A Parade Of Virtue (A Poor Man At The Gate Series Book 9)

by Andrew Wareham

  Thomas agreed.

  "There will be many opportunities, I believe, especially as the Sugar Islands are predicted to go into rapid decline, sending much less to England. Their goods will have to be replaced by other tropical sources."

  Luke, obviously, was unaware of the difficulties expected in the Caribbean.

  "Slavery, Luke, is soon to be eradicated - it is dying away now for lack of new bodies but all of the existing slaves will be freed well inside a decade."

  "A very good thing, one might have thought, Thomas."

  "It is, but so many of the slave-owners were brutal beasts that it is believed that, once freed, the black men will have none of them and that their plantations will die."

  "I cannot find it in me to grieve for them."

  "Nor me, sir," Elizabeth agreed, "but sugar will be in shorter supply, and some of the fruits and coffee."

  "A few years and other men in different places will see the chance of a profit. The gap will be filled, I have no doubt. Will not America have sugar and to spare?"

  "They still keep slaves, it is true. I am uncomfortable to sweeten my tea with the products of slavery."

  Luke saw his tailor and a few days later paid his obligatory visits - it was incumbent upon him to enter each of his brothers' houses and to shake hands and take tea and formally re-establish his presence amongst them.

  George was particularly glad to see him.

  "You look well, brother, better than ever I remember. Much more the thing than that pallid, stooped-over minister that you was used to be. What do you intend to do now, Luke?"

  "I have yet to make a decision, George. The East, quite possibly, the lands beyond India where there is now the port at Singapore to work from. There could be scope for a merchant house there."

  "Before you go, Luke, give some thought to the opportunities here. My lady wife will wish to meet you, of course, but then we could well have some converse."

  Mrs Star was large with child, the third she informed Luke with every sign of satisfaction; they had a boy and a girl already and another would be very welcome.

  "Strong, healthy children, Luke - a family for any man to be proud of!"

  A few minutes in the company of the pair showed that George was an affectionate father, far closer to the children than to his wife. To her he was courteous, kindly even, but not loving; to them he was open-armed and they ran to him.

  "Fine children, ma'am - perhaps it is time that I settled down with a family of my own!"

  "Life is richer with a spouse and children, sir - I am glad indeed that I have both."

  The children were taken away; they must eat a midday meal and then have their afternoon sleep. Adult hours and mealtimes were not appropriate to little ones, as everyone knew.

  "A good wife, Luke, and a very satisfactory match we have made, the pair of us. Her mother and both of her younger sisters have died, Luke - they were all unhealthy for many years, and their father, Mr Brown of the New Steam Mill, is in slow decline and cannot last much longer. I now have two mills of my own to run and within the twelvemonth I shall inherit from him; he does not believe in placing money in the hands of womenfolk! With the best will in the world, I can find no more than twenty-four hours in the day, and I work up to sixteen of those now. I need a strong and trustworthy man to learn the trade and then take on the running of one of those mills for me. To make a profit, mind you - none of this molly-coddling of workers and turning them into idlers! My people work twelve hours of sixty minutes each! In return, the rates I pay are bettered by no man in the town and they get their six days, or nights, every week - no short time from me!"

  Luke nodded, he had memories of his brother's mill.

  "Do you want it, Luke? Will you be my right-hand? I know that I am the younger of us, but it is a good position I am offering - a wage and a share of the profits of your own mill when you have learned your way about."

  "A few days to think, brother? For four years I have been a campaigner, living rough, hand-to-mouth, day to day. I am not complaining - to tell the truth, I enjoyed myself! But what I did not do was to work - it was adventure rather than business, I confess. Now, I am to settle down, to an extent, for I will not go looking for another war to fight; I am grown out of it, I suspect. As a merchant in the East, I would be a free man, and I wonder if I would be able to push myself to be responsible... Was I to work for you, or for another of the Family, then I must become a grown adult. Even as a minister, you know, George, I think I was playing a part, acting the Man of God, the father of his community. I am not sure that I could take to the demands of maturity."

  George did not understand him, for he had never played at all, or not since he was a very little boy; he would ask his wife, he thought - she had often displayed a comprehension of things outside his experience.

  "Will you come across next week, Luke? I would like to show you round my mill, my own first place."

  Matthew invited Luke to stay at his town house for a couple of days before joining them on the moors at the end of the week.

  "You have not seen the estate, Luke, and I would like to show it you. Pride of possession, you know!"

  "What of the baronetcy, brother? I had not heard of that, was very pleased for you when I discovered it."

  "Lord Andrews' doing - the old lord, our 'uncle'. I know that he had much to do with the hushing-up of the circumstances of Lord Castlereagh's suicide - I believe that he had tried to encourage the gentleman to amend his way of life, though unsuccessful in that. He was rewarded, and a title to his daughter's husband was part of it."

  "What was the background to Castlereagh, do you know?"

  "I never found out - it was disgraceful, that I know for Lord Andrews told me so - but he would not divulge more."

  "As well perhaps, I suspect you would sleep better for not knowing. I would be easier for not having seen much of the atrocity that occurred in the last few years."

