Born To Privilege (A Poor Man at the Gate Series Book 3)

by Andrew Wareham

  Tom stood and smiled, offered his hand.

  “I am Lord Andrews, Thomas Andrews, of St Helens and Kettering. I am your father, Captain Burley. Please to take a seat.”

  Refreshments were offered and accepted, both making clear that the meeting was to be conducted on friendly terms, to be treated as much as a social occasion as one for business.

  “Thank you for meeting me, my lord. Please be assured that when I wrote to Mr Michael I did not intend to force myself upon you, or make any demands at all, my lord.”

  “I believe you have a certain claim upon me, Captain Burley. I have kept myself informed regarding your career, sir, and felt that this was a sensible time to meet you, a thing which I wished to do. I was sorry to hear of your mother’s death. I hope she may have enjoyed her later life.”

  The captain nodded his appreciation of Tom’s sympathy.

  “I know that she loved Corfe, my lord, and I believe she made a number of friends there. She told me, my lord, when we last spoke together, that you took her into keeping after she was cast out from her own house. She made much of the fact that you saved her from the streets and treated her well. I know personally, my lord, that you have been open-handed in all of your dealings with her.”

  “She was betrayed, a young girl with no knowledge at all of the world, Captain Burley. I consider her father to have been extremely uncharitable in his behaviour to her – if she had to be sent away from the house, he could at least have provided for her. I made no attempt to enquire into his circumstances but I know that he was sufficiently beforehand with the world to hire a private music-teacher for her, he being her undoing. I did make the effort to discover that gentleman’s whereabouts a couple of years later and found that he had a number of young victims to his discredit; he changed his way of life after the two gentlemen I sent to visit him had finished their task.”

  The captain smiled his satisfaction. He had been ten years a soldier, had accepted all of the tenets of the officer corps – it was inconceivable to him that Tom should have married his mother in such circumstances and he could only see him as generous and as honourable as had been possible.

  “As for ‘open-handed’, Captain Burley – I am rich and it has been no hardship to me, and no great virtue either, to meet my obligations. I will continue to do so, sir. I believe you have sufficient years of service to purchase your majority now?”

  “Thank you, my lord, you are very generous. I do not, however, propose to continue in the army in peacetime – I feel that the round of barracks life might become very tedious. I have enjoyed campaigning, but year after year of parade and inspection and the occasional exercise? I suspect that it would become a burden, my lord. I had wondered, in fact, had discussed with my fellows, many of whom feel the same as I do, whether it would be possible to take up land in America or Canada or the Cape or even in Botany Bay. Some suggested that the large estates in Ireland are often in need of agents or factors and would welcome ex-officers.”

  “Definitely not Ireland, Captain Burley – the country is unsettled still and will never be calm without great political change, which will be long coming, if ever. The return of discharged soldiers will only worsen the situation, I suspect. If it is your wish to send in your papers and take up farming then I would find it possible to purchase unimproved land for you in Dorset, or one of the other less advanced counties. Building up a modern estate would keep you occupied for the rest of your life, interesting work, too. The sale of your commission and the house in Corfe would provide you with some capital and your allowance of four hundred a year is secured to you for life.”

  “Thank you, my lord. You are very generous. I would like, if it be possible, to keep my mother’s house – she loved it so!”

  The young man obviously needed roots – he had no family so the company of neighbours who had known his mother would be a comfort to him.

  “Your mother’s own mother came from Corfe, of course. Her name I never discovered, did not ask, but you may well have relatives there.”

  “I wondered why she had chosen the village, my lord, but she only ever mentioned a father in Birmingham, by name, she told me at the last, of Amberley, hence the name she had chosen for herself.”

  “She had wondered whether she might not make contact with her own mother, but I presume she did not. Perhaps the wiser course – I do not know!”

  They dined together, privately, and found a degree of liking for each other and a marked similarity in character and habit, rather to their surprise. Burley talked easily and well of his experiences on campaign before Copenhagen and the more honourable years in the Peninsula – he was a great enthusiast for Wellington, had spoken to him twice and treasured the remembrance.

