Tuesday
"Saves having to walk here this morning," Edward told them sleepily, "Because we are already here." Dick nodded, but Jemima felt cold dread.
"My father will be horrified!" she exclaimed.
"Come on, we will walk you back," Davies told her, sitting up, and wishing he hadn'.
"What, all of you?" Edward and Dick climbed further up. If they had been familiar with what meerkats were, both young men may have appreciated their resemblance to the animals.
"All gone," Edward told them, yawning. "The people, the miners, the tents. All gone, as if the wakes fair had never been."
"All hail the dawn of the Statute fair!" exclaimed Edward Bull, and they clambered out past the engine.
So all six friends arrived at Meadowsweet House a whole twenty four hours after she left it. Davies and Dick stood either side of her. Any hope that she would be able to get back into bed before the sun was really up was dashed when the door opened.
"Jemima!" Her father, still in his nightgown and robe, held open the door. He relaxed when he saw so many earnest faces.
"Master Trevithick? Mr. Bull?" He nodded to the engineers. "Davies, Humphry…Thomas! Gregory!"
"Father!" Jemima hurried over to him, then turned and smiled at her friends.
"Good morning, Dr. Withering," Gregory replied.
"Jemima!" her father exclaimed, turning from the young men, his worry turning to scolding, "You are surely not coming in at this hour?"
"You said to come home before the morning," she told him.
"And where is your dress?"
"At Dolcoath," Jemima told him, quickly, "I thought I would be ready in my work clothes for when we went."
Dr. Withering considered this, and nodded.
"Gentlemen," he nodded to them.
"Dr. Withering, we will be starting the engine, Mr. Bull and I," Dick Trevithick told him. "Miss Withering can come with you, when we have the fire boiling the water."
"Which we are just on our way back to do," Edward added.
"Yes, yes," John Withering told them. "To all of you, for taking care of my daughter, I am in your debt."
He turned to Jemima. "Get some sleep, do, and I will decide whether I am cross with your behaviour when we get up in the morning."
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Seeing her father go down the mine was a joy. They arrived back to Dolcoath and their fiery dragon of a steam engine as it has been the night before and already Edward and Dick had the pump bringing up and depositing the water into the shaft she had crawled through the night before, gallon after gallon. High pressure steam, all because of the half emptied and condenser.
However, it wasn't all good news. There was a notice on the Dolcoath mine door that told the mine managers that any engine derivative of Mr. Watt's patented engine should henceforth cease operation.
"Murdoch's taken the carriage back to Redruth," Edward told her as Dick took Dr. Withering into the tenth fathom and then the twentieth. "He was over here this morning - Watt says he will get a court order if Wild will not close today."
"What of our engine?" Jemima felt her heart increase pace, beating as if in time to the engine's rhythm. "Davies said…it wasn't even complete, some of it assembled wrong when it arrived here - "
"And that," smiled Edward, putting a hand to her shoulder, "Is what Wild will tell him today. If he needs to bring a magistrate in, well, Sir Francis Bassett has JP powers."
"And if not? Because of bias?"
"He would have to get someone from outside the county, because no Cornishman of stock or living would fall against an engine that has been taken apart and rebuilt," Edward laughed.
"No, Cornishmen will come today to see the Cornish engine and will give money for an identical one to be built for their own mine."
The day was also to be a closed day, except for the hiring fair, because of what had happened after the wakes day - fifty people involved in a fight after a confusion over Mr. Warleggan's horse.
"Prospective employers as well as mine owners would be coming to see engine on which the great claims you have made."
And they came. Not all at once, but in dribs and drabs, which had picked up as the day progressed. Hiring seemed to be going well too - Jemima climbed to the top stage of the engine and saw a couple score of men, mainly miners wanting mining jobs, standing beside Captain Trevithick's mine office.
And then she saw them, Harry Mabon, from Wheal Busy, Sir Francis and Mr Wild. Beside him was George Warleggan, another man, possibly from Wheal Leisure with him.
"I have seen some engines," she heard Edward being asked by one mine owner, and he spoke to the man about its capabilities.
"I want to see it," the man said, "See what it can do."
So a shout down to Dick, who was preparing the coal, and he put in the load and closed the boiler door.
As she was wont to do, the Cornish engine seemed to stop for a moment, unnerving people who were first yo see it that she wasn't going to work.
But then the cross beams moved, pushing down the pump on the one side.
Before it came up, the adaptation they had added not two days ago, that operated the inlet valve opened suddenly, and half of the steam from the condenser puffed out.
