Paris instead. He’d been frustrated for years that we still weren’t living in Clermont and needed a new approach for climbing the company ranks. Suggest a position for yourself in Indochine, I’d said one morning when Paris had surprisingly started to lose its appeal for me. I knew that there had been some significant difficulties on the plantations in the last few years, including worker strikes, even murder, mostly due to communist unrest. The Michelins had tried to stamp it out, positioning at the head of both plantations men who had been successful at keeping communism at bay among the workers in Clermont-Ferrand. But in 1930, there had been a very large strike on Phu Rieng plantation, one of the three they owned in Cochinchina, where the military had to intervene to put it to rest. Every paper in France had written about it that winter, and three years later, many still used it to highlight either the colonial or the native struggle, depending on their political persuasion. There had also been several deaths, one when a European overseer was murdered by coolies in 1927 and just this December when three coolie laborers were shot dead at Dau Tieng, the other large plantation. It was time that the family did more than observe from a distance, I’d said to Victor. I was no expert, but I had grown up on a farm. I knew that workers who had no face to put to a name could have difficulty with loyalty.
“But there are so many others in the family trying to get to management positions,” Victor had protested, not seeing the opportunity that I was.
“None of your uncles’ children have any interest in living in the colony,” I had reminded him. “But I think they’d let you go. And if you went, and could keep things calm for several years, I’m sure you would be rewarded. Maybe they would finally offer you a position in Clermont-Ferrand.”
Victor had resisted at first, but he finally built up the courage to speak with his uncle Édouard. Édouard’s son Pierre had been delighted by the idea, having felt the pressure to at least visit the colony over the past few years, but having no interest in doing so. Once he had their approval, Victor became enamored with the prospect of life in Indochine. A few weeks later, he seemed convinced that he’d come up with the idea himself, which was perfectly fine with me.
I looked at him now on our new terrace, handsome and happy as he lounged in his new kingdom. “We are only seven and a half hours in, but so far I agree. I know that it’s right for us.”
I sat and took a sip of Victor’s wine. It tasted crisp, despite the heat. Victor also didn’t seem to remember that I had been the one who’d advised him to buy the house.
“Good. I was sure you would feel that way,” he said. He was a man who always enjoyed feeling one step ahead of his peers, even if his wife was the one who had steered him to water. “After all, you already left your country once. Why not twice?” He took back his glass and pointed at my hair. “Did someone already tell you? About this evening?”
“Trieu. My servant,” I clarified. “She said we would probably go to the French Officers’ Club.”
“Yes, we are. That’s the etiquette it seems. No rest for the weary,” he said, sitting up straighter. “There was a letter waiting for me when we arrived. We are to dine with Arnaud de Fabry, a very successful financier and the head of the chamber of commerce of Hanoi.”
I nodded, racking my brain for any familiarity with the name. “But in his note de Fabry also said there’s a chance that the governor-general will stop by to greet us. Pierre Pasquier. He’s from Marseille, but he knows my mother. I thought it would be days before we met him, so this is a welcome turn of events. But still, even if we only meet de Fabry, it’s important that we do. We need to be on very good terms with him. Not everyone who has a stake in rubber feels warmly toward us—ever since we began planting ourselves, we’ve far surpassed the competition in technology and production. Still, we need the other industries to support us. Especially in Tonkin—that’s the region we are in now, Tonkin—as this is where we recruit many of our workers.” He circled his