Book Five

Confidence

2028

A painting of a black-fronted map shop at dusk in an old street of the capital: in its lit window an atlas stands open on an easel at a map of a long narrow peninsula, with a small card propped against it, a globe and rolled charts behind; on the pavement outside a tall fair young man in a grey jacket walks away up the street towards the white dome of Parliament House, lit against a gold and violet evening sky. Crown on the Potomac Confidence Book Five 2028

July 2028. Caleb Whitlock is twenty-six and the seventh Baron Whitlock of Wickford. He sits on the crossbenches two days a week and sells atlases three days a week in a map shop near Charter Hill, and every speech he has ever made has been about the Territory of Loreto. On the afternoon the book opens, the Valdez ministry is about to fall by a single vote, on the Territory, and for four hours that night somebody puts his name forward without telling him.

Confidence follows him through seven weeks of the Register's own present: the division, the dissolution, an election spent behind a shop counter while customers argue about him without knowing who he is, a telephone call on a Saturday, and a walk to Government House alone.

Each chapter opens with a short extract from the Universal Register, the encyclopedia of the world the book is set in. The extracts are quoted from the Register as it stands; the chapters show what happened in the rooms it was not in.

Begin reading: Chapter One, Notes → Characters

Part One: The Fall (26 and 27 July 2028)

  1. 1 Notes Caleb Whitlock. 12 min.
  2. 2 The Gallery Caleb Whitlock. 10 min.
  3. 3 Two Hundred and Thirty Caleb Whitlock. 10 min.
  4. 4 Four Hours Caleb Whitlock. 10 min.
  5. 5 Counted Caleb Whitlock. 11 min.

Part Two: The Election (28 July to 8 September 2028)

  1. 6 Atlases Caleb Whitlock. 8 min.
  2. 7 The Clerk Caleb Whitlock. 7 min.
  3. 8 Customers Caleb Whitlock. 8 min.
  4. 9 Newport Caleb Whitlock. 9 min.
  5. 10 The Photograph Caleb Whitlock. 8 min.
  6. 11 The Five Caleb Whitlock. 8 min.
  7. 12 Count Them Caleb Whitlock. 8 min.
  8. 13 The Last Week Caleb Whitlock. 11 min.
  9. 14 The Seventh of September Caleb Whitlock. 19 min.

Part Three: The Weekend (9 to 11 September 2028)

  1. 15 The Telephone Caleb Whitlock. 11 min.
  2. 16 The Side Room Caleb Whitlock. 11 min.
  3. 17 The Paper Caleb Whitlock. 12 min.
  4. 18 Sunday Night Caleb Whitlock. 11 min.
  5. 19 Two Forty Caleb Whitlock. 12 min.
  6. 20 The Step Caleb Whitlock. 25 min.