Mrs. Bruce and her maid, Bessie, enter the shop.

No good will come of this!

Jannet waddles to the far end of the counter.  The bairn’s head has dropped into her pelvis and already the first murmur of contractions tense and relax across the tight dome of her belly. Clearing the end of the counter, she attempts the shallowest curtsey permissible.

“Mrs. Bruce!  Such a pleasure!”

Appropriately acknowledged, the old lady pauses to inhale the scents and fragrances of the Miller’s shop before she eases back the cowl of her cloak, revealing her starched rayon.

“Mrs. Miller.”

Bessie steps forward to lift her mistress’ cloak from her shoulders.  The old woman winces as the chill of the shop breathes over her but she is too stuck-up to put the cloak back on again.

“Shall I put on the kettle, your ladyship?” Jannet asks.

The lady shuffles closer to the coals burning in the hearth, her servant following, still in her own cloak.

“We’d be obliged, Mrs. Miller.  Goodness.” She says, looking Jannet up and down,  “You can’t be long.”

Jannet’s stomacher is loose-laced across the front of her mantua, cotton lined with wool to keep her warm.  Mary Bruce’s worn damask must let the cold seep in.  Her high heeled shoes leave impressions on the earthen floor.

Jannet cradles her bump as another contraction ripples beneath the stomacher.

The kettle is half-full and warming on the edge of the hearth.  Lowering herself, with difficulty, Jannet nudges it forward and closer to a boil.

“We have some fine green tea,” she says. “Just in.”

“Dutch or English?” Mrs. Bruce asks with a wry smile.

“Swedish,” Jannet says.

“Well, that won’t last[i]!”

“Will it not?”

“Not a bit!  They’ll put a stop to that!”

“The English?”

“Ay.  The English.”

“I thought the Lieutenant Colonel approved of the English?”

“Ach!” and then Mrs. Bruce smiled again.  She is 50 now.  The lines on her face – laughter lines or not – are pointed with powder, her chalk-white hair needs less cosmetic by the week, her stout frame has no need of the paste-board bustle she still insists is de rigeur.

“Can I interest you in something in particular?”

“What have you? In particular?”

Jannet combs through the inventory for something new or fresher than before, just off the boat.

Cinnamon. Ginger. Oranges. Lemons. Quince syrup. Figs. Burgundy. Cognac. Sage. Mace. Sugar.  Pepper (various).  Turmeric. Snuff. Tobacco. Tea (various).  Honey. 

“Bessie has a list.”

“Does she now?” Jannet says.  The girl is sour and avaricious.  “I’ll get that tea.  It is from Assam.  Though James has never told me where Assam is.”

“Not Sweden, I’ll swear.”

“No.  Not Sweden. Directly.”

“It’s a thing, is it not, Jannet?”

“What’s a thing?”

“This business.”

“Bad for business,” Jannet says.

“Indeed.”

“Your husband thinks so?”

“My husband thinks what the Earl[ii] tells him.”

“And what does his Lordship tell him?”

“There will be a Union. The English have decided. And the Earl of Mar.”

“His Lordship has worked hard in the bartering.”

“Ay,” Mrs. Bruce says, “And sold us down the river.”

“Is that so?  Is that what your husband says?”

“That rascal!” Mrs. Bruce sips on her free tea. “Tell me, what does your husband say?”

And there is the predicament. James cannot make up his mind!

Jannet pours the boiling water over the expensive green leaves and watches as the liquor colours in the porcelain pot.

Upstairs, above the shop, James’ table is awash with argumentative and sometimes scurrilous pamphlets[iii].

Certain Propositions Relating to the Scots Plantation of CALEDONIA, and the National Address for supporting thereof, briefly offered to Publick View, for removing of Mistakes and Prejudices.

An accompt current betwixt Scotland & England ballanced: togeter (!) with an essay of a scheme of the product of Scotland, and a few remarks on each. As also a view of the several products of the ports or nations we trade to, by comparing and holding forth how our products and manufactures may balance theirs, with returns.

The People of SCOTLAND’s Groans and Lamentable Complaints, Pour’d out before the High Court of Parlia∣ment.

The Act of Security, is the only rational method of procuring Scotland a happy constitution, free from illegal invasion of its liberties and laws, and the base usurpation of its ancient sovereignty.

The advantages of Scotland by an incorporate union with England, compar’d with these of a coalition with the Dutch, or league with France. In answer to a pamphlet, call’d, The advantages of the Act of Security, &c. To which is added, a post-script in answer to the letter concerning the consequence of an incorporating union.

The circumstances of Scotland consider’d with respect to the present scarcity of money: togedier with some proposals for supplying the defect thereof, and rectifying the balance of trade.

