Chapter Thirty-Two: Games In Earnest

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Chapter Thirty-Two: Games In Earnest

Considering recent events, Ellis couldn't really say that the next morning brought with it the shock of his life, but it did certainly present one of the more unpleasant surprises he'd ever got from a newspaper. Generally he knew the news before it became news.

The three of them had slept the night before in bunkrooms, little curtained cubicles with a bed just barely long enough to fit his lanky frame and not much clearance space to sit up in. Purva, as he understood it, had spent a perfectly peaceful night on a bench, head pillowed on her pack, but then he knew from experience that she'd slept happily under worse conditions than that.

Jack woke him at an indecent hour with the news that breakfast was ready. After washing at a basin in one corner of the long carriage he stumbled his way to the dining car where food, courtesy of Jack's industrious morning personality, was already laid out for them. At the door, the man who'd brought him a newspaper the day before stopped him and said that they had picked up morning editions during an overnight stop, and would he like one?

SPY IMMIGRANTS AT DARWIN PORT screamed the headline. Ellis stared down at it.

"Yes, I would like one very much, thank you," he said, and sat down to read, ignoring the food.

"What is it?" Jack asked around a mouthful of toast.

"Ssh," Ellis replied, scanning the article. If they'd been reported, life was about to become infinitely harder --

Authorities at Port Darwin relate that on Monday the 16th of January, two men were halted attempting to enter the country illegally for the purpose of international espionage.

"Seriously," Clare said, pulling the paper down as he slouched with relief. "What -- oh, no -- "

"It's all right, it's not us," he said in a voice hardly above a whisper, turning the paper around and pointing to the date. "It's much too late, and it's only two men."

"Coming after us?" she asked quietly.

"Maybe. Go on, read it aloud," he added. Clare cleared her throat, for all the world like a young upper-class Australian woman reading interesting news to her male relatives.

"Authorities at Port Darwin relate that on Monday the 16th of January, two men were halted attempting to enter the country illegally for the purpose of international espionage. Soldiers at the troubled Port Darwin, recently the victim of a major theft of government property, captured the men as they attempted to scale the sheer rock face which fronts onto the northern ocean coast. The men are assumed to have booked passage as sailors on a shipping liner and stolen a lifeboat, which they then used to draw close to the cliff under cover of night. Attempting to climb the cliff in darkness, the men were overheard conversing and were arrested when they had completed their ascent." She grinned a little at him. "Although they spoke with fluent Southern accents, the men refused to provide their name and the soldiers who took custody insisted they had heard them speaking in different dialects previous to their discovery. They have been imprisoned at the Port Darwin garrison and will be transferred to Canberra to stand trial at the next Assizes."

"Quite right too," said a clear, somewhat commanding voice from a nearby table. Ellis glanced up. A middle-aged woman was seated at the table, presiding over a large platter of fruit and sausages. "The audacity of foreigners," she added with a sniff. "Probably come to scout out the gold mines and oil fields. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were the precursors to an invasion."

"Good we're building such a stalwart civil defence force, isn't it?" Ellis said carefully. She beamed.

"Isn't it wonderful! I remember when the shipyards could barely assemble a dinghy without a delay. Do you work for the civil defence?"

"Me?" Ellis laughed. "No, I'm a land speculator. Eric Grimes. My daughter Charity, her husband Mr. John Parsons."

"How d'you do," the woman said formally, and a little stiffly. "Mrs. William Bell."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Bell. Are you traveling alone?"

"Mr. Grimes, I really -- "

"Only that we have a spare place at our table, and the dining car is likely to fill soon."

She held up a hand to signal the sole waiter lounging at the back of the carriage. He came forward, lifted her plate and juice glass, and shifted them deftly to Ellis's table.

"William Bell, I'm sure I've heard that name before," Ellis continued, lying through his teeth and dropping a wink, unseen by their new table-guest, in Clare's direction. "Is he in business in Canberra?"

"Government," she replied. "Where exactly do you come from, Mr. Grimes?"

Ellis felt a thrill run through him. Government was more than he'd hoped for -- the woman was obviously from the upper circles of society, and he could use an entree into that exclusive club, but a doorway into the Canberra governing body would be even better.

"I've been up north for about two years, investigating farm land and mining stakes," he said. "I'm afraid I'm not current on the news."

"Ah," she said knowingly. "My husband was recently elected to the Commons, as a representative for the third district, South Australia."

"Congratulations. Conservative, I hope?"

"Of course."

"Quite so," Ellis said, warming to the discussion. "I only hope he can do some good; they're having dreadful troubles with the Tribal population in the north."

He caught Jack giving him sharp-eyed looks, and Clare biting her tongue several times, as he let Mrs. Bell expand her views on Tribals, the Northern Situation, the amenities to be found in Canberra, and the dreadful journey she'd taken earlier in the year to Van Diemen's Land. By the time they got round to what Ellis's business in Canberra was, Jack and Clare had finished their breakfast and gone off to smuggle the remains of it to Purva, who was relegated to either the third-class dining car or whatever she could beg off the other servants.

