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306 pages

English

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Captain Hazard's Game, third in the Chocolate House Mysteries series, conjures up the vibrant life of early eighteenth-century gamesters and money-men, a world of deception where risk could bring huge rewards - especially when you turned the stock-market by false news or shortened the odds by cheating. It was a scene where all was in hazard and life lived on the edge.The book weaves its classic murder mystery around actual events of October 1708, and we move among a rich cast of characters, both in Vandernan's gaming-house, Covent Garden, and the notorious Exchange Alley.Playing Captain Hazard's Game brings murder and scandal uncomfortably close, and Widow Trotter and her friends at the Bay-Tree are drawn into a frenzied game of chance and speculation at a time when the market was unregulated. Fortunes were made overnight, and ruin could descend in a single hour. People played for the highest stakes, and men of power manipulated things for their own ends. In this book the chocolate house itself comes under threat as Mary Trotter, with help from her young friends Tom and Will, struggles to find the truth behind an ingenious system of deception. Once again, she presides over the novel, as she does over the Bay-Tree, with good humour, fierce integrity, and resolute determination.

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	28 septembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781803133805
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Copyright © 2022 David Fairer

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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For my readers

Contents
Characters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty

Historical Note

Characters
*
Historical figures marked with *

COURT AND POLITICS

*Queen Anne, t he last Stuart monarch, niece of Charles the Second
*Prince George of Denmark, Prince Consort, Anne’s ailing husband
*Robert Harley (later Earl of Oxford), wily politician with Tory sympathies, now out of office, Anne’s confidant
*John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, the great general, victor of Blenheim (1704) and Ramillies (1706). In October 1708 he is besieging Lille
*Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Queen Anne’s friend and adviser, now out of her favour, supporter of the Whigs
*Arthur Maynwaring, MP, the Duchess’s secretary, wit and Whig pamphleteer

RED LION COURT

Mary Trotter, Chatelaine of the Bay-Tree Chocolate House
Tom Bristowe , budding poet working on his Virgilian georgic, Covent Garden: A Poem in Two Books
Will Lundy, Tom’s best friend, mercurial law student of the Middle Temple, future Westminster Hall orator
Mrs Dawes, creative in the kitchen, inventor of the Covent Garden tapas
Jenny Trip, barista princess with a sharp eye and keen wit
Peter Simco, skilful coffee-boy with a bright future
Jeremy Jopp (Jem), does errands and hard lifting, training to be elegant
Old Ralph, sweeps and cleans
Robert LeRoy, Tallière of the Bay-Tree basset table, an adventurer
Samuel Cust, Whig with a Caribbean sugar plantation
Barnabas Smith, Whig cloth merchant
Jack Tapsell, Whig wine merchant
Laurence Bagnall, poet and critic with laureate ambitions, author of ‘The Shoe-Buckle’
Captain Roebuck, old soldier of Marlborough’s Flanders campaign
Gavin Leslie, down from the glens of Scotland
David Macrae, his friend and compatriot
Charles Denniston, runs a toyshop in Katherine Street, Mrs Ménage’s landlord
John Pomery, his friend, private secretary to the Duke of Bedford
Gabriel Winch, cynical broker with business in Exchange Alley, suspicious of the Dutch
Jacob Taylor, another frequenter of ’Change Alley, not fond of the French
Joe Garvey, a third, a young man satirically inclined

THE CITY AND EXCHANGE ALLEY

*Sir Charles Duncombe, incoming Lord Mayor of London, 1708-9
Sir Jasper Evington, the Ancient Mariner of ’Change Alley
*John Grigsby, in 1708 ‘Mr Grigsby’ was the cashier of the Sword Blade Bank, Birchin Lane
Edward Barnes, the Sword Blade notary
Jack Grimes, the first half of Grimes & Hitch
Ned Hitch, the second half of Grimes & Hitch
*Sir Gilbert Heathcote, richest commoner in England, a Director of the Bank of England, became its Chairman 1709
*Peter Henriques, commodity importer trading with the east
Michael Henriques, his progressive son, excited by science and experiment
Willem Oosterhout, Dutch entrepreneur running a Europe-wide system of intelligence
Lambert Jansen, Dutch dealer at Jonathan’s
Mr Rawls, a Jonathan’s share-hawker
*Benjamin Levy, Lombard Street banker of long experience
George Rivers, Alderman of the Mercers’ Company, City Coroner and Common Councilman
Samuel Rivers, his son, a professional gamester taking on the ‘system’
Philip Roscoe, a Director of the Bank of England, broker to the Duchess of Marlborough
*Elkanah Settle, the official City poet, responsible for the Lord Mayor’s pageant

