Carola Dunn Read Online Free PDF

square than round, with a look of steadfast--perhaps a trifle obstinate--determination softened by his friendly smile. Though Felix had always considered him short of stature, he was taller than Moses Solomon by half a head.
    Shaking the young Jew’s hand with a hearty greeting, Frank said, “I hope your arrival means more gold for the army. Our pay is overdue again.”
    Solomon looked to Felix for permission, then assured him, “Yes, I brought gold from Mr Rothschild.”
    “Good. Take a seat and help yourself. Carting bullion about must give you a good appetite.”
    “That was how I first came into contact with the Rothschilds,” Felix remarked as they sat down. “I worked for the Treasury then. My superiors didn’t yet trust Nathan Rothschild, so they sent me to escort his first shipment of gold to Wellington in the Peninsula, right across France.” He buttered a slice of bread, removed the crusts, and cut it into fingers for Anita, who was still sitting on his knee.
    “I remember when news of that gold’s arrival spread,” Frank said, filling glasses with beer from a pitcher. “Just before Fuentes de Oñoro, it was. I can tell you, the men went into battle with a better heart for knowing they’d be paid. But it was rumoured that two Jews brought the gold down out of the mountains,” he added, puzzled.
    “I never reached Spain,” Felix confessed. “When Isaac Cohen and I were reconnoitering the border, in the Pyrenees, I was stupidly careless. I had a bad fall. Isaac went on to meet Kalmann Rothschild and deliver the gold, while Miriam Jacobson--she was our guide--had to stay behind and nurse me.”
    He was unaware of his change of tone when he spoke Miriam’s name until Fanny cast him a shrewd glance, with a hint of compassion. To the devil with the woman, she was too knowing by half! He concentrated on slivering a slice of cheese and feeding a piece to Anita.
    What Lady Sophia would have thought if she’d seen him cuddling a nobody’s by-blow didn’t bear thinking of. If she ever heard about Rothschild--yet the Duke and his staff respected him no less for his employment. As Isaac and Miriam had pointed out to him, he performed a necessary task, vital to Napoleon’s defeat, which was more than most members of the aristocracy could claim.
    Anita whispered in his ear, pointing, “Please, Tío Felix, my lord, may I have some strawbies? If I eat all my cheese first I’ll be too full.”
    He reached for the dish of berries. What did he care what anyone thought? His little charmer was worth a dozen Lady...ladies.
    “Yet Rothschild hired you despite your making a cake of yourself,” Frank commented, peeling the red wax from a large chunk of Edam. “Do you like working for him, my lord?”
    “The work is interesting. I respect him enormously, both his ability and his integrity, and I have no qualms about giving him my loyalty, second only to my family and my country. Equally important, he pays well, and on time.”
    “Better than a captain’s pay, I wager. Besides, once we’ve put Boney to bed with a shovel, I shall be on half pay, I daresay. Any chance of a position with Mr Rothschild, do you suppose?”
    “I honestly couldn’t say. He hired me because I have an entrée to Society which is useful to him.” And on Isaac’s recommendation. Felix didn’t mention that he would have been prepared to recommend Frank to the banker if the mystery of the inquisitive Cockney had not cast a shadow of doubt on his seeming respectability.
    “I can’t offer any friends in Society,” said Frank, crestfallen. “I’m a simple soldier.”
    Fanny sprang to her brother’s defense. “Mama’s father was a peer.” At once she wished the words unsaid, as Felix turned on her an incredulous gaze.
    “He was? You have never mentioned that before.”
    She shrugged her shoulders. “He cast her off when she ran away with Papa, so it cannot signify. She used to tell us the story as a fairy tale, ending with her