Illusions Of Change (A Poor Man at the Gate Series Book 6)

by Andrew Wareham

  The week was in fact both enjoyable and profitable.

  He had caught the eye of a personable young miss, newly come upon the town in Brighton and not yet either jaded or diseased, and she had become his peculiar for the week. Miss Sophia in fact was very happy to accept his invitation to become a fixture at his place in Mayfair, much more comfortable an existence than one of the Brighton houses-of-assignation would offer. He was within reason generous and she was sorry for his leg and very willing to help him out, so that both were satisfied.

  The card-playing was not the trial he had expected either, due to his inveterate sobriety. There was much to be said for gambling with drunks, he discovered, especially in those games where a memory of the cards was valuable or where a finer judgement of the odds was useful. He was some four thousand pounds richer at the end of the week, or would have been had he felt it wise to cash in all of the notes of hand. The Prince had scrawled vowels for some eight hundred guineas; those James burnt. Lord Buxton, an idiot youth who had succeeded to a large fortune on his father’s early death, had written IOUs for a thousand; these James put in Michael’s hands to be collected. Colonel Hanger was down seven hundreds, which he hadn’t got and never would have; James returned his paper with a message of thanks for his hospitality – Hanger was renowned for having no false pride, and little of any other sort, he would probably remember to be grateful.

  The bank notes and coins went into James’ valise, accompanied him home, thence to his bank account, the information rapidly reaching Robert’s ears.

  “I hear that you are a dangerous man at the tables, James! One gentleman of my acquaintance has already described you as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, seeming innocent and unaware but very wide-awake when the cards were down. He was much impressed, wondered that any enemy had gotten close enough to blow your leg off! It will do you no harm at all to have a name for yourself. Be very careful of any invitation you may now receive, brother! Any number of cardsharps will try to make your acquaintance, carrying bales of fuzzed cards for the purpose.”

  James listened, agreed, said that he had actually enjoyed winning but had been bored by playing. He would not wish to repeat the experience, but the money would no doubt come in handy.

  “Will you go immediately back to Lutterworth, James?”

  “Next week, for the Christmas season. I am advised that I should return to town soon after in expectation of Parliament sitting early on the King’s death.”

  “What will you do if the new King demands a divorce?”

  “Very little, I expect. If the majority falls in favour, then I shall fall with it. If it seems unlikely of success then I shall shake my head regretfully when asked my opinion. The Prince is convinced that Parliament will accede to his wishes, but Lord Castlereagh spoke to me only yesterday and said that he could see no prospect at all of the House of Lords being cooperative. His advice was to remain uncommitted because the issue would almost certainly be settled outside the Commons, so there would be no need to create enemies on either side of the fence.”

  Robert was pleasantly surprised. That was exactly what he would have done, the lad was growing into a thinking man, it seemed. James’ thought had in fact been confined to asking himself just what Robert could be expected to recommend, he having the knowledge and better judgement.

  The three ex-officers disembarked from their Indiaman in Trincomalee, fatigued by the sheer tedium of their shipboard months, very willing to get to work at their new lives. They were met by a posse of servants, dragomans, grooms and porters, were instantly made to realise that they were no longer merely gentlemen, they were sahibs, lords and masters of the fate of many. The lowlands were hot and fevered and they were to travel to their hills as soon as was convenient – first thing next morning. Being younger gentlemen, ponies would be provided, unless for some reason they might prefer to travel by carriage, the slow bullock-drawn hackeries could be made available, if they demanded.

  They did not so demand, it being delicately hinted that the hackery was more for the elderly and female.

  All three had fought through Spain and were used to the concept of ‘foreign’. The word meant both ‘different’ and ‘inferior’, as far as they were concerned, but they were being well-paid to accept the inconveniences inherent in rubbing shoulders with lesser beings. They travelled two days as a group and then split up to go their individual ways to their plantations, in the same range of hills but some miles distant from each other. They began to realise that they would be solitary masters of their own domains, not close neighbours in the way of English farmers.

  The dragomans, interpreters and to an extent protectors, assumed much greater importance as they came to understand that they were their sole means of contact with the people surrounding them.

  Two of the young captains simply settled into their new-built bungalows and asked what they should do next, were content never to become more than figureheads, issuing the orders that were suggested to them, touring their long rows of tea bushes, cold-shouldering the mere peasants tending them, making the correct entries in their records and account books. Their plantations ran efficiently, showed every promise of returning a respectable profit.

  The third was a far more active gentleman.

  He took lessons in Tamil and Hindi, made every opportunity to speak to his people, inspected the living quarters every week, talked long to the Chinese experts in tea-production and learned much of the bushes themselves, of the plant diseases to be feared and of their best cultivation. His plantation ran efficiently and it too was expected to return a healthy profit.

  All three planters were rapidly accommodated with complaisant young mistresses, two at least apiece, and their sideboards were kept loaded with bottles and decanters. Older men who had been cooks to the Dutch masters of twenty years before were dug out of retirement and set to work in the kitchens, producing meals far better than could be found in John Company’s dining rooms. The servants were ruthlessly disciplined by their own masters to anticipate the sahibs’ every need and desire. Life came close to the ideal for the young men.

