Chapter 58
58
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Socrates
Juliet sat in Leith’s Jamaica Street office as she had every day since his arrest five days before. The Buchanan factors and clerks still seemed uneasy with her presence, but she felt a pressing need to be about his business in his absence—and it proved a formidable task. His clear instructions to her aboard ship when he thought he was dying returned to her now with greater urgency. As principal in the Buchanan firm, he had his steady hand in everything, though his brothers had their own considerable share of the business.
Across Leith’s immense desktop, newsprint swam before her eyes from both sides of the Atlantic.
King George III to issue royal proclamation closing American colonies to all commerce and trade.
Provincial Congress in Massachusetts orders 13,600 American soldiers to be mobilized.
Governor Gage secretly ordered by the British to enforce the Coercive Acts and suppress open rebellion among colonists by using all necessary force.
Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia.
Virginians state they will surrender their liberties only at the expense of their lives.
She called the nearest clerk, who hurried in to do her bidding. Forcing a smile, she said with far more confidence than she was feeling, “I need to summon the Buchanan board for a meeting. Can you arrange that?”
“Of course, Mrs. Buchanan. Right away, aye.”
He left and Juliet shut the door after him. She returned to the desk and sank down into Leith’s chair. Thunder beat behind her temples, and she closed her eyes, a short, desperate prayer rising.
Lord, please help me.
The next morning she faced the board members in the boardroom, some of them the leading tobacco lords of Glasgow, Euan and Niall among them. Most regarded her with a wary suspicion, but she didn’t blame them. She was a Virginian, not a Glaswegian, and she was a woman, neither of which were welcome in this male-dominated sphere. With Leith’s future hanging in the balance, the situation was even more tense.
She took her husband’s place at the head of the table, several carefully prepared papers before her. “Gentlemen, I’d like to pray before we call this meeting to order.”
Euan frowned, his thoughts plain. Did they not pray before they conducted business? Yet Niall’s head was already bent, his eyes closed. Juliet bowed her own head, hardly knowing what she said, only that without the Lord’s guidance she’d be utterly lost.
She launched into the matter at hand immediately lest she lose courage. “I’ve not seen my husband since his arrest, but aboard ship he authorized me to act in his stead, having prepared for such a time as this, whether it be from illness, accident, or death—and now incarceration.”
The last word was hard to utter. It held a taint she hated since the charge was a lie. She swallowed and continued after glancing at the wall clock behind Euan’s head.
“The first matter is obvious. America is soon to declare her independence and sever all ties to Great Britain. Merchanting as you’ve known it for a century or more is coming to an end. As it stands, there are now no outward-bound cargoes for the colonies, bringing Buchanan enterprises to a halt there. Glasgow will go from importing seventy-five percent of all Virginia tobacco production to nothing at all this season.”
Silence. An onerous one.
“I, for one, doubt it will come to war.” Euan folded his arms across his chest. “An olive branch petition to the king is said to be forthcoming from the colonies, which I’m sure will bring an end to this nonsense.”
“My contacts in America say otherwise,” Mr. Cameron said with a decisive shake of his head. “The tide has turned, and George Washington has been appointed to lead an American army. There will be nae olive branch, nae truce.”
“They’re all traitors sure to hang, the upstart Washington foremost,” Mr. Turnbull uttered with such vehemence that spittle landed on the papers before him. “The war, even one of brief duration, will spell the ruin of us all.”
Ruin. That was what she must avoid. Aunt Damarus’s latest letter had arrived at an opportune time, full of news since Philadelphia was nothing less than the pulse of the Revolution. “I’ve just received word from a trusted source that the colonies are preparing to pay France in tobacco for arms and ammunition even as they’re investing in nontobacco crops to fund colonial militias.”
“France? Our avowed enemy?” Mr. Inglis said in disgust.
She continued calmly. “I’m going one step further and selling the Royal Vale estate in Virginia before it is seized and confiscated and of no benefit to us.”
Murmurs of assent went round the table, heartening her even as it hurt to part with her ancestral home.
A flash of exasperation lit Euan’s face. “It seems you’re being decidedly foolhardy, as rash as my brother with his decision to recall our store factors and shutter operations there.”
Juliet hesitated, his harsh tone daunting. Instead of being the ally she’d hoped for, Euan was proving a formidable opponent. Niall even regarded him with a show of perplexity as Juliet forged ahead.
“The true purpose of this meeting,” she said, firming her voice, “is to tell you the time has come to sell all Buchanan tobacco stock.”
Any assent she’d hoped to muster died with those bold words. Their complicity soured, all but Niall’s.
She continued, feeling Leith’s absent approval. “We must invest those profits in calico printing and dyeing industries. Found the Buchanan Calico Printing Company—”
“I beg to differ.” Euan made an abrupt shift in his chair. “Indies rum and sugar are our second-best resource after Orinoco—and the most lucrative. If we canna be tobacco lords, we will be sugar lords instead.”
Juliet met his gaze with a steadiness she didn’t feel. “I suggest—nay, dictate—buying more acreage to use as bleaching fields here in Glasgow’s east end instead. There’s also a robust trade with Ireland of Buchanan manufactures, namely woolens, cordage, and glass, which must not lag.”
“I take it you’re against Caribbean trade and anything related to it,” Mr. Inglis said. “Yet I concur with your brother-in-law that sugar and rum are sure to save us.”
Everything in her rebelled at the notion. “I maintain that all Caribbean trade be forsaken and we concentrate our efforts and resources elsewhere. My husband spoke of investing in Turkish and Egyptian suppliers, which I advocate for as well.”
“You’ve certainly studied Buchanan enterprises thoroughly.” Euan was regarding her closely, his knuckles rapping the tabletop in a tight cadence. “I do wonder what your husband would say about all this were he here and had a voice.”
“For now, I am his voice,” she replied, holding his mulish gaze.
Oh, Leith, I am trying to defend your interests as best I can.
She was at sea here acting in a man’s stead. That gaping emptiness took hold again, drawing her nearer helplessness, even hopelessness, in the face of the men’s rising antagonism. These were some of the most powerful men in Scotland, two of them reputed to be among the wealthiest in all Europe.
Niall leaned forward, the sudden set of his jaw reminding her of Leith. “I stand behind selling all Buchanan tobacco stock and removing our presence in North America from this day forward.”
A tense pause and Juliet’s hopes revived. Combined with Leith’s, Niall’s vote and shares in the firm were all that were needed to override the other partners.