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"First, though, you should probably come home with me. Or at least to the café, where we can talk without waking Rory or Tacey."
He could not refuse. Even if he'd wanted to.
FOURTEEN
"Hey, what do you know aboutHamilton?" Octavia asked. She'd spent all night asking him about his time in Hooghly Town, as he called the encampment, that she'd forgotten he'd likely been alive at around the same time as the man the musical was about.
"Do you meanGeneral Hamilton?" Harlow asked.
Octavia blinked. She'd seen the trailer, and she vaguely remembered a glimpse of military uniforms. "I guess..."
Harlow grinned. "Ah, it was a fine ship, that one. American, out of New York. We spotted it just after we crossed the Equator. Captain Read came aboard with one of his passengers to trade and dine with our captain. He sold me a bottle of particularly fine gin, which I planned to drink when we finally received our land allocation, so I never did get to drink it. We parted ways and we all expected her to sail off, but instead we raced her, and were quite evenly matched for several days. Then we lost sight of her in the night, and near forgot about her what with Christmas and Hogmanay to celebrate."
Octavia couldn't help but laugh. "I didn't know there was a ship called that. The Hamilton I'm referring to is the man I imagine the ship was named after. They made a play, a musical about him, and it showed in New York. There's a recording that's meant to be streaming soon. We should watch it."
"You wish me to attend the theatre with you?"
She didn't know when theatres would be open again. That would depend on how long the pandemic persisted. Maybe until those boys were ready to actually perform their hideous rap parody of Peel's life.
"If they do make a musical about Thomas Peel's life, then I absolutely insist you come to the theatre with me, so you can tell me all the stuff they get wrong," Octavia said.
Harlow stared. "A theatre show about Thomas Peel? Why in heaven's name would anyone care? Even the man himself was a recluse who hated everybody."
Octavia began to explain about the boys in the computer lab, and their project.
Harlow only nodded, as if he understood. "Rich young fools, with more money than sense. But what I do not understand is why you do not seek the same assistance for your project. If you are raising money by doing business with questionable characters like Mr Jerome and his band of bully boys, surely it would be safer to ask for your university to help? You are a scholar, just as they are, are you not?"
"Yeah, but..." Octavia hesitated. Callie loved being an academic, and both Catena and Alethia were planning on doing PhDs, but she couldn't see the point of continuing on the academic track past getting her bachelors degrees. The politics, for a start... She sighed. "If I ask for university funding for my project, as part of a PhD or another degree, then they own the commercial rights to it. My immersive world will be theirs to do with what they want, and after I graduate, I won't have any control over it, because it won't be mine any more. So even if those boys write a really good play that's really popular, they won't own it, not that it probably matters to them, because they don't need the money. The other problem is that they already have so much support, not just from the university but from government and industry, through their contacts. Their parents and the people they went to school with, mostly. So if a competing project that looks at the same time period, but in a different way, that's just being done by one person, which doesn't have any support from any other organisation, comes before them...why would they bother approving it? They've already supported the boys doing their group project, and they only have so much money to spend on research. I mean, they could be funding the cure for some disease, or an archaeological dig that's our only chance to learn something incredible, or..." Octavia sighed. "This is...just for me. I want to create this for me, more than I want it for anyone else. I want to show what the women in my family did. Their courage, the conditions they endured, the lives they lived...they did things I can only imagine, things I wouldn't dare."
It was Harlow's turn to laugh. "I doubt any of the women in Hooghly Town would have stood up to that band of men today the way you did, or talked to their leader like that, either. If anything, you are braver than any of the women in your family who came before you. Which is why you will complete this project, and I will do everything in my power to help you. All my memories are at your service. Those selfish young men don't deserve to succeed the way you do."
Octavia wasn't sure about any of that, but she figured it would be rude to say anything more than, "Thank you." Then they reached Bell House, and the sky was already lightening toward dawn. Definitely time for bed.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Until tomorrow night, Harlow." Then she headed into the house.
FIFTEEN
The sun was setting as Octavia walked into the café. "What are you still doing here?" she asked Tacey.
Tacey looked up from the counter, revealing dark circles beneath her eyes. "Working. I guess I should close up now and take Rory home to bed."
"And get some sleep yourself, while you're at it," Octavia said, headed for the stairs.
"Oh, your computer parts arrived. I had the courier carry them upstairs for you," Tacey said.
Wow, that was quick. Maybe the stories about slow shipping weren't true. "Thanks." Octavia made her way upstairs.
Only to find Rory and her drawing supplies spread across the floor. "Auntie Octavia!" She threw herself around her knees, nearly tripping Octavia.
"Hey, so this is the way, huh? What are you drawing today?" Octavia asked as she untangled herself.
"Monsters. Good monsters," Rory said, pausing to sharpen her grey pencil. There was a lot of grey on the page.
Octavia picked up the nearest one. It looked a lot like Harlow. Well, it was grey and vaguely man shaped with either wings or a cape. "What's this one's name?"
"Mr Monster."
Of course.