ST JAMES’S

John Popham, Second Viscount Melksham (Tom’s Uncle Jack), Queen Anne’s Deputy Treasurer, an unwilling courtier
Sophia Popham (née Doggett), Viscountess Melksham, a young banking heiress who has become a stepmother
The Hon. Frank Popham, newly-elected MP for Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire
The Hon. Lavinia Popham, independent and advanced for eighteen, recruited to Arachne’s Web, a secret bluestocking circle
Lord Tring, heir to the Earldom of Welwyn, very fresh from the Grand Tour. Lavinia’s admirer
Arthur, the Pophams’ tall footman
Sidney, their lad who fetches and carries for them
Mrs Walker, their dauntless cook
Sir Charles Norreys, Commissioner of Vandernan’s gaming-house
Julia, Lady Norreys, his intelligent and bored wife, active in Arachne’s Web
Alexander, their footman, her discreet ally
*Delarivier Manley, controversial journalist and fiction-writer, chief weaver of the Web
The Hon. George Sturgis , well-connected rake and gamester

THE LAW

Elias Cobb, Covent Garden’s resourceful constable, with semi-official interests
Tobias Mudge, his bold apprentice watchman, has ambitions to be an investigator of crimes
Bob Turley, watchman, strong-armed member of Elias’s team
Benjamin Hector, Covent Garden magistrate zealous for the reformation of manners
Sheriff Kirk, knows the forms
Richard Sumner, Middle Temple barrister and Will’s pupil-master, Lady Norreys’s brother
Mr Justice Oliver Lundy (‘Hemp’), Will’s father, Old Bailey judge and strict upholder of the Law
Mr Blackett, an officious constable

VANDERNAN’S GAMING HOUSE

Joseph, Lord Parham, runs the Vandernan’s system
Joe Travis, door-keeper of Vandernan’s, close to Parham
Joel Harkins, Parham’s enforcer, second member of the team
Jack Beech, daredevil highwayman who contributes to the Vandernan’s economy
Humfrey Corbet, idle law student of Gray’s Inn, frequenter of the gaming-house
Isaac Ward, another one, even more idle
Ned Wilder, and a third
Mr Fleming, a beau, flamboyant hazard-player
Mr Nolley, a reckless and unsophisticated player
‘No-Nicks’ Nick, a hapless player who doesn’t give up
Barbara, Lady Rastell, female gamester of awesome reputation
Sir John Simons, the ‘Hockley Hole gamester’, part of the Vandernan’s cabal
Joshua Wakefield, ‘Dr Convex’, another member of the cabal
‘The Rector’, tenacious whist-player
Mr Colleoni, fop who loses with good grace
‘Dick’, former wig-dresser favoured by Dame Fortune

ELSEWHERE

Adèle Ménage, of Katherine Street, retired from the bagnio business, Widow Trotter’s old friend
Kate Primrose, formerly ‘Callisto’ of Vinegar Yard, soon to be Mrs Joseph Quinlan of Soho Square
Joan Cumberbatch, hospitable keeper of the sponging-house
Jack, messenger from Custom House Quay
*Abraham Darby, beginning to exploit charked coal at Ironbridge, Shropshire
Abel Broughton, works for Darby, sees potential in the gas by-product
Richard Morson, proprietor of The Flagon

Thursday
21 October 1708

Chapter One
*
It had all begun innocently enough – with a casual remark after a hand at whist. But what a hand! Those cards alone would have made the event memorable, and Mary Trotter’s thumb had tingled as she reviewed them: seven trumps in a tightly-formed phalanx ready for battle. Shoulder-to-shoulder they stood: the eight, nine and ten, the knave, queen and king, with almighty Spadillo , Ace of Spades, standing proudly alongside the rest of his family.
She couldn’t avoid catching her breath, and her partner Mrs Ménage sensed electricity in the air. Adèle Ménage was an instinctive card-player who found calculation tiresome and liked to generate an element of surprise. This often disconcerted her partners, but Widow Trotter had learned to take it in good part and enjoy the ride. On this occasion the pair swept the board in triumph; and even their opponents, Mr Denniston and his friend Mr Pomery, accepted that it had been a privilege to be part of such a historic encounter – massacre though it was.
Over tea and cake, the four of them reflected on the game. That concluding hand had been