As he descended from the carriage Arthur kissed her hand and bid Captain Fenshaw good night. He stood and watched as the carriage rattled down the street, turned the corner and disappeared. He heard Kitty laugh one last time, a light joyful sound that had once been as music to him, but now felt like an open taunt.

Chapter 12

‘I’m sorry, Wesley, but there are no seats available for you on either the treasury or the revenue boards.’ Lord Camden opened his hands in a helpless gesture. ‘As you know, I have many political favours to repay and, regretfully, I had to give them priority over any consideration of who might be best qualified for a job. I wish it were not so, but that’s how the system works.’

‘I see,’ Arthur replied, trying to keep his disappointment from showing. ‘Thank you for being honest with me, my lord.’

‘The least you deserve.And rest assured, I will be tireless in my efforts to secure you a post where you can prove your mettle. I know that you will serve me well.’ He smiled. ‘It is merely a question of time, Wesley.Your star will rise.’

‘It feels as if it is already waning, my lord.’The words were out before he could check himself and Lord Camden frowned irritably.

‘Look here, there is an order to these things. Patronage is a well-tried system. Without it we might as well give up the fight and embrace the principles of the revolution in France. And we’ve seen where that leads. Chaos and tyranny. Patronage works. When the needs of patronage have been satisfied then we can appoint people on merit. That usually comes with experience, young Wesley, and at the moment that is what you lack. I have heard fine things about you from various sources, particularly concerning your aptitude for military command. However, in the sphere of politics and office-holding you are something of an ingénu, wouldn’t you agree?’

‘It is true that I lack experience,’ Arthur conceded.‘But as you say, I show promise and I am very keen to learn. In any case, how is a man to acquire the necessary experience if he is denied the chance to gain it in the first place?’

Lord Camden shrugged. ‘It may seem like something of a conundrum, but something will turn up. I am sure of it.’

‘And if it doesn’t, my lord?’

‘Then perhaps you would be best advised to pursue a purely military career.You might win promotion, decorations and a title if you cover yourself in glory, and live long enough. Then you could enter politics at some advantage. It’s worth considering.’ Camden clapped his hands.‘Come now! Surely a young man like you must be longing for adventure and the chance to win his spurs?’

Arthur smiled bitterly. ‘It sounds as if there is already considerable doubt that any public office will be found for me.’

‘I said I would do what I can for you,’ Camden replied coolly as he picked up a pen.‘You cannot ask for more than that,Wesley. In any case, you are not in a position to. Now, if you don’t mind, I have other duties to attend to.’

The meeting was over, Arthur realised. He turned away from the desk and strode out of the office seething with indignation, which swiftly gave way to new depths of hopelessness.There was one last thing he could try, even though it stuck in his throat like a fishbone. He could write to Richard and ask for more assistance. A direct recommendation from the Earl of Mornington would surely open some doors.

Once the letter had been composed, carefully written out and sent to Richard in London, Arthur turned his attention back to Kitty. Now that he had renewed their acquaintance at the ball, he felt able to call on her at home. After all, with a handsome and financially well-endowed suitor like Captain Fenshaw on the scene, there was no reason for Tom Pakenham to be concerned over the presence of Arthur. So he was able to join Kitty and Fenshaw for evenings at the theatre, or various soirées and castle picnics once the summer managed to shoulder its way through the persistent rainclouds of the Irish climate. It pained him when Kitty used Fenshaw’s first name. He had not been on first name terms with Kitty for some months after he had met her.

His feelings towards Fenshaw were mixed. Fenshaw told a good story, and hinted, in terms discreet enough for Kitty’s ears, about the bawdy life of officers in the Navy. At the same time, he had a natural philosophical sensitivity and knew his Locke thoroughly. In all, a fine man, who would be a pleasure to know, were it not for his affection for Kitty.

Every smile she bestowed on Fenshaw, every touch of her hand on his and every meeting of their eyes filled Arthur with such jealousy that he instinctively wished for divine intervention of the most fatal and instant kind. Then he felt shamed by the thought, and less of the man that he wanted to be. It did not take long for Arthur to realise that these moments of hatred for Fenshaw were due to his having precisely the personal qualities and social connections that Arthur felt himself to lack. That added a most bitter and distasteful edge to the baser sentiment of jealousy.

One day in July, the three of them took a carriage out to the hills south of Dublin at Dundrum. It was a fine summer’s day and thin skeins of white cloud drifted across a deep blue sky. They spread a blanket down in the shade of an ancient oak tree and began to unpack the basket.

‘A fine spread.’ Fenshaw smiled. ‘Fit for a king.’

‘While we still have one,’ Arthur added wryly.

The naval officer looked at Arthur curiously and Kitty chuckled. ‘You’ll have to excuse Arthur. He thinks that the French will be invading us at any moment, red in tooth and claw as they lay waste our cities and slaughter our people, though not without ravaging the womenfolk first.’

‘Oh, I doubt that will happen,’ Fenshaw replied, and helped himself to a chicken leg.

‘Not with the heroes of the Navy standing, or floating, between us and the enemy, I suppose,’ said Kitty, then glanced at Arthur. ‘And the heroes in the army as well.’

Fenshaw shook his head.‘That’s not what I meant. I just don’t think that the French can be as bad as our newspapers, and our government, would have us believe.’

‘Really?’ Arthur stared at him. ‘What makes you think that?’

Fenshaw delicately took a bite from his drumstick and chewed it for a while before he responded.‘It’s a question of what motivates the revolutionaries. From the outset their goal was to improve the condition of their people.The commoners had a far harder time of it than our people in England, with little hope of any reform at the hands of the aristocrats and those who ran the Catholic church. Given what they had to put up with I would say that there is some justification for responding to their condition as they did. If the common people are oppressed too severely then some day they will rise up and overthrow their rulers.’

‘So you would justify regicide?’ Arthur cut in.

‘No, I think they were wrong to execute their king. But it would be hard not to justify almost anything short of that.’

‘Including the abolition of the monarchy?’

Fenshaw shrugged. ‘Maybe, given how far their kings had moved away from the needs and desires of their subjects. The revolutionaries are simply shifting the balance of government back in favour of the people. That is why I do not think that they should be regarded as some elemental force of chaos and evil.’

Arthur shook his head in astonishment. ‘You can’t be serious, Fenshaw. Look at what they have been doing to their own countrymen. Sending them to the guillotine in their thousands. Waging war on their compatriots in the Vendée, in Normandy and in the south of the country. And what of the lands they have invaded? How is that proof of their good intentions to the common man?’

‘They are fighting to keep the revolution alive, Wesley. No monarchy in Europe dares to allow the French republic to succeed for fear of the precedent it would set. It is a beacon to oppressed people everywhere - that is why other powers are bent on destroying the revolution by waging war from without, and by spreading lies and insurrection from within. Faced with that, they do what they must to defend the revolution.’