Sweet Revenge Part 32

Mint Hot Chocolate cup unsweetened cocoa powder

cup sugar

cup cold water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup half-and-half

2 cups milk

cup creme de menthe, or to taste

2 tablespoons creme de cacao, or to taste

whipped cream and shaved bittersweet chocolate

for garnish

1. In a heavy saucepan combine the cocoa powder, the sugar, the water, the vanilla, and a pinch of salt and heat the mixture over low heat, whisking, until the cocoa powder is dissolved and the mixture is a smooth paste.

2. Gradually add the half-and-half and the milk, both scalded, and simmer the hot chocolate, whisking, for 2 minutes. Stir in the creme de menthe and the creme de cacao. (For a frothy result, in a blender blend the hot chocolate in batches.) 3. Divide the hot chocolate among mugs and top it with the whipped cream and the chocolate. Makes about 4 cups.

Henning opened his mouth to say something, but Saybrook signaled him to silence. He spoke instead. "How very clever of you to have figured this all out on your own."

Arianna drew in a sharp breath and narrowed her eyes. "Just what are you accusing me of, sir?"

"Of having a genius for mathematics which must rival that of your late father," he replied.

"I . . ." She quickly composed herself, unwilling to show that the barb had hurt. "Yes, I've always had a knack for numbers. But I haven't ever used it for cheating. . . ." Recalling several harbor towns in the Windward Islands, she shrugged. "Well, hardly ever."

The earl's brows rose ever so slightly.

"I'm sharing it with you, aren't I?" she retorted, nettled by the unspoken skepticism.

"A cunning criminal would," he answered. "I've not enough expertise to discern whether you've fiddled with the numbers. Or whether you're lying outright."

Their gazes locked.

"No," she responded. "You would have to take my word on it."

The floorboards groaned as Henning shifted in his chair.

"You have to admit," continued Saybrook, "it's rather hard to feel completely comfortable in trusting a person who keeps changing like a chameleon."

Arianna picked at a thread on her raveled sleeve.

"A master chef, a mathematical genius, a brilliant actress-have you any other hidden talents to reveal?"

"I can sail a schooner single-handedly and I'm rather good at picking locks." Lowering her lashes, she couldn't resist adding, "And, of course, I'm a dab hand at leading men around by the nose. But then, you know that."

The earl stretched out his legs and crossed one booted ankle over the other. "I would imagine that your father found your mathematical genius very . . . useful."

Oh, what a team we would make, poppet. With our brains and your beauty, we could be very rich, indeed!

Arianna looked away for an instant and fought to draw a ragged breath. "Yes. He would have been delighted to form a partnership."

"But?" The word was said softly.

"But it wasn't a life I wanted," she replied, then quickly added a laugh. "As you see, the one I have chosen is ever so much more respectable."

"I'm simply trying to gather information, Lady Arianna, not make any moral judgments," said Saybrook. "It would be helpful to know if you aided your father in constructing any business scams. That sort of information could be relevant."

"No," answered Arianna tightly. "I did not. When I was a little girl, my father hinted that we might . . . profit from my talents. But when I expressed my feelings on cheating, he never raised the subject again." She swallowed hard. "Though it must have cost him dear to hold his tongue. At the end, we were dancing on the razor's edge of poverty."

"Thank you." The earl carefully rearranged the folds of his coat. "Now, getting back to the numbers on the table-"

"You believe me?" blurted out Arianna.

"I didn't say that." The earl allowed a faint smile. "But we are straying from the subject." A pause. "So it is your opinion that these equations indicate that the new company will seek a partnership with the government?"

The tension eased inside her. "Given the size of the sums involved, it's hard to imagine any other explanation."

"I possess no financial ac.u.men, so what I've never understood is how did the South Sea Bubble expand to such mammoth proportions before it burst?" mused Henning.

"Having just read a great deal about it, I shall try to explain," responded Arianna. "The real turning point came in 1717, when the King admitted to Parliament that the country's finances were troubled and that the national debt needed to be reduced. In reply, the South Sea Company presented a proposal to raise its capital to twelve million pounds by selling a new offering of stock." She glanced down at the faded numbers. "Due to canny promotion by Sir John Blunt, the name of the South Sea Company was continually in the public eye. So, despite the fact that the company was earning virtually nothing from its South American trade, shares in the company were in great demand and the directors were eager to keep increasing the value of the company."

"And the public allowed the wool to be pulled over its eyes?" grunted Henning.

"Part of the frenzy was fanned by what was going on in France, Baz," pointed out the earl. "Your fellow Scotsman John Law had been invited to come in and revamp the entire banking system there, and as a result, the economy was booming. Emboldened by the success of his financial theories, Law established the Mississippi Company, a similar New World trading venture. Its stock was soaring, and the French-everyone from humble shopkeepers to princely lords-were growing rich on paper."

"The English watched and were jealous. Visions of unbounded wealth were now dancing like sugar plums in the heads of every man and woman. And the South Sea Company saw a way to profit from the frenzy," said Arianna. "So in 1720, the directors presented a plan to the government that would virtually eliminate the national debt."

