FROM ONE SQUARE TO ANOTHER

More questions, more discussion, dinner over, they sat in the drawing room, the Scrabble board was opened and letters chosen. Both Susan and Marcus were fanatical about the game, playing every night. Susan usually won, Marcus very occasionally and Ian had never beaten either. He was always amused at the light-hearted banter between them as Marcus attempted to put down invented words which, to his feigned surprise, were never in the dictionary. Ian went first, putting down RAZED, and felt very pleased with himself at scoring30. Probably because he was stuck, Ian thought, Marcus forgot the game and resumed their earlier discussion.

‘Take the offer Ian, you can’t afford not to. It’s a great opportunity, no question about it.’

‘Why are you so certain? I will be so far away from the centre of things in Berkeley Square.’

‘That’s the point. There’s no competition locally for a bright boy like you, especially with the backing of one of the biggest firms in England. Pound the pavements in both senses know every square foot of the city, every street, every nook and cranny, and all on Woods & Parker’s time and at their expense. Do it right and within six months, twelve at most you will now the value and rent of every building and piece of land in Bath. Instinctively, you will know what’s cheap when it’s offered. Every investor will be beating a path to your door when, as it will, word gets around the market, that you are the dealmaker. Very soon you will have the best contact book in Bath. Become indispensable in the branch office, squeezing for as much money and individua commissions as you can, until you qualify in four years time. Then – ’

Ian interrupted him. ‘Go for a junior partnership?’

Rose laughed. ‘You’re not stupid; leave the firm.’

‘Leave Woods & Parker?’ Ian was shocked. ‘And do what?

‘Why, set up on your own, of course. You will never make real money working for others. First step, go on your own, you’ll know when. You need to start as an agent, but his time you, not Woods & Parker, become indispensable to your clients, as a deal finder and doer. Then the next step. They, the clients, will have no option but to take you into partnership. It is all very simple, and as old as the hills. Identify and crate a unique property niche and know every inch of your patch. That’s exactly how I made my last property fortune.’

This was the first time Rose had ever referred to one of his specific businesses. He had always side-stepped Ian’s occasional questions by answering in generalities. Ian decided to push his luck.

‘I would be very interested to learn more. What’s the connection to Bath?’

Marcus thought for a moment.

‘That’s a story for another day, but suffice to say, substitute the Lundy Estate with that of the Grosvenor Estate, and the City of Bath for Mayfair, London. The wide streets, squares and crescents of Bath’s Georgian architecture are even matched by the layout and early Classical architecture of the West End of Belgravia.’

‘I have never thought of it like that.’ Ian was intrigued with the analogy of Queen Square to Hanover Square; there was no real difference.

‘Think about what I have said overnight, and we can talk again tomorrow.’

‘No need. It all makes perfect sense. I’ll call Mulholland in the morning and accept.’

‘Good decision, but now more importantly,’ Marcus looked down at the Scrabble board, placed a C in front of RAZED, and cleared all six of his remaining letters from his rack to make the word QUIXOTIC, with the X on a double letter, and the Q on a triple word score, ‘I make that 170,’ clearly having worked it out before putting the letters down.

 

 

 

An extract from chapter fifty of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles