The Sun Is God (7 page)

“Happy?” Evans said to Queen Emma and left the room without waiting for a response.

“He really is quite disgraceful,” Queen Emma said, with a grin to Governor Hahl, who didn't appear to get the joke.

The talk resumed until a course of black sea urchins appeared and Queen Emma silenced everyone with a hand slap on the table. “This is our penultimate dish, one of my favorites; please do enjoy. I must make use of the powder room.” As she got up from the table the men rose and she waved them down again. “Eat, eat,” she commanded.

With Queen Emma temporarily hors de combat and the men speaking of the game-bird shooting possibilities in the hills, Miss Pullen-Burry finally turned to Will.

“She is a remarkable woman, is she not?” Miss Pullen-Burry asked.

“Quite.”

“The esteemed Doctor Parkinson tells me that she is the oldest European woman in the archipelago.”

“I don't see where European comes into it. She's from the American Samoa and she grew up in Australia.”

Miss Pullen-Burry ignored this. “Doctor Parkinson estimates that her estates are worth 250,000 pounds.”

“Is that so?” Will said a little icily. In Leeds one did not discuss money matters at table.

Miss Pullen-Burry looked at her plate and Will examined her. Unlike Queen Emma, she wore no rings. Her gaze was steady and her conversation in both English and German lacked the web of metaphors, which was the depressing signature of the bluestocking. Either she had not been out from Dover long enough to cultivate that poisonous mix of fatalism and melancholia, which characterized the English abroad, or she had been absent from Britain so long that she had come out the other end as something entirely new. She certainly sensed that she had made a faux pas for immediately she smiled and changed the subject. “I see from his uniform that your friend Hauptman Kessler is a Bavarian.”

It was clever of her, Will thought, to see that Klaus, of all the people here, was his particular friend. Kessler perked up on the other side of the table. “This is quite correct Miss Pullen-Burry. I am proud to serve in the army of his majesty the King of Bavaria.”

“I am unable to tell the difference between a Bavarian, a Prussian, or an Alsatian,” Will muttered.

“For a man in your profession you have remarkably poor powers of observation, Herr Prior,” Klaus said jovially.

“Certainly I am no match for that denizen of Baker Street whose adventures are to be found in the
Strand
magazine,” Will replied.

Doctor Bremmer asked Klaus a question and the conversation on the far side of the table resumed.

Will and Miss Pullen-Burry sat in stony silence for several moments.

“If I may be so bold, which profession is that, sir?” Miss Pullen-Burry finally asked Will.

“Hauptman Kessler refers to the fact that I was a military police officer.”

“Indeed? That must have been most interesting.”

“You would be surprised at how thoroughly dull it was, ma'am.”

“Oh dear. However, I did notice that you used the past tense to describe your vocation.”

“I left the service shortly after the South African war. I am a simple farmer now.”

Again the conversation died. And after a minute's silence again it was Miss Pullen-Burry who revived it. “Governor Hahl tells me that there are a dozen languages on New Ireland. A hundred here in New Britain.”

“I know little of languages, ma'am. I learned German with difficulty and I have forgotten my French,” Will said.

Will finished yet another glass of champagne and wondered how many that was. Almost certainly too many.

“It is no doubt in God's plan that these local tongues will die and German will become the lingua franca of this portion of the Pacific,” Miss Pullen-Burry was saying.

“If I may be so bold, madam, why have you come to this portion of the world?” Will asked.

“I seek new experiences. I am a writer, Mr. Prior.”

“A lady novelist?” Will said, appalled.

“I am a writer of impressions and places.”

Oh Christ
, Will thought and drank more of the chilled champagne.

“I have been meaning to ask you about that. Have you published any of these impressions, Miss Pullen-Burry?” Governor Hahl asked from the end of the table.

Will wondered how old Miss Pullen-Burry was. Thirty? Fifty? It was impossible to tell with that type. She was probably a virgin. That kept a certain youthful aspect to one's appearance.

“I have published two books and I am working on a third. Hence my visit to Queen Emma's residence and my sojourn in German New Guinea.”

Will nodded and Klaus, who had begun to pay closer attention, asked: “And what have you learned about our colony so far? Enough to make a book?”

