‘Then it’s probably a good thing you were not told everything. Such a description does not do justice to his antics, which in such a context has seen two words used which should not have been employed. Father was more open with me and it did not make easy listening. Our grandfather was a brutal rogue with the blood of others on his hands. But old Corley is long gone, so it’s about our father we must speak. I know you were close to each other.’
‘While you struggled to match it?’
‘Our relationship was certainly very different, but I see now he treated me in a way he saw as necessary.’
‘Which was?’
‘That of his heir. The world he sought to prepare me for was a hard one, not of the kind you were expected to face.’
‘What’s the purpose of all this, Henry?’
‘To find out if you’re willing to see everything he and our family worked to create pulled down about our ears, to trash both our father’s reputation and our prosperity.’ A waved hand was used to encompass not just the room, but the estate in its entirety. ‘To see this destroyed over an infatuation.’
‘I’ll let the last word pass.’
‘Out of curiosity, no doubt,’ Henry replied, with just a hint of gloat, ‘for what I must tell you is a tale of parental genius. Our father took the trade of smuggling, which he inherited, to a level never before achieved. Are you willing to listen and find out what was vouchsafed to me and kept from you?’
Part of Elisabeth did not want to hear it, but it could not compete with a need to know. Henry described the way the enterprise had been set up and run, not the overt trade carried out by Corley, but as a cabinet of secrets kept in separate compartments so only he, like his father before him, had control of all the components. Of Dirley being another cog in the family enterprise, who corresponded with their suppliers through a regular courier service between London and France, it being impossible to trust to any kind of postal service. Dirley handled the account which paid for everything ordered, placed with Jewish bankers in the City, the sums forwarded to France and another consortium who oversaw both supply and transport, which meant they owned the ships so nothing could be traced back to the family.
‘What kind of ships?’
‘Proper merchant vessels carrying full cargoes and regularly, outside the high summer months. If intercepted by the Excise – always a risk, if not a high one – they can claim to be off course, which is a common enough occurrence. The captain carries the correct manifests to prove they are on legitimate business, as well as a false list of importers awaiting delivery. Again, nothing can be traced back to this house.’
‘Uncle Dirley is surely exposed?’
‘No. Being a lawyer, he can claim he is acting on behalf of a client fund with no knowledge of what any monies transferred are for; in addition he advises on the best use of the profits on the same basis. He’s legally bound not to disclose any business or even conversations which take place between him and those who employ his services. But he too knows no more than is required. If you were to ask him where the contraband is landed, he could only guess, but he never enquires. If he did, he would not be told. Our father would have done likewise, and he trusted Dirley completely.’
‘Which seems to imply you don’t.’
‘Let us say I’ve recently had cause to remind him of our respective positions, which would previously have been unnecessary. He was older and a mentor to our father when he was growing up, I do not have a similar connection. He was also a very good guide to what I needed to know, not everything being passed on before father died. Such is no longer the case. It will take him time to see things are not as they were, but I have no doubt he’ll be content in time. Now, let us turn to matters closer to home.’
The role of Hawker was described, though both the name and his brutality were glossed over, as were the monies he and his gang of ruffians extracted from the traders of Deal, those who supplied the ever-changing merchant fleet, to ensure they could operate in peace. Hawker had legitimate well-rewarded jobs, both running the slaughterhouse and tax collecting; his men did not. What was paid by businesses to prevent trouble provided a good wage to such creatures, again cutting out any connection to the family, who had no need to supply funds, none of what was extracted being passed upwards.
Also unmentioned was Hawker’s ability to either send the Excise running in the wrong direction or, should the occasion demand it, offer up a small-time smuggling operation on the beach to divert their attention from the Tulkington operations. The community there saw him as their best friend, the man they could tell of their plans, for he could warn them of Revenue activity, little knowing he was also the best source the government agents had for surprise arrests.
‘Our father took this fellow under his wing at an early age and his loyalty is rock-solid. He collects government imposts on behalf of the family, which, being a well-rewarded sinecure means we never have to justify our prosperity. He’s also in a position to find out, without arousing suspicion, what each outlet requires in the way of untaxed goods and they are numerous. Even to you, it will not be seen as strange there’s a lively local need to be satisfied.’
This was seen as condescending: Elisabeth was not so naive.
‘You cannot live in this part of the world, Henry, and not know about the running of contraband. We used to play Excisemen and smuggler games down by the lake as children. I had always assumed this household to be one of those doing the buying in.’
‘Our fellow, who is a devil with figures, is also able to ensure no one makes stupid errors in their own accounts, which could raise questions under examination. This happens rarely but, when it does, it is always without warning. Their ledgers must marry up with the accounts and monies we submit to Whitehall and they do.’
Henry not only declined to mention John Hawker by name. He also left out how the goods were distributed, this the responsibility of one trusted business, paid in coin so it could not be traced. Tobias Sowerby provided the vans and one or more barges to take the contraband from where it was stored to where the customers were waiting; certain coaching inns where numerous conveyances would not appear unusual, likewise barges travelling up to London. This guaranteed no paperwork, as well as a collaborator who dare not have his activities face investigation.
