The Vice Of Virtue (A Poor Man At The Gate Series Book 10)

by Andrew Wareham

  Robert knew that she would have sent him an Express had there been any significant illness or mishap.

  "I have sent to Mr Fraser at Roberts to discover a tutor for the boys, Robert. They are reaching an age to need the discipline of a desk for some hours of each day; they have learned their first letters at my knee and must progress further very soon."

  "Your decision, ma'am. I can only concur. What of the girls?"

  "A governess, of course, but not quite yet. What sort of education do you envisage for them, Robert?"

  "I do not wish to see blue-stockings who are too clever for their company, Miriam - but they are not to be tittering ignoramuses like so many we see brought to the Season each year."

  "Good! They must know more than deportment and the names of the leading sons of the aristocracy. Neither shows any great musical bent, I fear, nor can I see any degree of artistry in their drawings, but they are reading with pleasure already. They shall be encouraged to continue to enjoy their books."

  "As they should do! Where will you seek your governess?"

  "Family. There will be a daughter of a clergyman or of a local lawyer or doctor seeking employment and possessed of the talents we require - it needs only a few letters at the right time."

  "I have mentioned the boys' names at Harrow, my dear - there will be places for them at the correct age."

  They had already discussed the necessity for them to go to a great school and meet their contemporaries. Robert had more contacts than Rothwell had possessed when he had wished to place the current lord in school and had been able to overcome any initial unwillingness to accommodate his boys.

  "Have you heard anything from the Grafhams?"

  "They are readying themselves for the visit to London to attend the levee, my lady with some trepidation. Lady Margaret Hood and the Captain will accompany them. They have visited and have been welcomed by the Marquis at his most formal - all very gracious, I was told. I dined with them, and the relationship was not as frosty as it might have been - Captain Hood is a man of shining intellectual parts and can converse well and sensibly. I believe he was taking some pains to be on good terms with his wife's parents, and that for her sake rather than his."

  "What of the brother?"

  "A very good question, Robert, and one to which I have only a partial answer. I gained the impression that there is no great liking between elder and younger, certainly no meeting of minds. It is strange - for Mr James and Mr Joseph Andrews are equally dissimilar in their academic understandings, yet they are close friends, happy in each other's company."

  "But Rothwell and Lord Frederick are better at a distance from each other, you would say?"

  "Certainly, and the farther the distance the greater the mutual pleasure!"

  "Strange, and not a thing that inclines me to like either better."

  The seas calmed on their second day on the barren key, and the tropical sun burnt away the overcast. The temperature rose dramatically and the levels in the water barrels fell, evaporation and thirst both playing their part. The men contributed their coats and used planks from the boat to make a shelter for the women and children to give them an illusion at least of coolness.

  The banker, Scott, had done almost nothing other than sit and snivel, had refused food and water both; he collapsed suddenly as the heat reached its afternoon peak. He was dead within minutes.

  “Dehydration, gentlemen,” Stavros announced. “It could almost be said that he wept himself to death!”

  They had slight sympathy – a man should do better than that, they felt.

  “What do we do with the body?”

  They turned to Stavros – he evidently knew about living in hot places.

  “We cannot dig a grave.”

  They had no shovels, and dared not sweat to scoop out a hole in the sand bare-handed.

  “He cannot stay here in this heat.”

  There was no alternative; the four fit men took a limb apiece and dragged Scott down to the water’s edge and into the shallows. They half-pulled, half-floated the corpse to the end of the small island and pushed him offshore a way, into the tidal current.

  Less than fifty yards out and the water erupted into a frenzy of splashing as a school of barracuda hit the body, ripping and worrying it to bits in a very few minutes.

  “The wreck will have brought them inshore. Sharks as well, I doubt not.”

  There were other keys in sight, at a distance; they would not attempt to swim to them.

  They huddled together overnight, woke with the dawn, weak and thirsty, looking around to see if any other had died yet. They gave the children the last of the water.

  “Sail!”

  Luke pointed.

  There was a small boat, single-masted, making its way towards the wreck.

  The fire would not light, the wood still damp.

  Stavros swore, very quietly; not only could he not kill the butcher Star, he must save his life if he was to protect his own. He pulled out his pistols, emptied the powder from barrel and pan into a heap on top of the wood. He dropped his percussion caps on top, reversed the pistol and rapped the butt down hard.

  The loose powder flamed and the wood caught; Stavros’ fingers were well burned in the flash.

  Five minutes and they had a hot fire and soon after they saw the boat coming towards the smoke.

  Before noon they were crammed into the Spartan accommodation of the lighthouse, packed on top of each other but in shade with plenty of water and adequate food.

  The keepers told them they would signal the next ship to send a boat – it might be a day or two, but they should see St Petersburg within the week.

