There were mutters of agreement from the other ladies, and another longing look in his direction from Miss Fellowes. Lily frowned at her cards, but said nothing.
Gerry ignored her and the Fellowes woman, and gave Mrs Burke a sympathetic smile. ‘I am afraid there is nothing to be done about that, madam. Lillian is far too sensible to listen to me on a subject as important as money. I cannot seem to hang on to that from one day to the next.’
‘Then you must come talk to Mr North,’ Mr Wilson called from the middle of the discussion on the other side of the room. ‘He is the sort of brilliant businessman who can turn one pound into ten in the blink of an eye.’
‘Or ten pounds into one,’ Greywall added. Ronald North leaned across the card table and filled his glass before he could speak again.
‘I will be careful not to close my eyes if he is near my purse,’ Gerry said.
The elder North gave a merry laugh as though the comment did not bother him in the least. ‘You have nothing to fear from me, Captain. I would not encourage others to invest in some of my riskier endeavours. It would pain me greatly if anyone incurred a loss while following my advice.’
‘What sort of investment might that be?’ Apparently, Mr Burke was the sort of man who could not tell the difference between a warning and a welcome. Nor could he recognise the obvious trap being set for him.
‘My current venture is far too likely to end in failure,’ Mr North demurred. ‘Of course, the odds might improve if I was able to raise enough capital to do the job correctly...’
‘Tell us more,’ Wilson encouraged.
‘Yes, Phineas. Tell us more.’ By the sound of it, the earl had said his line so many times that he’d lost the ability to sound sincere. Ronald refilled his glass again to keep him quiet as North continued his pitch.
‘As you can see from the magnificent pelts that are displayed in the trophy room, the land surrounding this house is teeming with wildlife. Beaver, badger and otter all but walk into the traps set for them. But suppose it were possible to catch fur-bearing animals and breed them? We might be hip-deep in skins before the winter season. Tailors and hat makers in the city would take as many as we could supply.’
‘You mean to breed beavers?’ Miss Fellowes was staring at him with wide eyes.
Mr North shook his head. ‘They are fine animals, of course. But if one could find a flock of Russian sables...’
‘Are they measured by the flock?’ Gerry interrupted.
‘I have no idea,’ North said, then continued. ‘If I could acquire a pair of sables, house them, feed them and encourage them to mate...’
Miss Fellowes giggled.
‘But where would you get Russian sables?’ Gerry asked.
‘From Russia,’ Ronald snapped, staring at him as if trying to gauge whether he was the stupidest man in the room, or the most devious.
‘I have already imported the first pair,’ Mr North admitted.
‘Let us see these wondrous animals, immediately,’ Gerry said with a smile that should have put Ronald on guard.
‘I do not know if that is wise,’ his father-in-law said with a worried smile. ‘They are very delicate creatures. Any disturbance can interfere with their breeding.’
‘But it is daytime.’ Gerry reminded him. ‘Surely they breed at night like good Christians.’
Miss Fellowes giggled again.
‘Perhaps. But in daylight, they are rather excitable,’ North said. ‘And prone to biting.’
On the other side of the room, Ronald flinched. Lily held her cards up to her mouth, probably to disguise her smile.
‘Perhaps it will help if I speak to them in Russian,’ Gerry said. ‘I know a few words. I will tell them that we mean no harm.’
‘But we do mean harm, if we wish to make coats out of them.’ Mr Wilson glanced out at the rain and looked longingly back at the card table.
‘Then I will be forced to lie,’ Gerry said cheerfully. ‘Let us go out to the stables at once. If they are going to make us all rich, I must see these little foreigners immediately.’
At the mention of riches, Wilson changed his mind and called for hat and umbrella. Even Sir Chauncey set aside his jealousy and agreed that a little fresh air would be an excellent idea.
* * *
They set off a short time later, stumbling through the mud towards the cluster of wire-mesh cages standing at the back of the stables. ‘Are these they?’ Gerry asked, pointing to the two forlorn animals housed there.
North beamed. ‘The pride of the Urals. My supplier assures me that they can have up to a dozen kittens a year. It would be better if there were more pairs, of course. It strengthens the bloodline.’
Without waiting for further explanation, Gerry unlatched the door and thrust his gloved hands in, dodging needle-sharp teeth to grab the animals by their necks. Then he pulled them from the cages and held them out, one in each hand, so all could see. ‘Say hello to the fellows, Mr Sable. We are all eager to meet you. And Madam Sable, as well.’
Then he gave a dramatic pause. ‘What ho, Madam? What have we here?’ He held the animals out to Wilson. ‘Do you see what I think I see, sir? Surely I am not mistaken.’
Wilson leaned forward and then back again as the animal hissed. ‘I do not think it likes to be examined, Captain.’
‘None of us does,’ Gerry replied with a smile.
‘Let me see.’ Miss Fellowes stepped forward.
‘This is not...’ Gerry stopped himself. He had been ready to say that it was not a sight for a lady. But since the caution did not apply to Miss Fellowes, it hardly mattered.
The woman in question saw what he had and turned away with a giggle.
‘What the devil are we looking at?’ Ronald said, angry that he did not see the source of the mirth.
