Sisters of Freedom

by Mary-Anne O'Connor

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know how you ever knew, but thank you,’ and Riley put his arm around Ivy, nodding, his expression reflecting hers.

  ‘We can never ever repay you for this …’ he said but Aggie just looked at him with more terror and longing than she’d ever felt in her life.

  ‘Yes … yes, you can, in fact,’ she managed to say as the twins stood between them all and she held the baby close.

  Ivy and Riley gazed at one another, understanding dawning, and he looked back to Aggie and simply smiled. ‘This doesn’t change things for you. They’ll all still be part of our lives and loved by us, as Fiona wanted, but it’s you who deserves to have them in your home,’ he added, tilting his head thoughtfully. ‘I’m now realising that’s one of the most courageous things I’ve ever seen, Aggie, considering what you thought you could lose.’

  ‘We will all love them,’ Ivy said, ‘but they’ll still be your daughters.’

  Aggie began to cry as the terror melted away, and Robert held her shoulders, tearfully offering his thanks.

  The twins gazed at them and Robert reached down and picked them up, one in each arm, and Aggie could finally believe that she had, at last, her own family.

  ‘Does this mean we get to live with you?’ Tricia asked and Aggie nodded. Tricia smiled at her, snuggling into Robert’s neck contentedly and Aggie’s heart swelled as Annie spoke.

  ‘Do we still get wedding cake?’ she said hopefully.

  Aggie had to laugh then too but it was actually a very good question.

  ‘We need a double wedding first,’ Riley said. ‘Where’s that priest got himself to?’ he wondered, looking around.

  ‘He’s run off to douse himself in holy water, I dare say,’ Harriet said, coming over with Albert.

  They paused in front of Ivy and Albert shook his head. ‘Ah, my darling girl,’ he said, ‘what can I say? You look so happy.’

  ‘I am. Truly,’ Ivy told them both, beaming. ‘I just can’t believe Frankie too …’

  Harriet nodded. ‘Yes, let’s get that odious priest back here to make this all official before any more of you change your mind. Dossie’s over there giving Sybil Earle smelling salts as it is.’

  Her parents set off to fetch him with Robert and Riley, the twins tagging excitedly along, leaving the two sisters alone. Aggie looked over at her sister and then down at her baby, Ivy’s namesake, feeling more complete and at peace now than she’d ever felt in her life.

  ‘What made you decide, in the end?’ Ivy said, thoughtful.

  ‘Remembering my earliest memory, your first steps,’ she said, holding the little infant’s feet in her palm. ‘This isn’t my first baby Ivy, don’t forget.’

  Ivy smiled, a grateful, love-filled one, but Frankie was approaching and Patrick could be heard trying to calm his distraught mother down.

  ‘Well, I’m sorry you don’t want me to marry “that woman” but I’m afraid you’re just going to have to get used to the idea …’

  The three sisters took one look at each other and embraced, happy tears falling, then Frankie pulled back to look at Ivy, doubt in her expression. ‘I … I hope you really are all right with this. I didn’t mean … it just happened … I’m sorry …’

  ‘No,’ Ivy said, ‘never be sorry. I’m the happiest woman in the world that this has happened and that it’s happening for you too. Mind you … well, I can’t believe I thought you didn’t even like him … and I definitely thought you’d never marry, not after all you said about it.’

  ‘Me either,’ Frankie said. ‘I seem to have accidently fallen over the idea, which seems appropriate, for me.’

  ‘But what about your political career?’

  Frankie grinned. ‘If anyone thinks a pesky ring on my finger is going to stop me from making a lot of noise they’ve got another think coming.’

  ‘Patrick will support you, you know. He’s changed a lot in his views,’ Ivy said.

  ‘Yes, he won’t hold me back, I know. I wouldn’t be saying yes otherwise, believe me.’ She looked to Aggie. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered, her gaze moving down to baby Ivy. ‘I can imagine how hard it must have been for you to speak up … that is … now that Ivy and Riley will be together …’

  ‘Nothing will change, as far as the children are concerned,’ Ivy told her. ‘This is the way it was always meant to be.’

