The Ravenscar Dynasty (57 page)

‘I simply don't understand why this is suddenly happening,' Margot Grant said, giving John Summers a long, questioning look. ‘It beggars belief.'

‘No, no, it doesn't. It is perfect in its simplicity. Replace Edward Deravenel with George. The younger brother is easy to manipulate and control. I shall be working alongside him, and it will be the perfect situation.'

‘
Why
? Why is Neville Watkins suddenly on our side? Tell me that.'

‘In my opinion he has lost control of Edward Deravenel and did so a long time ago. He was also extremely humiliated when he had to go back to Louis and tell him that Edward, the intended bridegroom in the arranged marriage with Blanche, was in fact already married. And to marry a Wyland at that. Neville was fit to be tied, I am positive. He couldn't stomach that his beloved protégé had married the enemy. And in general, he's lost favour over the years. Oh they keep up a pretence, but that's what it is really,
a pretence
.'

Margot jumped up, began to pace up and down the dining room in her Upper Grosvenor Street house, ignoring her lunch, so agitated was she.

John, looking slightly alarmed, put down his fork, and exclaimed, ‘Good Lord, Margot, why are you so excited?'

‘I just feel uneasy about Neville Watkins coming over to our side.'

‘It's going to be all right, I promise you,' John soothed. ‘In any case, it's certainly worth investigating, going along with everyone. For the moment. I shall meet with them in Paris as arranged. Louis Charpentier is anxious to talk to George, who is going to Paris with Neville. We will be meeting in a few days.'

‘All right,' she murmured, and went and sat down, adding, ‘I trust you, John. With my life.'

‘I'll do my best to make it work, don't worry, Margot,' John answered in an assured and confident voice, but his demeanour was somewhat fraudulent. He was going along with Watkins and Charpentier because he knew
he had nothing to lose. However, he was fully aware that Edward Deravenel had a complete grip on the company. Furthermore
he
had never underestimated the man, whom he knew was clever, ambitious and ruthless. John thought that Neville Watkins might well be deluding himself about unseating Edward and putting George in his place. In his opinion George Deravenel was a fool, easily led, filled with conceit and very few brains.

We shall see, John Summers thought. We shall indeed see who comes out the winner. And he wasn't going to put his money on Watkins.

‘Read all abart it! Read all abart it!' the newspaper boy shouted at the top of his lungs. ‘
Titanic
sinks! Hundreds dead!'

Amos Finnister, hurrying down the Strand, stopped in his tracks, and gaped at the paperboy, stared at the large white poster he was holding, which was obviously hot off the presses.

TITANIC DISASTER, it read, and underneath: GREAT LOSS OF LIFE, and then the name of the paper in slightly smaller print:
Evening News
.

Rushing over to the paperboy, Amos slipped his hand into his pocket, pulled out a few coins and gave them to the boy, almost snatching the newspaper from him.

‘Bad news, guv,' the boy said. ‘Summfink 'orrible, it is.'

Nodding, moving up against the wall of a building, Amos read the headline again, and then opened the paper and began to read the first page inside.

And what he was reading chilled him to the bone. This great ocean-going liner, the
unsinkable Titanic
they called it, had sunk.

Unbelievable
, he thought, and went on reading, gobbling the words down.

The lookouts had seen the iceberg ahead, at around

11:40 p.m. on the night of Sunday, April 14. Then the iceberg had struck the
Titanic
on the starboard side of her bow. At 11:50, only ten minutes later, water had poured in and risen 14 feet in the front part of the ship. At 12 midnight the captain had been informed the ship could only stay afloat for a couple of hours. He told the radio operators to send out signals for help, and orders were given to uncover the lifeboats and to get passengers and crew ready on deck. There was only enough room in the lifeboats for half the estimated 2,227 people on board.

Jesus Christ! God help me! Amos muttered, horrified. He read on, and learned that the
Carpathia
, southeast of the
Titanic
by fifty-eight miles, had picked up the distress calls and headed full speed to the rescue. The first lifeboat was lowered safely, and left—with only twenty-eight passengers, when it could have carried sixty-five. Distress signals were sent up. The last lifeboat eventually left at 2:05 a.m. and there were still 1,500 people on the ship as it tilted precariously, the deck of the
Titanic
growing steeper and steeper.