Gerry turned to North, the stoats wriggling in his hands. ‘You are right, sir, when you say the investment is a risky one. The person who sold these animals to you has sent you two stallions and no mares.’
‘Males?’ The shock on Ronald’s face at this revelation was quickly turning to anger.
North had an entirely different reaction. ‘Two males.’ He laughed. ‘Well spotted, Captain. There is no cheating a man with such sharp eyes.’ He laughed again and patted his belly, as if he’d just eaten a full meal and been well satisfied. ‘Would that I’d had your perspicacity. It seems I have been duped by a wily trader.’
And there was the secret of North’s success. Even caught in the act, he was so good-humoured about it that one wanted to believe he was not at fault. ‘I recommend that you write to Russia immediately and take the supplier to task over this,’ Gerry said, feigning earnestness.
‘I will indeed,’ North agreed.
‘Males,’ Ronald repeated.
Lily, who had skirted the edge of the crowd as they’d approached the cage, was nowhere to be seen. But Gerry thought, from somewhere on the other side of the stables, he heard a peal of feminine laughter.
* * *
On the way back to the house, North hung back from the rest of the party and Gerry lagged, as well. They waited until the rest were well out of earshot before either of them spoke.
‘Ronald underestimates you,’ North said, the half-smile never leaving his face.
‘At his peril,’ Gerry agreed. ‘To save us both further embarrassment, I will not denounce you publically. But I trust I will hear no more about turning my home into a sable farm.’
‘There is always the ruby mine in Brazil,’ he said wistfully.
‘Brazil is known for emeralds, not rubies,’ Gerry pointed out.
‘All the more reason to invest in the rubies,’ North replied. ‘When we find them, they will be twice the value of emeralds.’
‘And if you do not find them?’
‘Mining for gems is a dangerous and difficult thing, under the best circumstances.’
‘But even if the investors are left empty-handed, I suspect you will still come away with a tidy profit.’
‘There is no reason for me to bear the whole cost of a failure,’ North said. ‘The whole point of having investors is to minimise liability, should something go wrong.’
‘I would hope that it is a way to share profits, as well,’ Gerry said. ‘Should I examine the schemes you have backed since taking residence here, I would bet not a one of them succeeded. But despite all these failures, you are able to fill the wine cellars and entertain.’
‘Perhaps I am merely unlucky,’ North admitted. ‘But I have managed to make the best of my failures.’
‘Perhaps you auction seats at my dinner table as though you were trading horseflesh at Tattersalls,’ Gerry announced. ‘And while you peddle weasels dipped in boot black, your son sharps at billiards and cheats at cards.’
‘The people who come here deserve what they get,’ North said. ‘They are trying to find a route to wealth and status that does not involve hard work. We both know that is not the way the world turns.’
‘Did I deserve what was coming to me when you tried to swindle me out of my house?’
North paused to look him up and down. ‘When I found you, you were an impoverished student with a ruin of a manor. Now you are a rich man and respected by all in Britain for your heroism. The house is still yours, as is my only daughter.’
‘I could just as easily have died penniless,’ Gerry said.
‘But you did not,’ North reminded him, smiling.
Gerry stared back in amazement. The man was truly a master manipulator. North was looking at him with the grin of a proud father, doting on a son’s success.
Gerry offered no smile of gratitude in return. ‘You are trying to persuade me that the last seven years has been a boon and not a hardship. Do I need to remove my shirt and show you the battle scars?’
‘If you do, I will show you a mirror, so that you might see the positive changes the army has wrought in you.’
Arguing with the man was like trying to hold an eel. ‘I admit I have changed. But it was not necessary for me to join the army to do so. There is no telling what might have been, if you’d just let me alone.’
North snorted. ‘I will tell you exactly what you’d have done. You’d have ended up a Cambridge mathematics tutor married to some parson’s pinch-faced daughter.’
‘I would never...’ But it was an accurate assessment of the future he’d planned for himself, before Phineas North had stepped in and upended his life.
‘Eventually, you’d have been forced to sell this house to Greywall. I know for a fact that he wanted it. And I know you refused.’
‘Because he hounded my father into the grave trying to get it,’ Gerry admitted. ‘I did not particularly like my father. But I like the earl even less.’
‘He is a rather unlikeable fellow,’ North admitted.
‘But I did not need to go to war to keep the house out of his hands. If all you wished was the use of it, I could have just as easily rented it to you. Or sold it to you, for that matter.’
‘I could never have afforded to bid against an earl for the purchase of this place. It was cheaper to buy a commission than a house,’ North said, beaming. ‘So I gave you an opportunity. You used it as an honourable man would and made a success of yourself.’
‘But you could not have known the outcome,’ Gerry insisted.
‘I beg to differ,’ North said. ‘To do what I do, one must be a good judge of character. While I am sorry to admit that both of my children doubted your chances of survival, I knew from the first that you would return to us. Today, you proved that you are the sort of fellow who sees stoats when others see sables.’
‘I had Lily’s help with that,’ Gerry admitted.
