The Luminaries

On April 27, 1866, Anna Wetherell and Emery Staines remain imprisoned at the jail. Staines has been charged with “fraud, embezzlement, and dereliction” (629). Anna’s health has improved. Dr. Gillies treats them both for opium addiction by giving them small doses of laudanum to taper them off.

Since the events of March 20, 1866, in Part 3 of the novel, Lauderback has been elected to Parliament, Shepard has completed the jailhouse, and Carver and Lydia have been married. Staines has not said where he was in the months he’s been missing, although he remembers washing ashore at some point and going to Crosbie’s cottage.

Devlin asks Moody to represent Anna and Staines in court. Anna is charged with forgery, public intoxication, and grievous assault (for shooting Staines). Shepard is pressing the charges. Moody agrees to represent them. On the morning of April 27, Moody goes to court for both trials. Anna’s trial is first, and she pleads not guilty to all charges. Broham, the prosecution’s lawyer, questions Anna. She reveals that she quit sex work because she was in love with Staines. She says she tried to take her own life on January 14 because she thought he had left her. Moody questions Anna; he insinuates that Shepard has a grudge against her because of her close association with Sook, who Shepard believes killed his brother. Pritchard and Gascoigne confirm this account. Devlin is called to the stand as a witness, and he testifies that when he first found the gift contract it was unsigned; he says that he never witnessed Anna signing it and that Shepard had access to the document. Shepard begrudgingly testifies that the signature on the contract does appear to be Staines’s. Moody produces a document Anna had signed in June 1865 that shows she signs with an “X,” because she is largely illiterate. Moody concludes his statement by asking Shepard why he would think “that [Anna] can produce a perfect replica of someone else’s” signature when she “can’t even sign her own name” (655).

On April 27, 1865, Anna disembarks in Dunedin. She is approached by Lydia, who asks her if there was an Elizabeth Mackay on the ship because Elizabeth’s mother had already paid for her room and board for a week. Anna says there was no Elizabeth on the ship, so Lydia offers Anna the room and board in Elizabeth’s place. Lydia says she will help Anna find work, and Anna accepts. They go together to Lydia’s boarding house.

On the afternoon of April 27, 1866, Staines’s trial begins. He pleads guilty to fraud for falsifying his report of his gold findings, embezzling gold from the mine, and dereliction of duty for disappearing for more than eight weeks. Staines testifies that he stole the gold Quee had found and buried it in Arahura, where Crosbie’s cottage is located. He wanted Anna to have half of it and did not want to give it to Carver, who owned half of the Aurora mine. Staines says he spent the two months he was missing in Sook’s opium den. He first tried opium on January 14 and became instantly addicted. On January 27, Sook wasn’t there, and he had taken the opium with him, so Staines broke into Anna’s room at the Gridiron to steal her opium. She came back before he expected, and he hid behind a curtain. That’s when he was accidentally shot by Anna’s gun. He says he knows it was accidental because Anna loves him and would never shoot him on purpose. When Moody questions Staines, he testifies that he didn’t want Carver to have the gold because Carver had beat Anna until she miscarried. On that day—October 11, 1865— Staines went to Crosbie’s cabin to tell him about the miscarriage because he knew Crosbie was the father. He also told Crosbie about the gold buried near the cottage, and they drew up the gift contract. Staines says he cannot remember why he never signed it. Other members of the Crown council testify, but none of them reveal the information about where the gold really came from: Lydia’s smuggled dresses.

Lydia is called as a witness, and she testifies that Crosbie had found a fortune in gold in March 1864. She says that she had kept it in the safe in Dunedin, and that she isn’t sure how it was stolen. Next, Carver is called as a witness. He testifies that he never beat Anna—he only slapped her in the face because she was rude to him. He also states that the Godspeed was Crosbie’s ship; he was only its captain. Moody asks Carver how Crosbie could have purchased the ship without any money. Moody also presents evidence that Anna was not a sex worker before she arrived in Hokitika. Balfour testifies that Carver took Lauderback’s crate by accident, thinking it was from Danforth Shipping (the crate with the smuggled gold in it). Lauderback testifies to the blackmail operation that Carver and Lydia had used to smuggle gold and get the Godspeed from him, and he says that Carver signed the contract with the name “Wells.” The judge has Carver and Lydia arrested.

On April 27, 1865, Anna goes to Lydia’s house and is shown to a lavish room. Lydia leaves, and Crosbie goes to Anna’s room. He gives her a large gold nugget and says he will tell her about Lydia.

On April 27, 1866, Tauwhare is outside the courthouse. He sees Carver being put into a carriage to be taken to the new jailhouse.

Inside, Staines is sentenced to nine months of hard labor. Anna is found not guilty of any charges. In the middle of the sentencing hearing, a sergeant runs in and says that Carver is dead. His head was “bashed in” in the carriage that was taking him to the jail.

On April 27, 1865, in Dunedin, while Anna is talking to Crosbie, Lydia is at the Hawthorn Hotel doing astral charts. She is telling the fortune of the blond-haired boy from the ship whom Anna was talking to. Carver arrives and privately tells Lydia that Lauderback is on his way to speak to them. They discuss how they can keep Crosbie away from the meeting. The blond-haired boy introduces himself to Carver as Emery Staines.

On April 27, 1866, in Hokitika, Walter Moody’s father, Adrien Moody arrives. He goes to the Post Office to look for Moody. He leaves Walter a letter that says he has gotten sober and apologizes for his past behavior.

Frost visits Staines before he leaves to do hard labor. Frost tells him that most of Staines’s fortune will have to be spent making restitution for his crimes and providing for Anna while he is away.

That afternoon, Walter Moody checks out of the Crown Hotel and starts walking north to Charleston. On the road, he meets another digger, an Irishman named Paddy Ryan.

On April 27, 1865, in Dunedin, Lydia returns to her home, which is called the House of Many Wishes, and is told that Anna has been talking with Crosbie, who has returned from the goldfields in Otago. It is implied that Anna and Crosbie had sex. Crosbie has since left for an appointment but will return that evening. Lydia goes to Anna’s room and tells her she wishes to do her natal star chart. Anna tells her she is 21 years old and was born in Sydney. Lydia tells her she met a young man that day with that same place and time of birth. Lydia wonders if the young man might be Anna’s “astral soul-mate” (716).