Jane

[Odalisque]

I'm mulling over a start on a new novel set in the same world as Odalisque, and with some of the same characters. The title I currently have in mind is Jane. The little I've written reads as follows:

Modesty Clay and I were lovers, although I never really knew her.

Flocking gulls squawked over the marshes. A chill breeze blew, against which I wrapped my cloak. Thick salty mud, an enemy of leather, spattered my boots. Lingering in my mouth and heavy on my stomach lay a dinner of beans and sausages. Better not to consider what kind of meat had been mixed with bread and herbs inside the skins.

Although not a soldier, I was with our army in Essex. Coming to my occupation, it seems so monstrously dull it’s small wonder that my first impulse was to state that Modesty and I were lovers. By nature, I am an ordinary person. While the empire depends on we who keep tally of its transactions, my calling lacks glamour. Not for me to strut in thigh boots, gauntlets and cuirass – sometimes gleaming, sometimes deliberately dulled – in the manner of Modesty Clay. We served the Majesty of the same Empress, she as cavalry officer, me as a fiscal inspector.

There – I’ve said it. Fiscal inspector. Whilst others slaughtered Her Imperial Majesty’s enemies on the field of blood, I merely counted the pennies paid to them. That was what brought me to Essex, and Modesty Clay’s independent company of light cavalry. It was not that I expected any misappropriation of the soldiers’ pay, although that needed to be checked. It is to be hoped that the honour of one of Her Majesty’s officers – and the good sense of our soldiery – would prevent such a thing. The penalty of enslavement provides a powerful additional argument in favour of an honest distribution of Her Majesty’s money.

Prizes, in my experience, are far more likely to give rise to malpractice. In fully ninety-nine cases from a hundred, I am convinced, this arises from simple arithmetic errors. My feeling is that schoolmistresses should use greater vigour when spanking the principles of long division into their pupils. But one cannot blame a gallant officer for the failings of her childhood tutors. In such cases, it is enough to redress the distribution of prize money, taking it from the overpaid to make necessary restitution.