  A significant but not excessive portion of the plantations’ budget was diverted into the pockets of the most senior employees, making them rapidly rich in local terms, able very quickly to start buying acreages down in the lowlands, a sufficient distance away to be invisible to their masters.

  Tea was generally agreed to be a highly successful new undertaking and further sections of land for new plantations were identified, though the Chinese men when consulted said that the soils were wrong, that only a very limited area was suitable, but that was a matter for another day.

  Major Wolverstone was busy in Bombay. His connection with Benson led to an amount of activity for Roberts, importing made iron goods on a small scale and planning a shipyard to build coastal and river steamers for Indian waters. More importantly, his explorations inland had led him to the exportation of significant amounts of good local timber, hardwoods of the best quality for the furniture trade particularly profitable. He was also buying in jute from new sources close to the coal mines he had located. Now that there was to be no great iron works he had to find an outlet for the coal he had committed Roberts to, hence the shipyard and his demands for the parts of steam engines.

  Wolverstone was a married man now, the knot tied by the bishop himself, an announcement of his status in their community. The marriage was not entirely to his liking, Miss Benson having displayed an ongoing lack of enthusiasm in the bedchamber which rather disappointed him; she seemed rather to be indignant at the liberties he was taking with her person than to be consumed with any degree of lust. Not to worry, it would mean at least that he would have no fears about the paternity of any of the offspring. For the while he must be content to get her pregnant, for there must be children to continue the name and inherit the fortune he intended to make. Entertainment could be found elsewhere, no doubt, it was a commodity in easy supply in India.

  A naval captain,
dressed as a nondescript civilian, appeared at Mostyn’s Bank one morning, inquiring for Mr Robert Andrews and offering a sealed letter as his reference.

  The letter progressed rapidly to Robert’s office and transpired to be from Mr Michael, recommending Captain Eustace Hood to his attention. The captain had commanded a post-ship and had also worked in the Admiralty itself and was fluent in French and German and possessed a working knowledge of Flemish and Dutch and Danish. He was a man of discretion and of significant intelligence.

  The last word alerted Robert to Captain Hood’s nature, as was Michael’s intention. The captain would, in Michael’s opinion, be an ideal person to travel the ports and shipyards of the German Ocean as a representative of Roberts Ironfounders, informing them of the progress that modernity had made on the Continent and possibly discovering customers or potential partners.

  Robert called for the captain to be brought to him.

  A man of about thirty entered the office, pallid, thin, of average height but slightly stooped to seem shorter. He wore half-moon spectacles, reading glasses, gave the appearance of being an usher, a slightly seedy schoolmaster, possibly of unsavoury habits. He took short paces, apparently uncertain of himself.

  “Come in, Captain Hood!”

  Robert stood, shook the captain’s hand, eased him into a chair.

  “Mr Michael has recommended you, Captain Hood, so I need to make no enquiry of your suitability for the post we have to offer. I require a man of some perception, one who can tell me of the state of business in iron, coal and steam along the northern European coast. Roberts Ironfounders, my father’s firm, which I shall one day inherit, of course, wishes to become pre-eminent in steam shipping, and to sell vessels to work the Rhine certainly, possibly the Seine and the Dutch inland waters. We need information. To get the knowledge we require a traveller of uncommon perspicacity. Pay will be generous. If you choose to take the opportunity further then I will first ask you to spend a week or two at our yard on the Isle of Dogs, getting a feel for the trade.”

  “How long would you require my services for, Mr Andrews?”

  “One year, in the first instance, I doubt you could travel the German Ocean coast in less. After that, it is not our habit in Roberts ever to dismiss our staff simply because they have completed a particular task. There would be other things to do, equal or superior in status to the first, if that was your wish.”

  “Mr Michael informed me of your policy when making the final offer to me. I have been relegated to half-pay, Mr Andrews, not at my own wish. The precise reason I must not divulge, as you have no doubt surmised. Suffice it to say that two other gentlemen also found their employment terminated, as a result of investigations that I instigated; both had political friends who had to be appeased. As a result, Mr Andrews, I must seek a career, having won no prize-money for rarely being at sea in the late war.”

  “I can assure you of thirty years with Roberts, sir, provided, of course, that your conduct is satisfactory. We are not in the habit of bowing to political pressure, sir, indeed, quite the opposite is more normally the case, so you need have no fears there. You say your colleagues’ careers were ‘terminated’?”

  “Very thoroughly, Mr Andrews.”

  “When can you make yourself available to us, Captain Hood?”

  “Immediately, sir.”

  “Good. You will be required to dress appropriately for the role. A representative is necessarily a visible body, will therefore be clothed smartly and within reason fashionably while I suspect you have in the past been more concerned to be inconspicuous, sir. Mr Rumpage, at the yard, will receive instructions to conduct you to his tailor, to be outfitted as a prosperous businessman, if that will be acceptable to you?”

  “Yes, of course, Mr Andrews, though I believe I am capable of meeting my own tailor’s bills.”

