The arrangements John Master had made before leaving New York had been simple. He had a clerk he trusted to take care of his regular business at the warehouse. The rum distillery foreman was likewise a good man. The land in Dutchess County was under the tight control of an agent, who also collected the numerous property rents in the city. As for the family house, that was no trouble at all. Hudson would look after that. But nonetheless, he needed someone to oversee the whole, and also to keep track of the various interest payments due from a number of reputable businesses in the city. For since, unlike London, New York still had no banks, Master and other merchants of his kind made most of the loans necessary to the business of the place.

So his father Dirk had agreed to come back to the city, and live in the house while John was away. John wasn’t sure that his father particularly wanted to do it, but he’d agreed with good grace, and there was certainly no one better fitted for the task.

It had also solved one other problem.

Mercy had been disappointed when her daughter Susan had not wanted to accompany them to London, but she had understood it. It was not that Susan was lacking in affection for her parents or interest in the world. But everything she already wanted was in the New York colony—her friends, the man, whomever he might be, that she would one day marry. The ocean crossing to London was not a small undertaking and it might be a year before they were back. To a girl of Susan’s age that seemed a long time, a year of her life given up for no future purpose, and that could have been better spent in America. To argue with her was pointless. They could force her to go, but at the end of the day, for what purpose? She wasn’t going to change her mind. And the presence of her grandfather in the house meant that she could be safely left there under his care.

But James was another matter. When he’d confessed to his mother that he had no desire to go to London either, she’d told him frankly: “Your father is quite decided that you should come, James.” And seeing her son look vexed: “It would break his heart if you didn’t, you know.”