Amos stopped reading. His hands were shaking uncontrollably; he could hardly stand. All he could think of was Charlie and Maisie and what a narrow escape they had had. The brother and sister had been due to sail on the
Titanic
, going back to New York. They had been in London for three months, having a holiday, full of their success, fame and glory as popular stars on the New York stage. And then Maisie had fallen sick, with pneumonia,
of all things to get in the spring, and their passage had been cancelled. They were staying in Whitechapel with friends while Maisie recuperated.

Thank God
, he muttered again, and tucking the paper under his arm, he continued on down the Strand, heading for Deravenel House.

All of the staff knew him well, and he went right in, across the large foyer and up the stairs, nodding to those he knew as he did. His appointment was with Mr Deravenel, and as he glanced at the wall clock he saw that he was right on time. It was just ten-thirty.

‘How are you doing, Finnister?' Edward asked a few moments later, coming around the desk, shaking Amos's hand.

‘Not too badly, sir, thank you,' Amos replied, nodding. ‘And I can see you too are in good health, if you don't mind me saying so, sir.'

‘Yes, I am well, Finnister, but I'm not so sure about your good self. You look a bit peaked to me. Is anything wrong?'

‘Well, no, sir, not exactly. It's just that I've been reading about the
Titanic
going down before coming here. It gave me a bit of a shock. A couple of friends of mine were going to New York on it, but they had to cancel.'

‘Thank God they did! Ghastly thing, this disaster,' Ned went on, shaking his head. ‘There will have to be a bit of an investigation, in my opinion. I've been reading about it myself in
The Times
, and it seems to me a lot of mistakes were made in the last twenty-four hours. God only knows why they didn't slow down after the warnings. Why weren't there more lifeboats?'

‘It does seem odd, Mr Deravenel, yes, sir.'

‘Please sit down, Finnister. You said on the telephone you needed to speak to me privately, and very urgently. What's this all about?'

Amos gave Edward a very direct look and began, in a low, steady voice, ‘Mr Deravenel, I'm going to do something now I never dreamed I would do in my whole life. I'm afraid I have no option. My conscience tells me that I must do it.'

Edward leaned across the desk, staring at Amos, his eyes narrowing slightly. ‘What are you going to do? Please tell me, won't you?'

‘I am going to betray one man to protect another—a man I have the most tremendous regard for, and that is you, Mr Deravenel. And I have to betray your cousin in order to save you.'

Edward nodded slowly. ‘Obviously what you're going to tell me must be in confidence, am I correct?'

‘Yes, sir.'

‘You have my promise, Finnister. It will be confidential, that I do promise you. I will never repeat what you tell me to anyone.'

‘I trust you, sir, and I just want to say this, in case you're wondering why I come to you, come to warn you, betray your cousin's trust. Over the years I have grown to respect you enormously, and I know that you're a good man. Decent, fair, and honest. And you've been good to Grace Rose. You made sure she'll always be safe, and that is a wonderful thing to know, sir. I have a bit of an interest, you see.'

‘Thank you,' Edward murmured. ‘I know how much you care about her.'

‘Your cousin, Mr Neville Watkins, assigned me to follow you…and I did this, Mr Deravenel, I have to admit it. He wanted to know everything about your personal and private life. I did discover that you go frequently to your old house in South Audley Street.'

‘Do you know who lives there at present?' Edward asked quietly.

‘Yes, sir. But as far as I'm concerned you've never been near the place since you sold it. You're as clean as a whistle, Mr Edward. I just want you to know that. Not a blemish.'

Although he had been inordinately shocked by Finnister's words, Edward had managed to keep a neutral expression on his face, and held his temper in check as he had listened to the private investigator.

But now, as he sat alone in his office later that Monday morning, he discovered he wasn't all that surprised. Ever since January, when he and Neville had had drinks at the Ritz, four months ago now, Edward's suspicions had grown. His cousin Neville maintained a cordial demeanour, but underneath that pleasant façade he detected genuine anger, albeit contained. He knew within himself that their loving friendship had never recovered from the blow he had dealt Neville. His cousin's pride had been hurt by his secret marriage to Elizabeth, no two ways about it. Will had been right…it
had
rankled.

