I knew a Captain May in America. He came from the south-west, but I think it was Devon.'
    Silence fell. Ross decided that the sash window should be attended to. He would tell Gimlett in the morning. He touched Demelza's shoulder. 'Why suddenly ask me this when we were just going to sleep? What's in your mind?'
    'I was just thinking, Ross. Why should Valentine volunteer the name of the maid he was - was visiting at Mingoose?'
    'I suppose he thought it added a little verisimilitude.'
    'That's a silly word. But exactly
    'What?'
    'Do you really think if Valentine had been paying a love call on a maid in the Treneglos household he would have bothered to tell you her name? He might not even know it himself! To me it does not add very - whatever you call it to the story. Is it not more likely that he invented the name just to convince you that there was such a person?'
    'I'm not sure that I - oh, yes, I see what you mean, but can you think of any other possible reason why Valentine should be making an illicit entry into a neighbour's house? Especially being Valentine. He's hardly likely to be stealing the silver!'
    ‘joined the Methodists.'
    Ross struggled with his thoughts. As sometimes happened, he remembered with a sense of grievance, Demelza was capable of pricking him with a little thorn of disquiet just when he was preparing to compose himself for sleep. That this was his own fault for breaking his word to Valentine did not disperse his displeasure.
    'Do you always think the worst of Valentine?'
    'Not