  Frankie stared from one to the other. ‘So … so we all get what we want then?’ she said in amazement, a happy laugh escaping as she clutched at both their hands.

  ‘Looks that way,’ Aggie told her joyfully, squeezing Frankie’s fingers. ‘Well, everyone except Sybil,’ she added as the woman continued to complain.

  ‘Yes, what a mother-in-law I’m inheriting. I think we best get a move on before she faints again,’ Frankie said, rolling her eyes. ‘Where is that bloody priest anyway?’ she added too loudly and the woman gasped once more.

  ‘Good Lord above, have mercy.’

  The three Merriweather girls chuckled as the priest did, indeed, turn back up with the others and the two brides made their wedding march together not long after. Radiantly happy as they did so, not just as daughters of freedom but as sisters of freedom now, their battle for love finally won.

  Thirty-Eight

  Wahroonga, NSW, Christmas Day 1902

  It was a beautiful home, sprawling and elegant, yet the three Merriweather girls had spent most of the day running around after children. The family hosting the party for the orphanage was generous and had laid out an enormous spread, and there was even to be a Nativity play this evening before the little ones were lavished with presents from under the enormous tree. It was far more than Aggie and her helpers had been able to give them in the past but this new guard of volunteers were very wealthy. They were kind women too and Aggie had been glad to relinquish her role to them and was grateful the Merriweathers had been extended an invitation today. It was a sort of thank you for all the years their family had been involved with the Sisters of Mercy and it was a special day, a final official farewell.

  Frankie had only just returned from a trip to Melbourne with Patrick and they’d all sorts of adventures to report, including hearing Vida Goldstein speak and meeting the prime minister at a horse race. Frankie had walked straight up to him and introduced herself as ‘a degreeless budding lawyer’. According to Patrick the man had impersonated a fish at the time.

  Baby Ivy was fast asleep after running about on her chubby legs half the day, having given her proud parents an early Christmas present by taking her first steps earlier this week. Aggie still got weepy every time she spoke about it.

  Looking out the window, the three sisters could finally rest for a while as the children ran about on the lawn below. Ivy watched on, patting her rounding stomach and commenting, ‘Do they ever run out of energy?’

  ‘Only when they’re asleep,’ Aggie said, laughing at the sight of the twins who were ostensibly competing in a boiled-egg-and-spoon race but in reality had paused to eat them. ‘You’ll be fine, don’t worry. I know you’ll make a wonderful mother. Look how much they all adore you as their aunt. Besides, you’ll have Eddie with you to help out and that boy never runs out of steam.’ Ivy and Riley had taken Eddie on as a shop apprentice in their brand-new store, and Father Brown hadn’t been able to object to an actual position for the now-turned eleven-year-old. The twins adored him when they visited and he’d taken to river life like he was born to it. Riley said he was the hardest working lad he’d ever encountered, confirming Aggie’s suspicion that his mischief-making was largely due to boredom.

  ‘Is he still staying out of trouble?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘Not entirely,’ Ivy said with a grin. ‘He may or may not have been responsible for a sign found nailed to Windybank’s wharf.’

  ‘What did it say?’ asked Frankie gleefully.

  ‘Welcome to Windy Bum’s,’ Ivy said to Frankie’s great amusement.

  A waiter was walking by as afternoon refreshments wer
e served and Frankie signalled to him, still chuckling as she passed some champagne along.

  ‘What shall we drink to? A merry Christmas?’ Ivy said.

  ‘I think we’re already having one of those,’ Aggie replied. What with the neighbourhood carols last night and this wonderful Christmas Day, it would be a difficult holiday to top in future years. ‘What’s on the political agenda in 1903, Frankie?’