“I have learned much from Herr Doctor Parkinson. I have learned that December is the rainy month when the north-west monsoon begins. I have learned that the price of copra is twenty-three pounds a ton, but it can go as low as thirteen pounds a ton. I have learned that six thousand nuts make one ton of copra and that each tree produces sixty nuts a year and that once they mature all one must do is keep the roots clean. I have learned that the Kanak boys who scale the trees and collect the nuts earn six shillings a week. I have also learned that many Kanaks are kidnapped to sugar estates in Queensland while the Royal Navy turns a blind eye. A disgraceful practice known as blackbirding!”

It was one of those curious moments when the other conversations at the table had ceased and in a far wing of the house they could hear Queen Emma singing to herself and grunting from what was obviously the seat of ease. Emma's song was surprisingly mournful and beautiful, perhaps a lament for her lost girlhood when she too had been sent to Australia.

“Your information is incorrect, madam. Blackbirding no longer flourishes in New Guinea. The Kaiserliche Marine has seen to that,” Kessler said with a nervous glance at Governor Hahl.

“I'm afraid I must correct you Hauptman Kessler, blackbirding is still a menace. Even along this coast. Some of my best workers have been taken west of Simpsonhafen. The Australian pirates run to the protection of the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine does little to stop them,” Doctor Parkinson said dispassionately.

“Doctor Parkinson is unaware of the new squadron on its way from Samoa under Admiral Graf von Spee. I can assure Miss Pullen-Burry that the Kaiserliche Marine and His Imperial Majesty's government are doing everything in our power to stop this most disgraceful enterprise,” Governor Hahl said reassuringly.

“I am glad to hear it,” Miss Pullen-Burry said. “If the civilized races do not act in concert then our poor example will be copied by the less fortunate denizens of this world.”

“How long have you been in Herbertshöhe, Miss Pullen-Burry?” Doctor Bremmer asked.

“I have been here a week and I shall stay until the end of the month. I plan also to venture to New Ireland and perhaps into the interior of New Britain,” Miss Pullen-Burry replied with a smile.

Will was not so disguised in drink that he failed to notice Kessler gave Governor Hahl a look of concern.

“You plan to venture into the interior?” Doctor Bremmer asked, surprised.

“You do not approve, sir?” Miss Pullen-Burry asked.

“We have few German females in our colonies, but the highlands are no place for a gentlewoman. I mean no offense, madam, but even if the natives can be restrained from their bellicosity, they are . . . one hardly knows how to say it . . .”

“Yes?” Miss Pullen-Burry asked.

“They wear no clothes and they copulate without shame. You would be exposed to affront,” Kessler said.

“Hauptman Kessler, in these days of militant feminism one must not be overly gallant. The striving for women's votes continues, not just in England but across the civilized world! In New Zealand women have been enfranchised and the heavens have not poured out their wrath. Indeed I often think how the angels must weep to see how things are managed nowadays in happy Christian Europe,” Miss Pullen-Burry said.

“Would you have had women serve in the late war, Miss Pullen-Burry?” Will asked.

The dessert course was being brought in now. It was ice-cream— a treat Will hadn't tasted since London.

“Perhaps the late war would have not have taken place had women been allowed to give their views on the relations between the Boer farmer and the English one.”

“Surely you are not of Mrs. Pankhurst and her ilk?” Governor Hahl asked, taken aback.

“You are amazed that women revolt at the idea of being chattels, sir? Mr. Campbell-Bannerman would do well to recruit sound women to his cause. But I expect nothing from a government that winks at the seditious gospel of Kier Hardyism and is careless of how it imperils the lives of our fellow subjects and threatens our supremacy in India.”

Will shook his head. She was an odd mix of high-Tory spinster and bluestocking suffragette. No, perhaps not so odd. Her face was pink with annoyance and Will was wondering if he could somehow set her off in an apoplectic fit when Queen Emma came back into the dining room. The gentlemen rose.

Queen Emma sat and with a wave dismissed the remaining servants save for the men operating the fan. She let the cool air from the melting ice waft over her for a moment. “Of course you know that Kabakon and the other islands in the Duke of York group are famous as haunts of the Night Witches,” she said to Miss Pullen-Burry, presumably continuing a conversation from earlier in the day.

