A bunch of messages are received on the Plateau
Chapter 65.
Beltain
Summer for the telegraph office on the Plateau was usually the office’s quiet time. The Congress and the Senate were not in session and the population that could leave and escape the heat more or less had. So message traffic was exceptionally light and the staff used the summer to take their vacations and relax. The duty staff was reduced to two operators and three messengers. So when the messages started to arrive on the teleprinter, one after the other from the same office, the operators were overwhelmed cutting the messages, folding them, attaching them to forms and writing addresses on envelopes. The chief operator, Fred Greenfield, looked at Ben Ironpounder, the assistant operator and said, “Just what is going on in Chatsrey today?”
“I don’t know. These are all coming from one office. Billy and the others are going to have to work this morning.”
Fred grinned. “They will, won’t they? What do you think is going on?”
“The GEF is going on in Chatsrey. He looked at the return office and said, “All these are coming from the Waterland office. I bet these are a bunch of kids sending something home.”
“Let’s get these done and ring up Billy. The other two are out right now.”
Fred rang the bell calling for a messenger and a boy appeared, looked at the stack and groaned. “What is all this. I’m going to be all over the Plateau.”
“Billy, the exercise will do you good. Just think of the tips.”
Billy grinned. “Good point. Hand them over. I’m going to be a while.”
Livia Fuller looked at the picture of her husband and sighed. Like many marriages on the Plateau, the arrangement had been more of an alliance than a love match. The Ironfitter’s foundries with the Fuller’s business connections joined in a marriage. Geral had been fifteen years older than she was, but as time went on, the marriage had warmed and after Geral had been caught up in the crossfire in Cleadsgate, struggling to prevent a retreat from becoming a rout, the loss still hurt. He should have never been there in the first place, but the Emergency Committee had been short of people with any army experience and so he had gone. A voice coughed and she turned from the picture. “What is it, Devers?”
“I have a telegram from Williard, madam.”
“How are things going? He is at the thing in Chatsrey, isn’t he?”
“I took the liberty of opening the message. Apparently there are issues with the internship program.”
“What issues? Never mind, hand me the telegram.”
Devers handed Livia the message. She looked at it and frowned. “This seems to be rather incredible. Chancellor Daefina arranging for Willy to be kidnapped so that he would be pressured to allow Willy and the other students to submit to immoral acts with the people that were supposed be the students’ mentors seems bizarre even for Willy.”
“I would not know, madam. Do you want me to look into it?”
“I think so. Contact the magistrate that Willy mentions and see if the case is real. Willy says that he is staying at the Riverfront Inn. I will want to send a message.”
“He also wants to transfer to a school in Ironton for the next session.”
“If Northford was involved in something like this, I would say so.”
“Williard probably feels neglected. Sally has been here, but you kept Williard at school.”
“I couldn’t face having him here, reminding me of Geral. I assumed that he would be fine at school.”
“He seems to have grown quite a bit.”
“It appears so.”
The phone rang and Devers went to answer it. He returned and said, “Glora Silverforge is on the phone. Her daughter is attending Northford, was sent to Chatsrey, and sent a similar message. She is calling the other families with students at Northford. She wants to arrange a tea at her home. Would you like to attend?”
Livia frowned. “I think that I would.”
As Billy delivered the messages, the calls back and forth started to raise the outrage and anger like a slow acting explosion.
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