The Quality of Mercy - By Barry Unsworth Page 0,55

moments, as the red turned to gold, her face was lit up, and it was the face of Jane Ashton.

14

The day had begun badly for Ashton, and things did not improve in the course of it. Stanton came to see him in the morning with the news that Evans, the negro they had rescued at Gravesend hours before he was due to be forcibly transported to the West Indies, had disappeared from the house where they had been keeping him out of harm’s way until his case could be heard.

“He is gone without trace,” Stanton said. “He must have been inveigled out somehow, perhaps on some false summons from us, then seized and carried off. He was aware of the danger to him, he knew by experience what these men are capable of for the sake of the fifty guineas they claim he is worth. It is a tidy sum, after all. No, it is unlikely that he left the house of his own free will. And if he did, why has he not returned?”

“But how could they have known where he was?”

“It is possible that the man who had Evans in his care, whom we have been paying to keep him safe, saw a chance of some more immediate profit. No doubt they would be ready to offer a reward, perhaps two guineas or so.”

“Townsend? No, I am unwilling to believe that. He has been providing this service for years—there have been others before Evans. Why should he betray us now?”

Stanton smiled at these words and shook his head. “You are always ready to take things on trust, Frederick, and it does you credit. But it is not a habit of mind we can afford to cultivate when we have to question witnesses in a court of law. Under certain circumstances loyalty can wear thin. Townsend may have had losses we know nothing of, he may have had expenses we know nothing of.”

“I cannot believe it. I think it more likely that Evans was followed to the house. Those two, the slave-takers, as they call themselves—and why not, since it is their trade?—the two that seized Evans and bound him and carried him to the ship, whom I was intending to sue for assault and abduction along with the ship’s captain, they have not been found, they have not been named. They were nowhere to be seen when the writ was presented to the captain. I think they may have waited, unobserved, and followed us when we accompanied Evans to Townsend’s house.”

“It is possible, yes,” Stanton said. “Then they would offer the information, at a price, to those two gentlemen who are claiming damages from us, who would allow some time for things to settle down and vigilance to be relaxed, meanwhile spying on the house, waiting for a moment when there was no one else about.”

Ashton nodded. “However it happened, we have lost him,” he said. It was bad news indeed. Evans would be held in captivity somewhere. London contained numerous prisons of one sort or another, many of them disguised as private houses; people could be kept in confinement indefinitely at small cost. “There is nothing we can do for the moment,” he said. “Merely his disappearance gives us no grounds for action. Without a definite knowledge of his whereabouts, we cannot lodge a complaint on his behalf. It would be answered that he might have simply run away. I am sorry for the poor fellow—he has done no wrong and he is being made to suffer.”

“We must hope for the best,” Stanton said, and on this he took his leave, somewhat disappointed to have had no sight of Jane Ashton. She was out on a visit of charity, Frederick had said.

Ashton remained in his study, sunk in gloomy thoughts. This new violence done to Evans had brought about one of the lapses into depression to which he was prone. There had been so many disappointments, so many setbacks. The odds were too great; the forces of avarice and cruelty would carry the day, as they had done for all the centuries of man’s habitation on earth.

His mood was not lightened when in early afternoon he received a note from the judge appointed to hear the insurance claim on the jettisoned slaves. After due consideration, Mr. Justice Blundell had found it more in keeping with the dictates of due process to have this civil case heard separately at the Guildhall at a date yet to be determined;