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Once inside the richly appointed bedchamber, he locked the door behind him And then he waited When a few , he followed the golden path of the carpet’s Greekthe four-poster bed with its cris, until he stood before a bookcase in the room’s farthest corner He pulled a lever in the hidden recesses of the third shelf, then stepped back to let the panel swing out on its hinges
On the other side of the false as a narrow, hu in the rear
The small space held a shelf of starched white shirts and cravats, a few folded pairs of trousers in neutral shades Plain brass hooks supported a row of four coats: dun, gray, black, and dark blue Two hats
Tossing his banyan aside, he stepped through the hidden passageway and closed the panel behind hiht as Julian Bellamy was over
He was very late for his day as James Bell
Chapter Four
Mr James Bell did not ele footman Just a charwoman to come in and sweep twice a week She was an illiterate and perpetually harried woenerous employer He compensated said charwoman thrice the nores promptly, with annual rises in pay and bonuses at Christmas Well-paid employees did not question or complain
Mr Bell lived in rooms above his business offices, and he kept eccentric hours Though his dedication was above question, the clerks never knehat tiue rumor that he suffered fros, they found hi ledgers Other days, like today, he didn’t appear until well after noon This inconsistent schedule kept his clerks on constant alert
Mr Bell dressed in unreh well-tailored attire He parted his black hair severely and coainst his scalp "Fastidious," soht have said, "Dull as toast" Rarely was he observed going out-of-doors without a hat, and he wore spectacles at all tilass in the lenses, of course Julian didn’t wear theuise had worked quite well for several years
It was midafternoon when he came down the back stairs today and entered the offices froht clerks hunched over two neat rows of desks that ran the length of the room They all hastened to their feet with a chorus of "Good day, Mr Bell"
He nodded in reply
The errand boys threw hiuilty looks fro until a few o Julian decided to overlook the infraction For now He’d provide tasks enough to keep the the rest of the day
"As you were," he said, retreating into his office--a partitioned section at the back with a glassfor supervisory purposes and drapes he could pull when privacy was desired The frosted pane set in the door was lettered in gilt: "J Bell Manager, Aegis Invested the interests of several wealthy investors These unnamed investors--aristocrats, it was presu their hands with trade--had pooled their money toward various business endeavors: in particular, several wool and linen s in er cities Mr Bell oversaw the operations and ement of these investments with the assistance of his clerks and a personal secretary, and he reported to his superiors regularly
In reality, Mr Bell had no superiors, and there was but one investor: Julian himself He not only owned the s in Bristol, Oxford, York, and beyond--but he in fact ownedthat housed the Aegis Investments offices and the residential row to the rear He was, by any standard, ahis status as a man of many secrets
If certain powerful men learned just how he’d amassed this fortune and just what he intended to do with it …
Well, he already knew the coht, didn’t he? Those certain e to have him waylaid in a darkened alleyway, pu of Leo and his broken face
His secretary, Thatcher, followed hi a clutch of papers "Thepost, sir"
"What’s in it?"
Thatcher riffled through the papers "A report on the fluctuating price of indigo A letter fro the renewal of the investors’ generous subscription The contract for lease of the Dover property Your express from the mills"
"Give it here The express, I o"
Thatcher did as asked, as always
Julian broke the wax seal and quickly scanned the letter in his hands He now demanded teekly expresses fro Worker ent reported, and production was steady
Good, all good After the flare of labor riots earlier that year, he’d been keeping close watch on his st his workers had so far met with little success And little wonder--his laborers were the best paid of any textile workers in the region, and he took pains to one so far as to visit each mill personally and assure the workers no jobs would be lost to the new machines
It wasn’t such a radical forood will in the workers, reap benefits in the form of steady production He’d never understand why the other rasp the concept But then, their loss was his gain His h-quality production was the source of many lucrative military contracts Over the course of the past decade, more than half the enlisted is wool on their backs When they fell in battle, their wounds were bound with Aegis flannel
Noith the wars over, England’s economy was depressed But the wealthy still had coin to spend Mr James Bell made certain the country’s finest is cloth in their shops Meanwhile, Julian Bella those shops of a steady trade