thought you would return from India after I heard the Viceroy had been murdered.”
“I returned home immediately,” the Earl replied, “and I have come to you now, my Lord, for help.”
He thought that Lord Frazer raised his eyebrows.
At the same time there was a glint of satisfaction in his eyes.
He indicated a chair in front of the fireplace and, as the Earl sat down, Lord Frazer seated himself in one beside it.
“I thought,” he began as if he was deliberately choosing his words, “that you would be surprised at what you found when you returned.”
“I was not just surprised,” the Earl said, “but horrified and appalled. How could any man, especially one who bears our family name, behave in such a shocking manner?”
“Your uncle was greedy,” Lord Frazer said, “and, when I heard what was happening, I was amazed that no one had communicated with you.”
“That has not surprised me,” the Earl said. “I understand my uncle told my people they were my orders as well as his and they therefore accepted that there was nothing they could do.”
“I heard that he had gone to America,” Lord Frazer remarked.
“That is what my Solicitors have just confirmed to me and I have also discovered that he has taken every penny that I possessed with him.”
“I thought that was what he would do,” Lord Frazer commented with a slight smirk.
The Earl wanted to say that he thought in that case he might have taken it upon himself to communicate with him.
However, he thought it wiser not to say so.
Instead he said,
“I have come to you, as my nearest neighbour, to ask for your understanding and help.”
He thought, as Lord Frazer did not say anything, that perhaps he was not as hostile as he might have expected.
He went on quickly,
“I possess nothing at the moment that I can offer you except Duncans Wood, which has always been a contested property between you and my father.”
He paused for a moment and then continued,
“All I can say is that if you will trust me and lend me enough money to keep my people from starving and to get the farms working again, I will promise on my word of honour to pay back everything you have given me as speedily as is possible.”
The Earl hoped as he spoke that he sounded convincingly trustworthy.
He hoped even more, since it was by no means a good business proposition, that Lord Frazer would be generous.
There was silence and then Lord Frazer enquired,
“Have you any idea how much you need?”
“As much as you can possibly lend me,” the Earl replied. “The pensioners have been given no money for the last month and they were also down to half what my father allowed them in his time.”
His voice sharpened as he went on,
“Young men have been thrown off the land so that nothing has been cultivated. Some of them have left the village altogether to look for work and the rest are just surviving on what they can poach in the woods since there are no deer left in the Park.”
“I heard they were killing them,” Lord Frazer said. “But, as they were not fed either, they were not very fat.”
The Earl pressed his lips together and he could not help noticing that there was almost a triumphant sound in Lord Frazer’s voice.
He could in a way understand that Lord Frazer was pleased that this was happening to a family who had opposed him for so long over Duncans wood.
“I expect you know already,” the Earl continued, “that The Castle has not been properly kept up since I have been away and, because most of the servants were sacked, it has not even been kept clean.”
“I heard that too,” Lord Frazer murmured.
“Horses have also been sold out of the stables. And as you will doubtless remember, my father was very proud of the horseflesh he possessed.”
The Earl thought that there was a glint of satisfaction in Lord Frazer’s eyes.
“If you will not help me,” he went on, “I must go to London and beg from my friends whom I have not seen for four years.”
He paused to say more quietly,
“I felt, my Lord, as our estates march with each other, you would understand better than anyone else the predicament that I find myself in.”
“Of course I understand,” Lord Frazer replied. “Your uncle’s behaviour since you left has been the talk of the County.”
The Earl had not realised this and he frowned.
He thought, however, that it would not help matters for him to comment.
“I suppose you could go cap in hand to our neighbours,” Lord Frazer continued, “like the Lord Lieutenant who is known as one of the meanest men in Oxfordshire. When he attends Church, his contribution is not worthy of the seat that he sits on.”
The Earl remembered this and he smiled.
“There is also Sir William Forrester,” Lord Frazer continued, “who, I believe, has fallen on hard times because of his son’s extravagance at the gambling tables. He is not at all likely to be open-handed to the young at this particular moment.”
The Earl tried to think of someone locally who was known as being generous.
It was not a question that he had asked before he went to India. He had accepted people as they were and had not been in the least concerned with their bank balance.
There was a poignant silence until at last he said pleadingly,
“Please, my Lord, help me if you can. It is not a question of me alone. The people who are at your gates as well as mine are on the verge of starvation.”
Lord Frazer rose to his feet and stood with his back to the fireplace.
He was not a tall man, yet for the moment he reminded the Earl of Mount Harriet.
He and the Viceroy had climbed to the top of it and that was what he had to do now!
For his people’s sake he must not fail.
Although it went against the grain to crawl, he kept seeing the faces of the children as he passed through the village.
They looked thin and pale and hungry.
He tried hard to pretend that it was not as bad as the famine-stricken places that he and the Viceroy had visited