  "I had heard that the Turks committed any number of wicked acts, Luke."

  "Was it only the Turk, then I might feel more comfortable, but the Greeks responded perfectly equally, you know. Christian and Mussulman, there was nothing to choose between them when it came to massacre of the innocent."

  "I saw a little when I was at sea. Twice I landed in ports that had been taken by storm. The sights were not for the weak-stomached to witness."

  "There is little glory in war, I believe. That is not to say that war is not necessary - it often is the only possible way to redress wrongs - but it is the negation of all decency amongst human beings."

  Later, Luke told Matthew of the offer of employment at Lodestar, asked his opinion.

  "George will be worth a million before he is finished, brother. He will make very sure that you earn a small fortune too. He is a rigorously honest man, but he is hard, very hard indeed - I cannot remember of whom it was said that 'he would scorn to take a farthing, or give a penny', but that describes him to perfection. He would expect, demand in fact, the same of you."

  "There is little of charity left in me, Matthew - I no longer believe that anything worthwhile can ever be free."

  "Everything to have a price but nothing to possess a value? It is the logic of our way, I accept, but I cannot like it, Luke."

  "Neither do I, but I do not have to, I would merely have to live with it. George seems to do so."

  "His marriage, you mean?"

  Luke grimaced.

  "Not for me, either, but they seem content. Possibly neither is possessed of strong passions, or perhaps George's passion for money is the more powerful. There has not been a whisper about him, by the way, he has not strayed in the least degree. He has made a marriage of convenience, and he has kept to it - one must respect his honesty."

  "But not perhaps understand it."

  "Just so, brother."

  Luke wandered the moors with Matthew, found he loved the bleak, open or rock-strewn high places, in some ways similar to the Greek hills.

  "Fine, st
rong country, brother, but one could never take a living from it."

  "Three flocks, and them needing to come down each winter. Bob pays me a rent for them, a fair market price, and it comes out at less than two shillings an acre. Was I to depend on this land for a living then I would not be a rich man, that is for sure! As well, the price of wool must fall within a few years - fleeces are already trickling in from overseas and there is talk of wide acres being opened in South America as well as the Cape and the Antipodes. This is a gentleman's estate, not a farmer's workplace. I can keep it up because of the money I earn from Roberts, and because of Charlotte's income. My son, when he inherits, may not find it possible, so I have not created an entail - he may have to sell."

  "A pity, it is a place ideal to bring up a family."

  "It is, but my wife's money is earmarked for the younger children. That has to be."

  Luke knew the necessity, accepted that it must be so, and it brought his own future back to mind.

  "What advice have you for me, Matthew? I must make a living and would like more. Should I really work for George?"

  "Can you?"

  "I do not think so. I have a feeling that I would have to love money more, and perhaps myself less, to be the man he needs. He would call me soft - he may be right. I think I shall go east, for ten years, no more. In that time I shall make a fortune, or come back a failure."

  "Where will you go?"

  "Perhaps Singapore first, then where the profit takes me. I talked, a couple of years ago, with a sailor who had been a midshipman on a long commission to eastern seas. He died a month or two later, I forget exactly when, I think he took ill with the dysentery, but that may have been one of the others. Be that as it may, he told me of the islands to the north of Australia where the Chinese traded for gold dust - iron knives for gold, weight for weight, he said. I think I might take a trading schooner down there, as a start."

  "You will need some cash of your own."

  "I have some, and I have drawn none of the income left to me by my father for four years. I can go with two thousands in my pocket. That will be more than most adventurers have. I shall ask Thomas to invest father's money for me each year I am away, so I shall have a little to come home to in case I fail."

  George was disappointed, but only a little, when Luke turned him down. He had made the offer in good faith - Family came first - but he had not been absolutely certain that Luke, for all of his good qualities, was the man he needed.

  "Too many good qualities, perhaps, ma'am," he commented to his wife.

  "I had rather say 'not the qualities we need', husband."

  "I must seek a man elsewhere, it would seem. Not an easy task, finding one of the right sort."

  "What do you need in your deputy, husband?"

  "Intelligence, honesty, integrity - these first of all. Hard work as well. Poor would be best - a man who has gone hungry will be far more willing to fight to keep all he has made. A lean man is better for me than a plump son of comfort. I had rather he was not a local man - I want no relatives, no friends to ask favours or to complain to his parents. He needs to know the trade though."

  As he spoke, his thoughts clarified and a name came to mind. One of his own men, a millhand at Lodestar.

  "Jerry Tonks, that's the man. He's clever, he's a worker, and none of the men will have much to do with him because he's half London, half Irish and good-looking, and the girls all smile at him. He don't drink, and the men don't like that, and he reads books because he wants to, and he tries to speak like a gentleman, so they say he's stuck-up."

  "Do you want to allow a man like that to become rich, husband? Might it not be better to keep him in his place?"

  "If my father had stayed in his place then I would not be here today, ma'am! If your esteemed papa had not made his way in the world, where would you be?"

  She was forced to accept the truth of his words, but did not have to like it.

  "You wish us to buy an estate one day, to bring young George and Jenny up as gentlefolk. Do we want more Johnny-Come-Latelys to supplant them?"

