The Viennese Waltz(73)
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“Are you out of your mind?” Gundaker poured himself a brandy from the table of drinks set out in the library. “The girl is little more than a servant. Cunning and low. And don’t give me that crap about up-timers’ nobility. The Barclays have been riding that to death. No one believes it, less now than when they arrived.”
Karl had been planning on bringing up the miraculous nature of the Ring of Fire, but now didn’t seem to be the right time. Opinions about the class into which the up-timers fell varied quite a bit. He walked over and sat in one of the leather-upholstered chairs.
“Calm down, Brother.” Maximilian sipped his brandy and leaned back in his chair. “Granted, the Barclays haven’t produced that much in the way of results. Yet. But it’s been less than a year. And honestly, they have a point about the lack of funding.”
“I know and that’s not what I’m talking about,” Gundaker said. “It’s their attitude. They act as though we were some primitive tribesmen. Then they turn around and act like some obsequious tailor, whining about the cost of cloth.”
Karl couldn’t resist a snort. If that was what Uncle Gundaker was used to from the Barclays and their associates, he was in for a rude awakening. Not that Sarah was all that socially astute, but she was aware of her lack of social skills. And Judy the Barracudy was about as socially skilled as anyone Karl had met short of Dowager Empress Eleonora. Gundaker was looking at him waiting for an explanation of his snort.
“There’s an expression I got from David Bartley, Uncle,” Karl tried to explain. “‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’ Grantville, the Ring of Fire, the whole area, is experiencing a rapidly rising economic tide. And while it hasn’t lifted all the fortunes of all the up-timers, it’s done a pretty decent job. In that environment, the Barclays felt themselves so unsuccessful that they were willing to move to Vienna, where there would be less competition. The Barclays have skills, serious skills even by the standards of the up-timers. So why, Uncle? Why were they available? Why weren’t they busy getting rich in Grantville or Magdeburg?”
“Why?” Maximilian leaned forward, looking at Karl.
“Understand, I had met only two members of the Barclay group, and that only once or twice in passing. After they left there was quite a bit of discussion as to why, but most of it second- or third-hand. Just rumors really.” Karl shrugged away any personal knowledge of the Barclays or their companions. “The word in Grantville was that they were ‘Never Workers.’ With almost every project or company that has been started since the Ring of Fire there has been someone, usually more than one, explaining why it would ‘never work.’ The right tools aren’t available. The down-time craftsmen aren’t up to the challenge. That’s not the way they did it before the Ring of Fire. Sometimes the ‘Never Workers’ are right and sometimes not.
“But right or wrong, they don’t put their money, or their time or energy, into the project. When it does work, they make no profit, because they weren’t involved. When it doesn’t work, they take no loss but again, they make no profit. Uncle, while I was in Grantville I made fifteen major investments and a host of minor ones. Of the fifteen, six were unmitigated failures and three were ‘Grantville failures,’ which means they broke even or made only a little profit. The least profitable of the real successes paid for all six failures. From what I understand, the Barclays made no major investments. Partly that was because they were visiting Grantville at the time of the Ring of Fire, so they had very little money to invest. But they also failed to invest their labor, requiring payment up front for whatever services they provided.” Karl grinned at his uncle. “In the same amount of time, Sarah went from a child with no money of her own to an independently wealthy young woman.”
“I take it you’re saying your young lady . . .” Maximilian von Liechtenstein paused clearly looking for just the right phrase, “. . . is different from the Barclays.”
Karl nodded.
“What about the Sanderlin and Fortney families?” Gundaker asked. “Those girls seemed well acquainted with the daughter of the mechanic that the emperor hired to take care of his toys.”
Karl paused. He had not given a great deal of thought to why Sonny Fortney had gone to Vienna while his daughter was getting rich in Grantville. He had just assumed that family necessity had trumped the daughter’s preference. But Sonny had been added by the Sanderlins. That was clear, as he thought back on their discussions last year. Why had Sonny Fortney agreed to go? He was a friend of Herr Sanderlin, or at least he had seemed to be, but they hadn’t struck Karl as that close. And Karl had wanted him to survey a railroad, but that had come later. Karl pushed it from his mind. He had other matters to deal with. “Hayley Fortney is a member of the Barbie Consortium. She knows quite a bit about the mechanics of up-time tech and a reasonable amount about business. I would expect that she has done well here, hasn’t she?”