‘My darling girl.’ North’s smile broadened. ‘Such a daughter is a father’s proudest achievement. A jewel as pure as diamond and more valuable to me than all the emeralds in Brazil. I am glad to have found a man worthy of her. Even without her warning, you’d have seen my sables for what they were. You, Captain Wiscombe, are a man of vision. You see a move ahead of the other fellow and behave accordingly.’
Then why did he have such difficulty reading his own wife? ‘If that were true, I would not have listened to you in the first place.’
‘On the contrary. Even as you agreed to my offer, you knew it was too good to be true. I read it in your eyes. But you wanted Lily and you wanted a chance to prove your worth to yourself, and to her. So you weighed the risks and said yes.’
It was true. He had known that something was not right about the marriage. But the benefits of the commission had outweighed any potential problems.
‘You must admit, now that it is over, it has turned out splendidly. You are home safe to your beautiful wife and adoring son. What more could you want?’
He did not know.
When Lily had insisted that no one knew the true origins of Stewart, he had assumed that she was lying. But by the look on North’s face, he honestly believed Stewart to be legitimate and that his daughter was a faithful wife. It would be a bitter enlightenment when the truth came out, but it could wait until after he and his son had been extracted from the house.
Gerry cleared his throat and forced himself to answer. ‘What more could I want? There is one more thing I want and I will have it with or without your agreement. I want a quiet and empty house. I will have no more parties like this one in my future. There will be no more breeding of sables and no mining for rubies, emeralds or any other non-existent stones. If you attempt this scheme or any other, I will stop you. And the next time I will not bother to be subtle about it.’
‘Very well.’ North sighed.
‘You may tell your son that I will permit him to play billiards, as long as the table is properly maintained. But if I discover he is cheating at cards, he will think fondly of the days when the worst he’d experienced was a bite from an angry stoat.’
North nodded in approval. ‘It is a shame we cannot convince you to join in the fun. As a mathematician you could have a natural talent for calculating odds and angles.’
‘I am not sure that is the compliment that you mean it to be,’ Gerry said.
‘Take it for what it is worth,’ North said, with a wave of his hand. ‘But know that, if we were to do it all over again, I would gladly give my daughter’s hand to such a man as you.’
‘To get my house,’ Gerry finished for him.
North shook his head and gave Gerry a sad smile. ‘Because her heart was never in these little games of mine. Her disapproval has only hardened with the passing of time. She will hardly speak to me any more. Since you would rather risk your life in service of the crown than cheat your fellow man, she will be much happier with you than with me.’
The affirmation had touched Gerry’s heart and his mind was crowding with ordinary responses about being a worthy husband for the man’s precious daughter.
Then he remembered that none of the Norths were to be trusted. Phineas’s fine words about his daughter did not explain a bastard son and years gone by without so much as a note. ‘Do not worry about Lily. For now, think of your own future, and accept that, wherever it might lead you, it will not be Wiscombe Chase.’
Chapter Eleven
By the time they arrived back at the house, Gerry was feeling well and truly pleased with himself. North was not such a bad fellow, once he’d been persuaded to move on. The guests seemed to have lost interest in cards and were either seeking naps in their rooms or by the fire in the sitting room. While Ronald North was still somewhere causing trouble, things were not the muddle they had been just two days before.
But it seemed he had lost his wife again. Li
ly had left the house with them when they’d set off to visit the sables. But she had disappeared before the matter was settled. It seemed she was available only when necessary, there one minute, gone the next. Would she be more accessible after the others were gone, or would it be like living with a spirit who had to be conjured and bound each time he wanted her?
Perhaps she had gone back to the conservatory. The afternoon light was not nearly as good as that in the morning. But when he turned towards the ladies’ wing, he came face to face with her noxious little boy who was, as usual, roaming the house and ready to spoil his mood.
Stewart stood frozen in the middle of the hallway like a marble statue.
Gerry stared, waiting for him to move.
He made no effort to do so. ‘Mama said I was not to follow you about.’
Gerry continued to stare. ‘You mother is an intelligent woman. You should listen to her.’
‘I am not following you,’ Stewart said. ‘I am in front of you.’
The boy had a point. While he’d met officers that thought they could lead from the rear, it was much harder to follow from the front. ‘Do you have lessons to do?’
‘Already done,’ the boy said, giving no quarter.
‘Perhaps you need a nap,’ Gerry suggested.
The boy shook his head. ‘Adults take naps. Because they are old. Do you need a nap?’
‘Perhaps I do.’ But it had not been his intention to take it alone.
‘You should do that, then,’ the boy said and turned to walk into the conservatory.
Gerry sighed. If Lily was in the conservatory, there was little hope of privacy, short of grabbing the little beast by the collar and hauling him back to the nursery. Such an act would not endear him to the boy’s mother. In truth, he would have little respect for himself after. He had learned from his own father how it felt to be punished for the sin of existing. He would not inflict that on another.
All the more reason that Stewart should be sent away to school. Since he was young, he would adjust quickly to his new surroundings. He would find friends, teachers and the company of good books. When he was old enough to understand, Gerry could explain that it was nothing personal. He would be provided with an education, an allowance and a trade. But there could be no future for him here.
The Secrets of Wiscombe Chase Page 11
