Part 10 (1/2)

'More, sometimes,' said Eliza. 'Just before I left he had a bottle of claret and a bottle of port at lunch, double that at dinner. Mother was worried, but...'

'Mother always is,' concluded Phryne.

'And it never makes the faintest difference,' agreed Eliza.

She was sitting up, mopping her face, ordering her curls. Apart from the scoured complexion of the fair, who look like skinned rabbits if they are so unwise as to cry, she was looking better. Her voice, too, was firmer.

'So apart from being an exile and a cla.s.s traitor, is there anything else you would like to tell me?' asked Phryne. This got a watery smile.

'Oh, yes,' said Eliza. 'But I can't tell you that, yet.'

'All right, you can keep your other secrets for now, you socialist you,' said Phryne. 'And what gave you such a shock at Luna Park?'

'Why, I saw two people that I knew. It's always a surprise, seeing people in another place when you expect them to be home in England.'

'Who did you see?'

'About the first one I'm probably wrong, but I thought I saw Alice, in a flowered hat, but when I looked again she was gone. She would come and see me if she was in Australia, don't you think? We parted in friends.h.i.+p. It's probably because I so want to see her. You do that sometimes, eh, Phryne, mistake a stranger for someone you miss?'

'Certainly,' agreed Phryne.

'But the other I am sure about. It was that halfwit Roderick. His father must have sent him out here to try and make me change my mind. And Father probably encouraged it. He likes him-what did you call him?-the oaf.'

'Like calls to like,' said Phryne.

'But, Phryne, it's serious,' urged Eliza, grabbing Phryne's cognac hand and almost spilling her drink. 'Before Father sent me away Roderick was threatening all sorts of things-to kidnap me, to make me stay with him, to...'

'Rape you?' prompted her sister.

Eliza blushed purple and nodded.

'Have no fear,' said Phryne. 'Come downstairs and I will introduce you to Li Pen. He is Chinese, you must make up your mind to that. But if he is told to guard your body, nothing short of an army will get to you and I would put good money on Li Pen against even a biggish army. He's a Shaolin monk, devoted to chast.i.ty, vegetarianism and martial arts. And, incidentally, Vegemite. He's staying here with you and the household while I go to Castlemaine and get to the bottom of this business about the mummy. And Lin Chung needs to find four hundred ounces of gold which went missing on that goldfield in 1857, so I shall probably meet him there.'

Eliza had formed an opinion on Lin Chung, who had always been very polite to her. For one trained on Madame Lin, Eliza was a mere pa.s.sing annoyance.

'He's very nice, isn't he? So elegant. Like a big cat-a panther, say. And his clothes are divine.'

'Come along,' said Phryne, making a note to ask Ruth to share her romantic novels with Eliza, who clearly had similar tastes. 'You need to meet Li Pen and then you will feel a lot more secure. If Roddy gets past Li Pen I shall personally join a monastery, and think of the shock for the poor monks.'

'Father is quite wrong about you,' said Eliza as they descended the stairs.

'Why, what does the old buffalo say?'

'He says you don't care,' said Eliza. 'But you do, or you wouldn't have been so patient with me.'

'Shh,' said Phryne. 'Don't tell anyone, or I shall lose my air of fas.h.i.+onable languor. Li Pen? This is my sister Eliza.'

Li Pen got to his feet from his sitting position without moving through any intervening s.p.a.ce, a trick which never failed to enchant Phryne. He bowed politely to Eliza, who took in his shaved head, his neat blue garments and his beautiful, remarkably bright eyes. She smiled tentatively. Li Pen looked very, very foreign, like an extra from a Sax Rohmer novel.

'She is being pursued by an unwanted suitor who has threatened a.s.sault, kidnapping and worse,' Phryne went on while Eliza blushed again. 'If you see him, twist his head off.'

'As the Silver Lady says,' responded Li Pen. 'The lady her sister need have no fear.'

'But Roddy's awfully strong,' protested Eliza, surveying the light, lithe monk.

'Shall I have to do penance for boasting?' asked Li Pen of Phryne.

'No, this is a demonstration for the purpose of making Eliza feel safe. Go ahead. And make it impressive.'

Li Pen took the poker from the fire irons and stroked it between his hands, which suddenly made a complicated motion. He held the poker out, knotted in a decorative bow.

Eliza hefted the artifact. The poker was made of good solid iron and she had only seen a little flurry of movement, not the heave-ho of a fairground strongman. She stared.

Li Pen took the poker back, twisted it the opposite way, and straightened it out again.

'I'm convinced,' said Eliza. 'Thank you for looking after me, Mr Pen.'

'Mr Li,' corrected Phryne. 'Now, come for a walk along the seash.o.r.e and let us talk of many things, including whose coats of arms have mermen as supporters and why that detestable young man is in Australia.'

'And other things,' agreed Eliza.

There was still a shadow over her, Phryne thought; we aren't through this by a long chalk, but a beginning has been made. A Fabian socialist in the family, she added to herself. Father must have had whole litters of kittens. How I wish I'd seen it. She chuckled quietly, collected her hat, Li Pen and Eliza, and went out for a walk by the sea.

The Lin family holdings were much greater and more diverse than Lin had ever imagined. On the reluctant instructions of his grandmother, Lin was being conducted through the business by his eldest uncle, who had survived the reign of Grandmama by being jovial and cheerful, enjoying his wife, playing with his children, relis.h.i.+ng his excellent dinners and consuming his many cups of wine, and never taking any criticism personally. It was well known that Uncle had the hide of a hippopotamus, but he was a jolly chap and it was a pleasure to be instructed by him.

'Your grandfather was anxious to diversify,' he told Lin. 'Pa.s.s me another cup of wine, will you, nephew? He foresaw that trade with China might be interrupted and he wanted to make sure that we had a good stake in this country. After all, we are staying. We are Australians now. That's why he bought the paper-making business here, and the vineyard in South Australia. He thought that it would be unwise to sell only luxuries, so we still have market gardens and a pig farm, not to mention the restaurants. Cousin Lin Po is running a poultry farm to supply them and we also get deli-cacies and flowers from Lin Tao in Castlemaine, only two hours by train. We use most of our own produce in the restau-rants, which means that not only are we better, we are also cheaper, and we can grow our own sort of vegetables, straw mushrooms and Chinese greens, water chestnuts and marrows. Lin Tao has high hopes of lychees soon. We also sell lotus flowers to the flower market. They grow on the fish ponds. Which we also sell. Trout, as it happens, and fancy goldfish. If the fancy goldfish don't sell we let them grow into carp and eat them.'

'What about a drought?' asked Lin Chung, fascinated. 'That would wipe out the crops. What do we sell then?'

'Unlikely,' said Uncle Lin. 'All of our gardens are on large rivers. If the Maribyrnong dries up our trouble will be as nothing to the trouble of the rest of Melbourne. The pigs and the poultry are all close to the market gardens-'

'For the manure,' said Lin, who was getting the idea.

'And to share transport to market. If we lose our agricul-tural production through some disaster-it would have to be the State deciding to take them away, something major like that-we still have wine and paper, we still have silk, we still have restaurants and we still have fan-tan and the lottery.'

'Which are illegal,' said Lin, to get a rise out of Uncle.

'Not at present.'

'Only because there are no Chinese policemen.'

'And may the Gracious Lady Kwan Yin protect us from there ever being any. While the games are played with beans and only cashed later, no one can prove that fan-tan is an illegal gambling game. And we get ten per cent. The more terrible the times, the more people gamble. Gambling gives them hope.'

'Even so...' Lin did not know how he felt about being a gambler. His uncle laughed and poured another cup of wine for both of them.