But the best was yet to come. Not a trickle of water, but a good dozen gallons of water were sucked up, to replace the pressure that releasing the steam had caused in the pump.
And swoosh, down it went, down the channel they had climbed down less than twelve hours before.
"It is magnificent, Miss Withering.". The praise came from George Warleggan who was standing beside a Mr. Hollings, the mine captain.
"He oversees Grambler, when we can get down. I've a fancy for one for that mine, so full of water that it is. Not like Leisure, dry, dry, and very very full of copper."
"You have found it?". Warleggan smiled, then smiled wider when he saw who was approaching.
"Yes, indeed," he said, in a louder volume. "Already Captain Hollings has begun to clear the black ore, and we are very happy with what we have found behind it.". He glanced over his shoulder.
Ross Poldark, Francis and Will Henshawe were all standing there, looking over the engine, talking to Edward. Beside Jemima, Dick came to stand as George Warleggan continued.
"I should be happy to compensate you and, er, be glad if you were to take up the offer of mine captain, when this suits you."
"You flatter me, Mr. Warleggan," Jemima replied.
"He does not," Dick told her. Warleggan bridled but said nothing. "You worked as hard as any of us in this engine - it will work to forty fathoms, and we have made her more economical with coal."
"I will consider your offer," Jemima told George, who stared at her for a moment, then touched the brim of his hat.
Mabon came across hectic to ask Dick about the time it would take to assemble a Cornish engine and Jemima happened to turn just at the wrong moment, catching the eye of Will Henshawe. Edward was bringing them round to where she was standing and her heart beat faster.
She had forced herself to deny she liked him, and flexed her fingers behind her back to let out the tension.
"Miss Withering," Poldark began. "A good engine."
"Will get your water out of Grace," she told him, determination bolstering her assertiveness. "How deep do you need to go? Forty fathoms?"
"More," Will Henshawe told her, and she realised this was the first time he had spoken to her since Warleggan had ousted them from Leisure.
"We have tested to sixty," Dick told him, and took an imperceptibly small step closer to her.
More people were coming now, one being her father. But, no: beside him, James Watt
He looked tireder than Jemima remembered him, but equally determined, for whatever the prospective owners were discussing, they soon stopped when they heard Watt berating William Wild over the redesign of his - "patented steam engine! Whoever gave you permission to do that to know of my engines?"
"It is us who have brought it, sir;" Wild replied.
"But you have no licence to change it, only to use it!" Watt countered.
"What?" exclaimed Wild, astonished. "It was delivered late from your Mr
Boulton's Soho works and in pieces," Wild argued back, gesticulating at the engine as he did so. "We set Bull on it of course, but more help was needed, so we set Trevithick with him."
"You also then set my daughter, and now it works beautifully," came her father's voice.
But before Jemima could say anything, Watt took over the conversation again.
"That is not how it was intended!" he fumed. "It is now not as it was sold!". He waved a piece of paper towards Wild, who, in turn, brandished a spanner. Beside him, Sir Francis, who put a hand in Wild's arm. But the mines manager was not finished yet
"It was sold to pump water from the mines was it not, and look...ee do pump water from the mines.".
Everyone turned to look, at the magnificent Cornish engine, high pressure steam shifting huge volumes of water.
"How's it to be, Mr Watt?" The question came from Ross Poldark. But Janes Watt was not about to listen to a mine owner.
"Your paper, sir!" Watt told them. Just behind him, Jemima saw Gregory, with a very sorry look on his face
"Cease that engine, now," Watt reiterates,or by God I'll come down there and do it m'self!"
And to reiterate his point, Watt made to take steps towards the ladder that led down to the engine. Beside Jemima, she felt Dick stiffen.
But physical means were not going to be needed. For beside her father, Davies Giddy stood.
"Only a judge or justice can allow decide," Davies told them. Jemima's heart beat faster as she remembered her friend telling her he had been in contact with Dick Trevithick, though hasn't known it at the time, about their own patent for the Cornish engine.
"I am a Justice of the Peace, here," Francis Bassett told them, "Burgess of Truro and MP for Penryn."
"And I am a judge." That was spoken by Francis Poldark, who turned his head to Jemima and gave a warm smile.
But Watt was undeterred and, pushing past Mr. Mabon and Davies, swung down onto the steps of this Dolcoath pit head, avoiding Dick's lunge, and onto the engine's outer casing pushed a sheet of paper.
Jemima could just read the first words, which were in larger letters than the rest, "A NOTICE hereby to instruct the makers of the CORNISH ENGINE to CEASE and DESIST operations FORTHWITH - "
Her heart was beating now: if someone was disputing the engine, and the mine owners then went on to invest in one of their own, sizeable amounts of money already being spent already to keep open their mines, it would be a risk if a court case could then force the owners to stop using them.
