by Meg Buchanan
Music played softly in the background, a string quartet swayed and bent in time like trees in the breeze. The crowd moved in whispers beneath the music.
Eugene won at blackjack. Courtney did his best with the chips. Fortune, as usual, smiled and frowned in equal measure. Sophie stood with them watching the game, a little remote considering her profession. He glanced at her. She smiled shyly then looked away.
The hush, the music, the movement in the casino, as others concentrated on their cards or the wheel, was disorientating. It swirled around him like warm oil. This evening wasn’t going well. He’d had enough of gambling, and his chips had dwindled. He’d had enough of drinking too.
“I’m going to call it a night. The alcohol is starting to wear off.”
“I’ll fetch you something more to drink,” said Sophie. “It will help.” She left his side before he could stop her.
“Join me at the wheel,” suggested Eugene.
“Not tonight.” Even sober he didn’t like roulette. He looked over at Sophie, talking to Charlotte now. Charlotte was angry and giving Sophie orders, leaning in towards her speaking tersely.
He saw Sophie step back. Charlotte leaned in again still closer and kept talking at Sophie until Sophie gave a brief nod and then Charlotte pushed two flutes of champagne at her.
Sophie walked slowly back to him, the flutes of champagne sparkled gold and the bubbles rose and broke at the top of the liquid.
“Miss Pryor said I’m to give you this,” said Sophie, passing a glass to him. “She said you look bored.” Charlotte went back into her office.
“Not bored, just tired.” That explained the conversation, but it didn’t explain the anger or why Charlotte would care. “I can’t be bothered drinking anymore.” He put the glass untouched on a table. “I’m going to call it a night.”
Sophie nodded, very subdued. He saw her bite the side of her lip. When Sophie was like this, she seemed real, easy to talk to, and lovely to be with. Then he realised, this was the way Sophie was whenever she was sure Charlotte couldn’t see her. They walked together to the cashier’s desk, and he cashed out the chips he had left.
Charlotte came out of her office again, glanced in their direction and a chameleon change came over Sophie. She slid in front of him, walking backwards for a moment, bouncing and smiling brightly until he stopped.
Then she stood on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck, tipping the flute of champagne down his coat, then she kissed him, forcing her body against his. It felt false. She didn’t really know what she was supposed to be doing. He couldn’t be bothered. He took her hands from around his neck and put them down by her sides.
“No, I’m leaving, and you’re staying here.”
Charlotte was still staring at them from the other side of the room. She seemed to be considering something. Then she floated across the room.
“Sophie, I need you to come with me.”
Sophie looked at Charlotte, slowly drew in a breath then looked at Courtney as if hoping he would change his mind.
Charlotte waited for a moment. “Sophie?”
Another glance from Sophie, a plea. He didn’t know what she was trying to communicate just that she seemed reluctant to do what Charlotte was asking.
He considered keeping her with him.
No, she wasn’t his responsibility.
Eventually, reluctantly, she gave up on him and followed her employer.
He found Eugene again. “I’m going back to the suite.”
“I’ve had enough too,” said Eugene. “Time to get some sleep.”
As they passed the office, Courtney saw Seth Grogan in there with Charlotte and a couple of the men that hovered around the edges of the club. Sophie was sitting on a chair watching while Charlotte and the men were having a serious discussion with Seth. Charlotte looked aggressive, the men threatening, and Seth was making promises. Should he interfere? Was Seth in more deeply than was good for his health?
Charlotte looked up and when she saw him and Eugene standing there, the discussion stopped. Seth chose that moment to beat a hasty retreat and Charlotte watched him go.
“Why does Charlotte act the way she does?” he asked Eugene as they were making their way back to the suite.
“What way?”
“The suite, dining with you, the way she treats Sophie.”
“I’m not sure about Sophie, but as for the rest, it’s been like that since Charlotte bought the place, I’m treated as an honoured guest.”
“Why? What does she want in return?”
“Nothing except to see me happy,” answered Eugene, casually accepting the inexplicable.
The next morning, he went home before he went to the office after all. It made life easier if he appeared at the house occasionally.
His mother was sitting at the breakfast table. “Good morning, son. I didn’t hear you arrive home last night.”
He leaned against the door frame. “I didn’t, I stayed in Thames and came home to change. Now I’m late for work.”
“What’s happening at the office today?” His mother always asked his father that first thing in the morning when he was alive.
“I won’t be there much today. I’m going to Waihi. I need to drop off the proposal at the council offices. Where’s Alice?”
“Gone to her room, she said she’s writing a letter to Mrs Shepherd. Probably offering to collect signatures for the new petition.” His mother started clearing the breakfast things away. “Would you like company? Eliza and the children won’t be here for Christmas day so I could take them their presents. We could take the trap.”
“If you like. I need to talk to Declan anyway. I’ll leave you at the farm for the day, then go back into town and pick you up when I’ve finished.”
Alice chose that moment to enter the kitchen in a swirl of pale cotton and mischief. “Where were you last night, brother?’