Overall, the costs of operations were higher than the more commonplace forms of over-the-beach smuggling, but such open activity was riskier by far and could never have worked at the level and quantities employed. Over time, profits, plus the fact of being impervious to scrutiny, justified the complex arrangements. Henry now owned substantial properties in a capital city rapidly expanding westwards.
‘Do you now see? I’m driven by my need to protect the family, which includes you. I admit my objection to Stephen Langridge was ill-judged. I know you were friends through childhood, but it seemed to me a foolish basis on which to marry, and I had always seen you both as immature in the extreme.’
The temptation to say they’d taken pleasure from their life when growing up, while he had not, stayed unspoken, not that she got much chance: he was in full flow.
‘Recall our father had not long passed away. I claim to have been nervous, being fresh to the level of responsibility. It’s just as likely, judging by what you’ve said about your games and, being local, he would have been no trouble at all, perhaps even an asset. Believe me when I say your loss saddens me.’
‘But Edward?’
‘He’s not local, is he?’
‘It’s more than that, Henry.’
‘He’s a total stranger to this part of the world and this household and he’s also a King’s officer. I know the navy declines to allow its vessels to be used to stop smuggling, but it’s very much a choice of individual commanders once at sea. How can anyone tell which one will act and which would turn a blind eye? You’re happy to tell me he was assiduous, in the West Indies, in interdicting trade from the ex-colonies. This may come as a recommendation to some, but not
to me. It suggests someone who would find it impossible to reconcile himself to what I do.’
Much as she’d wanted to object and question the whole explanation, what Henry was saying made sense: the family was rich, while Acton Tulkington had been known throughout the district as lavish in his disbursements. As a girl, how the family made its money was of no interest; she was just happy there was always enough to indulge her whims and fancies. Parties, ponies and horses, clothes and entertainments for her friends, taking them on trips to see curiosities and tableaux, as well as servants in abundance to oblige her every requirement.
Should she have been more inquisitive growing up? There was a realisation she’d never really managed to achieve such an estate here at Cottington. Maturity had come to her in the West Indies, along with the responsibility of running her own household. If there had been secrets, callers who came and went without being introduced, conferring with her father in his study, now Henry’s, adding an air of conspiracy in their dealings: it was men’s business and none of her concern.
Sometimes an atmosphere of dispute was apparent, raised voices behind closed doors and a strain in conversations when gathered for meals. There had been one uncomfortable period she could vaguely recall, when relations between her father and Aunt Sarah’s husband seemed overwrought, but this too had washed over her. Such things could not draw her attention away from her own concerns, which, on reflection, now seemed even more trivial than she’d previously admitted them to be.
‘Why was I not trusted to be told?’
‘It would not be for lack of trust but an excess of protection, which devolved to me.’ The memory produced a glare and had him add, ‘What could have come about if I’d let you marry a serving naval officer and one of whom I have no knowledge; a potential fortune-hunter, who openly admitted to not owning a home of his own? I thought perhaps he saw himself living here.’
‘He more than possessed the means to purchase a suitable home. He does not want for money.’
‘His fortune in prize money, you mean? Of this I have yet to see evidence but that is by the by. I could not risk his living here and discovering things, which, should he choose to expose them, would destroy the family, which includes you.’
‘Me?’
‘Who would reckon you innocent, sister?’
‘All of this shows you to be no judge of your fellow man. I can tell you Edward was willing to keep things to himself for my sake. He told me so and would have told you too if you’d bothered to enquire.’
‘Then why was he in league with William Pitt?’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Delighted by her surprised reaction, Henry drove home the point. ‘Did he not tell you he’d met with the fiend, who must be the greatest enemy this coast has ever had, and I do not only mean to me? He even visited him at Walmer Castle.’
‘Innocently, I’m sure.’
‘Brazier dined with him more than once at the Three Kings. I earlier used the word “infatuation”, Elisabeth. What if he’s not the man you believe him to be, but is instead a danger to us both, as well as everything our father created? What if his promise was false? We’re not talking about social disgrace here, but a rope round my neck in front of a baying crowd at Newgate Prison.’
Henry paused to let that hit home, his voice taking on a more urgent tone when he continued. ‘Do you really think you’d escape the same fate? Would anyone believe you had no idea what was happening in the house in which you were raised? They would believe you were − even if not a party to it − complicit. Does it not occur to you now, you might have been planning to run away with an agent acting on behalf of the government?’
Combined with the astonishment of what had only been outlined by Edward Brazier came the shock as Henry’s words hit home. It was too much to absorb and above everything she wanted to get off the subject, which meant changing it.
‘So this was enough to drug me and marry me to a pig.’
‘Whose attentions you may never have to suffer.’
‘I recall you said on certain conditions.’
Henry declined to go there, going back to his main worries. ‘I admit to taking a dislike to Brazier on first acquaintance, but my motive was to protect you from yourself and perhaps both of us from the fate just described. I hoped with sufficient pressure, he might be persuaded to go away.’
