The jetty emitted a loud creak as someone stood on the boards, and he turned to see his mother walking towards him. Often he and Ma had talked of how he would one day own Rathgarven, and how he might have a horde of little children running around in the woods and cavorting among the rocks on the shore the way he and Lillie and his brothers did, and play in the ruins of the old fort on the island and fish for salmon and have their own ponies …
‘I can see you with the most beautiful wife in the world,’ Ma would laugh. ‘Hopefully a very rich one who can help with the upkeep of Rathgarven.’ Now that dream was smashed irreparably. But if Ronan was hurting, Ma must be hurting even more.
She came and sat beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. ‘Oh, Ronan, darling, darling Ronan. I’m so sorry. And I know Dad is too.’
‘Why did he do it, Ma?’ Ronan asked, placing his hand on her head. ‘Why for Godsakes did he do it?’
Kathleen sighed. ‘I’ve no idea what got into him. Except he thought it was going to make things better. As it turns out he’s made them so much worse.’
They looked out over the cove as a flock of wild geese flew low over the water.
‘Don’t be too hard on him,’ Kathleen said.
‘But what about Grandma? What will she do?’
‘We’ll work it out.’
Ronan kissed her forehead and stood up. ‘And you? What about you? You love it here, don’t you?’
She smiled. ‘Of course I do. But as long as we’re all together I can be happy anywhere.’
Ronan wasn’t so sure that was the truth. But if she saw him hurting the way he was right now, she would feel so much worse about it all. It was best she didn’t see that. ‘I think I’ll go for a row,’ he said, looking at the rowboat.
His mother glanced up at the dark clouds hovering overhead. ‘I don’t like the look of those clouds; there’s bound to be more rain. And possibly another storm.’
‘Don’t you worry, Ma. I’ll head over to the island.’
‘Even so …’
‘Ma, I’ll be fine. You go back up to the house. Otherwise you’ll get wet if it starts to pour.’
‘Well, take care,’ she said. ‘And don’t stay on the island too long.’
‘I won’t. You go on up now.’
Kathleen stood up. ‘If you’re not back in an hour I’ll start to worry.’
‘I’ll be back.’
But once Ronan got to the island, he climbed up to the ruins and sat on the stone windowsill and looked out over the river to where the clouds raced across the water. He remembered last time he was here. The sun was out and Clara was laughing as they built a small fire in the remains of the fireplace. He felt her letter in his pocket and tears stained his cheeks. He picked up a piece of charred wood and broke it in his hands, the soot staining his skin. He remembered how he and Clara had played hopscotch, drawing the squares in the dirt with a piece of charred wood like this. How they had kissed. Not just once, but many times. They had been so happy. How could that happiness be thwarted so soon? He looked across the water to the grey mass of Rathgarven brooding under the dark clouds. To think it would no longer be in the family was too dreadful to comprehend. If it weren’t for Ma he would spend the night out here to try and come to terms with it all without having to look at anyone — particularly Lillie, who was bound to know there was something wrong. But Ma would worry and Ronan didn’t want her to have more worries than she had already.
Down on the shore it was difficult to work out where the black clouds met the even blacker water. He got in the rowboat and was halfway between the island and the shore when the wind came up ferociously. Suddenly Ronan no longer had control of the boat. A huge wave broke over the bow, soaking him. The waves were so big it was impossible to keep a straight course as he rowed. Fear gripped him now. What if he couldn’t get back to the shore? What if he got swept out to the middle of the river? Then out to the Atlantic? Now an even bigger wave hurtled towards him. Before he had a chance to do anything it picked up the boat and Ronan was hurled into the freezing water. As he surfaced, spluttering, he saw the capsized rowboat drifting away.
No! No!
Over and over he was dragged under until he had trouble breathing. Terrified, he realised the current was taking him further out. He could feel his lips quivering. Please, please, he prayed, let someone see me out here. Clara’s laughing face flashed before his eyes. It wouldn’t be Australia that would take him away from her, it would be death.
‘Help, help,’ he shouted, waving his arms frantically in the air, praying that there might be someone watching on the shore.
