A Dangerous Fortune(151)

“Very good, Mr. Hugh.”

“And then …”

“Yes, sir?”

Hugh paused. He knew he had no choice, but still he hesitated to say the dreadful words. He shut his eyes. Better get it over with.

“And then, Mulberry, you must close the doors of the bank.”

“Oh, Mr. Hugh.”

“I’m sorry, Mulberry.”

There was an odd noise down the line, and Hugh realized that Mulberry was crying.

He put down the phone., Staring at the bookshelves of his library, he saw instead the grand facade of Pilasters Bank, and imagined the closing of the ornate iron doors. He saw passersby stop and look. Before long a crowd would gather, pointing at the closed doors and chattering excitedly. The word would go around the City faster than a fire in an oil store: Pilasters has crashed.

Pilasters has crashed.

Hugh buried his face in his hands.

2

“WE ARE ALL absolutely penniless,” said Hugh.

They did not understand, at first. He could tell by their faces.

They gathered in the drawing room of his house. It was a cluttered room, decorated by his wife, Nora, who loved to drape every stick of furniture with flowered fabrics and crowd every surface with ornaments. The guests had gone, at last—Hugh had not told anyone the bad news until the party was over—but the family were still in their wedding finery. Augusta sat with Edward, both of them wearing scornful, disbelieving expressions. Uncle Samuel sat next to Hugh. The other partners, Young William, Major Hartshorn and Sir Harry, stood behind a sofa on which sat their wives Beatrice, Madeleine and Clementine. Nora, flushed from lunch and champagne, sat in her usual chair beside the fire. The bride and groom, Nick and Dotty, held hands, looking frightened.

Hugh felt most sorry for the newlyweds. “Dotty’s dowry is gone, Nick. I’m afraid all our plans have come to nothing.”

Aunt Madeleine said shrilly: “You’re the Senior Partner—it must be your fault!”

She was being stupid and malicious. It was a predictable reaction, yet all the same Hugh was wounded. It was so unfair that she should blame him after he had fought so hard to prevent this.

However, William, her younger brother, corrected her with surprising sharpness. “Don’t talk rot, Madeleine,” he said. “Edward deceived us all and burdened the bank with huge amounts of Cordova bonds which are now worthless.” Hugh was grateful to him for being honest. William went on: “The blame lies with those of us who let him become Senior Partner.” He looked at Augusta.

Nora looked bewildered. “We can’t be penniless,” she said.

“But we are,” Hugh said patiently. “All our money is in the bank and the bank has failed.” There was some excuse for his wife’s not understanding: she had not been born into a banking family.

Augusta stood up and went to the fireplace. Hugh wondered whether she would try to defend her son, but she was not that foolish. “Never mind whose fault it is,” she said. “We must salvage what we can. There must be quite a lot of cash in the bank still, gold and bank notes. We must get it out and hide it somewhere safe before the creditors move in. Then—”

Hugh interrupted her. “We’ll do no such thing,” he said sharply. “It’s not our money.”

“Of course it’s our money!” she cried.

“Be quiet and sit down, Augusta, or I’ll have the footmen throw you out.”

She was sufficiently surprised to shut up, but she did not sit down.

Hugh said: “There is cash at the bank, and as we have not officially been declared bankrupt, we can choose to pay some of our creditors. You’ll all have to dismiss your servants; and if you send them to the side door of the bank with a note of how much they are owed I will pay them off. You should ask all tradesmen with whom you have accounts to give you a statement, and I will see that they are paid too—but only up to today’s date: I will not pay any debts you incur from now on.”

“Who are you to tell me to dismiss my servants?” Augusta said indignantly.

Hugh was prepared to feel sympathy for their plight, even though they had brought it on themselves; but this deliberate obtuseness was very wearying, and Hugh snapped at her: “If you don’t dismiss them they will leave anyway, because they won’t get paid. Aunt Augusta, try to understand that you haven’t got any money.”

“Ridiculous,” she muttered.

Nora spoke again. “I can’t dismiss our servants. It’s not possible to live in a house like this with no servants.”

“That need not trouble you,” Hugh said. “You won’t be living in a house like this. I will have to sell it. We will all have to sell our houses, furniture, works of art, wine cellars and jewelry.”

“This is absurd!” Augusta cried.

“It’s the law,” Hugh retorted. “Each partner is personally liable for all the debts of the business.”

“I’m not a partner,” said Augusta.

“But Edward is. He resigned as Senior Partner but he remained a partner, on paper. And he owns your house—Joseph left it to him.”

Nora said: “We have to live somewhere.”

“First thing tomorrow we must all look for small, cheap houses to rent. If you pick something modest our creditors will sanction it. If not you will have to choose again.”