The Travels of Anadrasata Nearabhigan: Day 7 - Meanwhile, Back at Home
This occurs on Day 7 of Anadrasata’s travels. It runs to 2,080 words and I hope that you enjoy it. Also, I have not specified the currency units because I haven’t decided what they are called yet but if you assume British pounds in the early 1800s then you will have the right idea of the intended value.
Castor Fhailaign had been trying to talk to his brother-in-law, Tallaig Nearabhaign, for several days but Tallaig was angry with him and had been refusing to meet with him. Tallaig was, in general, a very angry man but at the moment he was angry specifically at Castor for "overstepping his place" and auditing the household accounts of Castor's mother-in-law who was, of course, Tallaig's mother. Castor had begun the task because his wife, Annapeala, had been reduced to an overwrought version of herself after stepping in to keep house for her mother while her sister, Anadrasata, was off visiting relatives on the other side of the Circle Sea. Castor had been there when his wife and mother-in-law had told Anadrasata not to worry because Anna would do a much better job than Anadrasata had ever done. Castor may have been the only one of them who'd noticed the twitch of Anadrasata's eyelid as the insult couched as reassurance rolled over her.
It had taken two days of living under her mother's roof and trying to deal with her demands and budget restrictions to reduce his wife to tears. Castor had started looking at the ledgers to see how Anadrasata had managed. The answer was that she hadn't, in that her mother had the genteel widow’s life on a generous jointure that she wanted, but Anadrasata made do without thigs her family took for granted to make that happen - no personal maid, no pin money, and one new dress a season from a back lane seamstress rather than a seasonal wardrobe from a dressmaker on Tailors Row. Most of this was because Contreala Nearabhaign, family matriarch, refused to believe that inflation had rendered the adequate budget of her newly wedded days inadequate for a genteel household of two some thirty years later.
Budget negotiations were ongoing.
That was not why he wanted to talk to Tallaig. Needed to talk to Tallaig Nearabhaign.
This morning he'd finally been admitted when he'd called at the town house in Umbrial where Tallaig lived when he wasn't at either of his two rural properties. Once the butler had taken his cloak and handed it to a footman, Castor had been shown into Tallaig's office, a wooden finished room that had shelves of ledgers along the walls, a fireplace containing neatly and effectively arranged kindling, a desk, several chairs, a drinks sideboard, and his host. "What is so important that you've been calling to talk to me for three days now?" Tallaig was snappish and ungracious today, although he had risen from his seat on Castor's entrance. The two men were both of medium height, and both were dark haired, although Tallaig's hair, like that of his sisters, was brown to Castor's black. It looked to Castor that Tallaig had begun his morning with a ride as he wore boots and pale deerskin breeches under a modish green waistcoat that buttoned from the top of his sternum to his lower midriff and ended at his hips. Tallaig's shirt was hidden by the waistcoat, a few billows of white cravat at his throat, and a sleeved, knee length, reddish damask overrobe. He looked the very picture of a gentleman relaxing at home.
Castor set the ledgers and notes he was carrying on Tallaig's desk and replied, "In going over your mother's accounts I came to the conclusion that you have a serious problem with the office of your man of business. Specifically, I believe that someone there is skimming ten percent off the transfers of her jointure from your account to hers."
Tallaig stopped, having been about to say something and suddenly finding that inappropriate. "You'd better sit down." He gestured at the guest chair on the other side of the desk and sat in his own chair. "Why do you think that?"
"Your mother received her jointure in quarterly payments of five hundred for the first four years of her widowhood," replied Castor as he took his seat and crossed his trousered legs at the knee. "That accords with the provisions of her marriage contract and your father's will."
Tallaig nodded in agreement.
Castor went on, "Five years ago she was informed by the gentleman from your man of business' office who delivered the bank transfer document that, due to economic circumstances," Castor gave a general all-encompassing handwave, "the income from the investments that funded her jointure had dropped and her income would now be four hundred and fifty per quarter."
"What?" That flat tone was a combination of emotions. Castor had been feeling some of them himself.
"Indeed. As we both know, the payment rate on government bonds has not dropped and your mother's jointure is the sum of specified annual amounts. Even if there had been a rate drop, the amount of your mother's jointure would not be affected." He paused and looked at his brother-in-law, waiting for a response.
"You're right," Tallaig agreed. "If my mother's income from the consols dropped, my father's will requires that her income be supplemented from my income. Why do you think the problem is in my man of business' office?"
Castor smiled briefly. "Aside from not believing that you would steal from your mother?" He went on, "With her written permission I approached the office of the Imperial Exchequer here in Umbrial and her bank to review her accounts. The Imperial Exchequer confirmed that there has been no change to the bonds held in her name, the interest payable on those bonds, or the amounts transferred to your account as her trustee for the last nine years. They were kind enough to provide me with a transcript." Castor pulled the requisite sheet of paper out of his document stack and laid it on the desk in front of Tallaig. "As you can see, five hundred has been transferred every quarter to your account."
"What happens when the money is in my account?"
