A Distant Hope by Ellin Carsta

Author:Ellin Carsta [Carsta, Ellin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542042284
Published: 2019-07-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Hamburg, End of April 1889

“You can’t do that!”

A furious Elisabeth paced back and forth in Georg’s office.

“I’m only doing what your husband asked me to do,” Georg explained. “And he’s right. He’s providing you with an income. You can’t ask more of him than that.”

“With an income?” She stopped to glare at him in anger. “Feeding me can hardly be called an income.”

“What do you expect, Elisabeth, after what you did to him? A bed of roses?”

“I did to him? You are mad. How is it that nobody sees what he’s done to me? He dragged me off to Africa and kept me like an animal.”

“Elisabeth, please. I know my brother well enough to know that’s not true.”

“Oh really? Ask Martha, she’ll tell you. Everything there is dirty, and there are savages all over, waiting to kill you.”

“Robert says he has very reliable natives working for him.”

“They are Negroes, Georg! They run with naked torsos and a flimsy cloth below that is lifted by the slightest gust of wind. Georg, now I ask you, is that a life for a Hamburg society woman?”

“Robert is doing it for us, Elisabeth,” Georg said pointedly. “Have you really not grasped that? He’s not in Cameroon because he wants to be there. He’s there to make money for the family.” He paused to consider whether he should tell her what he was thinking. “Do you know how badly off we were before your husband made that courageous decision?”

Elisabeth sat in front of Georg’s desk. “No. How was I to know? You never spoke a word to us about finances.”

“Because you only want to be taken care of. You and Vera don’t care where the money’s coming from,” Georg remonstrated.

“That’s not fair, Georg. You keep us out of everything, don’t share any information, and then accuse us of not understanding anything.”

Georg swallowed his annoyance. His sister-in-law wasn’t entirely wrong, though he’d never seen her or his wife show even a passing interest in the family’s business.

“If you want to know the details, we were a hair’s breadth away from having to sell the villa.”

Elisabeth opened her eyes wide in shock. “The villa?”

“Yes, the villa. We couldn’t service our debt anymore, and we owe it to Robert alone that our banker, Palm, gave us one final postponement. It’s only because of Robert’s plantation scheme and the profit he made that Palm could be persuaded.”

Georg didn’t say that the deciding factor had been the mention of August Frederiksen as the potential new owner of the villa.

Elisabeth kneaded her fingers nervously. “I had no idea,” she admitted in a small voice.

“If Robert hadn’t gotten up his courage and gone to Cameroon, you wouldn’t be in the villa right now but in some apartment somewhere, happy just to have enough to eat.”

Elisabeth covered her face with her hands. “I am ashamed of myself, Georg,” she said, bursting into tears.

Georg took out his handkerchief and handed it to her. “You and your husband ought to have discussed it more thoroughly,” he said.

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