* * *
Kathleen saw the wind strengthening. Ronan still wasn’t back and she began to worry. She grabbed James and the two of them went outside to look for him. As soon as they got to the meadow they could see the capsized dinghy. Not far from it they could see Ronan in the water and hear him calling for help, his arms thrashing the air.
‘Oh my God,’ Kathleen gasped. ‘He’ll drown.’
‘I’ll go to him,’ James said, racing to the shore. ‘Hold on, Ronan!’ he bellowed across the water. ‘I’m coming!’
James was a strong swimmer, but Kathleen wondered how he would get to Ronan. The current could race in the cove, and huge waves rose and fell. She rushed after him and stood on the shore in the pouring rain as he stripped to his underpants, leapt in the water and battled out through the waves. Kathleen’s heart was beating nineteen to the dozen. Only last year two youths had lost their lives in the river when their dinghy had capsized. Despite it having been a summer’s day like today, the water had been freezing cold. It was hyperthermia that killed them before they could get to the shore. Dear God, she prayed, let James get Ronan to safety before that happens to him.
‘Dad’s coming, Ronan!’ she shouted, holding her hands to her mouth. ‘Dad’s coming! Hold on!’
Watching Ronan struggling to stay afloat as James tried to swim towards him put losing Rathgarven into perspective. If they got through this without losing Ronan, Kathleen promised herself that she would never complain again about what James had done. She would willingly support their move to Australia. When her parents had died in that train crash in India, she had thought she would never know such sadness again. But she had experienced worse. What if now she lost both her son and her husband? James had to bring Ronan in safely. She watched him close the gap, but then a huge wave overpowered him and he disappeared under, came up and went down again. She couldn’t even see Ronan. She glanced towards the house to see if any of the children were looking out the windows. Thankfully they didn’t seem to be — they would be scared out of their wits. She thought of going to find Paddy, then remembered he was in Sneem. And there was nothing Maisie could do at this stage. She thought of jumping into the water herself, but what if she, too, got washed away?
As she stood helplessly on the river’s edge, a wave broke over her and soaked her even more. When she wiped her eyes she saw with relief that Ronan and James were making their way towards her. She wasn’t sure who was pulling whom, but they were together, and although they were making slow progress, they were closing the gap to the shore. As they got closer she could see that James was pulling Ronan, who was lying on his back. Oh my God, was he dead? Then she remembered her training during the war: if you wanted to rescue someone in the water it was best to get them to lie on their back, put your arm around their neck and drag them doing a sort of dog paddle. Please, please let this be the case here.
As they got closer, James could stand up in the shallows. Kathleen called out, ‘Is he all right?’
James didn’t answer and just kept wading in, dragging Ronan onto the shore. Eventually he lay him on the grass and turned him on his side. As Kathleen knelt beside him, Ronan opened his eyes and spluttered, water spouting out of his mouth. His skin was blue from the cold but he was alive. James was also blue and shivering. Kathleen was shivering so much herself she found it difficult to make her lips work in order to
speak.
‘Ronan,’ she asked, touching his cold skin. ‘Ronan, speak to me. Are you okay?’
Ronan gave her a small smile. ‘I think so.’
‘Try and get your breath,’ Kathleen said. She looked at James, who was breathing heavily. ‘You too.’
Ronan looked up at his father. ‘Thank you,’ he gasped. ‘I would have drowned if you hadn’t got to me.’
It was then that Kathleen burst into tears. ‘You silly, silly boy. You should have stayed on the island.’
Ronan levered himself up onto his knees and then stood up shakily. ‘I thought you’d be worried if I didn’t get back before dark.’
‘Not nearly as worried as seeing you floundering in that water.’ She glanced at James, who had picked up the clothes he had strewn on the shore. ‘Now let’s go on up to the house and get you both into a hot bath.’
James ran a hand through his sodden hair and smiled. ‘I think that sounds like a very good idea.’
As Kathleen walked between them she swore she would never take either of them for granted again. More than ever she was determined to be by James’s side, no matter where they ended up living. Her gratitude to him for saving Ronan outweighed any hardship that might be in store.
