New York - The Novel

Trinity Church had given the land for the college, the Trinity vestry reckoned it should be an Anglican foundation, and the English governor had agreed. But this had brought howls of rage from the other churches, especially the Presbyterians.
    Most of the rich city merchants like Master belonged to the Anglican Church. The Trinity crowd, some called them. And it was true that the Trinity crowd dominated the Assembly and most of the best appointments. So this attempt to control the new seat of learning as well was seen by all the other congregations as a monstrous abuse. Presbyterians said it was a conspiracy. Even poor folk, who might have small interest in theuniversity, hurled insults at the privileged Anglicans. Tempers had run high. Master considered the whole thing was blown out of all proportion. And a compromise had been reached. But the business exposed much bad feeling in the city, and the rumblings could still be heard.
    The young Yale men had been Presbyterians. The discussion had become quite heated. And the young men had dared to insult him and call him a lackey of the governor—in his own house! He’d thrown them out after that, and Mercy and Susan had supported him. But for days afterward, John Master had felt irritable and ill at ease.
    And because Charlie White, who mightn’t have cared about the university himself, belonged to the class that had abused the Anglicans, John Master had experienced an unconscious aversion to seeing the carter and his family just then. It was quite unfair, and he was scarcely aware of it. But he hadn’t gone over to Charlie’s house, even by the year’s end.

    It was New Year’s Day when John Master announced his surprise. He led up to it gradually.
    “You know, Mercy,” he said, “the unpleasantness of those two Yale men and all the bad feeling over the university has been making me think, I wouldn’t mind getting away from the city for a while.”
    “We could stay in the country, John,” she suggested. “Or we could go to some of my relations in Philadelphia, if you like.”
    “There’s another problem though, which prevents my going away to either of those places,” he continued. “I’m concerned about all the business we have going through Albion’s, when I don’t really know them.”
    Five years ago, when his father’s old London agent had retired, he’d recommended that the Masters transfer the agency to the firm of Albion. The arrangement had worked well so far, but the relationship had been conducted entirely by letter; and with the London shipments increasing every year, John considered it was time he got to know the Albions personally, and assess them against the other trading houses.
    “What do you mean to do then?” she asked.
    “I thought,” and now his handsome face broke into a grin, “that I’d better go to London. And I wondered whether perhaps you’d like to come.”

London
1759
    O H TO BE in England. And here she was. On the very Thames itself, at the heart of Britain’s empire.
    Ships, towers, domes and church steeples lay crowded under the glittering sky. On the waterfront, the old gray Tower of London spoke for antiquity. On the ridge above, the great dome of Protestant St. Paul’s looked so stately, majestic and dependable. With joy and excitement Mercy prepared to set foot, at last, on dry land.
    And for all its faults—the sooty fogs from five centuries of coalfires, an underclass addicted to cheap gin, the vast discrepancies between rich and poor—London was a glorious place. It was by far the largest city in Europe. The crooked, rat-infested alleys of the medieval city had mostly disappeared in the Great Fire of the previous century—though magnificent gothic halls and churches still remained—to be replaced by the splendid streets and squares of Georgian houses that spread in a huge sweep from the city to Westminster. To think that it was all, for months, to be hers. Why she hadn’t a care in the world.
    Except for young James, that was.

    The arrangements John Master had made before leaving New York had been simple. He had a clerk he trusted to take care of his regular business at the warehouse. The rum distillery foreman was likewise a good man.The land in Dutchess County was under the tight control of an agent, who also collected the numerous property rents in the city. As for the family house, that was no trouble at all. Hudson would look after that. But nonetheless, he needed someone to oversee the