  "There's room yet for more at the top of the tree, ma'am. Tonks will be hungry for success, I think. He is not married and I know he spends very little, saves all he can. He probably has it in mind to set up for himself one day. Ten years as my under-manager and he will be able to buy out a small mill of his own - if he still wants to; he may see that he can make better from me."

  Jerry Tonks finished brushing up round his loom, took off his apron and made his way to the signing-out desk at the door, gave his name to the clerk who checked the men in and out.

  "Would you go to Mr Star's office, Mr Tonks? He wishes to speak to you."

  The request was an order, but politely phrased; he obeyed instantly, walking thirty seconds down the yard to the offices and knocking at the closed door.

  Another clerk opened up and smiled at him, waved him through, mind racing.

  'Why? Mr Tonks? Since when was a millhand called that?'

  "Come in, sit down."

  Even more of a puzzle - sitting in the master's office?

  "How old are you, Mr Tonks?"

  "Twenty-three, sir, last month."

  "Good. You have worked here for eleven years now, from boy sweeper to top hand at the looms. You can read and write, which is uncommon in the mill, and you hardly drink, which is bloody rare!"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Right. I need a good man to be under-manager - at first. My wife's father is dying. A twelvemonth from now and I will have the New Steam Mill to run as well as the two Lodestar Mills. Within that year I must have a man who can run one of the two Lodestars; by the end of the second year he will have both. You know my standards - you have worked to them. Can you do the job? Will you walk into this office on Monday morning, ready to be my man?"

  "I can, sir. I would like to, but... thing is, sir, I haven't got the clothes. I can't do the job in wooden-soled boots and jean-trousers and an open-neck shirt, sir."

  "And you can't live in the same terraces as the men do. That's the first test passed, Mr Tonks. You can think! First thing on Monday you go to my tailor. Second thing, you get your traps together and move out - I have a small house lined up for you, with a cook-maid to run it. I'll have a cart for you, to carry your books!"

  "I will be pleased to move out, sir. Two rooms upstairs; noisy and smelly and some drunk forever shouting out and some woman screaming at him. I will be very happy, sir."

  "Good. Three months to show that you can do it. I shall pay you eight pounds a week, and rent-free for that time. If you can do the job - and I'm certain you can - then I will double your pay to eight hundred a year. That is more than a lot of mill-owners make in profit, so I will look for a good job from you. After the end of your second year I shall put you onto a share of the profits. Five years from now I intend to have at least one more mill, so you will need under-managers of your own. Are you willing to work every hour the Good Lord gives you, Mr Tonks? If you are, then you will be rich before you are forty."

  "I shall be rich, sir. I promise you that."

  "I will hold you to your word, sir. Now then, the problem of wages - the men are unhappy, again. Prices are rising fast, as always. What do we do?"

  "Tommy-shop, sir. Buy at wholesale or market cost, sell cheap to our people. That will do some good. At the same time offer a farthing an hour on the wage - we can't afford it, or so the men can be told - and they must do everything they can to improve quality, never a second of inattention."

  "Show willing, in other words. The trouble is these bloody Corn Laws force the price of food up just so fat farmers can get something for nothing. Bound to be the case while land-owners run the government for their own benefit and to hell with the rest of us."

  Tonks would commit himself to no political comment – he would never be called a red.

  "I know who the trades union men are, sir, the ones forever making the cry for a strike, for the men to stand together. I know just who it i
s writes 'Unity' on the walls of the necessaries and I shall catch him in the act and dismiss him for vandalism. As well, there is John Peck, who would be shop-steward if he could - he is sewing up a patchwork quilt of his evenings and picks up oddments of scrap cloth when he can. Many of the men do so, stuff that would otherwise go to the bins, and it is never noticed - but it is theft according to the law and will provide a reason none can argue with to dismiss him and have him blacklisted in the whole of the town."

  "Make the most of the opportunity, Mr Tonks. Have constables to hand and take him up - put him in front of the Bench. A flogging and a few months in the clink would send a message to all. With a little good fortune - and we can often make our own luck - he could be transported or sent out to hard labour. Wait a week before you deal with him, I will give you the word as soon as I have spoken to a magistrate, one of the right sort."

  John Peck was an older man, had a handsome daughter and had warned Tonks away from her. They were chapel and Tonks was not, which had seemed good reason to him. Within a week or two, the old man's wages lost and no other earner in their family, young Miss Peck would be happy to become a living-in housemaid. No need to offer marriage now.

  Tonks whistled his way the two miles back to his rooms; life had definitely taken a turn for the better. He had always known that he was cleverer than the rest, deserved more - now he would prove it.

  There was a way to improve the lay-out of the warehouse, he had worked it out for himself years ago - it would make it more efficient, quicker to stock the shelves and easier to find just what was needed. As well, they did not make best use of the boy sweepers - at the moment they came round each aisle four times a day, brushing up the dust, polishing almost, cleaner than it needed be. Cut them down to twice a day and they could be used to run messages as well or to pick up oddments that were needed or to tell the engineer he was wanted at a particular loom - they could save downtime on the looms, and that meant money.