"Oh," Ellis said, in response to Mrs. Bell's query, "I'm going for politics, what else? My son-in-law is in engineering," he said, tapping the side of his nose knowingly, "and we're attempting to confirm some suspicions that have come his way."

"Suspicions!" she said, leaning close. "Such as?"

"Well, don't spread it about, but it's rumoured they've discovered diamond mines on the west coast," he said. "John's been asked to assess the possibility of automated locomotives crossing the outback. New welltapping and irrigation methods might even let us put up some towns on the way. Dreary little things, but I imagine they'll mostly be populated by Tribals."

"I haven't heard anything about this," she said, sounding delighted.

"You know how these things are, once in a while industry gets a bit ahead of government," he whispered back. "I'm going up to parliament to see that they open that land up for sale and don't pass any purchase limits on it."

"Will that overextend your grasp at all?" she asked, and Ellis grinned inwardly. Nothing like a land deal to really get people interested in you; he'd used that trick in America as well, out west, occasionally suggesting he was surveying land for a second transcontinental line.

"I might have to drum up a few investors, but they must be discreet," he said. "And of course it's all dependent upon what goes through Parliament." He gave it just the right amount of time before continuing. "I don't suppose your husband could provide any assistance in that regard?"

She leaned back and gave him a thoughtful smile. "It will be very late when we arrive in Canberra, Mr. Grimes. Why don't you and your daughter and son-in-law come to dinner with my husband and myself?"

He matched her smile. "It would be our pleasure. And, now, if you will excuse me..."

"Of course. I imagine I'll see you on the platform at the station; if not, our car is a green-and-gold Harrison, don't hesitate to come find us."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Bell."

"Likewise, Mr. Grimes."

He didn't know what a Harrison automobile looked like, but he wasn't likely to let Mrs. Bell and her politician husband out of his grip; he'd send Purva ahead to track her if necessary.

He found Jack and Clare in their day-ride compartment with Purva, who was happily eating cold scrambled eggs and some toast Jack had filched.

"Other people were calling their servants," Jack said, when Ellis raised his eyebrow at her presence. "The man across the hall has his reading the paper to him."

Ellis cocked his head and yes -- there was a deep voice, a word audible every so often as the servant read aloud. Shrugging, he shut the door and settled in next to Clare.

"Were you playing with that woman, or did you have some kind of purpose in mind?" Clare asked. Well, he couldn't fault her straightforwardness.

"She's going to be very useful to me," he replied, and outlined the conversation they'd had after Clare and Jack left -- the conversation about lucrative land deals and back-door politics and dinner with the MP for the third district, South Australia.

"You," Clare said, when he was finished, "are the most accomplished liar I've ever met."

Ellis gave her a dry look. "You sound so shocked," he said. "All I want you to do is play at being Jack's wife for a night and pretend to be dim. Jack, feel free to be as thorough about engineering and trains as you want as long as you go along with the idea that you're going to be put in charge of building a transcontinental railroad."

"I wish I was," Jack said.

"Do you really?" Ellis asked, and Jack considered it.

"No. I've been redesigning the airship," he replied. Clare put her face in her hands. Ellis laughed.

"Of course you have."

"Electricity," Purva said, rolling the strange new word around in her mouth, giving it at once an Australian and a French inflection.

"Sir William was playing around with it when we met, do you remember?" Jack said to Clare. "He was storing static charges."

"I remember he was blowing things up," Clare replied.

"Six of one..." Jack grinned. "Nobody really knows how it works, but down here it powers most of the lights in the big cities and parts of the automobiles and the stoves in the train kitchen. You can store the power in blocks, then hook it up to anything you can run on a boiler. It's cooler, and the blocks last longer than coal. Theoretically. I think I can reproduce it when we get home, if I can take enough schematics with me."

"He is going to kill himself," Purva said, but her tone was casual, not overly worried.

"I'm not going to kill myself," Jack answered, equally casual. "Just because it can cause your heart to stop doesn't mean it always does."

"Do try not to die until we're out of Canberra, it'd be inconvenient," Ellis remarked.

***

When they arrived that evening they left Purva at the train station with the address of the Bells' townhouse in one hand and the hotel Dr. Bland had recommended in the other. Clare wasn't comfortable actually making Purva do a servant's work, but she was the only one who could be spared. Purva didn't seem to mind in the least and, after two hours listening to Ellis fence verbally with the Bells, Clare had an idea of why.

