Description
Twenty-eight. Thin, nervous, over-eager. Dresses too carefully. Laughs at jokes a beat too late. Trying very hard to be Surlish and managing only to be off-putting.
He looks at Surlish before he answers any question. At Ashworth’s dinner there is nobody to look at, because Surlish declined and sent him instead.
Background
Junior partner in Surlish’s house. Knows the warehouse operations, the shipping, the consortium’s arrangements and the accounts intimately, because somebody has to do the actual work.
He has no loyalty except self-preservation and has never been tested on it.
What Meg Says
Percy Cartwright is Surlish’s creature. Does what he’s told, echoes what he hears, and thinks proximity to power is the same as having it. Watch him at dinner: he looks at Surlish before he answers any question.
Connections
- Hawthorne Surlish — his principal
- Hugh Cavendish — a professional counterpart
- The Strand — the warehouses
- Ashworth Dinner Garden Reach
In Play
Chapter 4, Session 9 (9 October 1814) — the snub, and the seed. He arrived at Garden Reach alone and already half-drunk, and announced without embarrassment that Surlish had not wished to attend and had sent him instead. The room went silent. See Ashworth Dinner Garden Reach.
Seated beside Katherine, he was accidentally candid all evening, and when asked whether Surlish treats him well he answered “better than he treats his wife, worse than he treats his dog.” He drunkenly asked Freddy across the table what the Board of Control had him doing, and cheered the new Charter Act freedoms against Edmund Courtney’s gloom.
Freddy worked him patiently across three courses, planting the idea that a man with proper funding could run his own godown rather than serve a master who treats him worse than a dog. He flickered. He is cracked, not turned.
Chapter 4, Session 10 (9–10 October 1814) — the pitch, the port, and the carriage. Over the port he came to Freddy with the idea from the second course in his own mouth: his own syndicate, and he knows all Surlish’s tricks. Freddy asked him for a written proposal costing the godown rents and renewals, to prove he can do the sums. He then drank himself unconscious. Two servants tried to carry him to his carriage unseen and Georgiana announced it to the whole company. His syce, deep in arrack, started the brawl with the Wrights’ bearer at the palanquins.
Appearances
Campaign Log
- Session 12 - The Governor’s Ball — Spotted the party approaching him at the ball and vanished into the crowd before they could speak with him.
Connections
People
Serves
- Hawthorne Surlish NPC hostileJunior partner and creature; defers on everything3 sessions, The Magistrate's Table to The Governor's Ball
Knows
- Diana Lockhart NPC hostileWarned Georgiana Wentworth at the Government House ball to be quieter about her opinion of him — 'five hundred, not forty'3 sessions, The Magistrate's Table to The Governor's Ball
- Hugh Cavendish NPC neutralOpposite numbers in the opium trade3 sessions, The Magistrate's Table to The Governor's Ball
Places
Visited
- Garden Reach Location2 sessions, The Magistrate's Table to The Third Course
Events
Participated in
- Ashworth Dinner Garden Reach Eventdeputised for Surlish; the snub
Papers
Created by
- Cartwright Proposal Document hostileWritten in secret the night after Surlish dressed him down