Read Online The Master's Wife by Jane Jackson - Free Book Online Page B

you.’
    ‘Now that’s settled,’ Blaine made no attempt to hide his impatience, ‘I really must get back to the office. This is an exceptionally difficult time and Sir Douglas needs me.’
    ‘If you can wait a few more minutes, Mr Blaine,’ Jago said, ‘I will escort my wife to our room, then Mr Pawlyn and I will return to the Consulate with you.’
    ‘Sir Douglas is very busy. May I suggest you wait until this evening to –?’
    ‘No, Mr Blaine. You may not. My business with the assistant consul is not dinner party conversation. The sooner I have spoken to Sir Douglas, the sooner we can be on our way and out of yours.’
    Blaine’s high colour deepened to crimson. ‘I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean –’
    Jago turned away, his hand beneath Caseley’s elbow as they followed a uniformed porter up the wide staircase. After tipping the man, Jago closed the door on him as Caseley looked round the spacious room.
    ‘Will you be all right?’
    ‘I’ll be fine. You had better not keep Mr Blaine waiting. Who knows what disaster might occur during his absence from the Consulate.’
    ‘You see him as the power behind the throne?’
    ‘He sees himself that way. He must be clever in some ways or he would not have reached his present position. But he’s very stupid in others.’ She moved about the room, pausing to look out of the window, aware of Jago watching her.
    ‘How so?’
    ‘His open disapproval of Miss Collingwood’s little hobby is unlikely to gain her affection.’
    ‘You think that’s his ambition?’
    Caseley nodded. ‘Marriage to Sir Douglas’s daughter would certainly consolidate his position. He was definitely not pleased to see Robert Pawlyn back again.’
    Jago laughed, shaking his head. ‘You’re amazing. You saw all that in just a few minutes.’ He turned to the door. ‘If there’s anything you need just ring. I hope not to be long.’ He hesitated.
    She waited. The space between them was small in physical distance, but too great to cross. Was she disappointed? Relieved? Caseley didn’t know what she felt.
    ‘Turn the key,’ he reminded her and left, closing the door quietly.
    Sir Douglas leaned back in his chair and linked his fingers over his paunch. ‘I find the notion of Englishmen bribing savages to take our side utterly abhorrent for many reasons. One must hope Mr Gladstone knows what he is doing.’
    ‘In different circumstances such an alliance would not be contemplated –’ Spencer Blaine began.
    Catching Pawlyn’s eye, Jago read a reflection of his own impatience. Blaine had a gift for stating the obvious.
    ‘This upstart Arabi needs putting in his place,’ Sir Douglas continued as if his aide hadn’t spoken. ‘Should he be entertaining ideas of defaulting on Egypt’s debt –’
    ‘He isn’t,’ Pawlyn said.
    ‘I beg your pardon?’ Sir Douglas looked down his nose at the journalist.
    ‘That was an untrue story put about by Sir Auckland Colvin. Colonel Arabi made a statement refuting it, along with the ridiculous claim that he would burn down the Stock Exchange.’
    ‘You seem to know a lot about it,’ Sir Douglas glared at him.
    ‘It’s my job, sir.’
    ‘Sir Douglas,’ Jago said. ‘I appreciate your concerns about my mission –’
    ‘Do you indeed? Then tell me this, what is to stop the Bedouin accepting British gold and still taking the Egyptian side?’
    Jago turned to the journalist. ‘Is that likely?’
    ‘Honour is a pillar of Bedouin culture,’ Pawlyn said. ‘If they give their word they will not break it.’
    ‘ If ,’ Sir Douglas repeated with heavy emphasis, placing his hands flat on the desk to signal the discussion was at an end. ‘Are we to rely on hope that they give it? At least we may be confident that Britain’s stand has increased Mr Gladstone’s popularity and power.’
    ‘At the cost of the Egyptian people’s freedom to choose their own government,’ Pawlyn replied. ‘I cannot see that as upholding the liberal