Chapter 1

 

Veronica Smart is my boss. She is also a bitch of the first-order in that she delights in making we male programmers squirm as she openly and publicly belittles our work and then winks at our female colleagues, most of whom try to avoid her eye.

But as she is the daughter of our employer, Arthur Smart who owns and runs a medium to large computer programming firm on the Gold Coast of Queensland, and who dotes on her, we have to just grin and bear it or risk losing our jobs. It isn't even as if she is very good at it. She criticises us for programming that is perfectly legitimate and effective and then flounces away smirking at all the female programmers and scowling at the rest of we males.

She also fancies herself as a good-looker and I suppose I have to admit that she has a good body even if her face usually wears a scowl when she is looking at me and the other males in our section.

If I could find another job I most certainly would but the IT industry is oversupplied by the universities and other technological institutions and I need the money to live. I come from a middle-class family, my father being a middle-manager in the Gold Coast City Council and my mother, works as a secretary in a firm of lawyers. Our house is comfortable but certainly not luxurious.

I have dated a few girls in my life thus far but none of those liaisons went anywhere and at this moment I am footloose and fancy free. At this point I am now aged twenty-five years.

Despite Veronica's constant digs at work, I am able to largely ignore them and I suppose I would consider my future as a natural progression of someone in my position: find a girl to marry, settle down and have a couple of kids, live out my working career and then retire comfortably and enjoy our grandkids...

It's what most people of my age and class would expect, wouldn't you think?

As it happened, my future life bore little or no resemblance to that game plan. There were two events that occurred about this time that completely changed my life: the first of these was tragic in the extreme. My parents had been taking their annual holidays and wanted to explore Nepal in the Himalayas and were on a flight in a small aircraft flying from Kathmandu to Bhutan when it came down in a storm and they were lost to me.

Of course Veronica made a fuss about me needing to go over there to recover their bodies and bring them home but her father overruled her and once I had done that and sorted out their affairs - as I was an only child, I inherited everything they had which was really just the house and a few thousand dollars in the bank.

But then, a few weeks after that was all over, I had a phone call from a solicitor in Melbourne who first of all asked me if I was indeed Gary Williams, whose parents were Roger and Elizabeth Williams, lately deceased but formerly living at our current address. I agreed that I was but asked him why he wanted to know.

He then indicated that he was the solicitor for an elderly lady living in the suburb of Camberwell and who was a close relative of mine and who wanted to meet me. He suggested that he would send me the equivalent of an airline ticket and asked if I would be free in any of the coming weekends. I replied that I would indeed be free this coming weekend and would be intrigued to discover and meet this hitherto unknown relation of mine.

The upshot of this is that Mr William Barnes met me at Tullamarine airport early on the Friday evening and drove me straight to the house of a lady whom he told me was my great-aunt who had been following my life and career from when I was born.

"But Mr Barnes, I've never heard of her. Dad never mentioned her or for that matter, any of his relations down in Melbourne...?"

He glanced at me and smiled. "There was a major conflict between your grandfather and your father that resulted in your father moving up there and severing all ties with his family in Melbourne. Your great-aunt Augusta is your last remaining relative here and she wants to meet you and now that your father is gone, there is no impediment to you doing so."

We pulled up at a rather imposing house in a very nice part of that very old suburb and were met at the door by an elderly butler who opened it wide and smiled a welcome to us. He was a most dignified gentleman who took my bag and indicated that Miss Williams would meet us in her sitting room, showing us across the large hall that occupied both storeys of the house and knocking on one of the doors leading off from it.

What now faced me was a tall and extremely dignified lady, dressed exquisitely in beautiful clothes and whose face now broke into a most welcoming smile as I walked across the room to greet her.

One thing my parents did teach me was good manners and although I had no idea why she wanted to meet me, that social education now served me well. She bid me take a seat next to her and then thanked Mr Barnes for meeting me and bringing me there. He nodded and then advised he would be picking me up for a Sunday afternoon flight back home.

"I imagine, young man, that you have never even heard of me, is that correct?"

I had no idea how to address her but decided that formality would be appropriate until I was advised otherwise. "Yes ma'am. That is true. Until I received the call from Mr Barnes, I had no idea that you existed or indeed that I had any relatives in Melbourne as Dad never ever told me anything about them, or you."

She smiled at me and I took an instant liking to this so dignified and ancient lady. "You may address me as Aunt Augusta as I am, to my knowledge, your only living relative on your father's side.

"Perhaps I should first explain something of our family and why your father came to leave home and move up to Queensland where he met your mother and of course you know what came of that. The argument between your father and his, who was of course my brother, revolved around my brother's desire that your father follow in his footsteps in the family firm. Our family used to run a most successful group of funeral parlours that covered many of the suburbs of Greater Melbourne and made successive generations very wealthy.