Unfortunately, his wife hadn't helped the situation. It seemed to Edward that she was always hostile to Neville
and Johnny. Her father and brothers resented his cousins, perhaps because they believed that Neville, in particular, exercised a certain power over him…Even Neville had made mention of that to him in January.

But Edward knew that he had been his own man for years, and acting without Neville's permission had been a step towards independence.

So, the wound had festered, apparently. Neville was moving against him now. Or trying to, at least. Otherwise why had he ordered Finnister to dig for dirt in his private life?

He was grateful for Amos Finnister's loyalty to him. He had long known that the older man liked and respected him and not only because of Grace Rose.

Well, he had been warned. He must now take more care, not be quite so casual and easy going about his relationship with Jane. He had no intention of giving her up. They had become closer than ever. She was his true companion, gave him so much intellectual stimulation as well as sexual satisfaction. Intelligent, cultured, and clever, she had become his sounding board on so many different things in his life. He needed her, he could talk to her.

He had been lucky in a way. Ever since their third daughter was born in March, Elizabeth had been particularly involved with this child. She had not been so enthralled with either Bess or Mary when they were first born, perhaps because of disappointment that they weren't boys. The new baby was named Cecily, after his mother, who had been delighted by this friendly gesture on his wife's part.

Now his problem was how to spend time with Jane discreetly. He chastised himself when he thought of his
easy-going ways, the careless visits to South Audley Street—far too close to Berkeley Square for comfort.

It came to him, almost immediately. He must purchase a new house for Jane, either in the Hyde Park area, just north of Park Lane, or in Belgravia. Both were removed from Mayfair, enough to be safe, but not so far away that it would take him too much time to get there. In the meantime, how would he manage to see her without being noticed going into her house? An impossibility.

Rising, walking across his office, he stood looking out of the window, and his eye suddenly caught sight of the corner of the Savoy Hotel courtyard. It was on the other side of the Strand, a little way up. That was it!
The Savoy
. A perfect place to rendezvous. Jane must take a suite there. Immediately. For the next week. He would book a room for the same period. He could then visit her quite easily without anyone being any the wiser. He would explain this to her tonight, and he knew she would agree.

Edward went back to his desk and his work. His main interest at the moment was oil. After his people struck oil in May of 1908 work had continued. They had pumped oil for a year and made money, but in 1909 he had taken the decision to sell the Deravenel fields to Anglo-Persian Oil, a large company. Even though Deravenels no longer had a stake in Persia he hoped they would start drilling there again soon. Oliveri and Aspen were currently back in that country, negotiating with the Shah. Recently he had backed Jarvis Merson and his new team, who were at this moment drilling in Texas. He was keeping his fingers crossed they hit a gusher.

Edward knew there was a huge future in oil, especially for British battleships. Six years ago, in 1906, the
first modern battleship the HMS
Dreadnought
had been launched. Churchill, the politician he trusted the most, was First Lord of the Admiralty, and he was constantly endeavouring to get his Naval estimates through Parliament, wanting to build more of these modern battleships. Churchill was nervous of the growing size of the German navy, and suspicious of Germany's intent. As was he. Edward knew that country bore watching, just as Winston did.

‘I have something very strange to report,' Will Hasling said, staring at Edward across the latter's desk, his eyes on his closest friend and colleague.

‘What is it? You look terrible.'

‘I've felt terrible all the way back from Paris on the boat train, Ned. I think we're facing a huge disaster.'

Edward scowled. ‘If there's something wrong with the vineyards it won't ruin us, you know…it would be a problem but hardly a disaster. We're in the black, and very much so.'

‘I know that, and actually this has nothing to do with the vineyards and my business over there. It's to do with…
Neville
.'

Sitting up straighter in his chair, an alert look immediately settling on his face, Edward said wearily, ‘Tell me then. Let's get it over with, Will.'

‘I saw him in Paris—what I mean is, I got a
glimpse
of him. At the Grand Vefour. I had been dining there with Alphonse Arnaud, and I was just leaving the restaurant when I noticed him at a table in a corner. I
fled immediately. Obviously I didn't want him to see me.'

Edward nodded. ‘He was with somebody he shouldn't have been with, in your opinion. Is that it?'