“None of your business.” There was something in the way Alice spoke and moved that reminded him of Sophie. Alice was only a couple of years older, and he couldn’t imagine her working at the club. He straightened up ready to leave.
Alice put the envelope she was holding onto the table. “I could come to Waihi too. I’d like to see Eliza and the children.” She looked at her mother. “I think I’ll stay there for Christmas and New Year. Dom is coming home, and it would be nice to see him.”
“If you want to.” Dom was Declan’s brother, and he lived in Wellington. Dom and Alice had always been friends. In fact, he suspected, more than friends in the few months before Dom joined the army and left for Wellington. “But the trap will only fit two people.” He needed to move if he was going to get to Waihi this morning.
“You could ride your horse, Courtney, leave the trap to mother and me.” That sounded reasonable.
“I’m sure Eliza would want us both to visit,” his mother agreed. “It’s a pity I can’t stay for Christmas too, but I promised to help with the Nativity play.”
Alice went over to the safe. “We could take her biscuits and a pie.” She opened it to see what was in there.
And if his mother was driving back alone, it would be better if he accompanied her. “I’ll come back for you. Don’t spend too long getting ready. I’m just going to the office to pick up the papers I’ll need.”
“We’ll be quick.” Alice, in a flurry of motion, took the pie from the safe and was wrapping it in a cloth before he was on the porch.
As soon as Courtney got to the office, William asked, “Did you talk to Eugene?”
“Yes, he’s in. He said he’ll be here on Monday.”
“How was Charlotte’s club?”
“Interesting.” He’d been thinking about Sophie since Charlotte led her away. That look haunted him. “A young girl is working there. Sophie. She’s different from the others. She’s been brought up with money and has travelled around Europe and speaks French. But now she works for Charlotte.”
“It happens. Is that why you didn’t get home
last night?”
“No, it got late, and Eugene keeps a suite there, so it was convenient to stay. But Sophie is intriguing.”
William shook his head. “You should have taken her to bed and then you would have forgotten her by this morning, she’d have joined the ranks of all the other females who’ve intrigued you for all of a few hours.”
“She’s only seventeen.”
“That’s never worried you before.”
Courtney snorted. “Good you have such a high opinion of me.”
“Just call it as I see it.” William picked up a folder from the desk. “I’ve finished the paperwork you’ll need.”
Courtney took the folder. “I’ll talk to Declan this afternoon,” he said.
Chapter 6
THE MEETING WITH the Waihi council went well. They wanted the surveying work started as soon as possible after New Year, so they were going to look at the proposal straight away. With rumours about Thomas Russell floating the Waihi Mining Company on the London stock exchange and a battery with three hundred stampers already being built in town and another planned for Waikino, the councillors thought they were going to need better roads and a railway quite soon.
When he got to the farm, Declan leaned against the fence and watched him let the horse go in the paddock.
“Where is everyone?” asked Courtney.
“Your mother is inside with Eliza and Alice,” said Declan as he pushed himself away from the fence and stood by the gate, ready to close it.
“I’ve got a message from William; I need to discuss with you.” Then Courtney saw Alice running over to them in a burst of skirts and hair “We’ll talk about it later,” he added.
“You’re here,” said Alice. “And in time for afternoon tea.”
“I wouldn’t miss those biscuits you brought for anything.”
She looked at him sceptically. He could just imagine Sophie doing that. And the final look Sophie gave him was worrying. Perhaps he should have done what she wanted.
Then Alice laughed and slipped her arm around his waist. They all walked to the house and went into the kitchen.
“That’s right isn’t it, Eliza,” Alice said while they were having afternoon tea. “When we have the vote, men will have to treat us with more respect.”
“We treat women with respect,” said Courtney. He liked women.
“But you have more freedom than we do.” She turned to her sister. “Courtney only bothers to come home to eat and change his clothes. It was like that when you were staying with us last week.”
Eliza nodded then wiped icing off Katy’s face and let her leave the table. “He thinks he’s too important to be accountable now he’s the man of the house.”
“Mrs Shepherd has started a new petition. This time it will have so many signatures parliament won’t be able to ignore it. Then men will have to listen to us.”
He ignored them. He should have taken Sophie up on her invitation. Any club offered credit.
After they’d eaten, he and Declan went outside again and left the women and children to the cleaning up. They leaned against the fence that separated the horse paddock from the back yard, cigarettes in hand.
“What’s this message from William?” asked Declan. “I assume it’s private the way you clammed up.”
Courtney drew on his cigarette, then released the smoke slowly. “Do you remember William telling you McKenzie is interested in buying his claims?”
Declan nodded. “He said he’d decided against selling.”
“He had, but with this processing plant the syndicate is building, McKenzie is interested again and has made another offer. This time William does want to sell.”
“Why doesn’t he?”
“Needs to get all his ducks in a row first.”
“What ducks? William said the Anderson mine has collapsed so no one will realise we worked it after Anderson left.”
“Some dead ducks and we’re going to need your help to get rid of them.” If anyone who knew him heard this conversation, they’d really be gob smacked. He was law-abiding.
“That was cryptic.”
“It’s a little delicate.”
