The Goldminer's Sister

by Alison Stuart

  Too late. Charlie had seen her.

  ‘Miss Penrose?’ Charlie stood in the old adit’s entrance looking from the man to the woman. ‘What’s Miss Penrose doing here, Uncle Jack? Why’ve you locked her up?’

  ‘None of your business,’ Tehan snapped. He put a hand on the child’s shoulder. ‘Outside, now.’

  ‘Uncle Jack?’ Eliza said.

  He looked down at the child. ‘Charlie’s me brother’s girl,’ he said.

  What had the girls at Lil’s said? Annie had someone looking out for her? Could it be Jack Tehan?

  Charlie pulled at her uncle’s sleeve. ‘It’s Ma,’ she said. ‘The baby’s coming and she needs help.’

  Tehan swore and hit the rock wall of the adit with his fist. ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I don’t need this now.’

  ‘Tehan, you need to fetch the midwife,’ Eliza shouted after him as he left, pushing Charlie in front of him. ‘Tehan!’

  But he had gone, leaving her in the gloom, both physical and metaphysical. She pressed against the gate and strained to make out Charlie’s breathless, panicked voice and Tehan’s attempts to calm her over the day-to-day noise of a working mine.

  After an interminable time, Tehan reappeared at the entrance and stood looking at her. ‘Do you think you can bring yourself to trust me, Eliza?’

  Eliza ignored the use of her given name. ‘Do I have a choice?’

  ‘Something you said just now,’ Tehan said. ‘I don’t want to hang for a man like Cowper, so I’m going to try and make this mess right. In the meantime I need your help.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Annie sounds to be in a bad way so I’m going down to Maiden’s Creek to find the midwife. I can’t leave her alone with only the child.’ He paused. ‘For her sake, not mine, do you think you could stay with her?’

  ‘I don’t know anything about childbirth.’

  ‘You’re a woman.’

  ‘I am completely useless in these matters. I’ve never even—’ She bit her lip. It was hardly the time or place to admit to her lack of experience of any kind, beyond a few chaste kisses from suitors … back in the days she had suitors.

  ‘Please.’ Tehan sounded desperate.

  ‘And your relationship with Annie?’ Eliza asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

  ‘I told you, she was my brother’s … wife, I suppose you’d call it, not that they ever formalised matters in a church. After he died she got in with a brute of a man. He’d hit her around so I rescued her and the child and brought them over from Tasmania.’

  ‘And you let her open a grog shop and … and …’ Eliza struggled for words.

  ‘I did what I could but Annie’s got her own mind and she made her choices,’ Tehan said. ‘She made that clear to me. I kept an eye on her, made sure Charlie was all right.’

  ‘Well, you didn’t do a very good job.’

  Colour flooded his handsome face. ‘This is not the time to be arguing my suitability as Annie’s guardian. Whatever she is—or might have been—she’s in trouble and she’s scared and she needs someone who isn’t a ten-year-old child to be with her. Can you help?’

  Chastened, Eliza nodded.

  ‘Good, we don’t have time to waste. Come with me now.’

  Eliza left the Shenandoah Mine riding a skewbald pony of uncertain temperament, Charlie perched on the saddle in front of her uncle on his tall bay. Eliza looked neither right nor left but her skin prickled as if something evil was watching her. Something by the name of Jennings.

  No smoke came from the chimney of Annie’s hut and an ominous silence hung over the building. Even the birds had fallen quiet. The only life came from the dog, which jumped to his feet, his joyful bark breaking the silence of the bush. Tehan let Charlie down and the child made a dash for the cottage.

  ‘I’ll just see to your horse and then I’ll head into town and fetch Ellen Bushby,’ Jack said as he helped Eliza to dismount. ‘Look after her, till I’m back.’

  While Jack led the skewbald into the yard behind the hut, Eliza pushed open the door to the cottage, afraid of what she might find. The curtain separating the living area from the bed had been drawn back and Annie knelt beside the bed, her head on her arms, dark hair, sodden with sweat, spread out across a faded patchwork quilt. Charlie stood beside her, one small hand on her mother’s shoulder.

  Annie looked around as Eliza entered. Even in the poor light of the cottage she was unnaturally pale, her eyes huge and bright.

  ‘It’s all right, Ma. Uncle Jack’s brought Miss Penrose to help,’ Charlie said.