  Book Ten: A Poor Man

  at the Gate Series

  Chapter Six

  Lord Frederick Masters, younger son of the Marquis of Grafham, scion of the upper reaches of the English aristocracy, bowed very precisely and shallowly to Herr Winkler. He smiled courteously and briefly acknowledged the introduction – he was almost pleased to meet the gentleman, despite his plebeian name. He took the offered seat and waited for his host to follow him. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation for the invitation that he had so kindly accepted; there would, no doubt, be a reason for the meeting. Frederick knew that he must play the aristocrat, in the form expected in Austria, little though he liked the sneering arrogance inherent in it.

  Winkler was one of the wealthiest merchants in the Austrian Empire, was part-owner of the largest Gentile bank and had interests across the whole of Europe; he dealt much with Russian grain sellers and was involved with trade across the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire. He was richer than all except a very few of the highest Austrian nobility, and he existed in a society that would barely acknowledge him and which actively discouraged his enterprises.

  It seemed to Winkler that he could do well trading directly with English producers of textiles and iron goods, offering timber, for example, in exchange. As well, he had influence with the silver mines in Bohemia and knew that the metal was much in demand in England where it was wanted for the China trade; he could certainly persuade some of the mine-owners to end existing contracts and sign new with the English. If only he could make direct contact with English traders, without interference from officials insisting on permits and licences and duties and excise taxes – most of them no more than a cover for hefty bribes – then both countries could gain and he could profit. The aristocracy monopolised power in Austria and he presumed that was also the case in England – hence his humble request through his bank to the Goldsmids in Vienna and thence to Lord Frederick, who he had met in passing and was resident in Vienna and known to be friendly, in the peculiar English fashion, to trade and industry.

  “Gracious lord, you are generous indeed to give me of your time…”

  Winkler, grovelling more than Lord Frederick could think proper, laid out his proposals in a very business-like manner.

  “Let me see – importation of cotton and woollen piece-goods; of Sheffi
eld cutlery; of pots and pans and household wares generally. Large values from the very first. You wish to export in exchange ingot silver initially and as well, when it may be organised, quantities of good hardwoods of furniture quality. From the little I know of such matters, this seems a beneficial proposal… What have I to do with this business, sir?”

  Winkler explained that the Austrian bureaucracy would place any number of obstacles in his way, mostly on the grounds that what he was proposing was new, and as such probably undesirable.

  “The Empire goes on very well as it is, my lord, and they can see no reason why they should change it, particularly by enriching peasants, such as myself, who are much better off staying in their proper place.”

  “And thus, sir, you require what of me?”

  “Simply, my lord, a letter to your English acquaintance to make them aware of the prospects of trade with my concern; a businessman coming to me from London with a proposal would find none of the hindrances that I face.”

  Winkler had no intention of alluding to the rumours that placed Lord Frederick into a family relationship with the Goldsmids – certain things were far better unsaid, but he would contact them at a later stage to discuss questions of commission payable. For the while he was merely begging a favour of an English gentleman who happened to be in residence in Vienna and who, quite coincidentally, he had met at an evening of music. Lord Frederick was happy to play along with the pretence – it was what the Goldsmids wanted of him.

  “My family in England has relatives who are active in the new forms of business that have lately grown up there. It would certainly be possible to mention to them that an Austrian business man would wish to be contacted regarding possibilities of trade. The supply of silver, especially, would be of interest, I understand… I am given to believe that you have interests in Russia, sir, and there is some refining of silver there.”

  Relations between Russia and England commonly verged on the borders of outright hostility – the Russians seeming to believe that England was encouraging the Ottoman Empire to keep the Black Sea closed by refusing Russian merchant ships passage through the narrow waters of the Dardanelles. Naval traffic was banned by Treaty, but the Russians thought they were at liberty to export grain, for example, in their own vessels.

  Trade conducted through an Austrian intermediary was likely to be more profitable and less interrupted than direct contact by way of the Baltic to St Petersburg. Additionally the Russians were happy to sell grain or timber but might regard silver as a strategic metal, one better kept out of English hands.

  Winkler was aware of the chances of war between England and Russia – any trader had to keep in contact with the political realities. Middlemen could make great profits in the trade between potentially hostile Powers; they could also be crushed.

  “Silver is of importance in British trade, it would seem, my lord.”

  Frederick had listened, carefully, to his grand-uncle’s explanation of the significance of the metal. He knew that he was to encourage its exportation to England.

  “Tea, sir, and silks – both of which are obtained to a great extent from China. There are moves afoot to produce both in India, and it is believed that before the end of the century there will be far less reliance upon the uncertainties of the Middle Kingdom – but that is to look ahead some sixty or seventy years. For the while, the Chinese demand payment in silver and will accept almost no English goods in trade.”

  Frederick had been informed of the importance of opium as well, but he felt it better not to mention that; it could be difficult to justify the large scale smuggling of a banned substance into China, even though the Company could find no other source of the silver it needed.

  “Thus, my lord, the supplier of silver to England would find himself much caressed.”

  “I have reason to believe, Herr Winkler, that such a man would find it easy to procure large quantities of the highest qualities of textiles, or of iron goods, and at a surprisingly generous price. Should the occasion arise, then assistance might be given for the gentleman to locate members of his family, and their wealth, in England, or even in Canada or another part of the Americas.”

