Page 132 of The Pearl Sister
‘My goodness,’ Kitty said with a sigh as she turned the page of her newspaper. ‘There’s been a riot at Port Adelaide. It’s lucky you left in time.’ She shook her head and put the paper down to speak to Charlie. ‘Have you had a chance yet to peruse the guest list for your birthday dinner on Thursday evening? I’ve invited the usual clutch of the great and the good in Broome. I can hardly believe that in a few days you’ll be taking your rightful place amongst them. How time flies,’ Kitty sighed. ‘It seems only yesterday that you were a babe in my arms.’
Charlie wanted to retort that the past twenty-one years felt as if they had gone excruciatingly slowly; he’d waited for this moment for so long. ‘No, not yet, but I’m sure you will have left no one out, Mother.’
‘This afternoon, Mr Soi is coming with your pearling master’s uniforms. I’ve ordered a dozen, although it looks to me as though you have lost weight since I last saw you. What have you been eating in Adelaide, I wonder? And this morning I wish for you to accompany me to the office. I have employed a very efficient young lady called Miss Forsythe to be your secretary. She comes highly recommended and is from one of the best families in Broome.’
‘Yes, Mother,’ Charlie responded, used to her irritating habit of trying to set him up with any female under the age of twenty-five who came to town. Surely, he thought, as his gaze followed Alkina’s lithe body out of the room, his mother knew that he only had eyes for one woman? What a relief it would be when he made his announcement and the whole charade would be over.
‘So, we shall meet by the car in thirty minutes?’
‘Yes, Mother,’ he said as he watched her rise from her chair. He knew the locals wondered if she was happy, commenting on how, after almost seventeen years since her husband’s disappearance, it must be possible to apply for an annulment on the grounds of desertion. After all, she was just into her forties. He had tentatively raised the subject with her a couple of years ago, emphasising that she shouldn’t feel guilty if she wished to officially end her marriage to his father.
‘I really wouldn’t mind. I just want you to be happy, Mother,’ he’d finished lamely.
‘I appreciate your sentiments and thank you for them, but I shall never marry again.’ Seeing the look on his mother’s face as she had swept from the room, Charlie had never taken the subject further.
As his mother went to her study to collect her business ledgers for the day, Charlie went in search of Alkina. He came upon Camira in the kitchen.
‘Cat gone out, Mister Charlie,’ she said before he could even ask. ‘She gottum errands. Dun worry, she back later. You get outta here.’ She shooed him out of the kitchen, and Charlie trudged despondently to his bedroom to get ready for the office.
It was four months since he’d last been home from Adelaide, the longest time he and Alkina had ever been separated, and he was desperate to hold her in his arms. When he’d finished his final university exams at the end of November, he’d already packed to return to Broome. But he was literally stopped at the door by a telegram from his mother telling him that his grandmother Edith had died the night before. Instead of boarding the ship, he’d been ordered to wait for his mother in Adelaide to make the necessary arrangements.
They had buried Edith and subsequently spent Christmas at Alicia Hall. Kitty had then taken Charlie to the vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, where she had encouraged him to engage with the manager there, in preparation for taking over the business. Then they had travelled to Coober Pedy so that his mother could show him the opal mine. She had insisted he stay there for two weeks to get to know the workings of the industry while she travelled back to Broome.
At least his extended time in Adelaide had given him a chance to meet up regularly with his oldest friend, Ted Strehlow. He had known Ted since the age of eleven when they had slept next to each other in a dormitory at Immanuel College. Both had continued to the University of Adelaide, and whereas Charlie had slogged away at his Economics degree, Ted had read Classics and English, but was determined to become an anthropologist and go on to study the history of the Aboriginals. It was a world away from the business of making money from the labour of others, and Charlie couldn’t help but envy him for it. He’d have done anything to be free of the responsibilities that lay ahead.
‘Charlie, are you nearly ready to leave?’ Kitty called to him.
‘Yes, Mother,’ he sighed, ‘coming right away.’
* * *
Charlie went through the day trying hard to be mentally present with a tailor who was proud to have the honour of making his first pearling master’s suits. Then it was off to the office by the harbour to meet his new secretary, Elise Forsythe. She was indeed pretty, in an insipid English way that Charlie thought could not hold a candle to the dark, exotic beauty of Cat. Afterwards, he attended a meeting with Noel Donovan and the rest of the senior staff. He sat at the mahogany table in the boardroom, listening to the conversation about the Japanese competitors.
‘They call it a “cultured” pearl, but how can they possibly believe that the word “culture” can be attached to something that is a crude copy, as opposed to being fashioned by nature alone?’ His mother gave a disparaging snort of laughter.
‘I hear, ma’am, that Mikimoto is flooding the markets,’ said the company accountant. ‘His spherical pearls are almost indistinguishable from the natural, and he has recently opened another store in Paris. They are called South Sea pearls and—’
‘If people wish to buy cheap imitations of the real thing, let them get on with it,’ Kitty retorted. ‘I’m sure such a thing would never be countenanced here. Now, gentlemen, if there’s no more business, I shall take my son to see his new office.’ She stood up and the men followed, their chair legs scraping against the wooden floor. She swept out of the room and Charlie followed her down the hallway, along which were offices piled high with paper trays. The clerks within them gave servile nods as Kitty and Charlie passed by. His mother unlocked a door at the end of a corridor and ushered him inside.
‘Now, darling, what do you think of this? I’ve had it fitted out for you as a surprise.’
Charlie stood looking at a gleaming partner’s desk, a beautiful antique globe and an exquisite black lacquered sideboard painted delicately with gold butterflies.
‘Goodness, Mother, it’s wonderful, thank you. I only hope I can live up to everyone’s expectations.’ Charlie walked to the window and gazed out at the dock, seeing the small train that ran the mile down to the town chugging steadily on its way.
‘Of course you will. The pearling business is in your blood.’
‘Mother.’ Charlie sat down heavily in the high-backed leather chair. ‘I don’t know if I am ready for all this. You have run the business so magnificently for all these years.’
‘My darling, all I have been is a caretaker for the Mercer empire, bequeathed to you by both your father and your uncle. In the twenty-one years I have watched you grow, you have never given me cause to doubt your suitability. You will make a worthy successor to your father.’
‘Thank you, Mother.’ Charlie couldn’t help but note that his mother took no credit for herself.
Her bright blue eyes studied him intently. ‘You have been everything that I, your grandmother and your father could ever have wished for as an heir. I am so proud of you, Charlie. Just one word of caution . . .’ His mother’s glance moved away to the window and the sea beyond it.
‘Yes, Mother?’
‘Don’t ever let love blind you. It is the downfall of us all. Now’ – she forced a smile onto her face and stood up – ‘the crews have been prepping the luggers during the lay-up season. Come down to the docks and inspect their work with me.’
