The Sea Between Read Online Free PDF Page B

now, Ben?’
    Ben nodded and stuffed his handkerchief back into his jacket pocket. ‘I threw a pailful of water on the blazing wood, and Richard climbed up on to the roof and put a wet blanket over the chimney. It smothered the fire straight away, but we had a kitchen full of smoke for a while and a pile of soot fell down the chimney. I’ve just been clearing the worst of it.’
    ‘You should have let the woman who caused the fire clean up the mess,’ John said. ‘Who is she? Is she a local woman?’
    Ben shook his head. ‘She’s an itinerant labourer.’
    ‘I offered her a fortnight’s work,’ Letitia explained. ‘She looked down-at-heel and I felt sorry for her. She told me she could cook, so I asked her to make some scones for tonight’s supper. I suppose what happened was partly my fault, because I told her to make sure the oven was good and hot before she cooked them.’
    ‘The oven certainly was good and hot, Mother,’ Richard said, as he handed Isobel her sherry. ‘The scones she cooked look like cinders.’ With a smile he handed the other glass to Ann.
    ‘Well, we’ll not employ another itinerant worker,’ Ben said. ‘Once bitten, twice shy, I say.’
    ‘But then the good will suffer as well as the bad,’ Isobel commented.
    Ben nodded. ‘They will, but I’m afraid that’s the way of the world.’
    ‘Ah yes, the world,’ Isobel said.
    Richard looked at her, waiting for her to finish, then realized that she had finished. He breathed a discreet sigh and went to fetch Charlotte’s port.
    Quarter of an hour later, everyone had been supplied with a drink and found a comfortable seat and the conversation had moved on from the chimney fire to more general matters.
    ‘What d’you think of your father’s farm, Captain Steele?’ John asked.
    ‘From the little I’ve seen of it, it looks a very fine piece of land,’ Richard returned. ‘I’m planning to explore it more thoroughly before I leave.’
    ‘You’ve no plans to trade the sea for a life on the land?’ John asked.
    ‘Not at present,’ Richard said. ‘I know the sea isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I enjoy it.’
    ‘Richard comes from a long line of seamen,’ Ben commented. ‘My father was captain of a barque, and my grandfather served in the merchant navy.’
    ‘You own a barque, too, do you, Captain Steele?’ Charlotte asked.
    Richard nodded. ‘I do. As for own …’ He gave a short laugh. ‘At present the bankers own nearly as much as I do.’
    ‘How much interest does a bank charge for a loan these days?’ John asked.
    ‘Too much,’ Richard said drily.
    ‘You might do better with a private loan,’ George suggested. ‘Private company loans are very competitive.’
    ‘It depends what you mean by “better”,’ Richard replied. ‘Privatecompanies sometimes go bankrupt. If they do, when you have a loan with them, it can be a time-consuming and expensive business to sort out. A bank may not have the cheapest interest rates, but it’s secure.’
    ‘Richard, I’m sure our guests don’t want to listen to talk of bank loans all evening,’ Letitia interrupted in mildly reproving tones. ‘They want to hear about your travels, not your finances. Not many people have had the good fortune to visit every continent in the world, as you have.’
    ‘Not every continent, Mother,’ Richard corrected. He tossed her a slightly impatient look, wishing she wouldn’t refer to his sea voyages as ‘travels’. He’d asked her before not to do it. It led people to expect that he was widely travelled in a way that he wasn’t. His ‘travels’ were across oceans, not land. In terms of land, which was what people wanted to hear about, he’d seen very little.
    ‘You’ve been to India, I believe, Captain Steele? Your mother showed us a carved ivory tusk that you bought for her a few years ago in Bombay,’ John said.
    Richard nodded. ‘Yes, Bombay is an interesting place. It’s recently become quite a prosperous port,