Читаем A Dangerous Fortune (1994) полностью

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."

Augusta said: "I have absolutely no intention of moving house, and that's final. And I imagine the rest of the family feel the same." She looked at her sister-in-law. "Madeleine?"

"Quite right, Augusta," said Madeleine. "George and I will stay where we are. All this is foolishness. We can't possibly be destitute."