"I say, read it, gentlemen, before I have to take stronger action!"
"And I say,"Sir Francis told them, "That unless this is brought up in the proper manner, Mr Bull, Master Trevithick, Miss Withering," he looked at each of the three engineers, "We will operate, and we will sell as many engines to as many mine owners as wants them, as fast as they can be built."
For Jemima forgot where she was, Cornwall, where one looked after another. And the person who stepped forward to place an order for not one but two was -
"Mr. Warleggan, I am delighted you are our first customer!"
Were those the words, then, that began the slow decline of relationship between her and the people with whom she had grown up, been accepted, loved? Would it be Watt who was the instigator behind what was to come, that made her lose the man she thought she loved, and forced her back, penniless to Cornwall? Jemima, in her pitiful retreat from the place she had known all her life, would have cause to think it.
Now, Warleggan smiled at her, and nodded to Francis Bassett, who invited him up to Tehidy house later to conclude business as James Watt stalked away, Gregory and Thomas Wedgwood beside him, uttering foul epithets as "Cornwall, pah! The Cornish? Thick as thieves!"
Jemima thought she could see his father, the large-framer potter near Tehidy house, and Watt, approaching, was waving his arms with frustration. Beside him, a very contrite William Murdoch, who was, Jemima knew, Boulton and Watt's agent. He kept giving glances over to the engine.
More mine owners followed suit, including Poldark, whether affirmed of the engine's efficacy, or having heeded Jemima's advice. Or, as she got to know the situation, to rival Warleggan.
Captain Henshawe smiled at Jemima and congratulated Dick, who had returned to standing right next to her again. She watched as the man she had once had feelings for walked beside Poldark over to the hiring line of men.
And she had interest too, for the money now made in the engine from her investment was realised. And Jemima would also be at Tehidy later that day. For she new exactly what she wanted to do with it.
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"Yes I can certainly arrange it, Miss Withering," Sir Francis told her that afternoon. She had told her father that she wished to see the man about future employment, so rather than ushering her back home with him as he was determined to do, John Withering took her to the door of Tehidy.
"You can come with me," Jemima told him, suspecting her father would decline, which he did, and encouraged her to speak honestly and shrewdly to the man.
The reason to see Sir Francis wasn't a lie, but Jemima had stretched the truth.
Beside him, his daughter sat, bound as Jemima understood, to a life indoors for Frances Bassett, who looked no older than Thomas Wedgwood. Jemima had nodded to her and the girl had beamed a smile back.
"You believe in it, then, the steam engine you've made?"
"I wouldn't still be coming to Fortune, to Dolcoath every day if I did not," Jemima replied.
"Good news, excellent news," Sir Francis told her. "Another engine has been ordered beside the two of Mr. Warleggan: Harvey at Wheal Busy.". Jemima's mind went back to midday the day before. His son, Henry had talked pleasantly enough to her but Jane had been downright sour.
"I believe in mining, sir," Jemima told him. "I do not believe I have told you, the money that I had to begin with came from mining Bluejohn in Derbyshire. We were first told that the investment was a loss, but William Smith, with whom I discussed stratification, happened to go to this mine and when they dug according to his method did uncover a mighty lode, which changed our fortunes."
She put her hand to her pocket and pulled out a handful of rocks, picking out a sizeable Bluejohn sample. Jemima handed it to Sir Francis, who held it up to the window. Blues and purples glowed in the late afternoon sun.
He made to give it back, but Miss Frances was too quick and took it from her father's hand.
"Frances!" he exclaimed. "Excuse the manners of my daughter!". He stopped in his act of retrieving it from the girl, and Jemima told her she should keep it.
"Why, I am most grateful!" she told her father, then looked to Jemima. "My father is holding a ball at Christmas, will you come?"
Jemima looked from Miss Frances to Sir Francis. "Well, I have not been asked," she told the girl.
"I have asked you," she told Jemima, then looked to Sir Francis. "She is to come, father, for I must have friends of my own - you told me this."
"I did," Sir Francis replied, and smiled, placing a hand on Jemima's shoulder. "And at the time appropriate, Miss Withering and her father will be asked. As to the Bluejohn investment, I did not know," he told her, "And will keep your confidence. What it is to have friends on whom one can rely and share knowledge of a technical nature."
"Sir Francis," Jemima pursued, "I don't just want to invest in the Cornish engine. You know that Dick and is making progress in mobile engines? Ones that could run under their own power?"