  “Roberts has demanded a particular set of dress, sir. It is our habit never to ask something for nothing.”

  Captain Hood raised an eyebrow but said no more.

  “One further point, Captain Hood. You will no doubt be making reports to other offices as well as ours. That is none of my business and I shall know nothing of any other activities you may choose to indulge in.”

  “There will be none other, Mr Andrews. I believe I may be sufficiently indiscreet as to say that I was employed primarily in the North American office in recent years, and that I would be very unwilling to travel, for example, to the United States, or to French-speaking Canada. I have, however, no recent connections with those bureaus interested in France or the Germanies, nor will I ever have again.”

  There was a degree of bitterness to the captain’s voice, enough to make it clear that he felt hard done by. Robert made a mental note to make enquiries of Michael.

  “You have accommodation in London, Captain Hood?”

  “No, sir, not as such. I am staying in a small lodging house for the while. I have no living family in England, sir, my parents having succumbed to an epidemic fever some years ago and my only brother on succeeding to their small property informing me that he could afford me neither allowance nor countenance, that I must make my own way in the world.”

  It was a common enough occurrence amongst small landowners. Younger sons were more nuisance than valued kinsfolk.

  “With your concurrence, Captain Hood, I will instruct Mr Rumpage to find you rooms close to the yard, it will no doubt be more convenient.”

  “Thank you, sir. It will. On the question of mode of address, sir, would ‘Mr’ Hood be better suited to a business career? It is rare for naval captains to venture out of their own sphere and might give rise to the occasional query.”

  “Captain Matthew Star manages our steamship yard in Liverpool, the largest in the country, I believe, and retains the address. Did your paths cross in your service years? I am told that the navy is small in some ways.”

  “I heard of him, that is all, sir. Promoted young and with a good career in front of him but became disenchanted with peacetime service, which many others have discovered to be tedious. The navy in war has many excitements, but in peace it is dead man’s shoes and keep your nose clean – promotion is hard to come by and the least infraction will end a man’s chances. A long wait climbing the list – in war it is quicker because the French will remove some of your seniors and hard-lying and winter storms will do for a few more. Thirty years as a post-captain then comes your rear-admiral’s flag, and only half a chance to fly it ever, as likely to be yellow as blue-at-the-mizzen. Captain Star was wise to take such an opportunity as Roberts has given him. I very much expect to be able to say the same of myself, sir!”

  Robert put Mr Hood into the care of one of the bank’s messengers and sent them off to the Isle of Dogs together. Mr Rumpage would deal with the gentleman’s requirements, most efficiently.

  He made his own way to Michael’s office later in the day, discovered young Mr Michael to be sat in his father’s chair.

  “Your father has retired, then, sir? I was told he was to go.”

  “He is seventy years of age, Mr Andrews, loath though he is to admit it! I have succeeded to his honours, sir.”

  “You are very welcome, Mr Michael. I spoke to Captain Eustace Hood this morning.”

  “He is satisfactory, I trust, sir? He comes very well recommended by Mr Smith.”

  “He seems to be a very quiet, retiring sort of gentleman, Mr Michael.”

  “He is indeed, sir, very carefully so. I believe one might say that very few people would ever give him a second glance, which, of course, has been of value in his recent occupation.”

  Robert had not considered that factor. It made good sense now that it was brought to his mind.

  “Can you tell me any more of why, exactly, he was sent to half-pay?”

  “I must not name names, Mr Robert. In any event, I do not know them all. What I can say is that it became clear that government policy on North America was being disseminated in Washington well before our Ambassador was ma
de aware of it. Captain Hood was given a name by a source of his in America, of an American gentleman who was receiving information from London. Once knowing the receiver it became possible to backtrack to the sender, who was discovered to be a rather senior official in the Foreign Office who was acting in concert with a close acquaintance in the First Lord of the Treasury’s office, a senior aide to the Prime Minister in fact. Both were younger sons of the aristocracy and led fashionable lives and had come into contact with the Carlton House set, to their financial grief.”

  Robert needed to know little more, but listened on.

  “Investigations suggested both men to have been enjoying additional incomes for several years, since mid-way through the Napoleonic War in fact. They dined together, as was their not infrequent habit, and were taken with a fatal food-poisoning, though none others at the table fell ill. One particular dish must have been contaminated, it was feared. No inquest, of course, not for a simple case of illness. It would seem, however, that there was some comment made – there is always a flapping mouth, Mr Robert, a little man who becomes bigger for boasting of what he knows. The word came from above that Captain Hood was not well-liked in certain circles and that his employment must be brought to an end, that he might well, indeed, suffer a fatal seizure. His seniors were able to offer him protection of his life, but they could not retain him in his office.”

  “Will he be safe in France or travelling through the Germanies?”

  “Wholly. The French are embarrassed by their recent past, and the Germanies have no sensible overall organisation, the Prussian service the largest and highly inefficient, in any case solely concerned to determine what, if any, is the thrust of Russian policy.”

  “Good. He will be a valued employee of Roberts, Mr Michael. By the way, what is the thrust of Russian policy?”