December 1883
He waited patiently for his mother to tell him why she asked to meet at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. He wondered if his father’s health was failing again.
They were in a tea house at the park. It was very festive. The centerpiece on their table was decorated with holly and evergreen boughs and small glass ornaments. The place was full of tourists visiting New York City to conduct their shopping for the holidays. A waiter came up and left them with their order. William took up his coffee and a biscuit.
Hannah let him know her intentions as soon as her tea was poured in the cup. “I called you away from business to talk about your marriage prospects.”
William gagged on his coffee.
Hannah raised her hand in the air to stop him from unleashing any protestations. “Hear me out,” she said.
“You’ve been carousing around New York City with Miss Stewart long enough. You may not realize that her father is going to pay for a peerage and ship her off to England to become a Baroness.”
“How convenient for him,” William said.
“Pfft,” Hannah replied.
William snapped his head up at that sound, it reminded him so of Ella.
“Considering that you spend most of your time in North Creek I’m surprised you are able to keep up with New York City social affairs,” he said.
“Oh I keep my ears open to the tea parlor gossip. One visit with my friends here and I learn all the news that will be splashed across the pages of the society section of the New York Times the following Sunday.” Hannah took a biscuit from the tray. “Gossip is a public sport here in America.”
“You’re being a bit judgmental aren’t you, Mother? I recall you imbibed the tea parlor gossip in London as well.”
“That may be, but at least in London we had good sense to keep it amongst ourselves.”
William chuckled at his mother’s hypocrisy.
A smile crossed Hannah’s face. “It’s so good to see you merry again. You’ve been brooding too long over the death of that Lawrence girl.”
William frowned. “I’d rather not discuss it, Mother.”
She patted his hand. “As I was saying, I’d like to see the Durant name in a headline story that contains good news for once. That is why I’ve suggested to your father, and he agrees, that Janet Stott would make a suitable match for you.”
William set down his coffee cup. He wasn’t surprised by the suggestion as much as he thought he should be. His mother was smart, and unlike his father, practical. However. “Isn’t she a bit young?”
“Hardly, she’s eighteen. Just the right age to marry before she becomes, well, like Ella, and too old to marry.”
“Janet’s a lovely girl but I think I can find my own match for marriage. Thank you anyway,” William said. He thought about Janet Stott, Jennie they called her. Although they were family friends with the Stotts, he never had occasion to visit with Jennie, until last summer when he stopped by their family camp on Bluff Point at Raquette Lake.
He had been standing on the front porch speaking with Francis Stott, inquiring about construction progress of the Episcopal church on St. Hubert’s Isle on Raquette when he heard the sounds of laughing and looked out at the lake to see a boat full of young girls screaming and splashing each other, trying to tip the boat over. After a lot of tumbling about, they succeeded, and the exertions sent them into hysterics.
How innocent it all seemed, and charming.
“Your father has already written Francis Stott, and I have offered $3,000 for Jennie’s trousseau.”
“Is that necessary? It sounds like a bribe. And where are you getting the money?” William said.
“Don’t worry about where the money is coming from. You forget that I once owned all of this.” She gestured with her hands to encompass the land her father once owned and that Dr. Durant had sold to the City for $200,000. “And I too hold meetings in Mr. Sutphen’s office.” She raised her brows at William.
William recalled the blank certificates he had signed over the past two years since becoming President. How many, he now wondered, were in his mother’s name?
Hannah continued to press her point. “The Stotts are a respectable family, and their business connections have always been helpful to your father. You should be thankful Jennie will have you. You have quite the reputation with the ladies I understand, and the Durant family name is not exactly nectar to the bees these days,” Hannah said. “And you forget, I’ve been through this before with my own father. When he went bankrupt in England it broke my mother’s heart. I cannot stand the idea of being tarnished by bankruptcy again.”
“But that’s one reason father put the company in my name and put me in charge. You need to have more confidence in me.” William tried to reassure his mother although he himself was not convinced by his words.
“The steamboat line is profiting handsomely. And I have word from the Hewitt Company that the iron ore sample I sent is good quality,” he added with optimism.
“Is it enough though?” Hannah said. “And as much as I have confidence in you, son, I also know your father better than anyone. You’ll never really be fully in charge of the Adirondack Company and all of the land holdings as long as he is dangling Mr. Sutphen from strings like a puppeteer.”
William knew she was right.
“It’s settled then?” he said.
“Yes,” Hannah said as she set down her teacup.
She and William sat quietly looking at the people idly strolling by. How many of them he wondered, we’re as worried about the future, and their station in it, as they were?