  ‘She’ll be as much use as tits on a bull,’ Annie managed as another contraction contorted her face.

  Eliza swallowed. Annie couldn’t have been more correct. When it came to childbirth, she knew nothing beyond what she had witnessed in the barnyard or the stables, and animals seemed much better at dealing with birth than people.

  ‘Charlie, light that fire and boil the kettle. We all need tea. And bring me a basin with water and a cloth,’ she said with more authority than she felt.

  She crossed to Annie and knelt beside her, smoothing the strands of hair from her forehead. Annie’s lower lip was swollen from where she had bitten it and blood stained her chin and her neck.

  ‘How long have you been in labour, Annie?’

  Annie shook her head. ‘Dunno. Since yesterday mornin’, I think. I—’ Her face contorted and she doubled in pain.

  Yesterday morning? Eliza’s blood ran cold. ‘But I came past last night and your cottage was in darkness.’

  Annie shot her a sharp glance. ‘The dog ’eard an ’orse. I told Charlie to douse the light. I didn’t want no unwelcome visitors. Where’s Jack? I need Jack.’

  ‘Gone for the midwife.’

  Tehan’s absence tore a hole in the insubstantial fabric binding the two women and the child together and Annie began to weep.

  Charlie looked up at Eliza, her eyes filled with unshed tears. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked in a small voice.

  While Eliza knew nothing about the intricacies of childbirth, she had her own basic instincts and common sense. ‘Let’s start by making your mother comfortable. Help is coming,’ she said with more confidence than she felt.

  They stripped Annie of her soiled clothes and dressed her in a clean, surprisingly respectable, nightdress. As another contraction came, Eliza held her, encouraging her to breathe.

  ‘Scream, Annie,’ she said. ‘There’s no one to hear you.’

  And Annie did, an ear-piercing scream of despair that echoed around the cottage.

  They settled Annie on the bed and she fell back on the rough bolster, her breath coming in short gasps, her eyes wild as she gripped Eliza’s hand so tightly the bones crunched.

  ‘It’s not comin’, Miss Penrose. Somethin’s wrong. I know it.’

  Eliza wiped the woman’s face. ‘Hush,’ she said. ‘The midwife will be here soon. It’ll be fine. Try and rest between the contractions.’

  Annie’s eyes closed. ‘So tired. So tired …’

  ‘She’ll be all right, won’t she?’ Charlie sounded impossibly young and very frightened.

  Eliza held out her hand to Charlie. ‘Do you know how to pray, Charlie?’

  Charlie shrugged. ‘Ma taught me the Lord’s Prayer,’ she said.

  ‘That’ll do. Let’s say it together, it’ll help your mother.’

  The inadequate gesture seemed to calm Annie and she pointed to Charlie. ‘Fetch me box, Charlie.’

  Charlie pulled a stone from the fireplace and brought out a small tin box, the sort that would have once held chocolates.

  ‘Pass me rosary.’

  Charlie rummaged in the tin and brought out an old rosary, the beads worn smooth from handling.

  ‘It was me grandma’s,’ Annie said, twining the beads in her fingers. ‘She’d say the rosary every mornin’ and night. Do you know the rosary, Miss Penrose?’

  ‘I’m Church of England, Annie.’

  The woman c
losed her eyes. ‘Of course you are. Say the Lord’s Prayer again.’

  Eliza glanced at Charlie and the two recited the prayer again. When they finished, Annie said a round of Hail Marys.

  ’ail Mary, full of grace,

  the Lord is with thee.

  Blessed art thou amongst women,

  and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

  ’oly Mary, Mother of God,

  pray for us sinners,

  now and at the ’our of our death. Amen.

  The world shrank down to the pattern of Annie’s distress. Minutes, even hours could have passed, but Annie’s laboured breathing and contractions became the focus of Eliza’s world.

  In a lull between the contractions, Annie managed a watery smile. ‘You ever ’ad a man?’

  ‘No,’ Eliza said. The situation demanded an honesty she would never have considered at any other time.

  Annie shook her head. ‘A bloody virgin. I might’ve known. Well, you mark me, Miss ’igh and Mighty Penrose, men will do you no good in this life.’ She glanced at Charlie, who sat tending the fire, and her face softened. ‘I loved Matt Tehan though, and ’e gave me Charlie and then the bastard up and died. What was I supposed to do?’