“So, spit it out,” said Declan when he had hesitated for too long. “We’re alone.”
“William, John and I need your help to remove six bodies from the Anderson mine.”
“Jesus.” Declan ran his hand over his hair. “There were no bodies there when we finished mining. How did they get there?”
He repeated the story he’d told Eugene.
“Six bodies?” asked Declan. “You, brother in law amaze me. I always suspected William had a past, even though he acts like a pillar of the community now, but you? Anyway, all this happened years ago, why do you need help now?”
“We buried the bodies in the Anderson mine, wrapped in some of the clothes William brought with him, they have his initials embroidered on them. Now McKenzie wants to buy William’s claims and William wants to sell.”
“So, move the bodies.”
“You remember in the Anderson mine, there was the big unsupported cavern?”
Declan made another guess. “You hid them there and that’s when John and William collapsed it?”
“Yes. We’ve been back into the mine, and William doesn’t think it’s possible to reach the bodies that way. But John thinks if they go in from the other side, they can get through.”
“And you need me to help you blast a tunnel to link the two mines?”
“Exactly.”
Declan hesitated, then ran his hands through his hair. “You realise, I’m a respectable farmer now, with a family?”
“We’re all respectable now. But William, John and I killed six men. You, Eugene and the others mined Anderson’s mine illegally and got enough money to start a new life. If we want to stay respectable and not to mention alive and free, we need to do this one last thing to make sure we aren’t found out.”
Declan puffed out a breath, looked back at the house where his three little girls and the baby were happily playing with their grandmother and mother.
Courtney elbows still resting on the railing, linked his fingers. “Will you do it? John thinks, with the old team working together, you should be able to reach the bodies within a couple of days.”
“Team?”
“You, Eugene, William and John.”
“Thirty feet, you said?” Courtney nodded, and Declan thought about the proposition, then said in the end. “I’ll do it. Nobody needs know what I’m really doing. William could just want me to help with something on his farm.”
“Good man.”
“Seb and Finn are part of the old team. Does William want them to help too?”
“I thought they were in Kimberly.”
“They’ve just come back.”
“Do you know where they are?”
Declan nodded. “In Auckland. Eugene would know how to contact them.”
Courtney gave his chin a rub. The faster this was done the better, and Seb and Finn would speed things up even more. “I’ll check with William.”
“When are you starting?”
“Monday next week.”
Declan straightened up and stretched. “Tell William, I’ll be there.”
The next morning Courtney checked to see whether William wanted Seb and Finn. Maybe he’d think it was just another two people they’d have to tell about the bodies.
William considered the idea. “I guess six men who are experienced will get the job done faster than four. And Seb and Finn know how to keep their mouths shut. When did they get back from Kimberley?”
“Declan didn’t say, just that they are in Auckland and Eugene knows how to contact them. So, do you want them?”
William nodded. “See if they’ll come.”
“Will you need them on Monday?”
William nodded again. “John and I got most of what we need to the mine site yesterday. Another couple of days and we’ll be ready to start blasting.”
&
nbsp; “Back to Thames tonight for me then. I’ll talk to Eugene again.”
“Send him a telegram.” William wrote the message in the air. “Need Seb and Finn Monday.”
Courtney grinned. “No, I want to check something out.” He’d been thinking about Sophie and the girl he saw dragged into the room. He shouldn’t have walked away either time.
“I thought she was too young for you.”
“I’m just curious about what she’s doing there.” It’d be two birds with one stone. He’d ask about Seb and Finn, and he’d have a look around at the same time.
He followed Eugene into the reception area and saw Charlotte standing just inside the office near the desk. It looked like she’d been waiting for them to arrive because she left whatever she was doing and hurried out.
“Eugene, Courtney. Good evening. Have you ridden here again?”
Eugene batted dew off his shoulders. “Yes, it’s a pleasant night.”
Courtney ignored Charlotte. She was too familiar for his liking. His eyes were drawn to Sophie standing alone in the shadows of the foyer. He took in her gown, delicate cream again and wide bracelets of silver filigree encased her wrists. He studied the midnight hair, the tumbling curls, the perfect lips, the dark eyes. Lovely. But she was even more restrained than the last times he’d seen her. No fleeting smile or aborted handshake this time.
Charlotte picked up the key for their rooms. “Gentlemen, you’ll want to change before you start your evening.” She beckoned Sophie to come over. Sophie ignored the summons and stayed in the shadows.
Charlotte waited a beat, then held the key out to the girl. “Sophie will show you to your rooms.” It was an order this time.
Puzzled by the tone, Courtney looked back at Sophie again. She still didn’t move, her eyes went from Charlotte to him, then Eugene, a glance that glided over and past them.
Charlotte tried again. “Of course, Sophie will go with you.” Her voice threatened, then she passed the key to Eugene, and stared hard at the girl.
Courtney watched Sophie slowly draw in a breath, turn away and still without acknowledging them, walk slowly towards the double doors that led to the wing with the rooms kept for Eugene’s use. She pushed the doors open and leaned against one to hold it back the way she did a few days ago in the dining room.
