“And there’s a possibility he’s coming to Toronto to offer Robert Baldwin, the arch-Reformer, a cabinet post,” Michaels said, alluding to yet another rumour circulating in the capital.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Maxwell said, “calm down. You’re beginning to talk as if the Governor favours responsible government, but he has assured us over and over again that he has no intention of having his cabinet answer directly to the majority party in the Assembly. And that is that.”
Carson James went suddenly pale. “I - I’m not so sure about that,” he said.
The Bishop glared at him, his eyebrows alarmingly rigid. “Explain yourself, sir.”
Trembling at the Bishop’s response or the implications of what he had to say to him, James replied: “My wife’s niece is a maid out at Spadina, where Governor Thomson and the Baldwins met in secret during the debate over the Union Bill last fall. One day, she told me, she overheard Thomson tell Robert Baldwin that he could not guarantee him responsible government in the new order, but that he felt certain it would come about – naturally and inevitably.”
“The blackguard!” Michaels cried, spilling his third sherry.
Maxwell chuckled softly. “But he said that merely to get Reform support for his bill, the wily old bastard.”
Much relief followed upon this compelling insight.
Hesitantly, James said, “But what if the Governor was being wily with us as well? After all, he’s a Whig, not a Tory.”
After the merest pause, Maxwell said, “True. But he’s also a governor, a vice-regent with near-absolute power. And I’ve never seen any gentleman – Whig, Tory or otherwise – relinquish such power voluntarily. And certainly not to a polyglot crew such as is likely to compose the new Assembly in Kingston or wherever.”
The murmurs of enthusiastic assent were stilled by Bishop Strachan raising his hand as if he were bidding his congregation to prayer. “I believe you are right, Ignatius. On the other hand, we have no more guarantees offered us than the rabble do. I fear we must scotch the serpent in its nest, not wait for it to grow into some hydra-headed beast of the Apocalypse. Should Monsieur LaFontaine and Mr. Baldwin-Hincks find enough common ground to dominate the new Legislative Assembly, it may well prove to be a most unholy alliance.”
“What are you suggesting, John?” Maxwell said.
“I am proposing that we become acutely vigilant, and that we do everything in our power to see that such a perverse and obscene coalition never sees the light of day.”
Maxwell stared at the storm pummelling the windows even more fiercely than it had been doing earlier in the evening. “Then let us pray for more snow,” he said.
*********
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
About the Author
Other Books in the Marc Edwards Mystery Series
Excerpt From Desperate Acts
The Widow's Demise Page 18
