Part 44 (2/2)
”Neither of them is lost! Your estrangement with Aletta can be healed and Sybylla will return one day.”
He deliberately ignored her mention of Aletta. ”I'm afraid for Sybylla. She is such a child in so many ways.”
Francesca spoke musingly. ”I don't think she is any longer. I believe that in going away with Hans she made the first adult decision of her life.”
It was not more than an hour later when the van Jansz lawyer called. Hendrick summoned Francesca into the room to hear what was said, for they had already discussed the possibility of a demand for financial compensation by Adriaen's father for Sybylla's breaking of the betrothal contract. Whether it should be high or low it could only add to the mora.s.s of Hendrick's financial state.
”Now, Master Visser,” the lawyer began, ”whom have you told about this unfortunate affair?”
”n.o.body outside the household,” Hendrick replied sourly, resentful already of what he feared was to come.
”Good. It will be to your advantage if you agree to keep it that way. Heer van Jansz is most anxious that his son's name should not become subject to scandal and gossip through being jilted by your daughter. For that reason he is prepared to waive any claim to compensation if you will endorse his proposed announcement that the marriage previously arranged between the two young people has been dissolved by mutual consent.”
Hendrick's expression had cleared. No compensation! ”I'm in agreement with that. I wish to protect my daughter's good name as much as Heer van Jansz wishes to guard his son's.”
Francesca spoke up. ”There is one condition that must be included.”
”What is that?” the lawyer questioned.
Hendrick also looked at her inquiringly. ”Yes, what do you have in mind?”
”It is that no retribution will be made against the man, who is presently nameless, with whom my sister has made her departure.”
The lawyer played the feather tip of his quill across his fingers. ”I'm authorized by Heer van Jansz to agree to any reasonable request and I have no objection if it should be your wish, Master Visser.”
”It is,” Hendrick replied. He liked Hans and the lad could paint. It would be terrible to let those talented fingers be broken in torture screws, for there was no telling to what extremes Heer van Jansz and his son might go in a desire for vengeance should Hans be caught.
The lawyer added the amendment to the papers in front of him and when all were signed he departed.
It was a Christmas torn by personal distress in the Visser home. The faint hope cherished secretly and individually by those under its roof was that Sybylla would make a surprise return on Christmas Day, but that did not happen. There was no reason why it should have, for the runaway couple would not know they were not being hunted or that Hans had been spared any punishment for abducting her. Francesca's most desperate fear was that they would sail to one of the colonies and then there was little likelihood of ever seeing Sybylla again. Hendrick had gone to Hans's former lodgings but gained no clue, for n.o.body knew where he had gone.
She could see that deep melancholia was fast settling on her father again. At a carefully chosen moment she had put the suggestion to him that they should flee to Florence together.
”If war with France should come we would be going without Pieter, because I know that nothing could make him leave Holland until the invaders are driven out and neither would I expect it of him.”
Momentarily Hendrick was speechless as he took in what had been said. Then he spoke slowly. ”Leave Amsterdam? Is such a drastic move really necessary?” He moved to his chair and sat staring into the fire. ”Yes, I see now it is inevitable. I can neither condemn you to life with that vile man nor face the horrors of prison myself. Leave me now while I consider all that must be done.”
Knowing that Maria would neither wish nor be able to make the long journey to Italy, Francesca had a.s.sumed that their old nurse would live happily at Sybylla's new home, where she would have been well cared for. Since circ.u.mstances had changed and that could no longer happen, it was fortunate that Aletta could take Maria in, for all three sisters loved the old woman even if, in spite of those constant quarrels, Sybylla had always been her favorite. But when Francesca put the whole case to Maria an entirely different decision was reached by the old woman herself and she would not budge from it.
”I thank G.o.d you are to be free of Heer van Deventer,” she said to Francesca. ”It has caused me more worry than you could ever know. But I'll not go to Delft or anywhere else. There's a comfortable almshouse for elderly women just along the street that will suit me well and I have three old friends there already. I want to be near at hand, because one day Sybylla will return and she'll want one of her own to welcome her.”
”Oh, dearest Maria,” Francesca exclaimed brokenly, kissing the wrinkled cheek, ”don't you realize that she may never come back?”
”I know.” Maria's voice quavered and she wiped an eye. ”But I have to stay anyway.”