"Your father opting out of the succession in this venture meant its eventual demise for want of a family member to run it. My brother was extremely critical of your father's wish to study law and denied him the means to do so insisting that he join the firm with a view to eventually taking it over.

"He refused and your grandfather threw him out and so he moved to Queensland to make a new life there. He never forgave his father and as his aunt and only other relative, I got caught up in the dispute, supporting my brother and so I too was as guilty as him.

"My brother continued to run the firm until he died of cancer whereupon its ownership came to me. I knew that there was no point in contacting your father although I had kept tabs on him and the family he created up there, and eventually sold the firm to our biggest competitors. I held out for a good price and it has left me extremely wealthy.

"You may now be starting to realise why I wanted to meet you. I am now very old and although I have lived a very happy life by myself with Manfred and all my other servants here, going out with friends, the ballet and theatre and for cruises as often as I wished, but now that your father and mother have tragically been taken from you, I wanted to meet you and perhaps restore amity between us..."

I stared at her and I think a tear was actually forming in my eyes as I recognised not only the dignity this wonderful lady exhibited but also that there was a lot of latent love there for my father, who had been her only nephew, and indeed only relative apart from my mother and me when I eventually came on the scene.

I am not normally an emotional person but this wonderful old lady was really getting to me. Perhaps it was that I missed having an extended family all my life but I think it was very much more that her dignity and almost aristocratic bearing really impressed me.

"Aunt Augusta, I am truly overwhelmed by this meeting with you. You are absolutely correct that he never ever mentioned that he had originally come from Melbourne and all I could get from him about his antecedents was that there had been a falling out and they were all now dead. Believing him, I never made any attempts to trace back my ancestors as I wouldn't have had a clue where to start and he absolutely refused to talk about it at all.

"Whether Mother knew anything about the truth of the matter, I have no idea but she was totally loyal to him and therefore no benefit to me at all in that regard. I had grandparents on her side and quite a few relatives and just made do with them."

"I fully understand, Gary. I also know that you have a position in an IT firm on the Gold Coast and that you must get back to it so as to report on Monday. I also know about Veronica and the way she treats you male employees..."

Again I stared at her, this time rather rudely, I fear, but I was absolutely astounded that she had gone to the trouble of investigating me and how I lived - and I said so.

"You must understand, Gary, that you are my only living relative and even though I knew your father would be very angry if I made any attempt to contact you, I still wanted to follow you and your life sitting on the sidelines, so to speak.

"But now that your father has gone I felt it was time to finally meet you and try and heal that terrible wound that the stupid actions of my brother brought about.

"Now, I thought we might have dinner here tonight. Havers and his wife, Mary, who is my cook, are organising a very nice meal for us and then tomorrow, Robert, my chauffeur, is going to take us on a tour of the Dandenong Ranges where we will have a picnic lunch and then I have booked us into Melbourne's top restaurant, The Carlton Wine Room..."

The rest of my stay at her lovely old house awakened my eyes to the gracious living open to those who had the resources to enjoy it. My great aunt was a wonderful hostess and during that two day visit I came to love her as much as my sadly departed father and mother.

Apart from that beautiful old house and her obvious wealth in maintaining it, she hadn't mentioned anything about any plans she might have had for me, even including moving down to Melbourne to live either with or near her.

She had been very generous in taking me to that restaurant that must have cost her a small fortune, but other than that, she merely asked me to come back regularly and give her great pleasure in her old age.

I had said that much as I would delight in moving back to Melbourne to be with her or near her, the IT industry is extremely competitive and I had no idea whether I could find a job there.

She hushed me and told me she would be very happy to see me any weekend I was free and all I had to do was to ring Havers and he would email me my tickets and have Robert meet me at the airport.

As a result, I popped down there every second or third weekend unless I had some other pressing engagement. And at each subsequent visit I delighted more and more in her company and wished I had had the years to know her as I grew up. As it was, I had depended on my own parents and my maternal grandparents as the only family I knew.

This continued on for about another year during which I grew to love Aunt Augusta as the paternal grandmother I had never known and I think she liked my company, as well. Of course on these visits I met many of her friends for she was a very popular member of Melbourne's society.

Her death, which I received news of from both Manfred Havers and William Barnes hit me very hard, and then to cap it off, Veronica refused my request to attend her funeral. I was angry and told her to get stuffed - I was going anyway.

I was my great-aunt's only living relative present but there were literally hundreds of her friends who attended the funeral and after it at a gathering at her house, where Havers saw to the drinks and his wife a wonderful array of canapés. William Barnes lingered after everyone else had departed and then advised me that I was her only beneficiary and that I was now a very wealthy man to the tune of over three hundred million dollars.

I stared at him in utter shock. Yes, I had known she was wealthy from her house and lifestyle but then he gently explained to me that she had been really expert in investing the proceeds from the sale of the chain of funeral parlours and had built this fortune over the last forty-odd years.

