Investments Read Online Free PDF Page A

older brother Roland, who carried a cup of coffee in one hand. Both wore civilian clothes, which made Severin more conscious than usual of his shabby uniform.
    “I suppose it won’t be long before I’m behaving like that,” Roland said as he watched Martinez twirling his son.
    “I suppose it won’t,” Severin said.
    Roland sipped coffee. Martinez tucked his son under one arm and turned to Severin. “Has the boy prodigy been bothering you?”
    “He’s been mashing Naxids, mostly.”
    Martinez grinned. “Exercising tactical genius, eh? Just like his father!” Young Gareth still under his arm, Martinez sprinted into the house as the child waved his fists and laughed aloud.
    “Perhaps I won’t behave like that, after all,” Roland decided.
    Martinez returned a few moments later, having delivered his offspring to the nursemaid. He combed his disordered hair with his fingers and dropped into the whitewashed metal chair next to Severin.
    “I saw you dancing last night,” he said. “With a curly-haired girl.”
    “Lady Consuelo Dalmas,” Severin said.
    “Consuelo.” Martinez blinked. “I thought she looked familiar. I used to see her older sister, when we were all, ah, much younger.”
    “She’s invited me to a garden party tomorrow afternoon.”
    Martinez smiled. “Have a good time.”
    “I will.” He considered offering a resigned sort of sigh and decided against it. “Of course,” he added, “sooner or later either she or her parents will discover that I’m not a Peer, and have no money, and then I won’t see her again.” Severin clasped his hands between his knees. “But then I’m used to that.”
    Martinez gave him an unsettled look. “You’re not regretting your promotion, I hope.”
    “No.” Severin considered. “But it’s made me aware of how many locked doors there are, doors that I once had no idea even existed.”
    “If there’s anything I can do to open them . . . “ Martinez ventured.
    “Thank you. I’m not certain there’s anything that can be done.”
    “Unless we have another war,” Roland said. “Then all bets are off.”
    Smiling lightly to himself, Roland walked to the verandah rail and looked out into the oak alley, raising his head at the honeyed scent of the o-pii flowers floating on the morning breeze. “Consuelo’s not right for you anyway, if you don’t mind my saying so,” he said. “Too young, too much a part of the fashionable set. What you need is a comely widow, or a young woman married to a dull old husband.”
    Martinez looked at him. “You don’t have anyone in mind, do you?”
    “Let me put my mind to it.”
    Martinez gave Severin an uneasy look. “Better make your wishes plain. Roland has disturbing success as a matchmaker.”
    There was something in the air, Severin felt, some history between the brothers that made this an uncomfortable moment.
    “I’m only here for a month,” Severin said.
    “Narrow window of opportunity,” Roland said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
    Martinez looked at Roland. “Apropos conspiracy,” he said, “do you know anything about Allodorm, Meridian Company’s chief engineer?”
    “I’ve met him on Chee Station,” Severin said. “Though I haven’t conspired with him.”
    “I haven’t met him at all,” Roland said. He turned around, eyes mild as he contemplated his brother. “I appreciate your confidence in my omniscience, but what I really do is look after family interests in the Convocation. I’m not really connected to the Chee development business.”
    “Terza thinks that Allodorm’s a swindler,” Martinez said. “And if she’s right, he’s in a perfect place to walk off with a lot of our money.”
    Roland absorbed this with a distracted frown. “What does Terza know, exactly?”
    “During the war, he took the money to build five ships and then didn’t build them.”
    Severin felt a moment of shock. As an officer in government service he was familiar enough with waste and theft, but