Chapter Twenty
"Barker!" Hugh greeted an old acquaintance with the exuberance he was known for "How are you? Haven't seen you in years! Come and have a drink"
"Barrington" Barney Barker acknowledged "It's a little early, isn't it?"
"Not at all, not at all" Hugh shepherded him off to a quieter corner of the club and added more quietly "I wanted to warn you of something I've heard without drawing too much attention."
"Oh?" Barney looked worried. Hugh never usually looked for him "Large scotch, no ice." he said to one of the club waiters.
"Good choice, I'll join you!" Hugh nodded and the waiter left. Speaking more normally he said "I was chatting to a mutual acquaintance about something and he mentioned you may want to know my latest information as well."
"I see" Barney's sense of foreboding increased. "Do I need that drink before you begin?"
"Maybe" Hugh admitted "How are things generally? Family alright? Your girls must be nearly grown up by now"
"Yes, Annabelle comes out this year and Sophie is at finishing school" Barney looked up gratefully as the drinks arrived. He took a sip to prepare himself.
"Thanks" Hugh said to dismiss the waiter. "So, I hear you'd invested a bit in some printing venture that Albright is involved in?"
"Yes, he raved about it. Said that print never goes out of fashion and it was an up and coming publishing house. He introduced me to Grey at some Tuesday night shindig, all seemed above board and the dividends have been regular" Barney relaxed a little. Maybe things weren't that bad after all.
Hugh nodded "I see. Did you invest anything else with Grey?"
"I did, as a matter of fact. He had a very juicy deal coming up but could only let a fixed number of investors get involved - something about the owner wanting to keep the company a private holding and maintain control. Apparently there had already been a lot of interest, so he was only approaching those he knew would be serious investors. Why?" Barney sipped his drink.
"I need you to keep this quiet" Hugh looked at Barney with a serious eye, and Barney nodded "The police suspect Grey has done a runner. They will want to talk to you to find out what you knew about his business. It's your only chance of getting any of your investment back."
Barney froze. "But I have contracts. Surely I can just retrieve the money from the companies involved?"
"From what I've heard, many of these companies exist in paper form only." Hugh fished for a card in his pocket. "This is the name of the person dealing with the case as far as my contact knew. I'd get in touch as soon as possible if I were you." He handed the details over to a very pale Barney. "Do you know anyone else who had interests?"
Barney gulped what was left of his drink. "Only Albright. Grey said it was on a need to know basis, and that if more people knew and invested we wouldn't make as much. I think Albright told a few others maybe." He looked up "How bad is it, really?"
"It's bad." Hugh confirmed "I hope you weren't in for too much?"
"Enough" muttered Barney "I'd better get on to this right away. Excuse me" and with that he left. Hugh sighed. He hated spreading the bad news, but knew it had to be done. He looked around the club for someone to have a more cheery conversation with while he waited for Dickie.
-TW- -TW- -TW-
The main course was roast beef, another of Charlotte's favourites.
"This reminds me so much of my Father" she recounted with a fond smile "He always insisted on roast beef no matter where we were on Sunday or what the weather was. I know now he was as flawed as the rest of us, but to me growing up he was wonderful." she looked around the table "He insisted I be allowed the same education as my brothers, even though it was not the done thing. My Mother objected strongly: it wasn't seemly and would ruin me for marriage" she chuckled "Father just ignored her as he usually did."
"Well, I for one am glad!" Barbara stated "Without your knowledge and contacts amongst the liberal set we wouldn't be where we are today." she turned to Isobel "No doubt you are aware of the revisions being proposed to the Representation of the People Act? Who do you think has been active in driving the change?"
Isobel turned to her old friend in admiration "Have you truly? It must be so gratifying to be working for such a cause!"
"I am but a small cog in the organisation, I can assure you. The real work to effect change was done by those brave women 20 years ago. However there were those of us, being pigheaded enough, that refused to stop at the concessions in the 1918 Act, that's all. And we knew which ears we might bend to try and get something done about it." Charlotte downplayed her role.
"Small cog! Poppycock" Lady Marjorie scoffed "And I happen to know you have a few WSPU medals yourself?"
"Anyway, what have you been up to these last few years?" Charlotte asked Isobel, trying to change the subject "I hope you've been keeping yourself out of too much trouble!"
"Well, these days I'm the Almoner at the local hospital. We merged with York a few years ago which has given us access to much better facilities. It been a real boon for us." Isobel admitted "Matthew's death was such a shock and really knocked the stuffing out of me for a while. I threw myself into some local charity work, but they don't need me so much now. And then just recently a grandson we didn't know we had arrived on our doorstep…"
"What?!" "You didn't know?" "How come?" Questions abounded from all sides.
Margaret chimed in with "Wait till you hear about all this" never one to miss the opportunity for a bit of friendly gossip.
"Dickie, my husband, has 2 sons from his first marriage and they have never been very fond of me…" Isobel began
"Understatement." Margaret declared "From what I heard they made their displeasure at your engagement known and you got cold feet." The ladies looked concerned and scandalised.
"You let them chase you off?" Barbara asked, shocked that the Isobel she knew would have ever backed down.
"I couldn't face the idea of coming between Dickie and his children, and the endless bad feeling." Isobel shrugged "I felt it would be a poison that would eat us apart."
"Probably true" Charlotte agreed "So what changed?"