  “A true gentleman, my lord, courteous and well-spoken away from the field. Sharp with those who failed his standards, no doubt, but I cannot see that as a fault in a general officer, my lord!”

  “What of Waterloo? Was it a triumph or a disaster, sir?”

  The opponents of the government, not all of them Whigs, were voicing their doubts about the need for the battle and their discomfort with the way it had been fought.

  “Both, my lord. The butcher’s bill was the worst we have ever faced, yet the victory, when the Prussians finally arrived, was complete. There will be no more wars with France, my lord, and the mad tyrant Boney is gone for ever. Too many good men are gone, too. Half of my officers mess lie in the burial pits about the field, and many of the survivors are more or less wounded – the officers being more likely to be hit than the men, for having to stand at the front and show the way. I was fortunate, again – I have never been wounded – Lucky Tom, the men called me. I even came out of the breach at Badajoz spattered with other men’s blood but none of my own.”

  “Rumour says that that was a bad business, Captain Burley?”

  “Rumour understates, my lord – it was vile!”

  The Spanish town had been sacked by the victorious British after they had taken massive losses in the storm. The treatment of the civilian population was the subject of whispers.

  Talk rambled on as they sat over their port, eventually, inevitably, turning to the Land. The captain knew a little of farming, for having had school friends amongst local farmer’s sons and spending much of his free time as a boy out with them. He had read as well, was conversant in theory with the new agriculture, was very sure he could learn the new profession.

  They parted quietly, both knowing that they expected to meet very infrequently in the future.

  “Mr Michael will be in contact with you, Captain Burley, very soon, I trust. From what you say, you expect to be married this year – my best wishes, but I shall not dance at your wedding – we look too much alike! Do not hesitate to contact me if you ever need any assistance, sir. The Grafhams have a significant degree of influence at Westminster and the name of Andrews is not unknown – an enclosure or rights of way for a canal, for example, can be dealt with very easily. For the future, your brother, Robert, will know of your existence and of my wish that the family should not forget you and yours. My best wishes go with you, sir!”

  “Mr Michael, please be so good as to secure the purchase of land to the value of some fifteen to twenty thousands, in Dorset, unenclosed and containing a deal of waste, if possible. To be placed in the freeholding of my son, Thomas Burley, so as to give him an inheritance much the same as James may expect. It seems to be but fair.”

  Michael wrote down the instruction and said that he would send one of his young men down to Poole that week. From there he could go on to Dorchester and Wareham and discover what was on the market, close to Corfe would be ideal. Michael made no further comment, keeping to himself his opinions on his client’s idiosyncrasy; he had at least one bastard to his own name and had no intention of giving him twenty shillings, much less twenty thousands!

  “The matter of a tutor in the modern sciences for Mr Joseph, sir, is by way of being resolved, on your liking, that is. I made contac
t with a Scottish lawyer of my acquaintance – he deals with any business of ours that arises north of the border and to which their law applies – and he spoke to a brother who is a don of sorts at their University in Edinburgh and he in turn passed the word to a parcel of bright young men, recent graduates in search of a post. Between them they selected the one they thought best suited to your needs – his accent not too barbaric, one presumes. He is travelling to Kettering this week for your approval. We have had to pay his costs, of course. He is described as, I quote, ‘a young gentleman of good breeding and high intelligence and learned in the new sciences and of good Christian principles’. His father, I believe, is a minister of one of their churches.”

  “Not too much of the Bible, I trust, Mr Michael?”

  “Very little, I assume, my lord. I suspect them to be saying in decently veiled fashion that they do not expect him to attempt to bugger his pupil. Always a worry with schoolmasters, of course, my lord!”

  As so often, Tom realised that he really had led a sheltered life.

