God Is an Englishman (70 page)

And yet she was far from being sanctimonious and was certainly not a prig, for she could be very lively and original on occasion. The children took a liking to her at once and Henrietta had never seen them better behaved than they were at the nursery table under the eye of Phoebe Fraser. As time went by she began to consult Phoebe on all kinds of matters; the best way of getting Stella’s front teeth to go straight, and the likeliest means of removing claret stain from table linen, but they were never intimate, as she had once sought intimacy with Ellen, instead a partnership and mutual respect developed between them, based upon the fact that each secretly ad mired the other. Henrietta, a naturally impulsive and slapdash person, conceived an awesome regard for the little governess’s deftness and self-discipline, whereas Phoebe looked upon Henrietta as a kind of gay adventuress, whose life had been as rich and colourful as her own had been GodIsAnEnglishman.indd 371

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grey and uneventful. She had, Henrietta discovered, a more reverential respect for Adam, looking upon him as a far-ranging and almost celestial being, charged with the fearful responsibility of shifting every product in the country from one point to another with despatch and safety. Perhaps she had gathered this from her father, whom Henrietta had never met or, perhaps, with her tradi tional northcountry acceptance of the natural superiority of the male, she was only expressing gratitude to the man responsible for winkling her out of a dull and dismal servitude in the bleak border lands to a comfortable home in a countryside where the sun shone for at least six months of the year. At all events, Phoebe Fraser settled down very quickly, and Adam, watching from afar, congratulated himself once again on his knack of spotting a promising deputy when he met one. The children, he decided, were in good hands. Stella was soon learning her alphabet and little Alex, his tantrums exorcised by two sharp slaps on the behind, learned to use a spoon and fork instead of relying on his fingers. Peace and accord descended on the house as the paddock beeches turned to gold and warm September sunshine lit the long facade of the old house where it crouched in its half circle of woods and rhododendrons. Sometimes, as she bustled about her work, Henrietta could be heard singing one of the lively songs Mrs. Worrell had learned from the handsome girl Sam Rawlinson had found on a Liverpool quay a quarter century before, and some times, when Adam drove out of blue dusk, he caught a rewarding glimpse of mother, governess, and children standing in a group on the balcony under the nursery window and would run up the shal low staircase to greet them before Phoebe Fraser announced, in a voice that brooked no appeals for a respite, “Awa’ to your beds, the pair o’ ye!” and Henrietta would say, in response to his query as to how she felt, “Never better in my life. At least he spares me that dreadful vomiting the others brought on. This one seems occu pied with his own concerns, for he’s never still a moment. I daresay it’s on account of having started life among all that bustle alongside that yard of yours.” In the next few months she said something ap proximating to this so often that he began, subconsciously perhaps, to read into her hints that the conception had been a deliberate act, representing a gift from her to him in return for Tryst and the new personality he had willed upon her. And although he did not comment he was none the less grateful for, unknown to her or anyone else save Tybalt, he was himself going through a period of anxiety set in train by the abrupt withdrawal and ultimate disappearance of Josh Avery, his banker and source of credit. By October of that year, the fifth since he had set out to cut his swathe across England, Adam Swann was a desperately worried man.

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Finance had always been the most ill-defined area of his enterprise, and there were two good reasons for this.

In the first place he had never been able to regard money as an end in itself.

Most city men, he discovered, thought of money as the base of their pyramid, often to the extent of pursuing profit for profit’s sake, and even those concerned with a reputation and the consistency of their service or goods, gave to the financing of their undertakings a great deal of thought, and more of their time than to the competitive aspect of the concerns. It had not taken him long to face the fact that he was not endowed with their perspicacity, that he thought of fin ance, considered apart, as less important than all the other factors involved in a project. That is to say, it had to take its place in the queue and wait upon other imponderables—the age of a team, the strength of a vehicle, the loyalty of an employee, so that he was in clined to let money find its own level somewhere around the middle of the pyramid, far below the high standards he set himself, and only a step or two above, say, the breaking strain of an axle, or the time factor in a haul over a bad stretch of road.

That was one reason and the other was the instinctive trust he placed in Avery, having formed the habit of consulting him before making important decisions.

Only when he needed a fresh injec tion of capital to get things moving in a new area, or to replace stock that had outlived its usefulness, would he seek out Avery in order to state a case.

The terms of their original agreement presumably reposed in the two letters of intent deposited with Avery’s lawyers but he had forgotten all but the general outline. Now that he came to think about it he was not at all clear how their mutual obligations had been defined, for the association had never advanced beyond the gentleman’s agreement, spelt out five years before, when he left the remaining rubies in Avery’s keeping, partly as collateral for his advance, partly as a reserve. Since then there had been shifts in the arrangement. He was still paying Josh one per cent below the current bank rate for his initial three thousand, and he seemed to recall that Avery’s original estimate of the value of the stones had been nine thousand guineas. Twice he had drawn upon the capital represented by them but on each occasion Avery had refused to treat the advances as further loans, stating that he was content with his fifty-fifty split on the overall profits, and Adam had agreed to this readily enough, although he was never sure how much capital Avery was deemed to have in vested.