  Eliza didn’t have an answer and the conversation was curtailed by another massive contraction. She wiped Annie’s sweating face and the tears that fell from her eyes.

  ‘I chose a wrong ’un and if it weren’t for Jack, Charlie and me would be dead now.’ Her hand tightened on Eliza’s. ‘Jack’s done wrong in ’is life but ’e ain’t bad at ’eart.’

  Eliza had reached that conclusion herself.

  Annie shifted her weight slightly. ‘’e asked me to marry ’im.’

  ‘Why did you refuse him?’

  ‘I was done with men,’ Annie said. ‘Thought I could make a go of it by meself.’ She opened her eyes and looked up at Eliza. ‘If anythin’ ’appens, you’ll look after Charlie for me? Jack’s a good man but ’e’s not—’ her face contorted, ‘—reliable.’ Annie ran a hand over the swell of her stomach. ‘This one’s been trouble from the moment—’

  ‘Who’s the father of the child, Annie?’ Eliza ventured.

  Annie’s face closed over. ‘Dunno. Could be the bastard who thought I gave favours out for free.’

  Eliza mulled this statement over. A nasty, ugly word came to mind.

  ‘Rape?’ She whispered the word.

  Annie opened one eye and looked up at her. ‘There’s some as might call it that, but it ain’t the baby’s fault. ’e didn’t ask to be born.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Annie,’ Eliza said.

  Outside the dog began to bark, wild, angry yaps that ended in a squeal and a whimper and then silence.

  Charlie jumped to her feet and started for the door as it burst open. She froze for a moment before scuttling across the room to the bed. Eliza stood to confront the man framed by the doorway, a rifle carried loosely in the crook of his arm, finger resting on the trigger, and a bloodied knife in the other hand. Behind the man, the dog lay still, its brindled coat wet with more than rain.

  ‘I hate animals,’ Jennings said, stowing the knife in his belt. ‘McLeod has a cat. What sort of man keeps a cat? Bloody beast scratched me when I tried to catch it.’

  Charlie whimpered and cowered behind Eliza.

  ‘Get out of here,’ Eliza said. ‘This is no place for you.’

  ‘Oh, but it is,’ he said and jerked the rifle up, moving it from Eliza to Annie, who stared up at him with wide, too-bright eyes. ‘That’s my spawn the whore is carrying. I’ve every right to be here.’ Something that most normal people would call a smile lifted the ugly beard away from his yellowing teeth. ‘And you and I have a score to settle, Miss Penrose.’

  Annie screamed as another contraction took her.

  ‘Shut the bitch up!’ Jennings demanded.

  Eliza responded by pulling the curtain across the bed. Jennings had no interest in Annie or the baby. If he wanted to hurt anyone it was her, but at least he had given her a reprieve. ‘Sit down and shut up yourself,’ she said. ‘If it’s your child, it sure as hell doesn’t want to meet its father and I’m not going anywhere until this is done.’

  Jennings’s finger tightened on the trigger and Eliza closed her eyes, her breath held tightly. She heard the rasp of a stool being pulled back.

  Eliza opened her eyes to see he had sat down at the table, his boots up on the scrubbed surface. He crooked his finger at Charlie. ‘Fetch me a beer.’

  Charlie looked at Eliza.

  ‘Do as he says,’ she said and watched as Charlie pulled the man a tankard from the cask in the corner. She set it down on the far side of the table out of arm’s reach. He laughed and pulled it toward him.

  ‘I prefer me women a bit older,’ he said, but he caught Charlie’s arm as she tried to scuttle past him. ‘No, you don’t. You can stay with me and behave yourself or I’ll give you another slap.’ He thrust the child behind him and Eliza knew who was responsible for Charlie’s blackened eye.

  Charlie cast a frightened glance at Eliza.

  ‘Go and sit by the fire, Charlie,’ she said. ‘Keep it going for us.’

  Jennings grunted. He set the rifle on the table and picked up the tankard. ‘Get on with it,’ he said.

  Eliza forced herself to move, returning to Annie’s side. The woman was shaking, whether from the prolonged labour or fear of Jennings, it was impossible to tell.

  Annie grabbed her arm, tears in her eyes. ‘Don’t let him hurt us,’ she whispered.

  ‘You just concentrate on getting this baby out,’ Eliza said, ‘and let me worry about Jennings.’

  ‘Under me bed,’ Annie whispered.

