The Sins of Lord Easterbrook (31 page)

Tong Wei shook his head, but not in disagreement. “Before this is over, I think someone will die. My duty is to make certain that it is not you. Make your alliances quickly, so I can return you to your brother.”

The clerk returned then. He ushered her into the back office.

Mr. St. John was gracious enough while he sized her up, and even a touch courtly in his greeting. A man with a rather startling handsome face, there was something uncompromising about him.

He invited her to sit, then lowered his tall, dark self into another chair. He was the sort of man who made one uncomfortable from the start, no matter how polite he might be.

“How did you find me?” he asked.

“The Marquess of Easterbrook suggested I should meet with you.”

He smiled. It did not do much to soften what was by nature a fairly cruel mouth. “Perhaps he did, but Easterbrook did not give you this address. He does not even have it himself yet.”

Oh, dear. “I visited the Royal Exchange and asked where I might find you. A clerk at the offices of Lloyd's mentioned these chambers.”

“How indiscreet of him.”

“Please do not hold it against him. I confess that I cajoled shamelessly.”

“I expect that there are many men who are susceptible
when you do that.” It was not meant as flattery. He put her on notice that he was not such a man, if she were stupid enough to think he might be. He settled more comfortably, however. He was not going to send her away.

“What do you want with me, Miss Montgomery?”

“When Lord Easterbrook mentioned you, I recognized the name. You are known in Asia, of course. I thought you were French, but I was interested at once in meeting you when I learned that you are in London now.”

“Miss Montgomery, twice now you have dropped Easterbrook's name with ease. The implication is that he sent you. However, I know that he did not.”

“You do?”

“His brother approached me. I was agreeable to seeing you, but I requested a meeting alone with Easterbrook first. That has not occurred.”

“You have found me out, sir. Lord Easterbrook's aid has been removed, and I am making my own way once again. I pray that you will hear me anyway, perhaps due to your old acquaintance with my father.”

Her reference surprised him. “I did not realize that you knew about that.”

“I recently read some of his papers. In one he speculated about the opium smugglers, and listed captains and shippers who might be available to ply that trade. Beside your name he jotted, ‘Never. I know him, and it is impossible.’ I confess that is one reason why I decided to approach you first.”

“My ships do not take cargoes of slaves either. Just so you know, in the event that you—”

“We are of like mind, I assure you. We do not want that trade.”

“Perhaps you should explain what you do want.”

She described her desire for an alliance that would expand her brother's reach and improve the efficiency of his routes of trade. She suggested that if St. John contracted to make use of the holds of Montgomery and Tavares, he could expand his own business.

“Miss Montgomery, what you describe is of little benefit to me. Currently, that is. In five years, however, the alliance that you propose might prove very profitable.”

“We do not want to wait that long.” Without an alliance they might not survive that long. “Why would we be of more interest later than now?”

“The remaining monopolies of the East India Company will not survive in its next charter renewal. When trade between England and the East is open to all, your family's connections with the Canton's
hong
merchants will become much more valuable. As will any partnership that I may forge with you.”

His vision of the future made a lot of sense, but his last sentence dismayed her. “Partnership? I did not propose a partnership.”

“Nothing less would benefit me. I would also require a controlling interest in the resulting company. The relative strengths and sizes of our current situations warrant it.”

“If there were a partnership, I think it would have to be equal. That is only fair.”

“I doubt that your assets are even one tenth of mine. Aside from that, there are other issues that unbalance matters.”

“We are in Canton. That alone tips the scales back in our favor.”

He shook his head. “Your brother is in Canton, not
you.
He is still green, and as a woman you are not allowed there. The business is too dependent on you, and admirable though your successes have been, your sex limits your reach. Your father's refusal to ignore the smugglers weakened you and your ships are still vulnerable. If I throw in with you now, I must have a free hand to deal with all of that, to ensure that you do indeed survive for the future.”

He spelled out their vulnerabilities rather too well. “It is my brother's company now. I cannot effect the kind of partnership that you describe without his agreement.”

“I have a man in India. I will give you a letter when you sail back. If your brother is agreeable, bring that letter to my factor in Calcutta. He will know what to do once he reads it.”

Mr. St. John assumed it would only go one way. He knew just how tenuous the solvency of Montgomery and Tavares had been these last years. She had hoped to forge informal alliances that would offer some protection, but it appeared this shipper would accept only a merger, where he swallowed her father's company whole.

“And my brother? What should I tell him about his position in this unequal partnership?”

“Since he holds the Country Trader license, he will be needed as long as the current system remains in place. If he proves to have your abilities, there will always be a place for him. If not, he will share the profits
but not the decisions. I will want one of my people in Canton with him as soon as the deal is struck, however.”

“I can see that I have much to consider. I do not even know how to present this when I go home, or how to advise him.”

“Consider at your leisure and advise as you must. The East India Company's monopoly will not end tomorrow, and, as I said, this partnership is of little benefit to me currently.”

It might be of considerable benefit to Montgomery and Tavares, however. She suspected there would be fewer episodes with pirates and port officials if St. John's free hand was at work.

She stood to take her leave. He escorted her to the door and opened it for her.

“If I may ask, Mr. St. John—How did my father know you?”

“We did one small piece of trading together. It was long ago. I was little more than a boy.”

“And yet he formed a strong opinion of your character. Would you tell me how you met him? It is rare for me to speak with someone who knew him back then.”

She paused at the door, hoping he would indulge her.

