Read Online Merciless Reason by Oisin McGann - Free Book Online Page B

many considered bad form, and a few declared downright intolerable.
    And yet, it was tolerated, because Gerald said it must be so.
    There were over thirty people at the huge table, with Gerald at one end and his mother, Elvira, at the other. She was in a wheelchair, ancient and disabled but still able to out-think younger, more agile minds. Her sense of hearing was failing her, however, and had to be compensated for with a listening horn and a tendency to bellow her way into conversations.
    To Gerald’s right sat Leopold. Young children were not normally permitted at the main table, but Leopold’s mother, Elizabeth, had insisted the four-year-old sit at Gerald’s right hand. She fully intended that when the child was old enough, the positions would be reversed and Gerald would sit at the right hand of the true Patriarch. She sat beside her son and helped him with his food.
    Daisy sat opposite Leopold, on Gerald’s left, and Tatiana was beside her, opposite Elizabeth. Gerald used these four as a kind of buffer between him and the rest of the Wildensterns at dinner. He acknowledged the family’s need for firm control, but resented the amount of time he was forced to devote to it.
    One of the chief pests was his Uncle Gideon, who was in charge of the Company’s enormous fleet of ships. A large, loud oaf of a man, he wore too much gold on his person and hair on his face. He had five sons who hated him as much as he hated them, but who still regularly joined him in his greedy, nefarious schemes.
    â€œGerald,” Gideon began, with his mouth still full, crumbs of turnip shooting out from his black beard, “we are having a frightful time with the British Navy. They have got into the habit of stopping our ships on the way out past Gibraltar. They accuse our captains of transporting slaves. Something must be done.”
    â€œPerhaps somebody has told them that you have been transporting slaves, Gideon,” Gerald replied. He was only picking at his food; he rarely showed any appetite these days. “I suggest you stop, before someone finds one of the Company’s ships with slaves aboard. We would all hate to see you hanged. It is your operation—I can assure you that you will be the only one to go down with that particular ship.”
    Gideon was still considering his response when Elvira shouted up from the other end of the table. “And what about the contracts with the East India Company?” she called. “They want to buy our gold mines in California. It is important we sell the dratted things before those nabobs discover they’re empty. This ‘Gold Rush’ has become more akin to a ‘Gold Trickle.’ The contracts must be signed as a matter of urgency!”
    â€œLet Daisy handle it.” Gerald waved his hand towards her.
    â€œShe can’t handle it,” one of the other men said. “She’s a woman . She can’t sign contracts. She can’t represent the family, and if we send her to negotiations no one will take us seriously. You need to seize the reins, Gerald.”
    Daisy listened, but did not speak. She was forced to put up with the bigotry in the family because it merely reflected that of the wider world. Having long ago resigned herself to the idea that women of her generation would never achieve equal status to men in business, she had set about finding other ways of achieving her jails.
    â€œWhat about the bloody Civil War in America?” Oliver demanded. He was Gideon’s second eldest son. He was responsible for the estates in Ireland, but fancied himself as a leader and business strategist. “Silas over there, he says the place is awash with vacant land—what with so many of the menfolk dead and all that. According to him, we should be buying up farms now, while all the widows are still single and desperate. There’s a killing to be made, what? Loosen the purse-strings a bit, Gerald, eh? That’s what I