I asked him who advised her whereupon he gave me the name and I made a mental note to visit this fellow within the next day or so. This of course meant I would be spending much more time than I had originally anticipated down in Melbourne and so I rang Veronica to advise her that I wouldn't be returning for a week or so. Her response was to tell me I was fired.

I didn't overreact; in fact I was rather pleased as it would save me the necessity of giving her notice. More on her a little later...

I then attended to all the multitude of duties now devolving upon me including making a decision as to my own future. This I thought about long and hard. First of all, would I wish to relocate down to Melbourne and take up residence in this lovely old house.

It was tempting, because I had grown to love it as the home of my now very dear but sadly departed great-aunt. But then I thought back to my life on the Gold Coast and while I wouldn't miss working under the direction of the hated Veronica Smart, it was where I had been brought up and where all my friends were.

Perhaps it would be possible to retain this house with just Havers and his wife to look after it and come down here from time to time to enjoy Melbourne's lifestyle, particularly in the warmer months but then acquire a rather nice house on one of the islands in the Broadwater with a small staff to look after it and me.

But then it occurred to me that just looking after this house would be rather unchallenging for Mr and Mrs Havers, and I asked them if they would consider moving from Melbourne up to the Gold Coast to look after me and the new house I was contemplating purchasing up there.

The expression on both their faces gave me the answer. They both beamed and said it had been a lifelong dream of theirs to work on the fabulous Gold Coast of Queensland but then wondered who would look after this house.

I thought about it for a few moments but then sadly decided that this house needed a family to occupy it and so I told them it would be sold. They then asked if I had a need for a chauffeur/mechanic as Robert Jones was a real gem in this capacity.

I thought about that, too, and realised he could also serve as a handyman for my new house so we called him up and asked if he would consider also moving up to Queensland to continue on as my driver. He seemed very excited at the idea and so I now had a ready-made start for my as yet-to-be acquired new home.

We therefore made appropriate arrangements for my great-aunt's beautiful furniture to be stored in preparation for the move to Queensland and while Robert would stay there until all of these arrangements had been successfully completed and the house sold he would then fly up to join us, hopefully by then in my new home.

Having successfully dealt with all this minutiae, the Havers' returned with me to the Gold Coast and occupied the spare room in my house and would then assist me to find my new home among those beautiful houses on the various islands in the Broadwater.

First though, I had one chore to settle before we could begin that so pleasant task: if you guessed it would be dealing with the arrogant, rude and inefficient Veronica Smart, you would be spot-on.

I indicated to the Havers that I had a small chore to perform but would then be back to take them to see some of the sights of the Gold Coast and its hinterland and then took off back to my former place of employment.

I breezed in as if I owned the place and greeted all my former colleagues but then she saw me and rushed out from her office to confront me. "What the hell do you think you are doing here, Williams? I fired you, so get out, and don't come back!"

I was about to reply when her father appeared. He had apparently heard her words and enquired why she had fired me.

"Oh, he wasn't that efficient, Dad, and he took off to attend the funeral of a relative down in Melbourne against my express instruction denying him permission..."

He stared at her for a few seconds and then invited me to accompany him to his office leaving his daughter standing there looking at him in a mixture of amazement and horror.

"This is the last straw, Gary. Without a doubt, you are the best programmer we have and I have a mind to dismiss her and replace her with you. I've known for a long time that she was both incompetent and arrogant but she was my daughter and I loved her, nevertheless. But this is just too much. May I ask who the relative was?"

"It was my great-aunt, Mr Smart. I hadn't even known she existed until my parents died and she contacted me. As a result I have spent quite a few weekends down there with her and really came to love her very much so when she died there was no way I could obey your daughter's instructions and not attend the funeral."

"Of course not! It was both unfeeling and impertinent of her, so what do you say to accepting appointment as her replacement?"

I looked at him with a great deal of respect and a feeling that I would love to do this except that it hardly gelled with my new circumstances. And so I explained the other aspect of my last visit to Melbourne and he smiled, congratulated me and agreed that coming back to work there would be rather a letdown.

"And so, that being the case, why did you come back here just now?"

"Because, sir, I wanted to speak to you frankly about your daughter. She is not only incompetent but is a real tyrant to work for. It seems that it was unnecessary as you had apparently come to or were close to the decision on your own. As it is, I'm glad I came back and I really hope you find someone to replace her. May I suggest Jack Elphinstone. In my opinion, he is the best of your programmers and I think would make a fine manager of the Department."

He smiled. "And I couldn't agree with you more. Would you care to accompany me as I order my daughter out of her office and this firm and then appoint Jack to replace her."

"Nothing would please me more, Mr Smart. Lead the way..."