Castor tagged Tallaig's tone as deceptively mild and replied cheerfully, "I have absolutely no idea. I didn't have your authority to delve into your accounts, so I didn't ask."
Tallaig nodded in acknowledgment. "Thank you. So, what happens when the money is received by my mother?"
"One of your man of business' clerks brings her a transfer document for four hundred and fifty drawn on their bank account." Castor placed another document beside the one already in front of Tallaig. "As you can see from her bank statement, it is always dated seven working days after the day that the Imperial Exchequer's transfer was issued. I see no proper reason for the money to pass through their account at all, unless you have them distributing several sums drawn from your account in one transfer. You pay them for their services, so there is no need for them to cover their expenses by ensuring they earn interest on the money by holding it in their account overnight, and even if they charged a percentage handling fee, ten percent is an unconscionable rate."
"Agreed, and they are paid quarterly, based on a detailed invoice." Tallaig's voice was almost a snarl.
"You may wish to review any other regular pension or charitable payments that go through them as well," replied Castor carefully. "There's another regular but annual payment that goes to your mother's household through your man of business. For the first four years it was for a thousand, but at the time your mother's jointure dropped, it dropped to nine hundred."
When Tallaig said nothing, Castor went on, still careful, "I assume it comes from Anadrasata's trust that no-one talks about because you don't want her to know about it." He sighed. "Anna seems unclear on the whole matter but seems put out about it at the same time."
Tallaig got up and went to stand in front of the fireplace, his overrobe swirling to reveal its black silk lining as he did so. "When my father died, and I became Anadrasata and Sura's guardian, I looked into why our father made no provision for Anadrasata in his will. That's when I discovered the trust in her name." He began to pace. "It was established when she was born, and there is more money in it than I - my father's heir - received under his will. I am her guardian, and the trustees will not transfer control of it to me, admit me to their number, nor discuss the trust and its terms with me. Everything about it strikes me as a slight from what I thought was a loving father." He turned to Castor, "What am I supposed to do?"
Castor took a moment to arrange his thoughts. "Firstly, Anadrasata is an official offshoot of your family, so there is a legal requirement for her to have had a substantial trust fund from the moment that was declared." He added forestallingly, "Don't try to do something clever like convincing her to sign it over to you once she achieves control of it - there was a whole spate of that when the offshoot trust laws first came in and the penalties that got added are still horrendous. One of my ancestors was the victim of such a scheme and my father pulls the story out as an after-dinner finisher on occasion."
Tallaig had gone very still.
"Do find out why she was declared an offshoot. There should be something in the original trust documents and those should be a matter of public record because the declaration must be a registered public document with the trust papers attached. I can do the poking around for you if you like," he offered. "We've established that I'm an annoyingly interfering sort of person, and if the trustees have already warned you off, that would avoid annoying them."
Beside the fireplace, Tallaig nodded in agreement. "Besides, I have a fraud to pursue." He paused then asked, “So, the jointure and allowance payments are the only income my mother has been receiving?”
“Based on her ledgers, yes.” Castor looked at him enquiringly. “Is that a problem?”
“I send my mother ä hundred and fifty per quarter for Sura’s pin money, tuition, and other expenses. It’s not a written requirement - I am her guardian and responsible for her, even if she lives with Mother, and she doesn’t have an allowance from another source like Anadrasata.” Tallaig looked like he was controlling a strong emotion.
“Nine hundred a year is a considerable sum,” replied Castor. “Have you been sending your mother this money ever since your father died? Because it doesn’t appear in her ledgers at all.”
“That will have to be part of my investigations,” replied Tallaig.
"Good luck, I hope you can get the ladies' money back," replied Castor. "That's fifteen hundred, at least, that their household should have had available to them. And, if I may make a bold suggestion, I know it's your mother's household, but you are Anadrasata's guardian - the household is getting substantial funds for her support and although some of the money should be used for household expenses, you should insist that your mother gives her appropriate pin money out of those funds."
"Can my mother afford to do so? She's very vocal about staying within her budget." Tallaig looked to his brother-in-law for an answer.
"Firstly, they've been getting by without that missing three hundred for the past five years," said Castor plainly, "so once their proper income is restored, there's that money available. Secondly, your mother has been receiving twenty-seven hundred per annum for the last five years. A thousand per year has gone on the housekeeping that Anadrasata manages and your mother's carriages and horses. There's been six hundred in ladies' expenses for her, four hundred for Sura's pin money, and two hundred for her tuition fees. The last five hundred per annum isn't accounted for in your mother's ledgers. Neither is your six hundred per annum. I hope she has it all on deposit somewhere and is bad with her bookeeping."
Tallaig took a deep breath. "I will deal with my man of business, and I would appreciate it if you could quietly look into what you can find out about the terms of my sister's trust. Dealing with my mother might best be left until Anadrasata returns and she can receive pin money."
"Indeed," agreed Castor firmly.
“Unless of course she has been receiving the money I send her for Sura,” added Tallaig. “Then I will have questions.”