A Place Called Freedom - Ken Follett [70]
Father went on: “The coal has been keeping us going, but it’s not enough. Lord Arebury wants his money. So I have to have the Hallim estate. Otherwise I could lose my entire business.”
There was a silence. Both Jay and his mother were too shocked to speak.
Eventually Alicia said: “Then there is only one solution. High Glen will have to be mined without Lizzie’s knowledge.”
Jay frowned anxiously. That proposal frightened him. But he decided not to say anything just yet.
“How could it be done?” said Sir George.
“Send her and Jay to another country.”
Jay was startled. What a clever idea! “But Lady Hallim would know,” he said. “And she’ll be sure to tell Lizzie.”
Alicia shook her head. “No, she won’t. She’ll do anything to make this marriage happen. She’ll keep quiet if we tell her to.”
Jay said: “But where would we go? What country?”
“Barbados,” said his mother.
“No!” Robert interjected. “Jay can’t have the sugar plantation.”
Alicia said quietly: “I think your father will give it up if the survival of the entire family enterprise depends upon it.”
Robert’s face wore a triumphant look. “Father can’t, even if he wants to. The plantation already belongs to me.”
Alicia looked inquiringly at Sir George. “Is that true? Is it his?”
Sir George nodded. “I made it over to him.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
That was another shock. Jay had no idea. He felt wounded. “That’s why you wouldn’t give it to me for my birthday,” he said sadly. “You had already given it to Robert.”
Alicia said: “But, Robert, surely you’d give it back to save the entire business?”
“No!” Robert said hotly. “This is only the beginning—you’ll start by stealing the plantation, and in the end you’ll get everything! I know you’ve always wanted to take the business from me and give it to that little bastard.”
“All I want for Jay is a fair share,” she replied.
Sir George said: “Robert, if you don’t do this it could mean bankruptcy for all of us.”
“Not for me,” he said triumphantly. “I’ll still have a plantation.”
“But you could have so much more,” said Sir George.
Robert looked sly. “All right, I’ll do it—on one condition: that you sign over the rest of the business to me, I mean everything. And you retire.”
“No!” Sir George shouted. “I won’t retire—I’m not yet fifty years old!”
They glared at one another, Robert and Sir George, and Jay thought how similar they were. Neither would give in over this, he knew, and his heart sank.
It was an impasse. The two stubborn men were deadlocked and between them they would ruin everything: the wedding, the business, and the family’s future.
But Alicia was not ready to give up. “What’s this Virginia property, George?”
“Mockjack Hall—it’s a tobacco plantation, about a thousand acres and fifty slaves.… What are you thinking?”
“You could give that to Jay.”
Jay’s heart leaped. Virginia! It would be the fresh start he had longed for, away from his father and brother, with a place of his own to manage and cultivate. And Lizzie would jump at the chance.
Sir George’s eyes narrowed. “I couldn’t give him any money,” he said. “He’d have to borrow what he needed to get the place going.”
Jay said quickly: “I don’t care about that.”
Alicia put in: “But you’d have to pay the interest on Lady Hallim’s mortgages—otherwise she could lose High Glen.”
“I can do that out of the income from the coal.” Father went on thinking out the details. “They’ll have to leave for Virginia immediately, within a few weeks.”
“They can’t do that,” Alicia protested. “They have to make preparations. Give them three months, at least.”
He shook his head. “I need the coal sooner than that.”
“That’s all right. Lizzie won’t want to make the journey back to Scotland—she’ll be too busy preparing for her new life.”
All this talk of deceiving Lizzie filled Jay with trepidation. He was the one who would suffer her wrath if she found out. “What if someone writes to her?” he said.
Alicia looked thoughtful.