She had expected that William Bell, MP for the third district of South Australia, would be as dull and one-tracked as his wife had been at breakfast, but he was a lean and energetic man, no less conservative but much more well-versed in rhetoric. He seemed to enjoy the gentle baits Ellis had begun to lay for him. Jack, looking a little bereft, commented on engineering when his opinion was sought and kept fairly silent the rest of the time.

It wasn't that it was uninteresting, watching Ellis cross swords with someone else for a change. It was just all so pointless, because she knew he didn't believe any of the things he was saying about Tribals, and he wasn't even well-informed enough to have an opinion about western expansion (not that this stopped him from giving one). And even if they had been debating in a way that would have allowed her to jump in with some arguments of her own -- even if they'd been debating with true beliefs -- her job was to look ornamental on Jack's arm.

This would never have happened in Boston, but it seemed more common here, the idea that women were simply assumed to be the home-keepers, the pretty things, the domestically inclined. And yes, all right, she'd read about old European ideas of female domesticity, but all that had gone out even before Father LaRoche, and certainly when he founded his colony in the Americas it was with the understanding that the Creator had made them equal in spirit if not in strength, and the spirit's call was to be obeyed.

She wondered if LaRoche's writings were even known here. Surely someone must have smuggled a few copies in when they were shipped south from Europe and America.

Once dinner was over Mr. Bell suggested brandy in the drawing-room, and Clare politely begged off for herself and Jack. Ellis gave her an approving nod as they left. Outside, in the balmy Canberra evening, Purva loitered near the green-and-gold "Harrison" and gave them a wicked grin when she saw Ellis wasn't with them.

"Still courting his victims?" she asked, following a step behind them. "I thought you would never come out, but he will come out even later, yes?"

"Probably," Clare answered. "He's got a lot of fast-talking to do."

"I have boughten hotel rooms," Purva said. "It's a nice place. I took this for you," she added, pressing a book into Jack's hands. "From a man with many, many cars."

"A guide to Automobiles," Jack read from the cover, beaming. "Look, it lists all the different kinds they sell -- technical engravings! And parts and price lists..."

Clare, arm still linked in his, grinned back. "Well, nice to have some evening reading. Come on. Purva, have you had dinner yet?"

"Oui, Graveworthy gave me money."

"AHA!" Jack said, startling them both. He glanced up, sheepish.

"Let's get you off the street," Clare sighed, guiding him along behind Purva, making sure he didn't walk into any lamp-poles.

***

Ellis was just as glad that Jack and Clare were well out of the house by the time he was installed in William Bell's library, drinking his brandy. He had some utterly contemptible things he was going to have to say, and it was well that Clare in particular wasn't around to hear them.

"I wonder if I could indulge in a spate of curiosity," Bell said, as Ellis settled into the leather chair comfortably. "These rumoured diamond mines -- you've not seen them yourself, then?"

"No, no. But their existence is hardly the point, I feel."

"Oh? How so?"

"They're just the impetus for the transcontinental. My profit isn't made in mining speculation. I purchase plots of land and sell them just when they will be most useful. It's brokerage, more than anything; easier for the government -- for any buyer -- to buy a large plot from me than a dozen small plots from anyone else. I turn a profit, life is made easier for those around me...everyone is satisfied."

"And you're in a very good position to know what to buy."

"Well, perhaps. There's going to be money in roads soon, I'm urging John to move from trains to bridges and roads and such. For now, however..."

"Quite. Lucky you have a daughter who married such an industrious young man."

"Lucky for me, I have a daughter who knows how important such things are to her father. As does John, in the end. Although they of course stand to benefit greatly. I'm not a greedy man, Mr. Bell. I'm more than willing to share the wealth of our nation. As long as it remains within our nation."

"Well, I'm certain I could introduce a generous man like yourself to influential friends," Bell replied.

"Good," Ellis said with a grin. "Now, tell me, as I've been out of the South for a long time. Is it me, or have Tribals got more restless lately? There certainly seem to be stricter controls on them now than when I was here last. And of course the North is quite lax."

"Yes -- I was a soldier in the North at one time. One enjoys the laxity, that far from civilisation, but..." Bell gestured towards the hallway that led to the kitchen. "One wants order in one's own home."

"Indeed."

"I believe Mrs. Bell mentioned you have a Tribal valet yourself."

"Lafayette. John took a shine to her, and she's reasonably well-behaved."

"Ah -- yes, I understand that situation well."

It dawned on Ellis that William Bell thought Purva was Jack's mistress. He sighed, inwardly.

"Now," Bell said, leaning forward. "Tell me what you need."

A much stronger drink, Ellis thought, but that was a consideration for later; his morals had never been so thorough that they interfered with his goals, and after all he hadn't got where he was by telling the truth in any sense of the word.

He leaned forward and began outlining an ambitious business plan to William Bell -- one that would require access to sensitive map documents, information on Tribal reservations, and a count of the military land forces. The ease with which Bell seemed to think he'd be able to get this was staggering, but then he supposed there were few fears of spies when the borders were so thoroughly secure -- when most sensible men stayed the hell away from Australia to begin with.