  ‘Well, let me see. There’s talk of a federal election come December. I very much hope to see some bills passed as a result of pressure on policy leading up to that. The first female vote is bound to have quite a bit of influence. Well, we’re hoping anyway.’

  ‘That sounds promising,’ Aggie said.

  ‘Yes, so long as the rich and influential don’t swap too many envelopes along the way. It’s a grubby game politics, or so I’m finding.’

  They watched as some of the children of the wealthy new volunteers mingled with Eddie, the orphans and the twins, and Aggie marvelled at how differently young children could view each other compared to adults.

  ‘They don’t seem to know or care who is rich or poor or where each other have come from,’ she said, watching her adopted daughters, ‘or how much suffrage has changed all their fates.’

  ‘The boys seem to be letting the girls play sport today, which is a start,’ Frankie said. ‘Perhaps some of the events of this year are already beginning to rub off.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Aggie said. ‘I just wonder how much the girls can achieve now, if they will make big inroads in their lifetime and have their time in parliament. It’s still such a male-dominated world.’

  ‘They need to not let that dissuade them,’ Frankie said. ‘For every closed door they find they need to knock on it again; to stay in the race and not keep letting the men draw too far ahead. It’s all about perseverance, I’m finding. Not giving in.’

  The others considered that. ‘Do you think they’ll find the world a kinder place in the end?’ Ivy wondered as she touched her hand to the window pane.

  ‘I like to think so,’ Frankie said, watching too as Tricia’s voice rang out.

  ‘Eddie!’ she called.

  ‘Wait for us,’ Annie added and Eddie paused in his running with the other boys.

  ‘Come on, slow coaches,’ he called back, looking over impatiently at the cricket game forming.

  The twins chased after him hard, grabbing the hands of two other little girls as they went.

  ‘They’ll have their turn to speak out and make it so, soon enough,’ Frankie said. ‘Their own choices to make and a world to build.’

  ‘Yes,’ Ivy said softly, ‘I suppose it’s up to them.’

  The sun beat down as the children raced on, Eddie no longer waiting for the twins.

  ‘Eddie!’ Annie cried again.

  And Ivy heard the impatience edged with fondness as Eddie called back over his shoulder.

  ‘You need to keep up with us, girls.’

  Author’s Note

  This characters and events in this book are fictional however it is based on real events in history. Despite the enormous early successes of suffragettes in Australia, it took many years for laws to be changed and for representation to be attained. As such, I have included a timeline, letting events speak for themselves, but with much gratitude and admiration for the brave and passionate souls that fought for equality and all those who still do, to this day.

  Yield not the battle till ye have won.

  1890: First working women’s trade union established

  1891: Age of consent raised from 13 years to 16 years

  1891: ‘Monster petition’ signed by 30,000 people supporting the right for women to vote in Victoria

  1894: Blind children are given the right to an education

  1895: Women are given the right to stand for election in South Australia

  1902: Non-Indigenous women are given the right to vote and stand for election in federal parliament

  1902: Ada Evans graduates from Sydney University with a law degree but, despite continuous lobbying, she is not admitted to the bar until 1921 and never practises

  1903: Vida Goldstein stands for federal election but is unsuccessful

  1903: Marie Curie becomes the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize (Physics)

  1902–1914: Australian women visit the UK and USA in support of international suffrage, including Vida Goldstein on a sold-out tour. Muriel Matters chains herself to the divisive House of Commons grille in London. It is permanently removed.

