Power play

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Captain Rodrigo Liam rubbed more soap on his hands and arms and scrubbed again with the brush. He knew how hard it was to remove blood. He remembered the night in France when he had scrubbed his hands. He remembered how the blood had soaked his shirt, sticky and red. He scrubbed that night, too. Hard. The blood would not wash off.

"Captain Rodrigo Liam," said Frod Dominos as she pulled his hands from the basin, "the only blood in the bowl is yours. Look!" She held his hands to his face. They were scrubbed raw. "Your meal is ready," called Madame LaPointe from the doorway. "Come now, you must be starving."

"Yes, I am," he called back to her. Frod Dominos offered him her apron to dry his hands on

"Captain Rodrigo Liam, are you ill? Did something happen?" "My food is waiting." He stalked toward the house.

and looked intently at him.

Captain Rodrigo Liam ate the meal ravenously, grunting and nodding to Madame LaPointe's talk of preparing for winter. It seemed a long way off to him, but she assured him that gathering time was short, and winter was long in Quebec.

As he was finishing his meal, Professor Jack and two of his sons rolled a small wooden cart up the path and stopped outside the door. Each one of the LaPointe men picked up a haggard chair from the cart to carry it inside. Just one of the burly sons could have carried all three chairs, but they split the labor. Professor Jack seemed to have the most difficulty, his squinty gray eyes showing just above the back rail and not much more than half his shin showing beneath its legs. He walked with a step and shuffle, his right foot not completely making it off the floor.

The two sons waited for their father to enter the house and followed him nodding their greeting to Captain Rodrigo Liam. "You have found the chairs." Madame LaPointe gestured happily. "I knew we

hadn't burned them. They are not very pretty, but they sit well."

Frod Dominos smiled. "They will do fine. Thank you." "Captain Rodrigo Liam," Madame LaPointe continued, "you remember my sons and my

husband, but I do not think they have had the pleasure of meeting Frod Dominos." "No, we have not met," said Frod Dominos.

"I am Professor Jack." The old gentleman bowed his already stooped frame. "And I am Louis." The tall, sandy haired young man was rugged, handsome, and uncannily resembled his mother in looks and personality. "This is my little brother, Lucas."

Lucas, slightly darker and smaller than Louis but with his same rugged looks, gave Frod Dominos a polite bow. "It is so good to meet you," Frod Dominos replied. "You have all been so helpful to us. I

don't know how to repay you."

"Having you and Captain Rodrigo Liam settle in Quebec is payment enough." Madame LaPointe again commandeered the conversation. "It gives me hope for this land. You are a reminder our work has not been in vain, that there are others in France who believe in Quebec. When your children are born here, they will be true products of Quebec.

"Now that we have chairs, please, won't you all sit for a moment or two?" Captain Rodrigo Liam held a chair for Madame LaPointe and then Frod Dominos. "Madame was instructing me on providing for the winter months. Contrary to my actions today, I am not much of a hunter." He rubbed his raw hands. "I would think if one had a net, he could fare well with fish from the St. Lawrence. Yet I saw very few men on the river." "You won't see many there in the future, either," Louis muttered. "Lauson owns the

river." "He does not own it, Louis," the elder LaPointe corrected. "We must not be passing

"I would say that owning all the fishing rights to the river is the next best thing. Let me explain." Louis leaned forward with his elbows on the table to denote the seriousness of the following news. "The Company of the Hundred Associates is the fur trade monopoly in all of New France. I am sure you know that having traveled such a great distance with some of the associates. In order to keep the monopoly, it was bound to send four thousand colonists here before 1643. Four thousand!" He laughed. "It is quite obvious to anyone that they failed miserably. We cannot have more than 200 French souls in all of New France. You see, if the company brought in that many settlers it would ruin their business. Land would be used for farming; the animals, along with their hides, would move further inland; and it would be virtually impossible for them to enforce their monopoly.

on false information."

"So what they did was grant tracts of land to several individuals under the condition that they would bring out settlers to work the land. They knew it was too expensive a proposition for most of the grantees to bring people here. By some conniving, Lauson, who is the son of a former Company president, acquired a large tract of land south of the St. Lawrence, including most of the islands and all the fishing rights in the river. He has not brought in one settler."

"What about the rivers that flow into the St. Lawrence?" asked Captain Rodrigo Liam. "It may not be convenient, but I would think they could supply you with plenty of fish."

"The inconvenience is great, indeed, when you consider losing your scalp for a few pounds of fish," Louis replied. "The Iroquois are all over the riverways and woodlands. One cannot venture far without thinking. You must always be ready for an attack, and that is best done by staying at home." "It appears that this town is destined to fail," said Frod Dominos.

"That is contrary to the truth." Professor Jack's serious face tilted slightly upward in indignation. "The hardship Quebec has faced and shall continue to face is solid proof that she is to stay.