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Many might have found it hard to understand how a man who could calculate to the halfpenny the profit on a run anywhere be tween the Border and the Channel should have been so vague as re gards the financial structure of his business but even when allowances were made for the trust he reposed in Josh there were many excuses that could be offered for this omission. Avery had never taken an active part in the business and was rarely seen about the yard. He knew and approved of Tybalt and was on nodding terms with Keate. Apart from these two he would not have known any one of the area managers by name. He lived, so far as Adam could determine, a strange, rackety life, drifting between Stock Exchange, club and racetrack, with an occasional jaunt to Paris, or a call on Kate Hamil ton who regarded him as an influential customer. He still kept on his old rooms in Guildford Street, where he employed a moonfaced ser vant called Vosper, who had once served him as orderly and who seemed to Adam a discreet servitor, short on conversation. Some times weeks would pass without a meeting, or an exchange of letters. Smaller sums of money, both in and out of Avery’s account, were handled by his lawyer, and often enough, when Avery was in town, Adam was away or vice versa. Neither of them seemed to find any thing odd about the relationship. For five years now it had worked well and Adam would have said that he had the better of it for, so long as Avery’s lawyer retained power of attorney, he was always able to borrow tide-over money for new stock or premises, and had once drawn a largish sum to replace ageing horses in areas where bad roads shortened their working lives.

It was only after he was committed to buy Tryst, and had milked his personal account dry to raise the one third demanded as an ad vance on signature of contract, that he felt any urgency to consult Josh, or even tell him that he had recently converted the lease into a freehold. It seemed to him then that it was high time they had a talk and perhaps converted some of the remaining rubies into hard cash. He had his own ideas about what the stones were worth on the pres ent market, having recently had Henrietta’s ruby valued, and con cluded that the total, based on the assessor’s estimate, was higher than the initial sum quoted by Josh. The discrepancy, however, did nothing to cause him to doubt his partner’s honesty for Avery was known to move in dubious company and the original estimate had almost certainly been that of a fence, who would be likely to strike an exceptionally hard bargain. When he saw how low his per sonal funds were, and how much next year’s team and waggon re newals were likely to cost, he was half-inclined to discuss the financial situation with Tybalt but realised, when he thought about it, that this was impossible, for it would almost certainly GodIsAnEnglishman.indd 374

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lead to a disclosure of the source of the capital, as well as the insecurity of his arrange ments with Avery. Tybalt, to whom financial integrity was a religion, would probably react unfavourably to the knowledge that Swann-on-Wheels had been financed by a looted necklace but there was more to it than that. He would also regard his employer as a complete fool to take the risks he took every day of the week on the strength of a partnership resting on a handshake, and Adam did not care to look a fool in the eyes of Tybalt or anyone else in his employ. He had put aside most of his military precepts when he went into trade but one he continued to observe was that the commanding officer must appear to know what he was doing, even if rank and file were convinced he was marching them in the wrong direction. He therefore made up his mind to have a full discussion with Avery before he asked Tybalt to prepare a statement of accounts and next year’s estimates.

But Avery was not to be found. He wrote twice to his club, and once to his rooms, but receiving no answer took a hansom to White’s and made inquiries there of the steward. The man seemed more eva sive than he need have been, although discretion was a qualification for a post at this kind of establishment.

He said he could give the gentleman no information concerning Mr. Avery’s whereabouts, for he had not been seen in the club for a month. He could, however, disclose his address on production of the caller’s card. Adam said, sourly, “I know his address. Damn it, man, he’s been my partner for five years. I’m not here to collect a debt!” and turned on his heel, telling the cabby to drive to Guildford Street. Here he had slightly better luck. After pulling the doorbell several times he saw the curtain move on the far side of the area railings and caught a glimpse of Vosper’s anxious face. He was now sufficiently frustrated to bellow through the letter-box, stating his identity and demanding to know Avery’s whereabouts on matters of urgency. Presently the door opened slowly and Vosper said, unhappily,

“Mr. Avery isn’t here, Mr. Swann. I haven’t seen him since Friday of last week,” and then hesitated, as though undecided whether or not to admit the visitor.

Adam helped him to make up his mind, putting his foot over the threshold and saying, “Look here, Vosper, it’s impor tant I contact him. I’ve got matters that demand his attention, and they won’t wait. Where am I most likely to find him?” Vosper said, wetting his lips, “I…er…I don’t mind telling you, Mr. Swann, but I’ve made it my business not to tell them and I hope you’ll tell Mr. Avery that if you catch up with him.”

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was disturbing. He said, urgently, “You know Mr. Avery and I are business associates, even if he hasn’t told you we served together in the field. Would I be likely to do anything to make things more difficult for him? I might even be able to help him. Have the bailiffs been here?”

“Among others,” the man said, gloomily, and at last stepped aside to let Adam into the hall, after which he locked the door and re-attached the chain.

They went into Avery’s smokery, a bachelor’s apartment in every particular, although it was cleanly kept and the reek of stale tobacco was due to the windows being closed and the blinds drawn, as though in anticipation of the owner’s funeral.

“I’m afraid the Captain has overstepped the mark this time,” Vos per said, making it clear that his master had come very close to doing this frequently during his period of service. “It’s not just a matter of debts, sir. Mr. Avery is inclined to run them up, but every now and again, once pressure is applied, he settles them out of hand. I some times wonder why he puts us all to so much inconvenience.”

“Who else has been here apart from the bailiff and the tradesmen?”

“I couldn’t swear to it, sir, but it might have been the police. A gentleman making inquiries about this lady, sir. I daresay you recog nise her, she is very well known I understand,” and he took from his pocket-book a sepia photograph mounted on stiff card showing a woman in a Spanish dress, posing in the middle of a dance. One hand rested on her hip and the other was raised high above her head, both being fitted with castanets.

It was a conventional pose but the dancer was anything but convential. She had a hard, predatory beauty rare among Latins of her type that suggested the Andalusian gipsy, or possibly someone with a strong dash of Moorish blood. Her features had classical conformity and her figure, emphasised by the highwaisted dress, was broad-hipped and sensuous without losing its feline mobility. Adam recog nised her instantly, as would almost anyone with a casual knowledge of the London entertainment scene.