A Place Called Freedom (1995)

Lady Hallim was wringing her hands. “It’s a letter from my head keeper,” she said.

Lizzie said: “It says that surveyors employed by the Jamissons have been sinking boreholes on the Hallim estate.”

“Boreholes?” Jay said, mystified. He looked at Robert and saw a furtive expression on his face.

Lizzie said impatiently: “They’re looking for coal, of course.”

“Oh, no!” Jay protested. He understood what had happened. His impatient father had jumped the gun. He was so eager to get at Lizzie’s coal that he had not been able to wait until the wedding.

But Father’s impatience might have lost Jay his bride. That thought made Jay angry enough to shout at his father. “You damn fool!” he said recklessly. “Look what you’ve done!”

It was a shocking thing for a son to say, and Sir George was not used to opposition from anyone. He went red in the face and his eyes bulged. “Call off the damned wedding, then!” he roared. “What do I care?”

Alicia intervened. “Calm down, Jay, and you too, Lizzie,” she said; and she meant Sir George as well, though she tactfully did not say so. “There has obviously been a mistake. No doubt Sir George’s surveyors misunderstood some instructions. Lady Hallim, please take Lizzie back to the guest house and allow us to sort this out. I feel sure we do not need to do anything so drastic as to call off the wedding.”

Chip Marlborough coughed. Jay had forgotten he was there. “If you’ll excuse me …,” Chip said. He went to the door.

“Don’t leave the house,” Jay pleaded. “Wait upstairs.”

“Certainly,” Chip said, although his face showed that he would rather be anywhere else in the world.

Alicia gently ushered Lizzie and Lady Hallim toward the door behind Chip. “Please, just give me a few minutes and I will come and see you and everything will be all right.”

As Lizzie went out she was looking more doubtful than angry, and Jay hoped she realized he had not known about the boreholes. His mother closed the door and turned around. Jay prayed she could do something to save the wedding. Did she have a plan? She was so clever. It was his only hope.

She did not remonstrate with his father. Instead she said: “If there’s no wedding you won’t get your coal.”

“High Glen is bankrupt!” Sir George replied.

“But Lady Hallim could renew her mortgages with another lender.”

“She doesn’t know that.”

“Someone will tell her.”

There was a pause while that threat sank in. Jay was afraid his father would explode. But Mother was a good judge of how far he could be pushed, and in the end he said resignedly: “What do you want, Alicia?”

Jay breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps his wedding might be saved after all.

Mother said: “First of all, Jay must speak to Lizzie and convince her that he did not know about the surveyors.”

“It’s true,” Jay interjected.

“Shut up and listen,” his father said brutally.

Mother went on: “If he can do that, they can get married as planned.”

“Then what?”

“Then be patient. In time, Jay and I can talk Lizzie around. She’s against coal mining now, but she will change her mind, or at least become less passionate about it—especially when she has a home and a baby and begins to understand the importance of money.”

Sir George shook his head. “It’s not good enough, Alicia—I can’t wait.”

“Whyever not?”

He paused and looked at Robert, who shrugged. “I suppose I might as well tell you,” Father said. “I’ve got debts of my own. You know we have always run on borrowed money—most of it from Lord Arebury. In the past we’ve made profits for ourselves and for him. But our trade with America has fallen very low since the trouble started in the colonies. And it’s almost impossible to get paid for what little business we do—our biggest debtor has gone bust, leaving me with a tobacco plantation in Virginia that I can’t sell.”

Jay was stunned. It had never occurred to him that the family enterprises were risky and that the wealth he had always known might not last forever. He began to see why his father had been so enraged at having to pay his gambling debts.

Father went on: “The coal has been keeping us going, but it’s not enough. Lord Arebury wants his money. So I have to have the Hallim estate. Otherwise I could lose my entire business.”

There was a silence. Both Jay and his mother were too shocked to speak.

Eventually Alicia said: “Then there is only one solution. High Glen will have to be mined without Lizzie’s knowledge.”

Jay frowned anxiously. That proposal frightened him. But he decided not to say anything just yet.

“How could it be done?” said Sir George.

“Send her and Jay to another country.”

Jay was startled. What a clever idea! “But Lady Hallim would know,” he said. “And she’ll be sure to tell Lizzie.”

Alicia shook her head. “No, she won’t. She’ll do anything to make this marriage happen. She’ll keep quiet if we tell her to.”

Jay said: “But where would we go? What country?”

“Barbados,” said his mother.

“No!” Robert interjected. “Jay can’t have the sugar plantation.”