CHAPTER
7
Later that evening, when her parents told the rest of the family what was to happen, Lillie rushed upstairs and lay on her bed weeping. She became so angry she could no longer cry and instead began to pace the room, stopping every now and then to look out the window at the river she loved so much. How could her parents have let it come to this? And what about Ronan? Everyone knew Rathgarven would one day be his. Plonking herself down on the bed again she pulled the pillow over her head, hoping she’d be able to blank out everything. She was still there when Maisie came up to entice her downstairs for supper.
‘Thank you, I don’t want anything,’ she muttered from under the pillow.
‘You’ve got to be eating something,’ Maisie said, leaning down and putting her hand on Lillie’s back, patting her softly.
‘Do you know what’s happened?’ Lillie asked, lifting the pillow slowly from her head. ‘What they’ve done?’
Maisie nodded. ‘Your mother said you’re selling Rathgarven and moving to Australia. That your father was offered a good job there with Mr Finn Malone.’
Lillie was about to tell her what she thought had really happened with that man Donoghue, then thought better of it. Instead, with tears tumbling down her cheeks, she said, ‘How could they leave you and Paddy like that?’
‘Ah,’ Maisie said, giving Lillie a clean handkerchief from her pocket to wipe her tears. ‘Paddy and me, we’ll be fine. And I’ve no doubt at all that you’ll all be back before we know it. Things are tough in Ireland right now. They’ll get better one day, that’s for sure.’
‘But we won’t have Rathgarven to come home to.’
‘There’ll be other places.’ Maisie forced a smile. ‘And how lucky are you! Off to the other side of the world. To Australia, the land of sunshine and opportunity. Now that’s one place I’ve always had a hankering to go to. Quite jealous I am. You’ll be seeing those kangaroos jumping about willy-nilly and koala bears clinging to gum trees. Like in those brochures I be seeing. Not to mention being able to swim on those sunny beaches. Unlike the freezing cold ones here. Now,’ she added, running her hand through Lillie’s hair and brushing away the tears from her cheeks, ‘what’s say you come down to the kitchen and I be making you some bacon and eggs. Your favourite?’
Lillie shook her head. ‘Thank you, Maisie, I’m really not hungry.’ She tried to raise a smile. ‘Besides, I feel so fat and horrid.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with you, Lillie O’Sullivan. You’re feeling sorry for yourself, that’s all. Why not pull yourself together and go down and tell your parents you’re happy to be going on this great adventure. It can’t have been easy for them to make that decision.’
‘I’m not happy to be going. And I can’t pretend, so I want to stay here in my room.’
‘Well, young miss, if you get hungry later on, you know where to find me.’
Maisie let herself out, leaving Lillie lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. She would miss Maisie so much. And Paddy. Though it would be Maisie she would miss the most.
Half an hour later Lillie heard a knock at the door.
‘Can I come in?’
Lillie didn’t answer, so her mother opened the door and stepped into the room. She sat down on the end of the bed, where Lillie was now fiddling with a blue rosette she had won with Merlin at the Kenmare Show the previous year. Kathleen handed Lillie a photograph she was holding. It was of a laughing Uncle Finn in front of a timber homestead with a tin roof and huge verandahs on all sides. Set amidst tall eucalypt trees, the house seemed to have a lovely garden.
‘This is the homestead at Eureka Park.’
Lillie took the photograph, glanced at it quickly and put it down on the bed.
‘I don’t care what it’s like.’
‘You’ve got to look on the bright side, my darling,’ Ma said, placing her hand on Lillie’s shoulder. ‘You always tend to err on the dark side of things.’
‘What bright side could there possibly be? I love Rathgarven. I’m not leaving. I saw you make short shrift of that Donoghue man. So, Ma, please don’t tell me you’re pleased he’s going to get it.’
‘Pleased doesn’t come into it.’
‘Dad owes him money, doesn’t he?’
‘What makes you think that?’
Lillie waited a while before answering. ‘I heard you and Dad fighting that day when you got rid of Donoghue.’