"Do any of you know Amelia Cruikshank? Molly's daughter?" Margaret asked.
"I could never understand how such a lovely lady as Molly had such a poisonous vixen for a daughter" Celia said, shaking her head.
Lady Marjorie agreed "She definitely takes after her Father. I know a few friends who had issues with her scheming ways when it came to catching herself a husband. I did hear she married a chap who would ensure she got a title one day. Not as grand as she wanted, but after that near scandal with that American, she was lucky with what she got."
"Aah, yes I think I remember. Wasn't that something to do with those goings on at the Dorchester?" Margaret queried, Marjorie nodded, Barbara cooed "Anyway, she's Isobel's daughter-in-law!"
"You poor dear" Lady Marjorie consoled. "I could understand you backing out"
"Well, Amelia wasn't on the scene then. She appeared the following year and started encouraging Dickie and being very nice to me. My cousin Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Lady Marjorie choked on her drink) had a conversation with her and got Amelia to admit that the only reason she was pushing us together was because she didn't want to be stuck looking after him."
"I didn't know Violet Crawley was your cousin; I would LOVE to have been part of that conversation!" Lady Marjorie chuckled.
"But you are married to him?" Celia said "So what changed?"
"He was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia" Isobel said quietly.
"Oh Isobel, I'm sorry" Barbara was all concern.
"I don't understand? Is that bad?" Charlotte queried.
"Usually fatal within a short period of time. We don't really know why, but the body seems to stop working properly. A person gradually withers away in front of your eyes." Barbara explained. Charlotte reached out to squeeze Isobel's hand.
"It was then that I realised how much I loved him, but Larry and Amelia secluded him away at Cavenham and forbade visitors. It was Violet that insisted we do something to stop him dying alone, but Larry and Amelia were having none of it..."
"So she kidnapped him!" Margaret thrilled. The ladies laughed and giggled "Whisked him away home and married him post haste!"
"So romantic" Sighed Barbara "I've always been a sucker for a tragic love story."
"Except he's still alive, isn't he?" Charlotte queried "Didn't Margaret say you'd been married a couple of years?"
"Yes, it turned out he'd been misdiagnosed. It was just a common iron deficiency anaemia. I'd got my prince after all!" Isobel smiled getting into the spirit of things.
"But you still have the sons to deal with, don't you." Celia asked "I'm guessing that's somewhat soured the pudding."
"Dickie had handed over running the estate and all the London holdings to Larry as the eldest when he first left Cavenham. Until John turned up on our doorstep, we hadn't heard anything from them at all" Isobel explained.
"Ah, got the money and ditched the old man, hey!" Barbara chuckled "And what of this young man John?"
"Have you got any of those photos in your handbag?" Margaret asked. She turned to the girls "He is the cutest little thing"
Isobel produced a few snaps taken with the new camera. "He's such an easy child really, considering" She smiled as the ladies admired the photographs.
"I see what you mean about dishy!" Barbara chuckled
"Hang on!" Lady Marjorie interrupted the Dickie appreciation going on "Isn't that Lord Merton? Does that mean your son-in-law is Larry Grey?"
"Yes." Isobel confirmed, a little warily. "Do you know him?"
TW- -TW- -TW-
"Has Inspector Money been to see you?" Dickie asked gently.
Tim nodded "A couple of times. Asked a lot of questions I couldn't answer."
"Have you looked into any of these investments since then?" Dickie probed.
Tim nodded his head "A couple. I stopped looking."
There was a long pause. Dickie wanted to ask so much, but realised that Tim probably didn't have any of the answers he wanted and the police had probably asked the same questions anyway.
"I don't know what to do Pa" Tim said quietly. "I was always so sure that Larry knew what he was doing and I could trust him. But now…." Tim looked up "What do I do Pa?"
Dickie felt a lump in his throat. The last time Tim had called him Pa was before he went away to school. He just wanted to wrap Tim up and tell him everything would be alright, but he knew that wasn't necessarily true. Well, maybe he could do the next best thing.
"Do you have any leave owing to you? Or do you have to go to work this week?" Dickie asked.
"I can't face going in" Tim admitted "I can ring in and probably arrange rest of the week off."
"Good. Do that. I'll go and pack you a bag" Dickie declared "Isobel and I are going home in the morning: you can come and stay with us in Yorkshire. Some distance and some clean air will help. You and I can go through all this together. We can assess the damage and make a plan. Then you can come back ready to take on whatever is necessary."
"I'm not sure" Tim said doubtfully "I'm not exactly Isobel's favourite person. She won't want me under the same roof."
"Isobel is a wonderful woman, you know. You just never gave her a chance. I'll talk to her tonight and make sure she's happy, if it will make you feel better?" Tim nodded. "And it wouldn't hurt if you apologised when you see her either" Tim hung his head. "I'll pack you a bag, but I want you to spend the afternoon looking out all the paperwork you have relating to your finances or anything you had to do with Larry. Make sure you bring it all."
A short while later, Dickie was preparing to leave. He looked into the sitting room to see Tim sorting through papers at the bureau. "How goes it?"
"It's depressing." Tim grumbled.
"These things are necessary." Dickie reminded him "I've packed for you, you just need to add your wash bag in the morning. We'll be here by about 10 o'clock to collect you."
Tim crossed the room and shook his Father's hand "Thanks Pa."