"Why, I could never have dreamed it," Sir Francis replied, "Unless I had seen Master Trevithick's own."
And she knew she had struck true: Dick had taken Murdoch's design and incorporated it into a small version of the Cornish engine, not to be fixed in an engine shed, but could move from mine to mine and still offer the same power as the fixed engine.
Or could be used to move ore, or other goods…
…or even people? Self propelled power with the means of steam could just be the start. And would start with Richard Trevithick junior.
"Consider it done," Sir Francis told her. "And now to a tricky part of the conversation, Miss Withering. Though I need you for the steam engine, I no no longer need you in the mines. After Christmas you will only be needed for part of the week."
"Yes, Sir Francis ," Jemima told him. She had anticipated this, but it was still hard to hear.
"My thanks, Sir Francis," she told him and held out a hand."
"Good, good!" he took it, shaking Jemima's hand firmly. "We are the fortunate ones, to have you with us, Miss Withering!"
"Especially as you have taken away half her job, father," Miss Frances put in, accusatorily. Jemima looked across to her.
"Frances!" Sir Francis exclaimed.
"Well you have! You rewarded her for her excellent work by taking away half of her livelihood!". She leaned past her father and looked at Jemima. "Get your own mine, Miss Withering, a woman of your experience, that's my advice."
"Miss Frances, I have invested in Dick Trevithick's idea - steam is the future for everything, mines too.". For it was unthinkable for Jemima not be beside him, how could she leave his side now?
"Good, then, we will see you tomorrow, and I am confident more orders will come in for the Cornish engine once some of the mine owners begin to use them."
"When they see the results, they will," Jemima told him.
John Withering was waiting for Jemima outside Sir Francis's drawing room.
"Well, did you get what you went for?" he asked.
"By the by," Jemima told him. "We have steam engines to build beginning tomorrow," she told her father, who embraced her. "Four of them."
"Four of them? Oh my word, Jemima, that is tremendous news!" Jemima stepped back from her father.
"Because you believed in me, and trusted me, look what I have achieved!"
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"Jemima, what are you doing here?"
Here was outside Captain Trevithick's house, a five minute walk from Meadowsweet. She found Dick in the outbuilding beside the house, a collection of large cogs and wheels and beams bolted together looking suspiciously like the machine Murdoch had made.
Why was the more shrewd question.
Because she couldn't sleep, because she hadn't said goodbye when they had left Tehidy - Dick was in deep conversation with Henry Harvey.
"There's going to a big row with this engine, Dick," she told him. "Watt will never back down, and he has the financial means through Mr. Boulton to make things difficult."
Dick turned and nodded. "Let him come!" He told her. "If Sir Francis supports us we are assured."
"It is not just Sir Francis that supports you Dick" Jemima went on. "I couldn't see you earlier, but I have to tell you something.". Dick out down his cloth and looked at her, smiling his brief smile. Jemima smiled too, full of hope.
"I invested the money my father gave me in our engine," Jemima told him plainly . "
"This is so good, if one is bought, another, and another, you will have money back as a dividend."
"No, Dick, I asked Sir Francis to release the money back to me this night." She glanced past him at Dick's half constructed self-propelled engines. Jemima looked up to him.
"Because I have invested in something else. I hope you are pleased."
"If you are, Jemima, I am," he told her, and put a hand to his pocket. But before he could show her what he had, Jemima put a hand on his arm. "You steam engines. Self-propelled, locomotive…"
"What?"
"You will need money, to develop what has been invented," she explained. "You told us last night…Edward is returning with Murdoch with Mr. Watt…"
Dick said nothing for a moment, and took a step away from her, looking at his half-built machine. Then he turned to look at Jemima.
"I bought you something, yesterday, at the fair." From his pocket he pulled something out, a heart shaped locket on a chain. He held it up, and the shine reflected the moonlight.
"It's beautiful…silver…" Jemima told him, and Dick Trevithick swept her hair aside and put it around her neck.
"Not silver," he told her. He was about to add something, but then Dick paused, looking from his invention and back to Jemima.
"You've really done that?"
"You really bought me a locket?"
"My friend…" He breathed. "I love you."
"Don't - " Jemima was about to protest, about to put up a defensive hand. Dick drew her to him, his strong hands on her back, dipping his head.
His mouth touched hers andJemima's resolve to stop him left her and they kissed for the longest time, disturbed when the bell from the church rang for evensong.
"I love you," Dick Trevithick told Jemima again. And they walked together back to Meadowsweet.