  Alec Fraser made his bow, awkwardly – the social graces had evidently escaped him – and shook hands with Tom, rather surprised at such condescension in one so far above him. He was a remarkably ugly young man, in his early twenties, Tom assumed, very hairy in the nose and in his enormous bat-ears, his skin deeply pitted either from a minor bout of small-pox or many years of acne. Ten minutes of conversation made it clear that he was very intelligent and thoroughly learned and only too willing to impart his knowledge to everyone he met. He was also willing to admit ignorance and ask questions – he knew nothing of the land, being town-born, and had seen a tile drain being dug, wanted to know how it worked and why.

  Tom sent him to meet Joseph in his workshop – the boy could have the final say, if he found him intolerable then he would not stay – the meanwhile taking counsel of Brown.

  “Could you take the poor young fellow in hand, Brown? Show him how to present himself and be fit to be seen?”

  Brown, warned by the butler, had taken a surreptitious look at the new gentleman.

  Tutors and governesses were anomalous beasts, born to the genteel and yet forced to earn a living by their own labours, not a part of the servants hall and yet not to dine at the master’s table, normally eating in the schoolroom with their charges and entering the house by the servants’ door.

  Tutors were very often unbeneficed clergymen, unfortunates who had taken Holy Orders but could not obtain a living. If they served satisfactorily it was quite common for them to be translated from the schoolroom to a rectory on the estate, returning them to the ranks of the gentry. They could not therefore be treated as servants.

  The master’s valet would not generally be required to hobnob with a mere tutor, he was far too great a personage in the household, sitting at table next to the butler and expecting to be waited on at dinner. Equally, so unkempt a person would reflect poorly upon them all – would be the source of no end of veiled sneers in the other great houses. Brown sniffed – he would solve the problem very simply, was he to be consulted, by sending the hobbledehoy back to the Scottish wilds where he belonged, but, if my lord wanted to have this uncouth savage about him, then he must be civilised.

  “Certainly, my lord. I trust you will mention to him the wisdom of listening to my advice?”

  Tom grinned and nodded.

  Fraser returned in Joseph’s company two hours later, the pair talking animatedly, discussing some matter relating to ‘bearings’ – presumably not of the compass. He had evidently passed muster and should be hired.

  “I would wish to you stay, Mr Fraser, for one year in the first instance, on mutual liking, thereafter to be a part of the household. I would propose a salary of one hundred pounds, English, paid quarterly, you to live in, eating with Joseph. The estate will provide you with a riding horse as necessary – you will, no doubt, wish to visit frequently at our works. Breeches and boots will be made for you. Can you ride?”

  “I have straddled a donkey on occasion, my lord.”

  “Then you must find an hour of each day for the stables, Mr Fraser. I will speak to Wilkins.”

  Fraser smiled dutifully. For twenty-five pounds English, clear each quarter, he would accept many greater hardships than learning to ride.

  “I wish you to give Joseph a thorough grounding in the science of steam and coal and iron, Mr Fraser, teaching the mathematics as well. He will call you ‘sir’ and you will address him by name. As well, Mr Fraser, as teaching Joseph, you will no doubt observe much at the works – wrought iron by Cort’s process. Should you have any ideas to save costs or improve efficiency or make new products, and should such innovations be practical, then you will be paid a royalty for each, in the neighbourhood of twenty per centum of costs’ savings or of the profit on a new line of output. At a later stage in Joseph’s career, when he is sufficiently mature to travel about the country without his parents’ supervision, you will wish to take him to the much larger works in Wales and Lancashire. If you show the willingness, sir, then eventually you might become engineer-in-charge at one or both.”

  “My lord, you are saying that if I was to make a thousand in savings to you, then I would receive two hundreds?”

  “I am.”

  “Thank you, my lord! I shall do my very best, I assure you!”

  “Good – the gentlemen who gave me your name said that you would. I will expect you to look the part, Mr Fraser. You must be a respectable engineer dressed in broadcloth, because people will listen to all you have to say much more willingly if your appearance impresses them. The estate will send you to the tailor in Kettering and my man will show you how to present yourself. By doing so you will make it very plain to Joseph that he must follow your lead, sir.”

