Jason took that to mean he was vague on the methods of accounting, and began explaining it again.
‘No,’ interrupted Roo. ‘I know the sums and the calculations. What I mean is I don’t understand why we’re losing money.’
Jason, the former waiter at Barret’s who had become the chief accountant for Roo’s financial empire, said, ‘It’s a problem with too many debts not being paid to us and too many bills we’re paying in timely fashion. We’re borrowing money for things we should have paid for out of our cash reserves.’
‘Which are nonexistent,’ said Roo. He had lent every available golden sovereign to Duke James. ‘Well, I have about as much chance of a loan repayment from the Crown anytime soon as I do of learning how to fly.’ He sighed, stood up from the table in his office and said, ‘What do you recommend?’
Jason, still looking much like the youth who had first befriended Roo three years earlier, said, ‘You could sell off some of our less profitable concerns.’
‘True, but I hate to get rid of capital assets.’ He yawned. ‘I’m tired.’ Glancing out the window, he saw that night had fallen. ‘What of the dock?’
Jason turned and looked down the hall to where the fancy Keshian timepiece had been erected. ‘It’s almost seven of the clock.’
‘Karli will be furious,’ he said. ‘I promised to be home at six.’
‘The family’s in the city?’
‘Yes,’ said Roo, grabbing his cloak and hurrying down the hall.
Fortunately, by the time Roo reached his house, he found Karli lost in conversation with Helen Jacoby. The two women had struck up a guarded friendship after the death of Randolph Jacoby, awkward because Randolph’s brother had been responsible for the death of Karli’s father. But in the main they seemed to enjoy each other’s company, and the four children played well together. And Roo found that he always enjoyed those evenings when both families gathered.
‘There you are,’ said Karli. ‘Supper will be served in a few moments.’
Cries of ‘Daddy!’ and ‘Uncle Rupert!’ filled the hall as the children swarmed over him. Laughing, Roo fought his way through the tangle of legs and grasping hands, and made his way to the stairs.
As Abigail started to follow him up the stairs, he said, ‘I’ll be down shortly, darling.’
‘No!’ she announced imperiously. ‘Go away!’
With a regal turn, she walked to the end of the hall and stood with her arms crossed. From his position on the stairs, Roo glanced at the two women in the parlor, and Helen was laughing while Karli looked astonished.
Helen said, ‘They all go through that.’
Roo nodded and hurried up to his and Karli’s room, where he washed up and changed his shirt. He returned to the dining room, where the children carried on at one end of the long table while Roo and Karli sat with Helen Jacoby at the other end.
Roo noticed Helen had taken to wearing her hair up in the new style, curls set around the forehead, and ringlets falling from an odd-looking comb. Roo wondered if it would be rude to ask what the comb was made of, then realized he had almost no idea what the latest fashions in the Prince’s City were.
He thought Sylvia would know, and then realized he rarely saw Sylvia dressed anymore, and besides somehow it seemed improper to be thinking of her while his wife and Helen were sitting next to him.
‘Why, Roo,’ said Helen, ‘you’re blushing!’
Roo feigned a cough, then said, ‘Something in my throat.’ He made a display of furiously coughing, then dabbing at nonexistent tears in his eyes with his napkin.
Helen laughed again, and Roo was astonished to discover how lovely she was. He had always thought of her as a fine-looking woman - nothing like the beauty Sylvia was, but in her evening finery with her hair done up, she was quite attractive.
Karli said, ‘Helen tells me you are doing well by her in running her company.’
Roo shrugged. ‘It pretty much runs itself. Tim Jacoby’ - he was about to say the man was a swine who knew his business, but given his sister-in-law was sitting there, he changed it to - ‘was very organized.’
‘Yes, he was,’ agreed Helen.
Conversation turned to discussing small items of importance to the children and the landmarks of their growth. The boys were starting to act like boys and the girls were becoming girls, and the mysteries of children still seemed to Roo uncharted territory.
He looked at his own children and realized he knew next to nothing about them. He barely paid them any attention, and suddenly he felt very odd about that. Perhaps when they were older, they’d have something interesting to say to him.
His gaze wandered again to Helen Jacoby, and after a moment she looked his way. Realizing he was staring, he said, ‘Would you care for brandy?’
Karli looked surprised. In their house, he had never offered brandy to anyone but his business associates.