“Because he’s lonely?” Starbuck did not understand.

Ridley shook his head. He was lounging with his back against the counter, staring through a cracked dirty window to where a two-masted ship creaked against a crumbling river quay. “Faulconer supports the rebellion because he thinks it’ll make him popular with his father’s old friends. He’ll prove himself a more fervent southerner than any of them, because in a way he ain’t a southerner at all, you know what I mean?”

“No.”

Ridley grimaced, as though unwilling to explain himself, but then tried anyway. “He owns land, Reverend, but he don’t use it. He doesn’t farm it, he doesn’t plant it, he doesn’t even graze it. He just owns it and stares at it. He doesn’t have niggers, at least not as slaves. His money comes out of railroads and paper, and the paper comes out of New York or London. He’s probably more at home in Europe than here in Richmond, but that don’t stop him wanting to belong here. He wants to be a southerner, but he ain’t.” Ridley blew a plume of cigar smoke across the room, then turned his dark, sardonic gaze on Starbuck. “I’ll give you a piece of advice.”

“Please.”

“Keep agreeing with him,” Ridley said very seriously. “Family can disagree with Washington, which is why he don’t spend too much time with family, but private secretaries like you and me ain’t allowed any disagreements. Our job is to admire him. You understand me?”

“He’s admirable anyway,” Starbuck said loyally.

“I guess we’re all admirable,” Ridley said with amusement, “so long as we can find a pedestal high enough to stand on. Washington’s pedestal is his money, Reverend.”

“And yours too?” Starbuck asked belligerently.

“Not mine, Reverend. My father lost all the family money. My pedestal, Reverend, is horses. I’m the best damned horseman you’ll find this side of the Atlantic. Or any side for that matter.” Ridley grinned at his own lack of modesty, then tossed back his glass of whiskey. “Let’s go and see if those bastards at Boyle and Gamble have found the field glasses they promised me last week.”