'John Haggard.' He held out his hand. Thomas Brand, at your service.'
Haggard shook hands. "You find me at a difficult moment, sir.'
‘I
ndeed, that magistrate is a confounded Whig. Not to be trusted. You are staying on in town?'
Haggard shrugged. There seems little point. Cummings here can find me an attorney. It seems I must crawl back to Derleth with my tail between my legs.'
'Stuff and nonsense,' Brand said. 'You'll not let a trifling setback like this disconcert you? Not John Haggard, I'll be bound. You'll dine with me, sir. I insist upon it.'
'You are very kind,' Haggard said. 'Perhaps you'd explain your interest in me.'
‘I
had heard you were a plain-spoken man as well. It will be my pleasure. You'll excuse us, Cummings.'
The agent did not seem offended. 'Of course Colonel Brand. I'll see to the matter right away, Mr. Haggard.'
'Aye,' Haggard said, and followed Brand outside into the drizzle. Here a phaeton was waiting, and a moment later they were seated side by side, the gate closed and a rug thrown across their knees. Brand drove himself, handling reins and whip with considerable skill.
‘I
was told of your arrival in England by Harry Addison,' he explained.
'Ah,' Haggard said. Then you'll be a political gentleman.' 'Indeed I am. I am one of the Tory whips.' 'You'll have to explain that to me.'
'It is my business to marshal sufficient support for Mr. Pitt in the Commons, whenever he feels the need of it. I may say he is most anxious to meet you. Will you not stay over for another few days?'
To meet Pitt?'
'Amongst others.'
'Aye, well, with this business over Middlesex dragging its feet, I doubt I will be much use to you.'
'But you must, Mr. Haggard. These are tumultuous times approaching. We shall need every vote we can find to carry through Mr. Pitt's programme. No, no, sir. You have suffered a setback. Believe me, every right thinking man will sympathise with you. But nothing more can be done, at least by you personally, until the case comes again to court. Now you must concentrate on your election. Of course it is a simple matter, owning Derleth Hall as you do, yet must you campaign forcefully, allow your views to be heard, bring yourself before the public. I may say we were disappointed at the haste with which you abandoned London.
’
‘I
received little welcome here,' Haggard pointed out. 'And I wished to see my new home.'
'You would have been welcomed, had you but spared the time,' Brand insisted. 'But that is an omission on our part for which I humbly apologise, and which I personally shall see is remedied. But first, dinner.' He turned the phaeton through the driveway of a house situated in a close off Bond Street. Yard boys hurried forward to take the bridle, while others opened the gate to allow their master down. Brand waited for Haggard, escorted him into the entry hall. 'I'd have you meet my daughters,' he said. 'Alison, and Emily.'
For the second time that
morning
. Haggard found himself bereft of speech as well as breath. For Alison Brand
was
breathtakingly lovely. About the same height as her father, she possessed similar features, but on her refined to such an extent that save for the delicious flare of her nostrils she might have been carved from marble. Her complexion was pale, with just a touch of colour at her cheeks, and the whole was shrouded in a halo of magnificently fine pale gold hair which descended past her shoulders in a dead straight s
hawl. Her figure had the slendern
ess of youth, but that it would match up to the promise of the face and the hair Haggard did not doubt for an instant.
Her sister was but slightly less perfect, and had the more ready smile; Haggard observed that although they were not twins, Alison being clearly the elder, they dressed alike, each wearing a simple blue gown, with a high waist and a low bodice, bosom modestly hidden by a white fichu, and their movements and gestures were remarkably similar, as were their voices, low and caressing.
'Mr. Haggard,' Alison said, extending her hand and leaving him uncertain whether to shake it or kiss it. 'Papa has told us so much about you.'
'Mr. Haggard,' Emily said, her actions duplicating her sister's, 'it is a pleasure to have you in our house.'
They look after me," Brand said, 'now that my dear wife has passed on. Ah, me, I must prepare myself to lose them, would you not say Haggard? Next summer Alison will be eighteen, and for presentation at court. If she does not run off and elope before then.'
Alison flushed prettily. 'Papa listens for the sound of ladders against my bedroom window, every night,' she said. 'You'll take a glass of punch, Mr. Haggard.' She led him into the withdrawing room, her sister at her side, while Haggard realised he had not spoken since entering the room. He was John Haggard. He was not the sort of man to be struck dumb by feminine beauty or feminine poise like some mooning youth. Yet he could think of absolutely nothing to say.
'Papa tells us you will be spending a few days with us,' Emily said, sitting beside him on the settee.
'Why, I . . .'
'Of course you will, Haggard. What, a man of your calibre staying with an agent? I'll send my man for your things.'
It was time to assert himself. 'You are too kind,' he said. 'But really it would be an imposition on your household. You will have heard, I am sure, Brand, that I am an uncouth colonial, who does not wear a wig, as you can see, and whose habits are truly appalling. Why, I was refused admission to Almack's on my last visit to town.'
'Everyone who is anyone has been refused admittance to Almack's, at some time or other, Mr. Haggard.' Alison Brand had seated herself on a straight chair opposite him. it really is a mark of distinction. But if it would suit you to return there, we shall see to it that you are admitted. As for being a colonial, I consider you as a breath of fresh air blown in to scatter away the cobwebs of this stuffy city.'
She paused, and looked almost surprised at the temerity of her speech, which only added to her attraction. Haggard glanced at Brand to see if he had taken offence, but the colonel continued to smile.
'As I said, Haggard, they rule me with a rod of iron. And mighty pleasant it is, too. I'd take deep offence, man, were you to refuse my invitation. How else could I have you meet the more important members of our party?'
