The Wrecking Storm

by Ward, Michael

  ‘But that’s good, isn’t it? He was showing an interest in your work?’

  ‘Yes, but it seemed an all consuming interest, even at a time when he was trying to deal with the attacks. For Ralph to take this information so seriously, I knew it must be linked, but I could not deduce how. So I studied the information again, and I saw it.’

  ‘Saw what?’

  ‘Exactly what your father had realised. Joan Bleau was producing a new portolan chart of the China Seas that was so detailed it would begin to open up that area for European merchants. Within a few years, the value of your father’s Chinese map would tumble. Its exclusive hold on this knowledge would crumble.

  ‘And when the map lost its value, the banks would require additional security on the loan?’

  ‘Exactly. So, suddenly, everything changed for Ralph. Now the map had to be destroyed, and quickly, while he could still claim the full insurance value and pay off his debt. But he also needed to satisfy the insurers that it was not destroyed deliberately by his hand, but as the result of a robbery or an accident.’

  ‘Well, at least that did happen. Father did not set fire to the warehouse. He cannot be blamed for that.’

  Elizabeth paused. ‘After you had been rescued from the warehouse, I went back to look in the pepper store. It was full of smoke but, I have to tell you Tom, the fire had not spread there, despite what your father said. It was still confined to the roof timbers. I could see a pile of pepper sacks that had been pulled away and next to them I found the map’s storage box .’

  ‘Which was not charred?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘So, he must have set fire to the map.’

  ‘Yes. He used the torch he was carrying which he then threw out of the loading hatch. I discovered it smouldering on the wharf below when I left the building. It was imperative to your father that the map wasn’t stolen. It would still be valuable for a number of years and give his rivals a big advantage for a time. No, it had to be destroyed, and in a way that appeared he could do nothing to save it.’

  ‘So all his talk of ‘financial ruin’ is not true?’

  ‘The company will lose money on the pepper spoilt by smoke damage, but the big threat – not being able to support your loan – will be averted by the insurance pay out, which will take place thanks to your father’s trickery.’

  ‘But what about poor Robert and Jan; all the injuries, the harm and damage, to create this deception?’

  She said nothing. Simply gazed into his eyes.

  ‘I said recently that I was worried about your father’s behaviour, and I’m afraid I am not surprised by my discovery. He has only one thing on his mind – the continued growth of your merchant business. That directs all his thoughts and actions. It must be very worrying for your mother.’

  ‘But this is all my fault! If I hadn’t lost all that money during the tulip mania, my father would not have had to take out the loan.’

  ‘That is true Tom. But you were younger and made an innocent, no a foolish, mistake. But you were never told what actions would then be taken to put it right. Your father could have sold the map to cover the debt. He had already extracted some valuable trading information from it, thanks to Jonas. But he didn’t want anyone else to get it. I sense, for him, it’s all about being cock of the walk. There’s plenty of spice trading to go round but he doesn’t like to share, and that includes problems and decisions with your mother.’

  Tom reflected on what Elizabeth said and shrugged. He could not take all of this in. He needed more time. Then another thought occurred to him.

  ‘Do you think he knew Peter was behind the attempts to steal the map, that somehow they colluded?’

  ‘No. It would not make any sense. He didn’t want anyone to get the map, including Peter, who would only have sold it on to a rival merchant.’

  Tom thought more about Elizabeth’s explanation and gave a hollow laugh. ‘So, in the end, all this has been a family dispute, my father against my brother!’

  ‘They’re cut from the same cloth, both driven, and in my opinion, ruthless if needs be. You take after your mother, thank God.’

  ‘That sounds like England,’ Tom added. ‘Our family has experienced what awaits us all. Father against son. Husband against wife. Brother against brother. It will be a horrible.’

  ‘With too many victims, and not only on the battlefield.’

  ‘Like mother?’

  ‘Yes. You must stay close to Beatrix. You can see how she is hurting. She must feel very uncertain at the moment and will need you more than ever in the months ahead.’

