Minor Corruption Read Online Free Page A

might occur that would tarnish the magic
of the Baldwin name among Reformers in the province.”
    “I plan to make sure that does not happen,
but there is a further and more imminent issue.”
    “And that is?”
    Robert reached for the macaroon dish he
always kept to hand and whose contents he used like worry beads.
“Uncle Seamus wants to help out in chambers. The truth is he is no
longer melancholy, but simply bored.”
    “But I thought he liked the outdoors: hiking
and trout fishing and that sort of thing.”
    “He does. And with duck and goose hunting
coming up, I figured he’d be well amused. But not so. He’s
determined, he says, to pay his way.”
    “But I assumed it was the law that
drove him nearly crazy,” Marc said.
    “True, but he feels he needs to earn his
keep,” Robert said with a resigned sigh. “He knows that you and I
and my cousin Bob are increasingly involved in politics, leaving
the day to day running of the firm in the overworked hands of
Peachey and our clerks. I don’t see how I can refuse his offer. So
far I’ve put him off by saying that we won’t need extra help until
the assizes begin in two weeks. He’s agreed to wait.”
    “But aside from the fact that the work might
set back his progress or that he may turn out to be more of a
burden than a help to us, what is there to worry about in the
larger sense?”
    “You saw the man out there today. Even
without the presence of children, who do set him off in dramatic
fashion, the fellow loves to play pranks and practical jokes. And
my four children and two young maids will be right next door. I’m
afraid he will materially disrupt the work of chambers at a time
when you, I and Francis must begin devoting all our energies to the
coming elections and maintaining our alliance with Louis.”
    Robert was alluding to Louis LaFontaine, the
leader of the radical rouge party in Quebec, and to the
secret alliance that he, Marc and Francis Hincks had hammered out
last winter. As the date for the proclamation of the united colony
approached and the elections that must ensue shortly thereafter,
Robert, as leader of the Upper Canadian Reformers, was spending
more and more of his time writing to and visiting ridings across
the province. He was hoping to drum up support for the nomination
of strong candidates, ones who would also show a willingness to
work with their French counterparts as the struggle for a
responsible form of government continued. Increasingly he had been
asking Marc either to accompany him or had been going off on his
own as far afield as Windsor or Cornwall. That left Robert Baldwin
Sullivan as the lone barrister in the firm and Clement Peachey as
the sole solicitor. And while Robert didn’t need the money
generated by his law practice (the family was well off), he was
loath to give it up. For although he was the only man whom
Reformers of all stripes trusted, he had not sought leadership nor
did he enjoy it. Always he saw himself doing his duty and then
retiring to the more peaceful satisfactions of his chambers.
    “No need to worry,” Marc said with more
assurance than he felt. “Let me take your uncle under wing when he
arrives in town. I’m not due for any travel until the end of
October. In that way you’ll be free to move about as you’re needed.
I’ll see to Uncle Seamus in the city while you and your parents
look out for him in the country.”
    Robert smiled, as fully as he ever did. “I
was hoping you would say that. I don’t know what I would do without
you.”
    “I’ll accept the compliment after the event,”
Marc said.
    A pre-emptive squeal from Maggie in the
crowded foyer drew Marc back to his primary duties. “My daughter
says it is time to go home.”
    As they were settling in the brougham –
Brodie, Diana, Maggie and Junior – Beth turned to Marc with a small
shudder and whispered, “Did you see the look on that girl’s face
when Seamus touched her?”
     

TWO

    Some four weeks after Eliza