‘To the point of employing violence.’
His hands went up as if in frustration, the lie following smoothly.
‘An error. What I’d intended as a verbal warning got out of hand, though I am, of course, at fault for my instructions being a touch imprecise. Subsequent to that, he taunted me and set up a plan to snatch you away, so any guilt I feel has been moderated.’
‘Snatched away, Henry? I was a willing party.’
The voice changed to one which was wheedling, a much more common tone for a brother who’d ever seen himself as put upon and misunderstood.
‘What was I to think, especially when I heard a troubling tale, one of which I sought to tell you: the notion, and it is a strong one, he was party to the killing of his superior officer in Jamaica?’
‘You seem to forget I was there. If Edward had been under suspicion, or anyone for that matter, it would have been the talk of the island. His name would have been on everyone’s lips. I heard it only when we first met.’
‘And those who say otherwise?’
‘Are deluded. Admiral Hassall died from the venomous bite of a snake.’
‘There is talk going the rounds of human agency.’
‘Which I choose not to believe.’
‘I fear it may turn out to be otherwise. If it does and it’s him swinging not me, then I will know I saved you from the grave error of attaching yourself to a murderer.’
‘How can you talk of criminality, when you live your life by it?’
‘You hint at hypocrisy?’
This was delivered as if in response to a jest, an attitude not maintained. Henry was suddenly very serious in both manner and expression.
‘I stand by my actions and we are where we are. You’re now wedded to Harry Spafford, which precludes whatever was intended by Brazier. And, I have to tell you, Harry has signed over control of the Langridge plantations to me. So not only do you lack the independence you enjoyed as a widow, you are without any means of support, as is Spafford himself, lest I provide it.’
‘He is so much your creature. And you wonder why I despise him.’
‘Feel free to do so, but know this. He will do as I say and will not trouble you, as long as you agree to accept your situation.’
‘It seems to be the same as our Aunt Sarah, who too has become your creature. When will I be required to polish the silver?’
‘You are my sister and may call upon me for anything you require.’
‘Except the freedom to choose my own course.’
‘It is my hope, in time, you’ll see it for the best. Then any restrictions can be removed.’
‘And if I don’t?’
‘I cannot see such a possibility requires an answer.’
The increasing feeling of despair Elisabeth harboured, which had swept over her as Henry outlined her situation, had to be hidden. Nothing had changed: she was trapped, and the failures of the night before last underlined it. If she’d had to accept as true what she had been told about her family running contraband on an industrial scale, there was no requirement to take as read Henry’s opinion, or scabrous tales about Edward Brazier being a spy or a murderer.
The man she had come to know was not devious in any way, nor, as already proven, was he the kind to give up. She’d been so drugged the night of her forced marriage, Elisabeth had only found out later he’d come to take her away, arriving too late, a fact gloatingly imparted by Henry. Surely he would make another attempt, but how would he contrive to rescue her? All she could do was hold her nerve and hope, but there was one concession she could extract and it was a vital one.
‘I want the promi
se you’ll keep Spafford away from the house and me. If not …’
The slightly enigmatic smile hardly registered, yet it did seem inappropriate to what was being asked. It didn’t last: Henry’s countenance set itself once more in the sententious, self-regarding cast, which was a reflection of his character.
‘As long as you accede to my wishes, it will be so. Please do not, I beg you, give me cause to think otherwise. I will not have you challenge me and do nothing.’
‘Given what you did to poor Upton, I believe you.’
The reply was abrupt. ‘You would let a servant defy you?’
‘You seem to forget he was seeking to help me.’
‘To be what? I would point out, should you run from here, you will do so without a penny piece. And, before you tell me Brazier will support you, I ask you to imagine how it will be perceived, a married woman and a widow, running away with a lover. I shall have little choice but to spread the truth of your situation, so you will be ruined and so will Brazier. With such a reputation, as a debaucher, I doubt anyone with the power to do so will be inclined to advance his career. Socially you will both be as good as dead.’
Elisabeth rose to leave, knowing she had a great deal on which to think. Such sangfroid as she’d sought to project having been a performance, inwardly she was in turmoil.
Henry sat for some time contemplating the conversation. Had his ploy succeeded? Had he ensnared Elisabeth to the point where to act against his wishes would be seen as unwise? He had to doubt it, he knew her too well, something she might have scoffed at if said to her. Whatever, no harm had been done to a situation which had not truly altered. Spafford dead was as much a potent threat as he’d been alive and, at all costs, the manner of his passing must never come out.
The dining-room door opened and Grady’s head came round, to mouth a quick apology before beginning to withdraw, which had Henry call for him to proceed, an order which saw a couple of the maids rush in to clear away the breakfast dishes. There was a great deal of food unconsumed; would they eat it even if it was now cold? He suspected it likely even if they were well looked after. The lower orders were like dogs, who would eat until they burst.
Blood Will Out Page 12