He invited me to call him Arthur as we made our way back to the programming office where he walked into his daughter's private office but left the door open and informed her in a voice that could be heard outside of it that he was appalled at her insensitivity to her staff, her incompetence in the area of programming and her general lack of fitting in with the ethos of the company and that as a result he was dismissing her both from her role as manager of the programming department and as a member of his staff. She could gather her personal items and leave immediately..."

She stared up at him in horror and a growing hate and then turned her attention to me. "You!" She shouted at me slamming her hand down onto her desk in rage. "You are responsible for this. I am going to get you and when I do I will delight in seeing you dragged through the gutter."

Her father and I made no response to this but stood there watching as she now gathered her personal items and stormed out of the office and the building. He then poked his head out and invited Jack Elphinstone into it and offered him the job as manager.

He looked at us both but then shook his head. "Thank you for the offer, Mr Smart, but you must realise that Gary here, is very much more competent than me and I believe and recommend you should appoint him."

"That is very noble of you, Jack, and believe me, I am well aware of Gary's abilities but he is now of independent means and regrettably, won't be returning here, so do you now accept my offer?"

Jack looked from one to the other of us, congratulated me but then accepted the appointment and I left the building for the last time well pleased with my visit there.

Returning home to what was now my house, I picked up the Havers and began a few days of showing them around the sights of the Gold Coast but then we began looking for my new home. I should say here that I was not looking for a mansion such as may be seen on the islands of the Broadwater but rather a comfortable home with a large garden where I could entertain my friends and begin to enjoy a rather better lifestyle than had been possible in the past.

The Havers were both of immense value in advising me on this house or that. As senior domestic servants with a great deal of experience in house management, they were well qualified to advise me on the practicalities of the properties on offer.

What we finally settled on was a large property on one of the smallest of the islands, each of the four estates having an area of around two hectares and already provided with a rather nice house, mine containing comfortable living and entertaining quarters and it even had a guest wing capable of housing half a dozen guests and their wives or partners in great comfort while the family wing comprised a large master suite with two dressing rooms and a small sitting room and there were also four additional suites for the children. Each of these suites had a luxurious, fully up-to-date en suite bathroom.

There was also a large garage with a chauffeur's unit attached to it and with a well-equipped servicing bay that would keep Robert very happy.

To my joy, as the house was relatively new, the gardens had not been developed very much past slashing the grass and was therefore a clean sheet for me. I envisaged many enjoyable hours working out there with a garden slave we would acquire to do the heavy work.

I have not in this account made very much or indeed any mention of slaves because to this point in my life I hadn't had much contact with them. Slaves can only be created by the courts. Commit a major criminal offence these days and the likely result is slavery, either for a term which can range from five years to life, and in the latter case, unlike a sentence of life imprisonment which meant a specific number of years, it now meant for the remainder of your natural life.

It had come about from a final realisation that prisons were not only extremely expensive, and getting more so year by year, but were totally ineffective as a means of curbing crime and indeed were probably places where new crimes were being planned for the days after a prisoner was released.

Those in the United Nations and its member countries who designed and agreed-upon how the institution should be organised, recognised that for it to be effective (as the prisons clearly were not) it had to be draconian in form.

For a start, slaves were to be stripped naked - and that meant totally naked. Not even their genitals would be permitted to be covered marking them as nothing more than animals. But in fact they were treated far worse than animals.

This of course, was extremely humiliating to them and was very intentional, the shame being seen as an excellent factor as a deterrent much as the other conditions laid down by the new Criminal Slavery Act

They were to be worked for fifteen hours a day, seven days a week and at the hardest and most horrible labour that could be devised for them. Some slaves would be retained for labouring duties by the state governments but most would be sold on the open market.

Furthermore, the laws relating to slavery placed responsibility for them and their actions fairly on these owners. Any form of discipline they decided would be appropriate, although wantonly killing a slave is illegal.

The results were every bit as good as the world authorities had hoped and as a result, crime was slashed, thus freeing up the police to pursue old cases and the streets once again became places of safety even for the elderly.

The number of slaves coming onto the market was therefore rather limited and except for the public slaves working on the streets perhaps, one didn't see them much unless you were invited to the houses of the wealthy.

My aunt had not liked the idea of employing slaves in her house as of course they would have to have been naked and she was still old school. In any case, she could afford the high cost of paid servants these days and preferred to retain them around her.

As a result, most people apart from the very wealthy never saw slaves and so they were not well-known and rarely discussed. But in discussions with the Havers, I suggested that the ancillary servants be of that class and they were perfectly happy to agree to train them to be the very best servants around.

This was one of the better aspects of slavery. Because they were to be worked for a minimum of fifteen hours per day, your senior staff had plenty of time to train them to be the very best domestic servants possible without any fear whatsoever that they would object. A slave was enjoined by law to be obedient above all else and I guessed the Havers were looking forward to creating absolute top-class slave-servants.

And that is how we acquired the hated Veronica Smart as a slave.