  She squeezed Tom’s hand and they fell silent, listening to Jonah’s regular breathing and the creak of his oars as they were pulled through the water.

  ‘I keep thinking about Robert, how he stepped in to save us all by challenging Dancer.’

  ‘That was Robert. That was how he lived and how he met his death. He saw what was going to happen and calculated he had a chance of defeating Dancer.’

  ‘But if we had known Pym was going to step in and save us, he still could have been alive today.

  She turned to him. ‘I have thought of little else in recent days, if I could have got there sooner, but I believe it still would have been too late. Without Robert’s intervention, Dancer would have overwhelmed you all much earlier. Then his promises to Peter about saving the family would have been worthless. It wasn’t just me who saved you. It was the time Robert bought for you by challenging Dancer and taking him on.’

  Tom’s memory returned again to the fight in the warehouse but he pushed it away. ‘Yes, we all have reason to thank Robert and will keep him in our hearts, as we must Barty who is devastated.’

  Elizabeth moved back, her eyes troubled. ‘And this is not the only grief to afflict me. Today I received a letter from a fellow astronomer. Galileo is no more. He has died in Italy, still under house arrest.’

  ‘I’m so sorry. I know he was your hero. He first inspired your interest in science. I thought you….you would be …’

  ‘Distraught? Yes, so did I. I think Robert’s death has given me a new perspective. Perhaps I am growing up. Also, Robert has gone and I will remember him fondly but it is final. But I feel Galileo lives on through the knowledge he has left behind, to be studied further and better understood. That really matters.

  ‘It’s something I have learned from Lucy. Life is fleeting and I need to achieve as much as I can with all the knowledge I can acquire. Like Robert’s death, I mourn Galileo’s passing but I can also honour his existence by achieving as much as possible with the gifts he has left. We must learn all we can, in the uncertain times we face.’

  There was a cheer ahead. Dibdin glanced over his shoulder to see a small fleet of craft travelling up the Thames, their pennants bobbling and snapping in the brisk wind. In their centre was a larger rowing boat.

  ‘Jonah, can you get us a little closer?’

  The waterman effortlessly increased his stroke rate, surging forward to draw level with the other wherry. Tom could now see five men sitting in the middle and immediately recognised John Pym and Denzil Hollies.

  He pointed to the boat. ‘It’s the five MPs – now the King’s gone, they must be returning to the Commons! They will get a great reception.’ Elizabeth nodded, staring at the scene with her eyes shaded from the bright winter sun.

  Jonah effortlessly kept pace with the small fleet of craft. Everywhere, Tom could see smiling, excited faces, full of hope.

  Then his mind returned to the King, isolated but defiant, brooding in the cold and empty Palace of Hampton Court, and he feared for the future.

  Endnote

  London, December 1641, was famously described by Royalist Sir Robert Slingsby as ‘the maddest Christmas that I ever saw’.

  To the contemporary witness that might have been an understatement as both law and order and respectful political discourse finally collapsed – leaving fertile ground for this author to interweave fact with fiction.
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  In ‘The Wrecking Storm’, the major historical events and some of the people are real, but not their interaction with my characters. The dramas in the Commons witnessed by Thomas did take place. Lucy Carlisle did exist and her changing loyalties have been well documented. The Selden Map, remarkably like the one destroyed in the Tallant warehouse, is currently housed in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. With a little imagination, could we see it as the twin to the chart owned by Ralph Tallant?

  For more about the history, I would recommend:

  The Leveller Revolution by John Rees

  Mr Selden’s Map of China by Timothy Brook

  Court Lady and Country Wife by Lita-Rose Betcherman

  For more about the Tallant family, ‘Rags of Time’, is the prequel to ‘The Wrecking Storm’ which introduces us to Thomas, Elizabeth and one of the most interesting periods in English history.

  As ever, it’s great to hear from readers of my books. You can contact me via mike@mikewardmedia.com .

  Michael Ward