This distraction had irritated her, but on reflection she thought she had said enough to Madeleine about cousin Samuel. At this stage all she wanted was to plant the seed of doubt: anything more might be too heavy-handed. She decided to leave well enough alone. She ushered her sister-in-law and her son out of the room, saying: “Now I must return to my guests.”
They went downstairs. The party was going well, to judge by the cacophony of talk, laughter, and a hundred silver teaspoons clinking in bone china saucers. Augusta briefly checked the dining room, where the servants were dispensing lobster salad, fruitcake and iced drinks. She moved through the hall, speaking a word or two to each guest who caught her eye, but looking for a particular one — Florence’s mother, Lady Stalworthy.
She was worried by the possibility that Hugh might marry Florence. Hugh was already doing far too well at the bank. He had the quick commercial brain of a barrow boy and the engaging manners of a cardsharp. Even Joseph spoke approvingly of him, oblivious of the threat to their own son. Marriage to the daughter of an earl would give Hugh social status to add to his native talents, and then he would be a dangerous rival to Edward. Dear Teddy did not have Hugh’s superficial charm or his head for figures, so he needed all the help Augusta could give him.
She found Lady Stalworthy standing in the bay window of the drawing room. She was a pretty middle-aged woman in a pink dress and a little straw hat with silk flowers all over it. Augusta wondered anxiously how she would feel about Hugh and Florence. Hugh was no great catch, but from Lady Stalworthy’s point of view he was not a disaster. Florence was the youngest of three daughters, and the other two had married well, so Lady Stalworthy might be indulgent. Augusta had to prevent that. But how?
She stood at Lady Stalworthy’s side and saw that she was watching Hugh and Florence in the garden. Hugh was explaining something, and Florence’s eyes sparkled with pleasure as she looked at him and listened. “The careless happiness of youth,” said Augusta.
“Hugh seems a nice boy,” Lady Stalworthy said.
Augusta looked hard at her for a moment. Lady Stalworthy had a dreamy smile on her face. She had once been as pretty as her daughter, Augusta guessed. Now she was remembering her own girlhood. She needed to be brought down to earth with a thump. “How quickly they pass, those carefree days.”
“But so idyllic while they last.”
It was time for the poison. “Hugh’s father died, as you know,” Augusta said. “And his mother lives very quietly at Folkestone, so Joseph and I feel an obligation to take a parental interest.” She paused. “It is hardly necessary for me to say that an alliance with your family would be a remarkable triumph for Hugh.”
“How kind of you to say that,” said Lady Stalworthy, as if she had been paid a pretty compliment. “The Pilasters themselves are a family of distinction.”
“Thank you. If Hugh works hard he will one day earn a comfortable living.”
Lady Stalworthy looked a little taken aback. “His father left nothing at all, then?”
“No.” Augusta needed to let her know that Hugh would get no money from his uncles when he married. She said: “He will have to work his way up in the bank, living on his salary.”
“Ah, yes,” said Lady Stalworthy, and her face showed a hint of disappointment. “Florence has a small independence, happily.”
Augusta’s heart sank. So Florence had money of her own. That was bad news. Augusta wondered how much it was. The Stalworthys were not as rich as the Pilasters — few people were — but they were comfortable, Augusta believed. At any rate, Hugh’s poverty was not enough to turn Lady Stalworthy against him. Augusta would have to use stronger measures. “Dear Florence would be such a help to Hugh … a stabilizing influence, I feel sure.”
“Yes,” said Lady Stalworthy vaguely, and then she frowned. “Stabilizing?”
Augusta hesitated. This kind of thing was dangerous, but the risk had to be taken. “I never listen to gossip, and I’m sure you don’t either,” she said. “Tobias was quite unfortunate, of that there is no doubt, but Hugh shows hardly any sign of having inherited the weakness.”
“Good,” said Lady Stalworthy, but her face showed deep anxiety.
“All the same, Joseph and I would be very happy to see him married to such a sensible girl as Florence. One feels she would be firm with him, if …” Augusta trailed off.
“I …” Lady Stalworthy swallowed. “I don’t seem to recall just what his father’s weakness was.”
“Well, it wasn’t true, really.”
“Strictly between you and me, of course.”
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have raised it.”
“But I must know everything, for my daughter’s sake. I’m sure you understand.”
“Gambling,” Augusta said in a lowered voice. She did not want to be overheard: there were people here who would know she was lying. “It was what led him to take his own life. The shame, you know.” Pray heaven the Stalworthys don’t bother to check the truth of this, she thought fervently.
“I thought his business failed.”
“That, too.”
“How tragic.”
“Admittedly, Joseph has had to pay Hugh’s debts once or twice, but he has spoken very firmly to the boy, and we feel sure it will not happen again.”
