Andrew Pepper - The Revenge of Captain Paine

But Gore wasn’t quite finished with Pyke. Turning to him, he indicated the construction site and added, ‘They look like tiny ants, don’t they? Do you imagine for one second that if a terrible accident was to befall one of them, if someone was to drop dead right in front of our eyes, I would lose any sleep over it?’ Blinking, he continued to gaze out at the landscape before them. ‘A sense of perspective is sometimes needed, don’t you think?’

Pyke watched Gore as he strolled back to rejoin the two surveyors and wondered whether he knew more about Emily’s and Felix’s abduction than he was letting on. Could he trust anything at all the man said or did? And had Gore already implicitly grasped the changed nature of their association?

At least Pyke knew why Gore wanted to buy a stake in his bank. The committee of the Grand Northern Railway was due to meet early in the following week to appoint a new chairman and discuss future plans for the troubled venture. As Blackwood’s was one of the railway’s major creditors, a nominated figure from the bank would be allowed to sit on the committee and, as Morris had suggested at the outset, would be given three votes on any substantial issues. In a potentially tight contest, these votes could make all the difference.

But according to Gore’s initial terms, Pyke could have retained a fifty-one per cent stake in Blackwood’s and therefore taken this position for himself. The question remained therefore: what did Gore know that he didn’t?

Perhaps William Blackwood himself would have some answers.

An hour or so later, Pyke found Blackwood sitting at the writing table in his office, stacking papers into neat piles. It was an orderly room with papered walls and varnished, grained oak furniture, a black marble fireplace and a clock ticking on the mantelpiece. Blackwood looked up at Pyke, his expression betraying surprise and fear. Nervously, he went to arrange a stray hair on his balding pate. Pyke closed the door and sat down. He waited for Blackwood to look at him and said, ‘You needn’t be afraid. I haven’t come to harm you. I just want to talk about our recent difficulties.’

Blackwood glanced over at the door. ‘You do know if the police find you, they’ll arrest you on sight.’

‘Very soon, I’ll be the least of your worries.’

‘In what sense?’

‘I want to know whether you took the loan papers from the vault.’ Pyke hesitated. ‘It’s a simple question and I’d like a straightforward answer.’

‘Of course I didn’t. To be honest, I thought you’d made the whole thing up, just to defraud the bank of the money.’ The indignation on Blackwood’s face appeared genuine.

‘William, William.’ Pyke sighed. ‘Where did it all go wrong? For a few years we were a good team.’ He looked around the room. It was odd to think that this would be his last time in the building.

When Blackwood didn’t speak, Pyke tapped his fingers on the polished surface of the writing table. ‘And that’s why you brought in this lawyer, Herries?’

Blackwood nodded.

‘And no one prompted you to do it, had a quiet word in your ear, a few firm words of encouragement?’

Pyke studied Blackwood’s expression carefully; in the end it was a slight twitch of the eyelid which gave his partner away. The indignation was gone, too. He was trying to give the impression he didn’t know what Pyke was talking about, but his denial struck a hollow note.

Pyke pulled his chair a little closer to the table and said, ‘I’ve agreed to sell my share of the bank to an interested party. It’s something I thought you had a right to know.’

Blackwood licked his lips and mopped his forehead with a handkerchief. ‘Do I get to find out who I’m to be sold to?’

‘I think you already know the answer to that question.’

‘How on earth would I know?’

‘Initially Abraham Gore just wanted a third share of the bank. I proposed to retain a fifty-one per cent stake, which in effect would’ve meant selling Gore fifteen per cent of my stock and forcing you to relinquish, let’s say, eighteen per cent of your holdings. But you see, even if you voted with Gore, this would only have given him forty-eight or forty-nine per cent of the bank. I’d still retain overall control. What I can’t work out is why he only wanted a third of the bank and why, when I offered to sell him my entire share, he didn’t leap at the chance with both hands. Do you understand my predicament?’

Blackwood fidgeted in his chair, not answering for a while. ‘Are you suggesting I’ve somehow been conspiring with this man behind your back?’

‘I’ve paid a man to follow you, William. You were seen having lunch with Gore a few days ago.’ Townsend had confirmed this when Pyke had last spoken to him.

Blackwood started to say something but Pyke stood up and held up his hand. ‘You miss my point. I’m not interested in listening to your explanations. But you will hear from me soon enough and, when that time comes, you’ll wish you’d made a different decision when Gore first approached you.’

‘I didn’t take those papers from the vault,’ Blackwood said, almost pleadingly.

‘That’s not the question I asked.’

‘I don’t know anything about Abraham Gore. I had lunch with him. That was all. You have to believe me.’

Pyke left the room without turning around or saying another word. It would be the last time he ever saw William Blackwood.

Pyke found Milly curled up on the bed, staring at the wall. He had just returned to Hambledon from the city and his afternoon appointment with Gore; the contracts had all been signed and Pyke was no longer the majority partner in Blackwood’s bank. He wasn’t sure whether this was something to be celebrated or mourned.

On his way up to Milly’s room, Jo had told him that, even by her standards, Milly had gone into a decline and hadn’t taken any food or water in more than a day. Pyke shut the door behind him, opened the curtains and waited for the girl to turn around and face him. He sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘I’ve been told you’re refusing to eat or drink anything. Is that right, Milly?’

Her small, quick eyes glowed in the half-light but still she refused to look at him, let alone speak.

‘Can I tell you a story, Milly? Would that be all right?’

This time she looked at him and gave him a curt nod of her head.

‘I never knew my mother and my father died when I was about the same age as you. I was there when he died too. There was this vast sea of faces and he lost his footing and was crushed under people’s feet. I remember that feeling, when the crowd dispersed, and I found his body. It wasn’t moving. I knew he was dead. I don’t know if I cried or not but I do remember holding my breath, closing my eyes and counting to ten, then twenty, thirty, forty, fifty even. Somehow I thought if I held my breath long enough or counted hard enough it would bring him back. Of course it never did but later, when I went to live with my uncle and I couldn’t sleep, I’d lie there and count the different things I’d seen or done since he died and somehow that helped me. It made me see that, whether I liked it or not, things moved on. Life moved on. I still thought about him, and about the day he died, but I thought about other things, as well. And I learned how to take care of myself.’ Pyke waited for a moment and then added, gently, ‘That’s the most important lesson a boy or a girl can learn. If I helped you at first, would you like to learn how to take care of yourself, Milly?’

She was staring at him but managed a slight nod.

‘Would you like to come with me on a trip to the seaside, Milly? Would you like to see the English Channel?’

Again she nodded, this time a little more vigorously. She may even have smiled, too.