Page 276 of The Armor of Light

Spade nodded. ‘He’s decided to stay in the army.’

‘I’m not surprised. He’s a good sergeant. They’ll be glad to have him.’

Spade happened to be with Sime Jackson, who was sitting at the Jacquard loom. Joe looked with interest at the machine and said: ‘I don’t think my grandfather has anything like that.’

‘He’ll have one before long, I guarantee you,’ said Spade.

Sime explained: ‘The holes punched in the card tell the loom how to weave the pattern. Makes the whole process faster.’

‘Amazing.’

‘I’ll show you,’ said Sime, and he worked the loom for a fewminutes. Joe was fascinated. ‘Then when the pattern needs to change, you just put a different card in,’ Sime said. ‘It was invented by a Frenchman. I know we’re supposed to hate the French, on account of Bonaparte, but the Froggie who invented this was bloody clever.’

‘Did you buy it in France?’

‘No, Kit Clitheroe and Roger Riddick make them.’

Spade said: ‘But you didn’t come here to learn about the Jacquard loom, Joe.’

‘No. I’d like a quiet word with you, if I may.’

‘Of course.’ The wordquietsuggested that Joe did not want to be overheard, so Spade said: ‘Come to my little office.’

They made their way there and Joe looked around the room. ‘Not as magnificent as my grandfather’s office, but more comfortable,’ he commented.

They sat down, and Spade said: ‘What’s on your mind?’

‘My grandfather wants me to leave the army and start work in his business.’

‘And how do you feel about that?’

‘I want to know more about the business before I decide.’

How sensible, Spade thought.

Joe’s next remark surprised him. ‘You run the Friendly Society.’

‘Yes...’

‘My grandfather says it’s a trade union in disguise, merely a way of getting around the Combination Act.’

Spade wondered whether this was some kind of trap. ‘I’ve heard him say that,’ he said non-committally. ‘If he’s right, the society is against the law.’

‘I don’t really care whether it is or not, I just guessed you would be a good person to give me advice.’

Spade thought: Now where the hell is this going? He said nothing.

Joe went on: ‘You see, I don’t want to run the business mygrandfather’s way. He’s turned his workers into his enemies. To be frank, they hate him. I don’t want to be hated.’

Spade nodded. Joe was right, though not everyone saw it that way.

Joe said: ‘I think he’d do better to try to make them – not his friends, that’s unrealistic – but perhaps his allies. After all, they want to produce good cloth and get paid well for it, and he wants the same.’

This was what all reasonable people felt, but it was remarkable to hear it from someone whose surname was Hornbeam. ‘So what do you want to do?’

‘I’ve come to ask you that. How can I make things different?’

Spade sat back. This was all highly surprising. But he was being given an opportunity to educate a young man who was going to be a power in Kingsbridge. This could be a key moment.