"Now," he said, when he had laid the groundwork carefully, "there's one other issue."

Bell gave him a level look. "The Tribals themselves."

"It'll need to be addressed. I have one or two thoughts on the matter, actually."

"Oh?" Bell leaned back, his hand hanging off the arm of his chair, drink cradled in his fingers. "Are we speaking of controls, or of labour? They go a little wild on the reservations, you know. Mrs. Bell won't have any in the house; town-bred Tribals only. Much less fuss about rituals and they already know how to move about in a city."

"They're so very domesticated, though; they tend to know the cost of things, and the price of things," Ellis said, gesturing slightly to indicate the slight but vital difference. "A Tribal domestic wouldn't take kindly to finding themselves in a railway town in the middle of the continent. Reservation Tribals already know how to survive all that; they're hardy souls."

Bell snorted. "Have you been on a reservation recently, Mr. Grimes?"

"Why, have you?"

"Good lord no, but I read all the pamphlets and things. It all comes across our desks; mostly northern liberal money-brides. You know the sort; not quite high class enough to be society women, but a bit too wealthy to keep busy."

"Petit bourgeouise."

"Eh?" Bell asked. "Is that a Tribal dialect?"

Ellis winced inwardly. "Sorry -- soldier slang I picked up in the north. It amounts to the same."

"Then you're aware of the sort I mean. They take day-trips -- oh, it's all very civilised, visiting the savages with a picnic lunch and writing about how poor their lives are afterwards. They make trouble from time to time, but who's going to riot over Tribals?"

"What was that last riot?" Ellis asked, sidetracked for a moment and perhaps a little glad to be so. "I only heard inklings."

"Really? Should think you'd have been in the thick of it. The miner's strike at Cloncurry. That was the last real riot; we've not had any in Canberra for years. Adelaide, now, they have their little pockets of unrest as well, but then they're so close to the wild country."

"Of course. I was far off from Cloncurry but I did hear something..."

"The usual -- what they think is low pay for the ores, taxation in a government territory, Tribal scabs. You'd think they'd be glad; the government keeps the taxes steady for the territories, they always know how much of a cut we'll take."

"Taxation without representation," Ellis said lightly.

"A terrible and inaccurate rallying cry. Why shouldn't the government look after their best interests? We stand the most to lose if any ore field goes under."

"And these difficulties in Adelaide?"

"Well, the white sailors were going begging for work, while Tribals took the jobs. I should riot too, were I them. And they got the Work Restriction passed, so well done."

Government by limits-testing, Ellis thought to himself, though he hardly dared to. That kind of talk could get him put out or put under arrest in the blink of an eye. Still, it did fire the imagination, in a terrible sort of way; a country where nothing changed until someone started breaking windows.

"But we were discussing Northern Tribals," Bell said cautiously. Sounding him out; as anxious as he was to impress well.

"Yes, well. The thing is, you see, I've heard whispers about drugs developed in Canberra in particular -- not opiates, just something to mute the spirit a bit. And part of the validity study for the trains is going to have to involve how well the Tribals can be controlled. If we can present a safe, effective way to keep them down..."

"I wouldn't know anything about that, I'm afraid."

"But you could introduce me to doctors who would. Doctors who are working with the government here in Canberra."

Bell stroked his moustache. "It's certainly possible. I can introduce you to someone who would know who you should speak to, tennyrate."

"Then the thing is set, I think. If you can give my name to a handful of people -- "

"Nonsense, man," Bell replied, and for a second Ellis froze. He forced himself to relax. "We'll have a do. Invite them round to meet you face to face. It all happens much faster when there's a bit of wine and a nibble involved."

"Depends on who one's nibbling," Ellis replied. Bell roared with laughter.

"Very good. Very good! We're hosting a dinner in two days anyway, so my wife can show off her newfound first-hand knowledge of Tasmania, much good it did her. We'll make you unofficial guest of honour, and you can choose who to bite with this little plot of yours. All I ask is the opportunity to make a purchase, eventually."

"I can guarantee you, the first purchase will be yours," Ellis said gravely.

Chapter 31 | Chapter Thirty-Three

Comments

[nakki.livejournal.com]

"COngratulations. Conservative, I hope?"

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks. Fixed it. :)

Poor Ellis, he can't help being thoroughly well-educated....

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

That'll teach me - I just read through twenty-four chapters in one sitting, and now I'm hooked, and I have to wait like everybody else!

I have to say, I love how you've constructed this. I adore the little 'inserts' of texts and fairy tales and so on. It gives the story more depth, more realism, if you like.

[dani_the_girl]

This needs the next chapter link fixed :) Poor Purva - she's a lot more patient than I'd be about all this.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ach! Thanks, fixed the link :)