“It’s fifteen year ago since I first worked for Government. I found that the parks was much infested with rats, which had undermined the bridges and gnawed the drains, and I made application to Mr Westley, who was superintendent of the park, and he spoke of it, and then it was wrote to me that I was to fulfil the situation, and I was to have so much pounds a year. But after that it was altered, and I was to have so much a-head, which is threepence. After that, Newton, what was varmint destroyer to her Majesty, dying, I wrote in to the Board of Ordnance, when they appointed me to each station in London – that was, to Regentsey Park Barracks, to the Knightsbridge and Portland Barracks, and to all the other barracks in the metropolis. I've got the letter now by me, in which they says “they is proud to appoint me”.
Jack Black (The Battersea Otter) Rat and Mole Destroyer by appointment to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, (quoted by Henry Mayhew)
CHAPTER 25 FAREWELL MY LOVELY
Louis la Rothiere padded over terrazzo tiles around the swimming pool. “Here you are my dearest. Complete with ice, and a slice.” He waited for the naked girl to raise her hand, shield her eyes from the Sun, and sit up on the lounger.
“Thank you Louis,” said the Honourable Amelia Saint Simon “You are good to me.”
“Not at all. Not at all.” He sat on the next sun lounger. “But be careful, not to be too tanned. I need you as an English Rose. I want that sort of cream colour you have. Not pink and not brown.”
“I’ll be careful.” She stood and examined her self. “You don’t think I should have another waxing do you?”
“Let me get in a few days shooting first. You go very red after waxing.”
“OK, but I don’t want to….Oh, it’s my phone.” She sat and pulled it from her bag “Oh it’s Alex. What on earth does he want? Hallo Love?”
“Hi. Amey?”
“Yes Love.”
“How’s California?”
“Well, I have started….”
“Wonderful news. There’s a company interested in my ideas.”
“Oh?”
“They want to start a full design study.”
“Who does?”
“They call themselves the Aurora Group. They want to go for a Government tender to build a heavy launch vehicle. They like my ideas and they want to see if it works.”
“Oh. Good.”
“Yes. Sir James Walter is the head. I met him down at canary Wharf. I’m going to have my own office there as a consultant to the project.”
“That’s nice.”
”Nice? It’s everything I ever wanted. I never dreamt it might come to this. Britain building a launcher. My launcher.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“Yes. You’re the first person I’ve told. I’ve just come out of the office now.”
“I’m the first? Oh that’s sweet of you Alex.”
“I don’t have anyone else to tell really.”
“Oh Alex. So who else is in this group thing?”
“Lots of bankers and European Companies and Joe Hebron.”
”Joe Hebron? He’s really rich.”
“He’ll need to be Anyway. I start next week. I can form my own team. I can have whoever I want and I can hire the facilities at Cranfield and Bristol and Farnborough. And just about any university I want. It’s wonderful.”
“I’m so pleased.”
“Well I must get on. It’s getting late here. Love you lots. Speak to you soon.”
“Oh. OK, Love you. Bye.”
“Bye.”
“What was that about?” asked Louis.
“Oh it’s Alex. He’s got a job building a launch or something.”
“A launch? You mean a kind of boat?”
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