“I did not know that,” Miss Pullen-Burry replied.

“Oh yes, sometimes from the veranda one can see them flying all the way from New Ireland to here. They are in search of weak souls that they may influence to do ill. They do not come near Gunantambu. They know that my soul is not weak. I do not listen to their entreaties or their promises. In any case, I keep a Langan, a high priest of the Duk Duk, in my house at all times; his spells frighten the Night Witches and vex them most cruelly.”

“Very wise, I'm sure,” Miss Pullen-Burry said.

“I am telling you this so that you will have all the information before you make a decision whether to go or not, my dear friend Bessie,” Queen Emma said.

Miss Pullen-Burry nodded. “I am resolved, Mrs. Forsayth, I still wish to go.”

Queen Emma laughed. “Then go you shall! Such spirit is only to be found in an English lady. Even Governor Hahl's formidable wife would dare not truck with the Night Witches.”

Governor Hahl smiled but did not nod. He would like to see the entity who could make his Brigida afraid. An entire regiment of Night Witches would be sorely tested by her frosty expression.

“Shall we get down to business?” Queen Emma asked and looked at Doctor Parkinson.

“Business, yes,” Parkinson said with pursed lips.

Governor Hahl looked at Kessler who coughed and muttered. “I think we should adjourn to another room Frau Forsayth, not all of us have been—”

“Miss Pullen-Burry is my guest,” Queen Emma exclaimed regally. “And she has become my good friend in these last few days. She knows all the details of the case. Everything Governor Hahl has told me, I have told her. I have informed her of Doctor Bremmer's opinion concerning the late Herr Lutzow and I have told her what Doctor Parkinson knows about the Sonnenorden. It has excited her interest and she has agreed, on my behalf, to accompany the expedition to Kabakon.”

Kessler was on his feet. “Frau Forsayth, I really must object! This is a matter of extreme delicacy. What Governor Hahl evidently has told you was said in the strictest confidence!”

“You forget yourself, sir,” Queen Emma said in a voice of chilly authority.

“Sit down, Kessler,” Governor Hahl muttered.

Kessler looked at Hahl and then at Will. He seemed surprised to find himself standing there with everyone staring at him. Will waved him down with a discreet hand gesture and he slumped back into his chair.

“My apologies, madam,” Kessler said.

“I think what my colleague was trying to say, Frau Forsayth, is that the situation on Kabakon is uncertain. We have it in mind to send only Herr Prior who was a distinguished officer in the British Army's military police; he will be accompanied by my representative Hauptman Kessler,” Governor Hahl said.

Queen Emma gave Doctor Parkinson a sideways glance. The phlegmatic Dane coughed, turned to Governor Hahl, and smiled a little assassin's smile. “Your excellency, I do not wish to bore you with legal niceties; however, Kabakon is Frau Forsayth's island and if she wishes to have a representative there for the course of these investigations, then with all due respect, we really must insist upon it.”

“I am afraid that is quite impossible,” Kessler said, already seeing events spiral away from him before they had even left Herbertshöhe.

The port arrived and with it cigars. Much to Will's amazement, both Queen Emma and Miss Pullen-Burry cut and lit two cigars and began smoking them. When the servants had gone, Kessler continued where he had left off.

“Under no circumstances can the, uh, charming Miss Pullen-Burry accompany myself and Herr Prior to Kabakon. It is no place for a lady and this investigation is not the work of a lady, even one as spirited as Miss Pullen-Burry,” he said.

Will gave him a nod of encouragement.

“Miss Pullen-Burry will go and that is an end to it,” Queen Emma said. “She goes in lieu of Doctor Parkinson who is otherwise engaged in a long-planned expedition to photograph birds for his book. Ha! Is there anyone at this table not writing a book?”

Will would like to have said that he wasn't writing a book about his tedious existence anytime soon but Kessler was busy objecting again.

“We must nip this foolishness in the bud, Frau Forsayth. Only Herr Prior and myself will be traveling to Kabakon.”

Miss Pullen-Burry and Queen Emma said nothing.

Doctor Parkinson shook his head and, looking directly at Governor Hahl, he said softly: “I'm afraid we must insist.”