Andrew Pepper - The Revenge of Captain Paine

‘Who would have thought it, eh?’ Marguerite whispered, beside Pyke. ‘The two of us taking afternoon tea and pretending to behave like members of the aristocracy.’

‘Is that all this is to you? A pretence?’ Pyke muttered, without turning to face her.

‘Why? Are you worried I’ll say something out of turn?’

‘It’s not the time and place for this conversation,’ he said, still not looking around at her.

‘Doesn’t your wife know that we used to fuck?’

‘Her name’s Emily.’

‘A nice, proper, wholesome name.’

‘And if Morris found out you had another motive for wanting this particular house and estate,’ Pyke whispered, ‘would he be so understanding?’

‘Don’t flatter yourself, Pyke.’ Briefly Marguerite turned her head in his direction. ‘I had other reasons for wanting to move here.’

Emily had gathered Felix up in her arms and was giving him an exaggerated kiss, the kind that unfailingly made him squeal and giggle, and for a moment they all watched the performance, Pyke feeling a brief moment of pride that he was Emily’s husband and Felix’s father. He glanced across at Marguerite and noticed that her eyes were fixed on Emily and Felix with a peculiar intensity and that her fists were tightened into small round balls. Having put Felix down, Emily started to chase after him and, squealing with delight, for this was one of his favourite games, he hared across the room, straight into Marguerite’s arms. She tried to scoop him up and offer the boy the same kiss that Emily had given him, although with rather less success. In the process of trying to free himself from her grip his little fist accidentally caught her in the mouth and she let go of him. Felix landed awkwardly on the marble floor. For a moment, Pyke was certain the lad would burst into tears, and went to try to comfort him, but after a stunned silence Felix stood up a little gingerly and looked up at Marguerite, who was still trying to recover from the inadvertent punch she’d received. ‘I’m sorry,’ Felix said, almost in a whisper. ‘Did I hurt you?’ That was enough to take the sting out of the situation and Marguerite bent down, gave Felix a hug and said of course he hadn’t hurt her. Soon Felix was running around the room, pursued by an out-of-breath, laughing Marguerite. By this point Emily was chatting with Morris and Gore and Pyke couldn’t tell how she felt about being usurped, in their son’s eyes at least, by another woman.

‘I was just teasing Eddy here that, as a natural-born aristocrat, he can never quite know the extent of the pleasure that one experiences as a self-made man.’ Gore turned to Pyke and gave him a good-natured wink. ‘Perhaps you know a little of what I mean, sir.’ They were standing in a semicircle around the blazing log fire.

‘I’m always telling Emily that she doesn’t know the value of money because she’s never been without it.’ Pyke had meant it as a joke but saw her thunderous expression and realised, too late, that he had revealed too much.

‘I understand only too well the value that some men attach to the contents of their bank accounts.’ Emily’s tone was light and breezy but there was an edge to it as well.

‘You disapprove of such a state of affairs?’ Gore asked her, his eyebrows raised, a note of scepticism in his voice.

‘I disapprove of excessive wealth being hoarded away in dusty old vaults by the lucky few while ordinary men and women barely have enough to feed and clothe their families.’

‘Admirable sentiments but what might you consider to be… excessive? A hundred pounds? A thousand or perhaps even ten thousand pounds?’ Gore asked, with a smile.

This time she turned to face him. ‘If I told you I consider the wealth that one class derives from the toils of another to be parasitic in nature, you might be able to guess my answer.’

Morris chuckled, more from nerves, Pyke sensed, than because he found what she had just said amusing. ‘Surely you can’t object to the basic principle of risk and reward? The more a man risks, the more he deserves to be rewarded.’

Emily turned to him. ‘Perhaps you’ll agree that the most a man can risk is his own life.’

‘Of course,’ Morris said, quickly.

‘Then what of the men who risk their lives every day to dig the tunnels through which the London-to-Birmingham trains will eventually run?’ Emily looked over at Gore and folded her arms.

Silently Pyke kicked himself for not having remembered, until that moment, that Abraham Gore was also the chairman of the London and Birmingham Railway. Evidently, Emily had not been as slow on the uptake: from the first moment they’d been introduced, she had known who Gore was and what he did. Briefly he wondered how she’d known it and whether this knowledge had anything to do with her dealings with Julian Jackman.

‘Are you suggesting that the navvy men are somehow unfairly rewarded for their labour?’ Gore asked carefully.

‘In comparison to the proprietors who have seen their investments quadruple in the last six months, yes, I am.’ Emily paused for breath. ‘I read in the newspaper that a tunnel near Watford collapsed last week. Ten men lost their lives.’ She turned to Morris. ‘Using your risk-reward model, and given the extreme risks these men faced, without complaint or fear, how much do you imagine they were rewarded?’

For a moment no one spoke. Marguerite, Felix and Jo had disappeared to another part of the house. Around the fireplace, Gore and Morris exchanged an awkward look and Pyke both felt for their discomfort and admired the way in which Emily had turned their words against them.

‘Two shillings a day. Meanwhile, a moderately well-off clerk who has invested a small proportion of his savings, let’s say ten pounds, in London and Birmingham stock — someone whose risk is, in relative terms, quite small — would’ve seen, in the space of this last month, his ten-pound investment double in value. In other words he has made a profit of ten pounds for doing very little while the workers who continue to risk their lives make only a miserly two shillings a day. To me, that doesn’t seem fair. But perhaps I’ve missed something here that your more enlightened minds can put me right on?’

Pyke couldn’t help but smile. She’d posed a question that couldn’t be answered, at least not without Gore revealing his rapaciousness or hypocrisy.

Gore cleared his throat. ‘If I told you of the sleepless nights I’ve had since those poor men tragically lost their lives, would it make a difference?’ The sorrow and humility in his voice sounded genuine enough. ‘Or that I’ve done my very best to ensure that all of the dead men enjoy, though it’s probably the wrong word to use, proper funerals and that their families receive a full month of their wages?’ It was as good a response as he could have made in the circumstances.

‘I think you miss my point, sir,’ Emily said, gently. ‘I am not trying to berate you personally and I’m sure the arrangements you made were greatly appreciated.’

‘Your point was a more general one, then?’ Gore replied. ‘You, perhaps, believe labour should be the sole parent of wealth?’

‘I believe labour should receive its due reward and that workers have the right to the full product of their labours.’

‘Turning Ricardo, the economic philosopher of industrial capitalism, against his own, eh?’ Gore seemed to be enjoying the exchange now.

‘If Ricardo is happy to concede that capital is little more than accumulated labour, then who am I to argue?’

Gore nodded, almost as though he agreed with the point. ‘Perhaps I could ask you another question, my dear. Do you think the railways that Eddy and I are trying to build are, per se, a bad thing?’