“Perhaps you should be content in your memories, Miss Montgomery.”

“My memories are of a man fighting to survive. Of a man old before his time.”

He examined her critically. “It may be best if I tell you. It could affect your brother's decision, and your influence. I would not want you to later think I had deceived you.”

“Deceived me? I do not understand.”

He closed the door. “I had one ship back then, and my use of it could be reckless. I was not above a little smuggling into the Eastern kingdoms that forbad normal trade. The Chinese coast is a big one, and very porous. Your father had bought a cargo of bronze pots in India. He paid me to deliver them to the coast, forty leagues north of Canton.”

“Bronze pots? He paid you to smuggle bronze pots into
China?”

“A little like smuggling coal into Newcastle, isn't it? That preyed on my mind as I sailed toward China. One night I went below and opened a crate and examined those urns. They were not empty. They had been packed with opium.”

His accusation stunned her. “That is not possible. I do not believe you.”

“Believe what you want, but I smuggled for him, and that was the true cargo. It all went into the sea, Miss Montgomery. I delivered the pots as contracted and nothing more, and I never dealt with your father again.”

A sentry stood on Grosvenor Square. Christian noticed him as soon as he turned his horse onto the street.

Everyone else noticed Tong Wei too. He might have been a statue, he remained so still. An exotic statue, dressed in shafts of sapphire silk, with his ageless face fixed in resolve.

He moved and blocked the groom from taking
Christian's horse. One second Tong Wei was immobile and the next his face was turned up to Christian's own.

“You should come now,” he said. “I think she will talk to you.”

Christian handed the reins to the groom. “I am sure that she does not want to. Nor can I say anything to make her less angry.”

“She is not angry. That would be normal. Healthy.” Tong Wei shook his head. “She has not been herself. It is worse today, not better. You will come and she will talk to you.”

Tong Wei walked away. Christian entered his house.

“How long has the Chinaman been outside?” he asked the footman who took his crop and gloves.

“Two days, my lord. He was first there yesterday, early morning. Lady Wallingford demanded we remove him, but he did not seem to understand what we were saying. Lord Elliot called in the afternoon, and told us to leave him be.”

“That was wise advice.” He would not want Tong Wei insulted by the servants. Nor would he want to see the damage if Tong Wei felt the need to defend himself against them.

Leona had not sent him here. He had come on his own. Tong Wei was not a man to care about lovers’ quarrels, and his worry was deep. If he had stood on the street for two days, awaiting acknowledgment, there was a good reason.

“I will need a fresh mount. Tell the grooms to bring my bay around as soon as he is saddled.”

He found her in the garden, sitting under the small tree that had offered entry to the intruders. She noticed him watching her from ten feet away. A sad half-smile formed, then she looked at the ivy at her feet.

It was not much of a welcome, but he had expected worse. He went over and sat beside her on the stone bench.

“Tong Wei is worried about you.”

“Tong Wei can be an old woman sometimes.”

“He takes his duty very seriously. You cannot fault him for that. Your behavior concerns him.”

She sighed with exasperation. “I do not have to be talkative all the time. I do not have to always be busy. I am allowed periods of reflection too, am I not? Tong Wei reflects all the time. You have wasted half of your life in reflection. Why am I supposed to be devoid of deeper thoughts, even for a day or two?”

He chose to ignore her easy annoyance, but he did not miss her criticism of his habits. “He does not think that this melancholy is caused by any emotion that he understands.”

“Did he go to you and tell you to come here?” Her color rose with her embarrassment. “He should not have imposed like that.”

“It was no imposition. I would have come anyway.” And he would have. He would have found another excuse if Tong Wei had not handed him this one. “I might have washed first, and changed my coats, but I intended to call.”

Her gaze darted at him. He read the question in her eyes. Why?

Why indeed? Why bother? Why inconvenience
them both? Why face her suspicions? Why pick up the row again?

He did not know. Because she had not left his thoughts during these days apart, he supposed. Because after activity ceased and he was alone with himself, a new void existed in his isolation. Because he still wanted her.

“I read the notebook,” she said. “I know why you took it, and why you did not want to give it to me.”

“I did not read it until recently, so you know more now than I did even a fortnight ago. I took it for the reason I said, Leona. No other. Your father was determined to pursue his investigations, no matter what the danger. The fire on that ship said he might pay with his life. Or yours. I took it, but not to protect anyone but you.”

“But you guessed what was in it.”

He had chosen not to guess. Not to know. There had been too much of that in his life. “Did you never wonder how I arrived at your father's door? Why he accepted me as a guest?”

“You were English. I assumed that you had a letter of introduction.”

“I had no letter. I only had a name. I brought him the Marquess of Easterbrook's greetings. I arrived in the East before word of my father's death became known, so he thought I spoke for a living man.”

“But why?”

“I had seen my father's accounts and papers. I had the names of men in places like Canton and Macao and India, and I used them like stepping-stones. They gave direction to an aimless journey. Reginald Montgomery of Macao was one of those names. I swear that I did not
know how and why our fathers knew each other. And I used a false name because my use of opium shamed me even as it enthralled me.”

She remained skeptical. Of course she did. He did not blame her.

“When he told me about his troubles, and his conviction that there were men in England profiting handsomely from the smuggling.…I suspected the connection then,” he admitted. “He was not confiding so much as quizzing. He wanted to learn if I knew anything, or had been sent by the marquess for the reasons you suspect.”