‘Oh!’ Kathleen said. ‘Did you now? Well … first of all, he is Mr Donoghue to you. And you best not let on to your father that you heard what you did. Nor anyone else for that matter. We’ve received a good offer from Mr Donoghue. And with things so bad on the land here in County Kerry, we accepted his offer so we can move to Australia. Do you understand me? Much as I may not like it, and have grave fears about it, I’ve made up my mind to make the best of it. And Finn’s very fond of us all. Now,’ she added after a long pause, ‘let me explain what’s going to happen in Australia.’
‘I don’t want you to explain.’
‘Well, I’ll tell you all the same.’ Her mother took out a map of Australia and pointed to a red dot marking the small village of Gullumbindy in New South Wales. ‘Eureka Park’s ten miles out of Gullumbindy.’ Kathleen fiddled with the map on her knee and gave a small smile. ‘After numerous jobs on huge stations around Australia, including the Northern Territory and far north Queensland, Finn saved enough money to put down a deposit on three hundred acres with a homestead outside Tamworth, which he’s turned into an excellent horse stud.’ She stood up and placed the map on the chest of drawers, then went to the window. As she gazed out, she wrapped her arms around her body and gave a shiver. ‘You forget how many cold, grey days there are in Ireland.’ She turned back to Lillie. ‘At least it should be warm in Australia.’
‘I like the cold,’ Lillie said.
‘When I saw photos of that rambling homestead on the banks of the Peel River,’ Kathleen continued, coming back to the bed and looking at the photograph lying on the eiderdown, ‘where we’d be going to live, I could see the sense in the proposition … and a possible way out of what’s happened here at Rathgarven with the awful economy. Finn has assured us,’ she went on, as Lillie stared at the photograph, ‘that within a short time we’ll be able to make enough money in Australia, with Dad’s share of the profits at Eureka Park, to maybe in due course come back to Ireland and buy something else.’ She smiled. ‘And if that happens I promise it’ll be on Kenmare River.’
Lillie picked up the photo and fiddled with it. ‘It’s so unfair. I’ll miss everything about here. And I’ll have to make new friends. Sheelagh will forget me in a few days. And it’ll be so hard fitting in to Australia when we’re Irish.’
‘Half of Aus
tralia’s Irish,’ Kathleen said, raising a smile. ‘The Irish have been going there since convict days. And I’m sure you’ll have no trouble making new friends. Think of it as an adventure. That’s what I’m trying to do.’
‘What about the snakes? They’re sure to kill the lot of us.’
‘We’ll pray to St Patrick to protect us.’
‘Clara will be sad she can’t come here any more. And what about Ronan? He’ll really miss her.’
‘We’ll all miss her. But maybe she can come to Australia when we’re settled. That would be a great adventure for her.’
Lillie could see that despite her attempts to be positive, Ma was hurting as much as she was. It would be hard for her as well. At least Lillie and her brothers could try to find new friends at school. Ma would be stuck in the middle of nowhere on her own, apart from Dad, who sounded as though he would be busy running the horse stud with Uncle Finn.
‘Now can I get you some supper?’ Kathleen coaxed. ‘Or will you come down and sit by the fire with Dad and me? Your grandma’s there, too.’
Lillie didn’t feel she could face Grandma. Surely, despite what her parents said, she must be devastated.
‘I’m fine. Truly I am.’
‘What if I send Maisie up with some scrambled eggs?’
After a moment, Lillie nodded. ‘I’ll go down to the kitchen and make some myself.’
But before she did that she went and rang Sheelagh to tell her the dreadful news. Not that they had lost Rathgarven to that awful man Donoghue. But that they were selling up like other farmers were doing and moving to Australia, the land of opportunity.
‘So you’re not going back to school in Cork?’ Sheelagh exclaimed. ‘Gees, Lillie, what’ll I do without you? What’s more it seems the whole of bloody Ireland’s on the move. That fella Seamus Flaherty’s off to Canada. His parents had to walk off their dairy farm.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I bumped into him in Kenmare. And no, he didn’t ask after you if that’s what you’re thinking.’
The Homestead on the River Page 7