SCOTLAND’s Grievances, Relating to DARIEN. &c. Humbly offered to the Consideration OF THE Parliament.

The Scotch patriot unmask’d, in animadversions upon a seditious pamphlet, intituled, The reducing Scotland by arms, and annexing it to England as a province.

The smoaking flax unquenchable; where the union betwixt the two kingdoms is dissecated, anatomized, confuted and annulled. Also that good form and fabrick of civil government, intended and espoused by the true subjects of the land.

Jannet scans the pamphlets in quieter moments when the girls can tend the shop and James is out.

No good can come of this!

Mrs. Bruce’s husband lost £500 subscribing to the Company of Scotland[iv].   They are skint: hence the faded damask and the old-farrant dress[v].

At the time the Lieutenant-Colonel had recently been cashiered from the Earl of Mar’s Regiment for signing the capitulation at Deinze[vi].  They say he hoped to find a role in Darien – though he wasn’t on the first fleet or the second.  As well for him?  Though he was ruined.  They were ruined.

And Bessie has a list!

“Fine tea,” Mrs. Bruce acknowledges, settled in the chair beside the grate.

“I’ll see to Bessie’s list,” Jannet says.

“And something in particular?”

“Of course!”

After all, Mary Bruce has no intention of paying for it. Still skint though her man is now quite the hero – that is survivor – at Blenhiem[vii].  The man in Erskine’s pocket!

Still, the burgh folk will have none of it. Higher taxes. Tariffs.  Loss of Sovereignty.  Loss of options. And no protection for the Kirk despite their ‘Act of Security[viii]’. The English have bishops in their House of Lords! No Ministers of the Kirk!

Jannet knows they would have subscribed ten years ago if they had had the silver.  Of course, they would: she would have forced James into it.  Such a succulent, alluring prospectus the ‘projector’ Paterson pitched.

But they didn’t: and, overnight, the coin their customers (sometimes) paid for delicacies, fancies, drugs was gone.  Their stock, filched off of Alloa’s quayside before the customs spotted it, was worth no more than promises.  Promises paid off in promises.

Jannet unlocks the spice cabinet.  The usuals : cinnamon, mace and ginger. All the Bruce’s fat cook knows how to use.

The girl chooses oranges and lemons and a cone of sugar, filling up her basket.

“And three ounce of this fine tea,” her mistress says.

And something in particular?  Arsenic perhaps?

“I have some potatoes. You’ve heard of them I suppose?”

“Potatoes? I’ve never tried one.”

“Or Brandy?”

Brandy. Ay! She likes her nipped.  Five years before, her man ransacked the town, smashing doors and breaking windows looking for her[ix].   No-one knows, to this day, where she was hiding: or who she was hiding with.  Not Jannet Miller surely?

“And Article 15, Mrs. Bruce?”

“Ay,” the old woman says. “The Equivalent. Scunner, isn’t it?”

Jannet’s waters broke.

“Bessie!  See to Mrs. Miller. Quick!”

“You’ll mind I have four bairns,” Jannet said. “This will be my fifth. You’ll mind!”

“Is your deemie through the hoose, Jannet? Bessie! Get thon girl and let’s be gone.”

Notes

[i] Blocked, by English influence,  from their own trade through The Company of Scotland, Scottish smugglers traded with the Swedish East India Company for products from South East Asia.

[ii] John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732) – Wikipedia

[iii]

https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu › libseries.num44.pdf

[iv] Neal Ascherson · Cape of Mad Hope: the Darien disaster (lrb.co.uk)

[v] The Act states that David Bruce became involved by having served himself heir to his father who was insolvent—not knowing this he had spent considerable sums of money in putting the coal works of Clack- mannan and Sauchie in working order. He had disposed the whole estate for the benefit of his creditors Among his creditors was James Bruce of Kennet.

[vi] Francis Fergus O’Farrell – Wikipedia

[vii] Battle of Blenheim – Wikipedia

[viii] Act of Security 1704 – Wikipedia

[ix] 25th Jan , 1704—Charges against the Laird of Kennet—” His searching after a bride in the town of Clackmannan, 13th August 1702, in the night season, entering the houses where he could, and breaking in doors and windows, and using threats and taking oaths to see where she was. His feasting with Clack- mannan an excommunicated person on Yule-day, 1702. On the 21st February, 1705, the said James Bruce of Kennet appeared before the Kirk-Session of Clackmannan, and con[ix]fessed. (Session Records of Clackmannan.) At this period Col. Bruce of Kennet was in the Earl of Mar’s Regiment.” Collections towards a history of the county of Clackmannan (electricscotland.com)