  Fraser was inclined at first to bridle – he did not appreciate criticism of his appearance, but it was, he acknowledged, only fair that he should set an example to Joseph.

  “He is an intelligent boy, my lord, and I suspect that I may follow where he leads eventually. I shall be very pleased to serve you, my lord. Should I commence my duties immediately? It is a long and expensive journey and there is no great reason for me to return to Edinburgh, my lord.”

  “I shall speak to the housekeeper today, Mr Fraser. Your chambers will be available to you very quickly, I would expect. There will be a guest room for the while.”

  Mrs Beckwith, stouter but still effective in her role, had made her plans for Mr Fraser, needed only the word to put them into effect.

  “West wing, my lord, on the ground floor and looking out over the stable yard at the rear; bedroom, sitting-room and study on either side of the small door there. Mr Joseph told me that his tutor would often be making ‘machine drawings’, whatever they might be, and a west facing window will give him good light. Furniture for the two rooms will be easy and can be moved in today but the estate carpenter will need a week to build in and varnish his book shelves and a ‘drawing-board’, Mr Joseph called it. Mr Fraser will have to show the carpenter exactly what he wants, sir. He won’t be able to start for two days, he says, because he has to finish the kennels yet.”

  There were now twelve mastiffs in residence, four breeding pairs and their offspring, the descendants of Sampson and Delilah, both deceased, and of the three others bought in to provide a breeding pool. The growth of the heavy horse stud had meant that the dogs had had to move out of the stables into their own quarters. Finding homes for each year’s crop of puppies was becoming increasingly difficult because relatively few families could afford to take in a dog that ate as much as a man; a solution would have to be discovered – the obvious one being to discourage breeding.

  “Do you like dogs, Mr Fraser?”

  “Well, yes, my lord, I had my own terrier as a boy.”

  “Excellent! We shall be pleased to gift you a puppy, Mr Fraser, and the exercise will be good for you. Joseph, take Mr Fraser to the stables so that he can make his choice.”

  “I have hired on Fra
ser, my dear, and he likes dogs, is choosing his own now. How big are terriers, by the way?”

  She gestured with her hands and Tom began to chuckle – Mr Fraser should be receiving an elegant surprise, he thought, reminding himself that he must tell the man that the estate would continue to feed the beast!

  “Has Joseph said much to you about the Stars, Verry? He has been somewhat close-mouthed with me, probably because we have never really been in the habit of talking to each other. I must change that.”

  “He is rather concerned that Thomas is worried about becoming heir to a barony. It would seem that he is very happy working in the spinning mills, he runs them day-to-day for his father now, and they both feel that he should step back from the dirty-handed side of the firm in future. Add to that, sir, there is the question of whether he should go forward with the marriage he was considering with a young lady from the chapel – the daughter of another manufacturer, very well-off, almost as rich as Lord Star, but not born to the gentry.”

  Tom shook his head – he had no idea what to say. The heir to the wealthy Lord Star could certainly aspire to the hand of a younger daughter of the aristocracy, there would be a dozen young ladies pointed in his direction was he to be brought to the notice of the Upper Ten Thousand, but whether he would be happy, or even comfortable, in such a match was an entirely different matter.

  “What would you say, Verry?”

  “If he is in love, then there can be no doubt that he must wed his young lady. If he is considering dynastic concerns – a large portion or an inheritance, then perhaps the answer is less clear. Whichever, I am inclined to advise that we do not interfere – there are too many arguments for both sides!”

  He nodded, made note that he would not offer any unsolicited advice at all and if applied to would hedge very carefully.

  “What of the others – are they all well?”

  “No word of John or Henry, not even second hand.” She shook her head – it seemed only too probable that they had died, unrecorded, in one of the world’s wild places. “Mary was in Joseph’s company whenever she could be, I gather, though he makes little of the fact, so I must make a visit to the Stars myself, it would seem, and get to know the girl. If she is as determined as I suspect then it will be as well if I am on terms with our new daughter.”