The Launching of Roger Brook by Dennis Wheatley Page B

his interest in engineering and machinery—the very things people count him crazy for—that have brought him his wealth.’
    ‘You have never told me of this before.’
    ‘I did not know it myself until he presented me during the season to the Duke of Bridgewater, who, it seems, is one of his partners in a company. ’Twas His Grace who made the first canal, to supersede the system by which coal was carried on pack horses from his mines at Worsley to Manchester. But ‘twas Mr. Josiah Wedgwood who first interested papa in such schemes.’
    ‘What, the Mr. Wedgwood who makes such lovely plaques and urns of pottery?’
    ‘The same. ’Twas Mr. Wedgwood who discovered the engineering genius of young James Brindley, then a workman in his employ. Together they constructed the Grand Trunk canal that links the Trent and the Mersey, so that Mr. Wedgwood’s pottery could be carried from his works at Etruria to the ports at a saving of no less than seventy per cent. Then papa also has an interest in Mr. Samuel Compton’s spinning mule, which, ’tis said, will prove vastly superior to the spinning jenny. ’Tis from such undertakings that of late years papa has piled up a great fortune.’
    Roger looked at her in astonishment. ‘It seems then that you are indeed an heiress, and a fine prize for any man, quite apart from your beauty.’
    ‘Yes,’ she said seriously. ‘With me, when I marry, will go a hundred thousand pounds. Papa told me so in order that I might not pledge myself lightly to some good-looking nobody. And who in their senses would not be prepared to overlook a few peccadilloes on my part when the securing of such a fortune is in question? With it I can buy myself an Earl any time I wish. But I’ll not be content with some old dotard. I require one who will both be complaisant and do me credit. I’ve a mind, just as you have, Roger, to cut a fine figure in this world of ours. Money alone is not enough. I want influence and power and, Royalty apart, to be thefirst lady in the kingdom. If the husband I choose has it in him to carry me that high, maybe I’ll be faithful to him. If not I’ll use my beauty with the same skill as a great general handles his battalions. I’ll slip into bed with one man or twenty, providing they can lift me a rung up the ladder towards the things I crave. Perhaps I’ll become the mistress of a King, and make and unmake statesmen at my will; but whate’er befall I vow I’ll be a Duchess before my hair turns grey.’
    As she spoke, her great eyes lifted unseeing towards the blue horizon; her gipsy blood was calling up a prophetic vision of the tempestuous and amazing career that was indeed to be hers.
    The violence of her declaration left Roger temporarily without words; then, recovering himself he said: ‘Oh, come, Georgina, I doubt not that your money will buy you a coronet, if you’ve set your heart on one, but Kings don’t make Duchesses of their mistresses in these days.’
    Bringing herself back with a jerk, she laughed up at him. ‘They have before; there’s no reason that they shouldn’t again. Charles II made Castlemaine into Cleveland and French Louise into Portsmouth with other Duchies for all their sons; while George I created that greedy German whore that he brought over Duchess of Kendal.’
    Roger’s relief that he had not, after all, been called on to commit himself was now almost outweighed by pique at having, seemingly, won only to lose this flamboyant creature who, at the same time, both shocked and attracted him so strongly.
    ‘Oh, well,’ he muttered sulkily, ‘since you’ve no use for me, and prefer this mad plan to go whoring after a Duchy for yourself, good luck to you.’
    She regarded him with a rather sad little smile. ‘Be not angry, Roger, nor foolish in thy speech. ’Twould be a madder thing by far, for both of us, were I to accept you here and now as my spouse-to-be. As for whoring after a Duchy, I’ll be no ordinary whore, and it takes