He sat at Brand's right hand, opposite the tall, spare figure of Mr. Pitt. On his right, consuming port in great quantities, was the huge, jolly frame of Henry Dundas, while opposite Dundas in turn was his earlier acquaintance Henry Addison. Completing the party, at the foot of the table, was a very young man named Canning, like Haggard not yet an MP but who was apparently a protege of the Prime Minister.
The six of them had dined alone, the young ladies being despatched to have supper in their own quarters. In fact it had occurred to Haggard, during the three days he had spent in this house, that for all Brand's pretence of being subject to petticoat government,
he
ruled his household, and his daughters, with an iron will. Certainly there could be no doubt that he was the centre of the conspiracy which had as its object the ensnarement of one John Haggard. To what end? Merely to ensure he became a staunch supporter of the Tory cause? Or something far deeper, far more sinister, perhaps, looked at in the cold light of day, but impossible to regard as other than a delightful prospect when continually subject to the sight and the scent and the rustle and the gentle voices of the two sisters. With his senses in a continual state of inflammation in any event, he found it difficult to keep his hands off them whenever he saw them, and he saw them all day, for they had been deputed by their father to show him something of London, and each morning they had taken him sightseeing, to the Tower, and the Park, down the river by ferry to Greenwich and into the city to view the Bank of England. They had clustered close as the rain had dripped from their bonnets and soaked their pelisses, and when he had said, 'Now there is a remarkable thing,' as he had gazed up at the great colonnades of the Bank,
‘I
keep more than a million inside those vaults, and this is the first time I have ever seen the place,' Alison had given an almost hysterical laugh and clung to his arm for a moment.
So then, a plot. A Brand beauty in exchange for the Haggard money. An absurd idea, with Emma waiting for him in Derleth. And besides, as Alison was only seventeen and her sister a year younger, the difference in ages was a shade too great to contemplate. But a plot which could make no progress as he was aware of what was intended. And meanwhile it was almost the limit of pleasure to be so blatantly wooed by two such gorgeous creatures.
Almost
the limit of pleasure. And the limit remained, if the opportunity presented itself. If he dared. For these were ladies, not serving girls.
But he was John Haggard. It was only necessary to establish himself amongst these Tory barons instead of depending upon the support of someone like Brand, and that should not take long.
So then, are you a bad man, John Haggard? Or are your ambitions too great to be contained by manners of convention? It was not a question he wished to answer at this moment.
'Ireland,' Pitt was saying. There is our prime concern, gentlemen.'
'You choose a thorny path,' Dundas grumbled.
The path of justice,' Pitt insisted. 'Oh, they are mostly savages. I am under no false impressions about that. They rob and they steal and they murder each other without compunction. But the fault is surely ours. It was the ambition of Strongbow took us across the sea. Now, how long ago was that? Nearly six hundred years. And in all that time successive English governments have treated the Irish as a conquered, and more, an inferior species. In the last two hundred years the quarrels have been deepened by the difference between Catholic and Protestant. It must end, some day, and the sooner it does the better. I would regard my entire parliamentary career as a failure should I not eradicate the penalties of worshipping the Catholic faith, bury the Test Act, and have Irishmen, Protestant or Catholic, sitting at Westminster before I die.'
He paused to drink some port, and the table was for a moment silent.
'Have you any strong views on the matter, Haggard?' Brand asked.
‘I
agree with Mr. Pitt,' Haggard said. There are few barriers to Catholic advancement in the colonies, save of course in the government service. And I cannot persuade myself that the Pope poses any threat to England in this day and age.'
'Well said,' Pitt agreed.
'Aye, well, as I said, you choose a hard road,' Dundas repealed. 'And we'd best hope that we are granted the peace to pursue such ideals. What is your opinion of events in Paris, Haggard?'
'Faith, Sir Henry, I have had little time to consider them. But it appears the French are pursuing, in their own fashion, the goal of constitutional monarchy, which has been a considerable blessing to Great Britain, surely. I would say, if we could see the last of French ambitions, we may well be in for a period of peace in Europe.'
'My own thoughts entirely,' Pitt said enthusiastically.
'You do not suppose a French cabinet, even if free from the jurisdiction of a Louis XVI, might be similarly ambitious?'
Pitt gave a wintry smile. 'A French cabinet headed by whom. Harry? Jacques Necker?'
The men laughed.
'No, no, there is a complete absence of warlike intent in France at this moment, to my way of thinking. Indeed, whatever the outcome of the constitutional quarrel, we have little to fear. Louis XVI, God bless him, is less warlike even than Necker. Besides, they have no money with which to go to war. Which does not mean we shall not have occasion to defend ourselves. I fear the Russians, gentlemen. Their appetite is whetted with Poland, and they start to dream of Mediterranean expansion. You'll agree there is naught to stop them in Turkey. As a matter of fact, as Dundas will agree, one of the first acts of the new parliament must be to double the Navy appropriations.' "I'll say amen to that,' Dundas said.
'So will I,' Haggard said. 'I'm a West Indian, gentlemen. Any scheme for improving and enlarging the Navy will meet with my approval.'
Pitt finished his port. 'I must be on my way. Tomorrow is a busy one.' He stood up, came round the table, held out his hand. This has been a pleasure, Mr. Haggard. You are going to be a source of strength, sir, I can see that. Be sure you are there when the new Parliament convenes.'
'You have my word on it,' Haggard said.
Pitt gazed into his eyes for a moment, then nodded, and left the room, and the other guests went with him.
‘
I knew you'd appeal to Pitt,' Brand said. This night has seen you properly launched. Haggard. Another?' He had had a great deal to drink himself; his speech was very slightly slurred, and he swayed.