“That’s reassuring,” said Lady Stalworthy, but her face told a different story.
Augusta felt she had probably said enough. The pretense that she was in favor of the match was wearing dangerously thin. She glanced out of the window again. Florence was laughing at something Hugh was saying, throwing her head back and showing her teeth in a way that was rather … unseemly. He was practically eating her up with his eyes. Everyone at the party could see they were attracted to each other. “I judge it won’t be long before matters come to a head,” Augusta said.
“Perhaps they have talked enough for one day,” Lady Stalworthy said with a troubled look. “I had better intervene. Do excuse me.”
“Of course.”
Lady Stalworthy headed rapidly for the garden.
Augusta felt relieved. She had carried off another delicate conversation. Lady Stalworthy was suspicious of Hugh now, and once a mother began to feel uneasy about a suitor she rarely came to favor him in the end.
She looked around and spotted Beatrice Pilaster, another sister-in-law. Joseph had had two brothers: one was Tobias, Hugh’s father, and the other was William, always called Young William because he was born twenty-three years after Joseph. William was now twenty-five and not yet a partner in the bank. Beatrice was his wife. She was like a large puppy, happy and clumsy and eager to be everyone’s friend. Augusta decided to speak to her about Samuel and his secretary. She went over to her and said: “Beatrice, dear, would you like to see my bedroom?”
MICKY AND HIS FATHER left the party and set out to walk back to their lodgings. Their route lay entirely through parks — first Hyde Park, then Green Park, and St. James’s Park — until they reached the river. They stopped in the middle of Westminster Bridge to rest for a spell and look at the view.
On the north shore of the river was the greatest city in the world. Upstream were the Houses of Parliament, built in a modern imitation of the neighboring thirteenth-century Westminster Abbey. Downstream they could see the gardens of Whitehall, the duke of Buccleuch’s palace, and the vast brick edifice of the new Charing Cross Railway Station.
The docks were out of sight, and no big ships came this far up, but the river was busy with small boats and barges and pleasure cruisers, a pretty sight in the evening sun.
The southern shore might have been in a different country. It was the site of the Lambeth potteries, and there, in mud fields dotted with ramshackle workshops, crowds of gray-faced men and ragged women were still at work boiling bones, sorting rubbish, firing kilns and pouring paste into molds to make the drainpipes and chimney pots needed by the fast-expanding city. The smell was strong even here on the bridge, a quarter-mile away. The squat hovels in which they lived were crowded around the walls of Lambeth Palace, the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, like the filth left by high tide on the muddy foreshore. Despite the nearness of the archbishop’s palace the neighborhood was known as the Devil’s Acre, presumably because the fires and the smoke, the shuffling workers and the awful smell made people think of Hell.
Micky’s lodgings were in Camberwell, a respectable suburb beyond the potteries; but he and his father hesitated on the bridge, reluctant to plunge into the Devil’s Acre. Micky was still cursing the scrupulous Methodist conscience of old Seth Pilaster for frustrating his plans. “We will solve this problem about shipping the rifles, Papa,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”
Papa shrugged. “Who is standing in our way?” he asked.
It was a simple question, but it had a deep meaning in the Miranda family. When they had an intractable problem, they asked Who is standing in our way? It really meant Whom do we have to kill to get this done? It brought back to Micky all the barbarism of life in Santamaria Province, all the grisly legends he preferred to forget: the story about how Papa had punished his mistress for being unfaithful to him by putting a rifle up her and pulling the trigger; the time a Jewish family opened a store next to his in the provincial capital, so he set fire to it and burned the man and his wife and children alive; the one about the dwarf who had dressed up to look like Papa during the carnival, and made everyone laugh by strutting up and down in a perfect imitation of Papa’s walk — until Papa calmly went up to the dwarf, drew a pistol, and blew his head off.
Even in Cordova this was not normal, but there Papa’s reckless brutality had made him a man to be feared. Here in England it would get him thrown in jail. “I don’t anticipate the need for drastic action,” Micky said, trying to cover his nervousness with an air of unconcern.
“For now, there is no hurry,” Papa said. “Winter is beginning at home. There will be no fighting until the summer.” He gave Micky a hard look. “But I must have the rifles by the end of October.”
That look made Micky feel weak at the knees. He leaned against the stone parapet of the bridge to steady himself. “I’ll see to it, Papa, don’t worry,” he said anxiously.
Papa nodded as if there could be no doubt about it. They were silent for a minute. Out of the blue, Papa said: “I want you to stay in London.”
Micky felt his shoulders slump with relief. It was what he had been hoping for. He must have done something right, then. “I think it might be a good idea, Papa,” he said, trying to hide his eagerness.
Then Papa dropped his bombshell. “But your allowance will stop.”