  It was a very tempting offer, and highly dangerous, smacking as it did of disloyalty to the Empire. It was clear that Lord Frederick – or, more likely, those behind him - envisaged Winkler trading in Russia as an Austrian and sending the silver he bought ostensibly to Vienna. Once the bullion was in Austria, then it could be transported to London as payment for goods purchased there in an entirely separate set of transactions. In no way were such actions to be seen as unlawful – but a wise man would keep them secret as long as he could, and run fast when they were finally exposed.

  “I wonder, my lord, would it be possible to find an English bank that might assist me to relocate some part of my activities in other countries? The great trading city of Amsterdam is a logical place for any merchant to establish an office and warehouses.”

  There were old links between Austrian commerce and the ports of the Netherlands and few eyebrows would be raised by a Viennese merchant setting up there. Over a period of years it would be easy to transfer the business – and its funds - bit by bit to the go-ahead and far more profitable and secure location; eventually the whole family could change its place of residence.

  “I am sure that a trader who was of value to the Honourable East India Company and was a purchaser from English manufacturers would find any and all forms of assistance easily come by, sir.”

  Frederick left Herr Winkler’ offices feeling rather pleased with himself; this business life was really quite easy to grasp. He reached his own house and sat at his desk to write careful notes of all he had said and of the promises he had implied – it would be easy to forget, and that would never do.

  He visited the bank next morning and outlined all he had said and done to the young man who had been deputed to work with him.

  “Excellent, my lord! I shall send messages to England and will ask that a representative be sent to visit Herr Winkler in the early future. Cottons, woollens, and iron goods, all at very easy prices. It might be well for a gentleman from the East India Company to travel as well - there is a demand for silks in Vienna, and they are often very expensive, mostly coming overland by way of the Ottomans as they do.”

  They made no mention of fees or commission, though both knew that Frederick’s accounts would wax fatter in due time.

  “On Monday next, Lord Frederick, your presence would be much appreciated in Herr Goldsmid’s private offices, to take a part in a very delicate meeting between the bank and representatives of a member of the Esterhazy family. It is felt that you might serve to keep matters on a more civil plane.”

  Frederick would, of course, be delighted to be present, but he had no idea what might be expected of him – ‘civil plane’, forsooth! Today was Thursday and the Goldsmids would do no business on Friday, their Sabbath, so he must see them immediately.

  His call for help had been foreseen and the patriarch in person made time for him.

  “I am afraid, sir, that I did not quite comprehend exactly what might be asked of me on Monday…”

  “A stern face and a sheet of paper on which you make notes from time to time, my lord!”

  “As if I might be considering a letter to London, sir?”

  “Exactly! Our client is a cousin of the princely house, a man of thirty or thereabouts who came into his inheritance some ten years ago. He gambled heavily in Vienna and became a little blown upon for delaying the settlement of losses. He then travelled to Paris and to London and then to St Petersburg and then to London again, where he played cards and attended race-meetings and watched prize-fights, wagering vast sums the while. He won occasionally, to great public acclaim, but he lost a little more frequently. On a day in London he found himself to have outrun the constable, as the English so quaintly say – he was in effect destitute.”

  Frederick had little sympathy – the tale was sufficiently fa
miliar. The man was a fool, and that was all there was to it.

  “The Count betook himself to Goldsmids in London and there he borrowed the sum of eight thousand pounds sterling, which paid his debts in London and left him with a few hundreds in pocket, to travel home with. He was accompanied by a gentleman from the Embassy who in effect guaranteed the loan, stating that the Count had lands and investments in Vienna that he would be able to realise given a few months, and conditional on his own presence to seal contracts of sale. It seemed entirely above board, and one does not tend to refuse an Esterhazy!”

  “Has he not been able to make the sales, sir?”

  “He could not! Quite unbeknownst to the Embassy in London, he sold those lands that he could alienate some five years ago, and the investments – akin to the English Consols – had all dribbled away in bits and pieces.”

  “Thus, sir, he made a false statement to obtain pecuniary advantage – a deliberate act of fraud. A felony in fact, and, I believe, a hanging matter.”

  “A crime committed in England – it would hardly be possible to take action in Vienna against an Esterhazy. Where he is vulnerable, Lord Frederick, is in the lie he told at the Embassy. As a Jew, I dare not accuse a member of the Esterhazys of an act of such dishonour. But to state the facts in your presence is another matter. An aristocrat, such as yourself, may take a matter of honour to the Imperial Court, which would investigate in genuine horror - they would be disgusted to discover the allegations to be true. The Count would be led to one side and informed that the Emperor would prefer him to make an end to himself; Prince Esterhazy in person would be told of the stain accruing to the family honour, quite possibly in front of the Emperor in person – and his political enemies would make very sure that the news spread to every House in the land, and to many elsewhere in the Germanies. Thus the very fact of your appearance in my office will cause a great upset, probably more than sufficient to win our cause. The family would not wish this matter ever to become public knowledge.”