  1918: British women are given the right to vote

  1920: American women are given the right to vote

  1921: Edith Cowan becomes the first woman elected to Australian parliament and introduces the Women’s Legal Status Act, allowing women to legally be considered ‘persons’ and therefore able to practise law

  1943: Enid Lyons becomes the first Australian woman to be elected to the House of Representatives

  1956: The marriage bar is lifted, allowing married women to remain teachers

  1961: Contraceptive pill is allowed to married women

  1962: Indigenous Australians are given the right to vote

  1965: Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chain themselves to the bar in the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane, demanding that women be allowed to drink in public bars

  1966: Married women are allowed to work in the Commonwealth Service

  1967: Indigenous Australians are recognised as citizens

  1969: Abortion is made legal but only to women whose mental and physical wellbeing is considered to be in danger

  1971: Bank of NSW grants women loans without a male guarantor

  1972: Commonwealth government passes the right to equal pay

  1972: Contraceptive pill becomes widely available

  1972: Single mother’s benefit is introduced

  1972: Paid maternity leave is introduced

  1975: First women’s refuges are funded

  1975: Women gain the right to file for no-fault divorce

  1975: Racial discrimination act is passed

  1975: Rape in marriage is outlawed in South Australia

  1977: Employment on the basis of marital status or gender is outlawed

  1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first female Prime Minister

  1983: Australia ratifies the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women

  2008: Abortion is decriminalised in Victoria

  2010: Julia Gillard is elected Australia’s first woman Prime Minister

  2016: Hillary Clinton becomes America’s first woman to receive a presidential nomination

  2016: Pakistani activist for female education Malala Yousafzai becomes the world’s youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

  2017: Same sex marriage is legalised in Australia

  2019: Abortion is decriminalised in NSW

  2019: Climate Activist Greta Thunberg becomes Time Magazine’s youngest ever Person of the Year

  2020: Jacinda Ardern becomes the first woman to be re-elected as New Zealand’s Prime Minister

  2020: Kamala Harris becomes the first female Vice President of the United States of America

  Acknowledgements

  Embarking on a novel with such an important theme can be very daunting so before I give you all a few insights into the stories behind the story, I would firstly like to thank those who believed in, and supported me, on this journey. My wonderful agent, Helen Breitwieser, my amazing publishing team at HarperCollins: Jo Mackay and Nicola Robinson, my editor Annabel Blay (what would I do without your cleverness and insight?), and my publicists, Jo Munroe and Natika Palka.

  I’d also like to thank my ever-kind husband, Anthony, for being my rock and helping me in my research, and my sons, Jimmy and Jack, for their understanding nods as I wailed over phrasing and for coming along on research days. You make me laugh and love every moment. Thank you also to Theresa Meury and Zoe Blockley for listening to me rave on about the events of
days gone by, and to Guy Whitington for being my male literary sounding board. When it comes to authordom, the value of true friendship can certainly be measured in patience.

  As one of three sisters, it was a great pleasure to write about the Merriweather girls. Like Aggie, my sister Linda is a nurturing, loving type and mothers us all, and Gen, although far from being a tomboy, embraces every opportunity in life with great enthusiasm and determination, much like Frankie. For my part, I suppose I’m a romantic idealist like Ivy, and I do love to sketch and dream away, especially along the Hawkesbury. The riverlands wind along at the end of my street and some of this novel was written at that beautiful location.

  I am eternally grateful that I have these two by my side, my greatest supporters, and that we have our dear mum, Dorn, to thank for our belief in each other and, indeed, womankind. We were always encouraged to chase our dreams and to never consider our gender as a disadvantage. On the contrary, she and all of my wonderful aunts revelled in claiming every advantage that came with each new law passed, each inroad made. Education, in particular, was highly esteemed by these intelligent women who were initially denied tertiary opportunities. Thank you for inspiring me by example and for your wisdom and strength in so many, many other ways. Thank you also to our matriarch, Gladys Clancy, my nana, who led the way by example. You inspire my every day.

  Those of you who have read my previous novels would know by now that I love to weave real life into my tales and Sisters of Freedom is no exception.

  To start with, Kuranda is a real home. My sister owned it and lived there for several years, and the current owners, Jo Anne and Bryan Moffat, have kindly given their permission and allowed me to use it as the setting for the Merriweather family home. It is true that it was built at the turn of the century and was celebrated for its design. I’ve tried to capture the charm of the place, which holds warm and wonderful memories and does, indeed, have historical significance due to its original inhabitants.