“Perhaps they’re not all puny Americans, their land a petty little province, as has been printed.”
Euan shrugged. “Niall is interested in tobacco culture and why Virginia’s planters are abandoning it and converting to more profitable endeavors.”
“Don’t be fooled.” Lyrica rolled her eyes. “Niall is interested in Virginia belles, not business, the latter of which you both promised to not talk about tonight.”
“I promised you nothing,” Leith replied. “Every man in this room has been thinking of business from the moment I walked in, though I’d wager the ladies are only thinking of Havilah.”
“Let’s avoid both,” Euan said as if to appease his wife.“Lyrica has worked tirelessly on this assembly, and I’ll not see it go awry.”
She gestured to the chandelier, pleasure softening her worry of before. “Newly arrived last week. Not as grand as Ardraigh Hall’s but stunning nonetheless.”
“Tell me more,” Leith said, pretending interest.
“’Tis Murano glass from the Venetian islands.” She eyed her recent acquisition with undisguised delight. “Not quite eighteen arms nor as many flowers as yours but still exquisite.”
“We’re not having a competition,” Leith said.
She laughed. “But of course we are! Everything you do is competition, right down to your brotherly rivalry over your various enterprises and investments.”
“Nae business, remember,” he murmured.
She dealt his forearm a stinging rap with her closed fan as Niall made his way about the crowded room, bowing over lasses’ hands and exchanging greetings with the men. His presence slipped like a thistle under Leith’s skin. He was the only one of them who’d done a Grand Tour of the continent after graduating university, accumulating a dash and polish his elder brothers lacked. Now he’d be primarily in Glasgow at the firm when not at his newly acquired property, Lamb Hill. Clearly there was no need to seek a colonial American belle. Niall had immense charm and set the lasses here agape.
“Good evening,” he said once he stood before them, flashing a smile that reminded Leith of their mother though he bore their father’s features. “A fine entertainment, which leaves me wondering what Virginia hospitality is like.”
“I’ll tell you all about it when I return,” Leith said.
“Surely you need company on so long a voyage, Brother.”
“What I need is for you to open the Wester Sugar House the day I depart, then oversee the new cooperage oppositeCastle Wynd. After that you’re to mediate any further fracas at the ironworks and stand in for me at the guildhall meeting of tobacco workers.”
“Stand in for you?” Niall shook his head in disgust. “All I’ll do is field questions as to when you’ll be back.”
“So be it. Euan will assist you when the need arises, as will the half-dozen new clerks installed in your office trained in copperplate hand. All I have left to say is that you’d best devote as much time to business as your other ... um, pursuits.”
Niall stood between Leith and Euan, his shorter stature well compensated by his bulk, reminding all present of his ongoing obsession with pugilism. Whenever Lyrica confronted him about boxing as brutality, Niall replied it was simply the art of self-defense and reminded her that Leith resorted to his own fists on occasion.
As dancing continued up and down the long, shimmering chamber, Leith looked on stoically. Havilah had loved to dance when she’d first come to Ardraigh Hall. He’d even hired a dancing master for her, but she was such a natural she hardly needed one. Lithe on her feet, she’d entranced more than her husband.
The vivid memory lingered. Would it always?
“The best way to forget Havilah is to look to the future and dismiss the past,” Lyrica had told him from the outset of mourning. “But I don’t see you marrying again. I would tread cautiously given your last choice was such a disaster, though I won’t deny Ardraigh Hall is a honeypot, made to lure a lass. But so full of ghosts!”
He didn’t answer, as marrying again seemed as appealing as smallpox given her blunt words. Besides, he had his heirs ... who would be hers and Euan’s if he didn’t return. For all his faults, Lyrica was fond of him and understoodonly the direst of circumstances could have led to his leaving Glasgow.
Eyeing his sister-in-law, Leith finished his punch. How long did she expect him to stay? He needed to pack his trunks since he lacked a manservant, unlike the gentry. Many of the nobility accused tobacco lords, mere merchants, of putting on airs. Some tobacco lords were even purchasing coats of arms, but he resisted. He’d not give the true aristocracy more cause to complain.
A lively reel began and couples galloped about, some of them none too gracefully. He swept the room with one haphazard, dismissive glance, aware of sumptuous Spitalfields silks and Bond Street jewels and even a tiara or two. He didn’t see textiles, he saw investments. Specie.
Besides, nary a lass present held the appeal of the miniature in his waistcoat pocket.
5
I have given up the Article of Tea, but some are not quite so tractable; however if wee can convince the good folks on your side the Water of their Error, wee may hope to see happier times.
A Virginia woman in a letter to friends in England, 1769
ROYALVALEPLANTATION