"They were not deterred by the expected failure of the Mississippi scheme, even though by then its flaws were beginning to show," added the earl. "The gentlemen of the South Sea Company and the Sword Blade Bank were arrogant enough to believe they could avoid the faux pas of the French and stretch their loans out forever without default."

Arianna nodded in agreement. "Sales of the company's shares on the stock exchange now reached fever point."

Neither man made a comment.

"Sir John Blunt took every opportunity to talk up the price of the stock. Free-trade agreements between England and Spain were said to be imminent, and with them the promise that New World gold and silver, along with countless other luxuries, would soon be pouring into the country in exchange for English cotton and woolen goods. In short, the South Sea Company would grow rich beyond imagination, and every one hundred pounds invested in its shares would produce huge dividends each year to investors."

Closing her eyes for a moment, Arianna tried not to think of her father and his desperate longing for easy money. "The Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Aislabie, championed the South Sea proposal, while a few voices of reason, led by Robert Walpole, warned of its danger. Indeed, the Earl of Cowper compared the bill to the Trojan Horse, saying that though the country welcomed it as a fabulous gift, it actually held the seeds of treachery and destruction within its core."

"Which, it turned out, was essentially true," said Saybrook.

A sudden gust of wind rattled the window gla.s.s.

"Er, correct me if I am wrong," ventured Henning. "But wasn't there some sort of law pa.s.sed around the time of the South Sea Bubble prohibiting the creation of joint stock companies?" He pursed his lips. "The Royal Something-Or-Other Act."

"The Royal Exchange and London a.s.surance Corporation Act, pa.s.sed in 1719," clarified Saybrook. "Which required that any new company wishing to establish itself as a joint stock venture needed to be incorporated by an act of Parliament or by Royal Charter."

"Why?" asked Arianna.

"Because on seeing how the South Sea Company parlayed naught but grandiose promises into actual money, a great many clever men began establishing companies and selling stock to a gullible public," explained the earl. "Some of the ventures included making a wheel for perpetual motion and trans.m.u.ting quicksilver into a fine, malleable metal." He paused for a fraction. "And my favorite-carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, as yet undecided."

"You are joking," she said.

"Unfortunately not," replied Saybrook. "This scheme showed, more completely than any other, the utter madness of the people at the time. The gentleman who concocted the venture stated in his prospectus that the required capital was a half million pounds, to be raised by selling five thousand shares of one hundred pounds each. By paying a deposit of a mere two pounds per share, each subscriber would be ent.i.tled to one hundred pounds per annum per share. How this immense profit could be made, he did not condescend to say."

Henning snorted.

"The fellow did, however, promise that in one month the full details would be revealed, at which time the balance of the purchase price would be due. By three p.m. of the first day, he had sold one hundred shares-two thousand pounds in five hours. Deciding that was a decent profit, he fled to the Continent and was never heard of again."

"Is this Royal Exchange and a.s.surance Act still in effect?" asked Henning.

The earl nodded.

The surgeon made a face. "Then there seems little chance that our present-day conspirators can put their plan into action. I can't quite see Parliament agreeing to establish a private stock company, not with Napoleon once again marching east."

For a moment there was silence, and then . . .

"PING."

Both Arianna and Henning shot the earl a puzzled look.

"That," he announced, "is the sound of the penny dropping."

A long moment of silence greeted the statement.

Then Henning's jaw followed suit. "Good G.o.d, you think that may in some way explain why the Prince was poisoned?"

"When you look at it from that angle, it begins to make some sense," said the earl. "If Prinny dies, the Regency falls to his brother, the Duke of York."

"Who last year was embroiled in that sordid scandal over selling military commissions." Arianna smiled grimly. "No matter that it was his mistress who was likely the guilty party, someone seeking to buy influence would a.s.sume there was a good chance of success with York."

"All the King's sons are profligate wastrels," pointed out Henning. "Prinny is always in need of money, too."

Saybrook rocked back in his chair. "Seeing as Lady Spencer was his latest paramour, we can a.s.sume that she tried to coax a charter out of him, but was refused."

The surgeon made a face. "It's possible," he conceded. "But we have no proof, only conjecture."

"True," agreed the earl. "And yet the vague specters we chase are beginning to take on some flesh." Looking up at the ceiling, he pursed his lips in thought.

Arianna mulled over what she had heard. Was such a scheme possible? she wondered. What a.s.set could a private company offer to make the risk of poisoning a royal worthwhile?

"Especially when we consider the shipping records obtained by Lady Arianna," added Saybrook.

She frowned. "How so?"

The earl's chair fell back down to earth. "Like you, Baz and I were busy last night. Acting on a tip from one of his friends, we visited the West India docks. The cargo of a certain ship had been off-loaded in unusual secrecy, so it seemed worth taking a look inside the warehouse."

"And was it?" she asked.

"Perhaps," answered the earl. "The goods were an interesting a.s.sortment-spices, cocoa, precious metals, a powerful narcotic. All goods that would generate a handsome profit if sold on a large scale. The curious thing was, none were in great enough quant.i.ty, save perhaps the narcotic, to have made the voyage worthwhile."

"They looked to be samples," added Henning.

Saybrook gave a small nod. "Perhaps," he repeated.