The Power Game by Meg Keneally

Author:Meg Keneally
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2018-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

Monsarrat was at a loss for something to do as he waited for Jones – an unaccustomed state for him, and one which he did not like at all. He knew he had to look occupied. If Holloway glanced out of the guardhouse and saw him wandering aimlessly up and down the dock waiting for Jones to return, he would no doubt say, ‘Look, here is a man who was sent to do a job we could have done, and he is idle.’

Monsarrat was fairly certain he could talk his way out of that, but he’d rather not have to. Instead, he walked slowly up to the site where the hospital was trying to rise, and the tent next to it which served its purpose for now. Chester was there, of course. Having no orderly, he was called on to use his medical training not only for more complex procedures, but for bandaging, salving and the like.

Right now, he was engaged in bandaging the ankle of Milliner, the convict Monsarrat had met on the day he arrived: the Hatter, through whom contraband reportedly flowed.

Chester looked up, and nodded. ‘When I was at the Royal London Hospital, Mr Monsarrat, it never occurred to me that I might one day be asked to treat wombat injuries.’

‘Oh? I didn’t realise they were aggressive.’

‘They are not. But apparently the holes they dig are.’

‘They’ve been digging them where they know we walk, sir,’ Milliner said, a contrived breathlessness in his voice. ‘Just where a man would put his foot, but covered by bracken, so you don’t see it until it’s too late. You would think, if you didn’t know better, that they were trying to get us to leave.’

‘Yes, well,’ said Chester. ‘Fortunately we do know better, don’t we? There, that should help with any pain, although I have to say I can’t see any swelling, and I remember well, Milliner, treating you last month for a goose bite.’

Milliner shook his head. ‘But they are vicious, those geese. They attack without any threat. They are on you before you know they’re there.’

‘How is it, then, that you are the only one to have succumbed?’

‘They go for the strong ones first, see,’ said Milliner.

‘And strong you must be,’ said Monsarrat, ‘for that suppurating wound on your foot to heal so fast. It looks as though it is back to building the hospital for you.’

‘Oh, I’ve been taken off the hospital,’ Milliner said. ‘The commandant felt my talents suited me for more refined work.’

‘Or perhaps he moved you because you weren’t doing any work of any kind,’ said Chester. Milliner ignored him and kept talking to Monsarrat. ‘Turning chair legs, now, sir. We make very fine ones, so I’m told. So they want me back, I imagine.’

‘I imagine they do,’ said Chester, ‘and I will take you.’

‘Doctor,’ said Monsarrat, seeing a chance right in front of him for some investigating, ‘the matter I came to see you on wasn’t urgent. I’d be more than willing to escort Milliner.

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