The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton Page A

on her.’
    He waited, challenging the other man to speak, but Balfour remained silent. After a moment he continued.
    ‘Now, when I first came to your offices, Tom, you’ll recall that
Godspeed
was in need of a master. You didn’t want her, and in the months after that I had a fair bit of trouble finding a man I could count on to take up the contract. She was anchored in Dunedin then.
Lady
needed caulking, and I was out of pocket for repairs on
Virtue
, as you might remember. All sorts of bills to pay. In the end I made a snap decision, and leased
Godspeed
privately to a chap named Raxworthy who wanted to set up a run between Australia and the Otago fields. He was a Navy man. Retired, of course. He’d commanded a corvette in the Crimean War—up in the Baltic—and he had a Victoria Cross to show for it. He’d been everywhere. Used to say that if he’d been trailing a rope behind him, he could have tied a knot right around the world. He’d been discharged from the navy on account of gout—bad enough to get his long-term leave, which was due to him anyhow, but not quite bad enough to make him want to swallow the anchor altogether.
Godspeed
suited him—he’s an old-fashioned type, you know, and she’s an old-fashioned girl.
    ‘I went back to Akaroa after that, and didn’t hear from Raxworthy for a spell. But I was back and forth down the island fairly frequently, and the next time I called in at Dunedin, I found myself in a bit of trouble. There was a husband. Lydia had a husband . He’d come home while I was gone.’
    Balfour narrowed his eyes. ‘Crosbie Wells?’
    Lauderback shook his head. ‘Not him. This man was the brute you know as Carver. To me he was Wells. Francis Wells.’
    Balfour nodded slowly. ‘But now the very same woman’s saying she’s the wife of
Crosbie
Wells,’ he said. ‘Somebody’s lying somewhere .’
    ‘In any case—’
    ‘Either lying about a marriage,’ Balfour said, ‘or lying about a name.’
    ‘In any case,’ Lauderback said with annoyance, ‘that doesn’t matter—not just yet. You have to hear it in the proper order. Back then, I didn’t even know Lydia was married. When she was at the gambling house she used her maiden name, you see—Lydia Greenway, she was; I never knew her as Lydia Wells. Of course, once the husband showed up I saw that I was in the wrong. I tried to back right off. Tried to settle things the proper way. But the chap had me in a bit of a corner. I’d just taken up the Superintendency; I was a Councilman. I was recently married myself. I had my reputation to think about.’
    Balfour nodded. ‘He played the cuckold. Tried to make a few pounds extra on the side.’
    Lauderback’s mouth twisted. ‘It wasn’t that simple.’
    ‘Oh—the trick’s an old standard,’ Balfour said, trying to commiserate . ‘Plays right into the heart of every man’s fear, of course—and then the blackmail is almost a relief, when it comes. Pay up, and you’ll never hear from me again, all of that. Most often the girl’s involved. I suppose he told you that she was expecting.’
    Lauderback shook his head. ‘No.’ He resumed staring at the vessel in his hand. ‘He was much cleverer than that. He didn’t ask for any money—or for anything at all. At least not right away. He told me that he was a murderer.’
    The carriage clock on the mantel struck a quarter till the hour. The clergyman at the table next to theirs looked up, patted his thigh, and retrieved his pocket watch from his trouser pocket, in order to synchronise the hands. He wound the key, twitched the dial, wiped the face of the watch with his napkin, and replaced it in his pocket. He then turned back to his pamphlet, cupped hishands around his eyes to narrow his field of focus, and resumed reading.
    ‘He was very controlled when he said it,’ said Lauderback. ‘Polite, even. Told me there was a fellow on his tail, a mate of the man he’d killed. He didn’t tell me whom he’d murdered, or