“Yes,” she cut in, trying to keep him from talking so much, since that seemed to wear him out, too. “Even he ignored the contract Father had with him to sell to the higher-bidding captain.”

“But what good is a contract if it can be so easily broken?”

“From what I heard, they weren’t exactly broken, just some flimsy excuses given as to why the merchandise wouldn’t be forthcoming. The nature of business, I suppose,” Larissa said with a shrug she wasn’t really feeling, adding, “It’s hard to fault the merchants when they had the chance to reap huge, unexpected profits.”

“I don’t find it hard to fault them a’tall,” he disagreed. “Contracts are made for good reason, so the market can be dependable.”

She should have known better than to fluff it off, when Thomas was being groomed, even at his young age, to take over their father’s company someday. “Be that as it may, this happened all across Europe. The Winds ships showed up in every port that ours did. Rather easy to conclude that it was deliberate, that they were specifically following our line to obtain our cargoes. And that’s why Father sailed so far from home. He couldn’t compete with The Winds, which was paying unheard-of prices, or he would have made no profit on the cargoes.”

Thomas frowned. “I think this is where I don’t understand. How was that other shipping company going to make any profit if it was paying so high for its cargoes?”

“They weren’t. They apparently had money to throw away on this particular tactic. Secure the market first, then worry about getting the prices back to reasonable later. It was merely a ploy, and one that worked. Father couldn’t risk sending his ships back to the same merchants, only to have the same thing happen again, so in that, The Winds line won; they now have those old markets.”

“Do you think Papa was able to find new markets, then?” Thomas asked.

“Certainly,” she said, trying to sound confident. “And he had planned to expand to the West Indies eventually. So this may turn out to be a very good move in the end.”

“Though forced on him before he was ready.”

Often she wished Thomas weren’t so smart and would just accept an explanation when given as most children did at his age, rather than question and point out all the flaws in her logic. “Would you like me to tell you what I think?”

“Do I have a choice?”