‘You’re only jealous of Dom’s daring,’ purred Clara.
‘I know it may seem crazy,’ Dominic said. ‘But there are still huge parts of the globe that have never been mapped – not accurately, anyway. Even somewhere as developed as America is so large that there are hundreds of miles of desert that no man has ever walked across. And the Amazon jungle is so dense it’s almost impossible to penetrate, let alone say with any certainty what’s hidden in there.’
‘Do you think you’ll find El Dorado?’ asked Michaela breathlessly, directing her full gaze in Dominic’s direction. ‘Is it really there?’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ smiled Dominic. ‘I don’t think it ever was. I think the first Westerners to South America misinterpreted local legends and rituals as fact because they wanted them to be true. However, the secret city of Paititi could very well be real.’
‘Paititi?’ asked Jonathon, looking more interested.
‘It’s a mythical lost Inca city. Stories from around the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries talk about a jungle settlement in the Amazon full of gold and silver.’
‘I love Dominic’s stories,’ said Michaela. ‘Last time he was here, he was telling us about the lost Fabergé eggs.’
‘Dominic is actually going to liberate the oppressed peasants, aren’t you?’ said Zander with a wink.
‘Really, old man?’ said Neville, his brow furrowed. ‘You haven’t gone pinko on us, have you?’
‘Actually, Zander is right,’ piped up Ros, eager to join in the conversation. ‘Dom believes that the native Indians are being exploited and that they should be left alone. Isn’t that right?’
Dominic pulled a face. ‘Yes, to an extent, but—’
‘You were absolutely right when you said that they are relatively ignorant of international trade – large-scale commerce of any kind, actually – and there’s a danger that their resources are going to be exploited by others,’ continued Ros.
‘And you think that’s a bad thing?’ asked Neville from his seat opposite her. She had learnt earlier that Neville’s family had made their fortune in imports, historically sugar and oil. But in the fifteen years since the end of the war, they had lost almost all of it through the redrawing of borders, new interests in the Middle East and, most importantly, the sudden feeling in many places th
at, frankly, they were better off exploiting their own sugar and oil.
‘What about British companies like Moran Timber who are operating in the Amazon? Do you think we should force them out?’
‘Ros wasn’t saying that,’ said Dominic quickly.
Neville didn’t look placated. ‘Principles are one thing, but not at the expense of British commerce. We’re struggling enough abroad as it is.’
‘But those resources belong to the people of Brazil and Peru,’ said Ros, taking another sip of wine.
‘No they don’t,’ scoffed Neville. ‘They were bought fair and square by Western companies, who, by the way, are providing jobs for these so-called locals.’
Ros and Neville both looked at Dominic for support.
‘What do you think, Dommy?’ asked Clara, taking the role of provocateur.
Dominic shrugged diplomatically. ‘I think that native people should benefit from their own land, their own crops, but letting them self-govern is perhaps a fast route to corruption and I don’t think you’d be doing them a favour. You’d be throwing them to the lions of capitalism. And they’re not ready. Not yet.’
Neville grunted his approval as Clara leant forward, her finger tracing the edge of her wine glass.
‘And what do you believe, Rosamund? Capitalism or communism?’
Ros glanced at her, realising that her sudden interest in politics was simply for show.
‘I think socialism is the only sane choice,’ she said haughtily.
Silence fell on the room.
‘Socialism?’ said Zander finally, as if he were addressing a child. ‘But my dear, we have just finished fighting a war against it.’
‘The Nazis were socialist in name only. We were fighting against totalitarianism. Hitler was a dictator. Whatever he said went, however terrible, or you would find yourself up against a wall. The Allies were fighting for the very opposite of that: self-government. Pure and simple.’
‘Isn’t self-government just a polite way of saying “give everything to the workers”?’ laughed Zander.