Читаем Forever Amber полностью

“You talk like a merchant yourself, Jemima,” said Amber tartly, but brought herself up with another quick warning. “Well—” She contrived a smile. “So you’re in love with a nobleman. Then I hope for your sake he’ll come back to England soon.”

“Oh, I hope so too! I’d give anything to see him again! D‘you know—” she said with sudden confiding shyness, “last Hallowe’ en Anne and Jane and I baked a dumb-cake. Anne dreamed that night about William Twopeny—and now she’s married to him! And I dreamed about Lord Carlton! Oh, Amber, do you think he could ever fall in love with me? Do you think he’d ever marry me?”

“Why not!” snapped Amber. “You should have a big enough dowry!” The instant she heard the words she was furious with herself and quickly added, “That’s what men always think about, you know.”

In less than an hour she broke her promise to Jemima, for Samuel came in and she could not resist the temptation to speak to him of Bruce, though she began by saying innocently, “I heard today in the ’Change that the Dutch have told his Majesty their fleet is only to defend their fishing trade, and that he’s angry they should think he’s stupid enough to believe it.”

Samuel, who was putting off his outer clothes, laughed at that. “What a ridiculous lie! The Dutch fleet is for just one purpose—to run England off the seas. They’ve captured our ships, beaten our men in the East Indies, hung the St. George under their own flag, granted letters-of-marque against us, and done everything but dare us to fight them.”

“But we’ve been granting letters against them too, ever since the King came back, haven’t we?”

“If we have it’s not supposed to be known—the letters were mostly against the Spanish, though I don’t doubt that Dutchmen have been stopped too. Which is no better than they deserve. But how does it happen you know so much of our politics, my dear?” He seemed tenderly amused to hear his wife discussing serious matters.

“I’ve been talking to Jemima.”

“To Jemima? Well, I suppose she has the latest news at her finger-tips.”

“When it concerns privateers she does. She says you do business with ’em.”

“I do, with three or four. But I never knew Jemima to be very much interested in my business affairs.” He smiled as he stood before her, hands in his pockets while his eyes ran over her admiringly.

“It isn’t your business she’s interested in so much as the privateers.”

“Oh, so that’s it, is it? The little minx. Well—I suppose she thinks she’s in love with Lord Carlton.”

“How did you guess?”

“It wasn’t very difficult. He was here for supper once about a year ago. She could hardly eat a bite and talked about nothing else for days. Well, she’d better get him out of her head.”

“She says she’s waiting for him to come back.”

“Nonsense! He doesn’t know she’s on earth! His family’s one of the oldest in England and he’s made himself enormously rich privateering. He’s not interested in marrying some upstart merchant’s daughter.”

Samuel had no illusions about his social relationship to the aristocracy. His family was a new one, just come into power and wealth during the last two generations, and he had no snobbish ambition to buy his way into the peerage—as some men he knew were doing—at the price of his own self-respect.

“I wouldn’t want her to marry Lord Carlton if he’d have her. As a man, I like and admire him, but as a husband for my daughter—I wouldn’t consider it even if he wanted to marry her, which I know he doesn’t. No, Jemima’s going to marry Joseph Cuttle and she may as well get such ridiculous notions out of her head. The Cuttles and I have done business together for years and it’s a suitable marriage for her in every respect. I’ll speak to her directly about such nonsense.”

“Oh, please, Samuel—don’t do that! I promised her I wouldn’t tell you. But of course I thought you should know. Why not let me talk to her?”

“I wish you would, my dear. She has more respect for your opinion than for anyone’s.” He smiled and offered her his arm. “I don’t want to force her, and yet I know that it’s best for her and for all of us. The boy is young, but he’s very fond of her and is a quiet hard-working lad, exactly the kind of man she should marry.”

“Of course she should! But young girls have such silly ideas about men—” They started out of the room and Amber asked casually, “By the way, Samuel, is Lord Carlton coming to London soon?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Oh, I was only thinking that the contract should be signed before she sees him again—or heaven only knows what foolishness she might do.”

“That’s a very good idea, my dear. I’ll see the lawyers tomorrow. It’s kind of you to take an interest in my family.”

Amber smiled modestly.