  Eliza covertly bent over and her heart jumped at the sight of Annie’s double-barrelled shotgun.

  ‘It’s not loaded but it might scare ’im.’

  Eliza nodded. The way things stood there seemed no point in playing this card: they only needed time, time enough for Jack Tehan to return with the midwife.

  Twenty-Eight

  Alec glanced across the valley to the Maiden’s Creek Mine, torn between his anxiety about Ian and the promise he’d made to Netty to find Eliza. Enough people were working on finding the miners but no one seemed to care about Eliza except Netty and himself. Her mysterious vanishing had to be his priority and he would start with Tehan. He had been seen in Maiden’s Creek yesterday evening. Alec had no proof that the man was in any way connected with Eliza’s disappearance, except for his own deep-seated dislike and distrust of the Tasmanian. Tehan made as good a starting point as any.

  He hired a horse from Sones and set out for the Shenandoah Mine at a hard canter, scattering pedestrians in his haste. When he reached the haunted smallpox house on the far side of the Chinese gardens, he slowed. No point in driving the animal into the ground and he needed time to cool his own head before he confronted Black Jack Tehan.

  The Aberfeldy Road climbed and as Alec rounded a corner, he saw a horse coming down the hill toward him, ridden hard. He recognised both horse and rider and swung his own animal across the road, forcing Jack Tehan to a stop. Tehan’s horse went down on its haunches, its eyes rolling as its rider hauled on the reins.

  ‘What the hell are you doing, McLeod? Stand aside and let me through!’

  ‘You’re going nowhere until you tell me what you’ve done with Eliza Penrose.’

  Tehan pushed his hat back. ‘I don’t have time for this.’ Seeing Alec showed no sign of moving, he tossed his head. ‘She’s fine. She’s with Annie O’Reilly.’ All trace of Tehan’s usual bravado leached from his face and for the first time, Alec saw the man behind the sardonic smile. ‘Annie’s in trouble. The baby’s coming and she needs a doctor or a midwife or both.’

  Alec narrowed his eyes. ‘Eliza is safe?’

  ‘I told you—she’s with Annie. I didn’t take her, McLeod, if that’s what you think. Cowper ordered Jennings to bring her to Shenandoah. I’ve kept her as safe as I can. Now let me throu
gh. If you don’t believe me, go on to the hut. She’ll be glad of you.’

  Alec glanced at Tehan’s horse. He’d ridden it hard and it was blowing. He nodded. ‘Your horse is spent. Take this one and I’ll go on to Annie’s hut.’

  Tehan flashed a brief smile. ‘Thank you. I appreciate that.’

  They swapped horses. Alec dared not ride Tehan’s animal while it was in such distress, so he set out on foot leading the exhausted beast. They moved in relative silence, the horse’s slow step muffled by the damp earth. The hut had just come into sight as a woman’s scream pierced the bush. The horse started, nearly dragging the reins from Alec’s hand. He calmed it and his own breathing, realising that the scream had probably been Annie in the throes of labour.

  A horse, tethered to one of the posts holding up the lean-to verandah, turned its head and nickered. An ugly skewbald horse grazed in the yard behind the hut. Alec’s nerves stretched. Two horses. Allowing for Eliza to be responsible for one animal, that was one horse too many. Someone else was at the hut, someone who had no business there.

  He tethered Tehan’s horse to the side of the track and crept forward, watching every footfall, although with a screaming woman inside the hut, the chance of being heard seemed minimal. The dog did not greet him as he had on his last visit and as he came closer, he saw the brindled body lying on the ground. The dog raised his head and whimpered faintly, the stringy tail beating the dirt.

  Alec knelt beside the animal and stroked his head. It had blood on his coat and death in its eyes. Even as he stroked the poor beast’s head, the animal gave a small shudder and lay still. Alec’s stomach lurched. He loved all animals and he shuddered to think how close Windlass had come to the same fate. He now knew the identity of the unwelcome intruder.

  Another scream seemed to shake the leaves on the trees, sending parrots flying up in squawks of indignation. Alec took advantage of the distraction to get closer to the hut. The shutters on the mean little window had been closed but they had enough gaps to allow him to look inside.

  He could make out a pair of men’s boots resting on the table and, alarmingly, a rifle beside the boots. He changed position and saw the curtain across the bed space. The women, he hoped, were behind the curtain. Where was Charlie?