Respectable Trade Read online

  “No, Mrs. Shore is bound to want one,” John Shore said with even greater certainty. “If Lady Scott herself has ordered one, you say?”

  “Yes.” The waiter put a mug of ale before Josiah and brought the joint of beef to the table and started to carve succulent, pink-hearted slices and arrange them, fanned out on the plate. Josiah glanced past him to the table where he used to sit. His old friends were gazing at him in his new elevated position. Josiah grinned at them.

  “And Mrs. Waring must have her page boy,” Stephen Waring agreed. “One hundred and ten, I think you said?”

  “Guineas.” Josiah took a gulp from his ale and smiled over the top of the mug at Stephen Waring. “Guineas, if you please.”

  “You are an astute businessman,” Stephen said pleasantly. “I wonder if you would be interested in a venture I am proposing. I want to sink a deep shaft at my colliery at Bedminster, and I need some extra capital to finance the work. It would be a loan at, say, four percent over two years.”

  Josiah accepted his plate from the waiter and bent over it to hide his elated face. “Possibly,” he said. “What sort of capital sum?”

  Stephen shrugged. “Not more than five thousand pounds. I don’t know if you have that sort of sum by you?”

  Josiah lifted his head, and his expression was calm. “I could have,” he said steadily. “It would depend on the project, of course.”

  “Indeed!” Stephen nodded. “Perhaps you would like to ride out with me and see the mine. It’s good-quality coal, if we can get down to reach it. Are you at liberty this afternoon?”

  Josiah buttered a slice of bread and loaded it with meat. “Perfectly, Mr. Waring. I should be glad to come out and see it.”

  “Very well,” Stephen Waring said. “And now let us have a look at these figures for the port charges. The town clerk suggests that we raise the harbor dues to amass some capital to build a floating dock. Of course we have needed a floating dock for years, but nothing has yet been done. Here are the plans.” He pulled a sheet of paper from a roll beside his chair. “It will mean that the port charges have to go up again—”

  “But not for us,” John Shore added rapidly. “Not for Merchant Venturers.”

  “Not for us,” Stephen Waring confirmed. “The smaller men can carry the cost. There will be no additional charges for us.”

  JOSIAH CAME HOME AT midday to change into his riding coat and breeches. Frances had ordered a horse to be waiting for him at the livery stables, and she saw him off from the front door.

  “I shall not invest,” Josiah said. Frances handed him his gloves and held his hat. “Unless it is very advantageous indeed. I would have to borrow it all, and I doubt I could get a rate to make it worthwhile.”

  “Don’t say one way or another,” Frances advised him. She did not understand about interest rates, but she knew that it was wise not to disappoint a new acquaintance. “Leave it until he has made you a member of the Venturers. Leave it until your supper party and then see which way the wind is blowing.”

  “I do not have the capital,” Josiah said. “I would have to borrow to invest it with him. But I have not said that. I spoke as if I had thousands sitting under my bed.”

  “That is the way to do it,” Frances said encouragingly.

  “I wish you could have seen me in the coffeehouse.” Josiah grinned. “Sitting at the top table and taking my breakfast with them all. And then I saw the plan for the new dock and discussed port charges with them. And selling the slaves—why, I made more than two hundred guineas this morning before breakfast!”

  Frances smiled, catching his enthusiasm. “We are on our way,” she assured him. “But do not spend your two hundred guineas before you have it!”

  “It is your two hundred,” he said fairly. “They were bought with your dowry, and they have been trained by you. You are their owner. They are Miss Scott’s slaves.”

  “Then keep my two hundred guineas safe for me! I am not sure that I want a mine shaft!”

  “Anyway, I do not think it would pay. I would not want us to be overstretched. And he was a fast customer over this house. I will not forget that. I heard today that there are two other houses coming up for sale on this square. I would have done a better deal if I had waited.”

  “Two more houses for sale?” Frances was instantly on the alert. “Why?”

  “Oh, different reasons. There is nothing wrong with the buildings, my dear, never fear.”

  “No, I did not think that there was. But why are the other houses for sale?”

  “One family is moving to Clifton, and the other is building off Park Street, I think.”

  Frances looked thoughtful. Josiah took his hat from her. “They are foolish,” he said easily. “This will always be Bristol’s best address. Clifton is too far away and the Park Street houses are a jumble of designs. There is no elegant square like this one.”

  “No,” Frances agreed politely. Then she saw a shadow of self-doubt pass over his face. Josiah was not always as confident as he seemed, and he trusted in her judgment more and more. “I know you are right,” she reassured him. “And this is a beautiful house! I would not live anywhere else!”

  “It is the best,” Josiah repeated. “The biggest and best on the square. There is not another of better proportions. It is a very good investment.”

  Frances nodded. “I know it.”

  Josiah opened the door and nodded his farewell. “I’ll be back before dusk,” he said. “By five.”

  “We will dine late, then. Enjoy your ride.” Frances waved him off and went indoors to sit in the best parlor.

  Sarah was seated at the table with the book for Daisy’s accounts laid out before her. Frances hesitated in the doorway, but Sarah looked up. “Come in,” she said. “I wanted to speak with you.” Sarah closed the book and waited while Frances pulled out a chair and sat, rather nervously, opposite her.

  “I am about to start the afternoon lesson,” Frances began defensively.

  “It’s not that.”

  “Is it still the tea party?”

  “No, it’s more important than that.”

  There was a little silence.

  “You are a powerful influence on my brother,” Sarah started. “Since we moved to this house especially. He admires your taste; he takes your advice.”

  Frances nodded, saying nothing.

  “You should be aware of our situation,” Sarah said.

  “Is it no better?”

  “How can it be, when we have trebled and quadrupled our expenses by moving to this house and our earnings have remained the same?”

  “Is it very much more expensive here?”

  Sarah bit her lip to contain her temper. “Instead of one fire burning during the day, we have four,” she said. “You have bought curtains and wall hangings for five rooms. You have bought chinaware—those Chinese vases and the porcelain dragons—and much furniture. I am aware that you brought many of your own things to furnish the house, but even so the carters had to be paid. Today Josiah has hired a horse; three times this week you have hired a carriage. I imagine that soon you will want to buy a carriage, and then we shall have to buy horses and set up stables and pay a coachman to drive them for you.”

  “Josiah hired the horse to ride to Mr. Waring’s coal mines to look at an investment,” Frances observed. “We are not wasting money, sister. We are keeping a house in the style that Josiah’s station in life demands.”

  Sarah folded her lips together and placed her hands gently in her lap. She was determined not to lose her temper. “I am aware of my brother’s ambition,” she said quietly. “And I know that you support him. But I must remind you, Frances, that we do not have the money to spend on high living. The housekeeping bills have more than doubled. Your dressmaker’s bill arrived today. You have spent more in a month than I spend in a year. The business cannot support this kind of spending.”

  “Josiah has taken two orders for the slaves only today,” Frances countered. “From men