Francesca's time at home was made even more hara.s.sing by Ludolf's constant visits. He treated the house as his own, sitting down at table without being invited, ordering Griet about and eventually swearing at Maria when she plodded into any room to act as chaperone every time he and Francesca were alone.
”Is this prearranged?” he snapped at Francesca, jerking a thumb in Maria's direction, where she sat solidly with her hands folded, watching them.
”It is. You have no right to expect me to be without chaperonage in my own home, or anywhere else.”
Francesca noticed how his veneer was cracking. His impatience was raw. When he insisted it was time for her to wear his betrothal ring he held her hand and forced it on her finger, ignoring Maria's shriek of protest when the kiss he rammed down on Francesca's mouth went far beyond the approved limit. He no longer made any pretence of courtesy toward Hendrick and compelled him to agree to a marriage date for Francesca on the day after the appointment fixed for her appearance before the Guild.
”I'll not have time to get home from Delft!” she protested, alarmed at having no leeway of a week or two in which to leave for Italy.
Ludolf dismissed her protest with a snap of his fingers. ”We'll marry there. I'll bring your father with me from Amsterdam.”
Afterward she asked Hendrick why he had not thought to postpone the marriage by a few days at least. ”I didn't think,” he admitted miserably. ”I've too much on my mind.”
Because of Ludolf's continual presence Francesca could not spend any daylight hours with Pieter, even though he had come specially to Amsterdam to see her. The only time that proved safe was at midnight in her home, when they would be together by the fire in the parlor, content and loving, able to discuss many things, including a detailed plan to get her and Hendrick away from Delft immediately after her interview with the Guild. It had to be timed to the minute or else it would fail. Once the chance was gone there would be nothing to stop Ludolf summoning the law to his aid if he so wished, forcing Francesca into marriage. She shuddered with apprehension, but Pieter kissed her fears away.
”Trust me,” he urged.
On their own they welcomed in the New Year of 1672 with a gla.s.s of wine and she wondered what it would hold for the two of them and for Holland in the months ahead.
Back in Delft, Francesca took the permit of marriage to Aletta and was prepared to tell of Sybylla's flight, but her sister already knew, having received a letter that day.
”They are married, but in terror of pursuit, and you and I are implored not to say from whence the letter was sent, although they will not be staying there.”
”But how could they wed without Father's permission?”
Aletta's lips slipped in a sideways smile. ”I expect Father will explode when he hears, but they found a foreign priest at the docks who was willing to marry them.”
”Is the wedlock legal?”
”Father will only have to endorse the certificate one day. In the meantime they are man and wife in the eyes of G.o.d and the Church, which matters most, and any children they may have will be legitimate in that respect.”
Francesca was given the letter to read for herself and saw that it had been sent from Rotterdam, but there was no address to which a reply could be sent. Since the runaway couple were at a port from which so many left for the colonies, Francesca's fears were reawakened that they might take s.h.i.+p from there.
”Father has to know where this letter was posted,” she declared, ”because they are running away from a threat that doesn't exist. What's more, he would never part them now that Hans has behaved responsibly in making Sybylla his wife.”
Aletta agreed. She insisted that Francesca should write to their father and she herself would pay for a costly messenger to ride with the letter to Amsterdam. Her own marriage was to take place on the twenty-fourth day of February, by which time Constantijn should have completely mastered the use of his new legs.
Pieter happened to call at the de Veere house one evening when dinner was about to be served in the dining hall for the first time instead of upstairs. Aletta, delighted that he had come at such an important milestone in Constantijn's recovery, asked him to wait in the drawing room while she collected the crutches from Constantijn, who had reached the head of the stairs. He could not yet descend as he wished, but came hand over hand grasping the banister as he had done during his nocturnal visits to the cellar. His legs, rigged out fas.h.i.+onably, dragged with him, but as soon as he had levered himself upright again, wedging the crutches under his arms, he frowned, impatient with himself.
”This is the first and last time I'll come down for dinner, or any other meal, like this. I'd like some drugget fixed to the stairs. That will give me a grip on which to steady myself.”
Aletta put aside visions of him tumbling headfirst. ”It shall be done tomorrow. Pieter is here.”
”Good. Let's invite him to dine.”
”He says he has something important to discuss with both of us and so it must concern Francesca.”
At table, after Sara had served the various courses and returned to the kitchen, Pieter asked Aletta if she had told Constantijn everything about the van Deventer marriage contract and how it had come about.
”Yes,” she said, ”as soon as we became betrothed we talked of family matters.”
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