Read Caxton for Free Online Page B

each thirty-two feet by twenty….” The agent droned on about the livestock,
the cooper’s and carpenter’s sheds, the smithy, and other facilities, finally
touching on the servants, the slaves, and their quarters.
When his colleague was finished, Mr. McRae cleared some space on the table and
unrolled a surveyor’s map of Brougham Hall and neighboring freeholds. The next
half hour was spent discussing the property and its natural assets.
At one point, Hugh Kenrick looked up from the map and asked, “Have there been
any conflicts or differences between Mr. Frake and Mr. Swart?”
“None that we know of, sir,” said Stannard with a shrug. “Mr. Frake seems to
have less esteem for Mr. Swart than what decent Christian tolerance would allow,
while Mr. Swart appears to have made an effort to avoid Mr. Frake’s company
and temper.”
McRae chuckled. “One would never see those two standing on the same side of
a room,” he remarked.
Later, as the Scottish agent rolled up his map, Stannard called for some bottles
of French brandy to be sent in. When each man’s glass was filled, he said, “Now,
good sirs, on to an important matter. Naturally, we are curious about the arrangement
between you, Mr. Talbot, and you, Mr. Kenrick, should a purchase be decided
on. Your bonafides are undoubtedly impeccable and beyond reproach, but
still, Mr. McRae and I are anxious to grasp your situations.”
Otis Talbot, who repacked his pipe during this address, paused to light it with
a match lit from the candelabrum near him. He spoke. “Should a purchase be decided
on, sirs, the deed to the property would be registered in my own name as a private
person. However, I would be the owner in name only, having no power over the
property itself. Mr. Kenrick here would in fact occupy and manage the property,
and be answerable to the man in whose place I would sign any document concerning
Brougham Hall. When Mr. Kenrick has reached his majority, title to the property
would instantly revert to him, and neither I nor the third party could claim
any part of it.”
Mr. Reisdale leaned forward and asked, “Are you his guardian, Mr. Talbot?”
Talbot shook his head. “No, sir. For two years now, Mr. Kenrick has been acting,
in effect, as an apprentice in my and Mr. Spicer’s business, in accordance with
the wishes of his father.” He paused. “It is Mr. Kenrick’s father’s funds that
would make any purchase possible.”
Stannard turned and addressed Hugh Kenrick with the hesitant, circumspect delicacy
of a man asking a marriageable young woman about the state of her chastity.
“Well, sir…who is your father?”
Hugh Kenrick said, without any stress in his words, “Garnet Kenrick, Baron of
Danvers, and brother of the Earl of same. In addition to managing the family’s
property in Dorset, my father has conducted a lucrative commerce with the colonies
and the Continent through Worley and Sons, with whom I have also served in an
apprenticeship. Much of the family’s commerce is carried on that firm’s merchantmen,
the Busy and the Nimble , in addition to the family’s own schooner,
the Ariadne , devoted almost exclusively to trade between these colonies
and Britain. My father is also an unnamed principal in the banking firm of Formby,
Pursehouse and Swire, in London.”
Stannard and McRae were more pleased than they could permit themselves to say.
Had they been alone at that moment, they would have risen from their seats,
called for a fiddler, and linked arms to perform a lively jig. Instead, both
men merely blushed. Mr. Reisdale stared at Hugh Kenrick in open-mouthed disbelief.
Stannard said, “Yes…well…I believe the Busy and the Ariadne have
both called on Caxton in the past….”
McRae said to his colleague, “The Ariadne has carried quite a lot of
tobacco to Glasgow and Liverpool…and other goods as well….” To stop himself
from whooping with joy,