The Bushranger's Wife

by Cheryl Adnams

  Sitting up in the huge bed, she put her hand to her stomach as it roiled with the morning nausea that plagued her. She couldn’t think about herself anymore. She had to think about the baby growing inside her. A child needed a stable environment. What if Jack was shot again? What if he was arrested? Their child needed its father but, more importantly, Pru needed to know that they would be safe and secure from Jack’s less than salubrious friends and enemies, and from the lawman that would no doubt catch up with him one day.

  After Jack had left to meet Bobby, she’d paced the house, trying to decide what to do. She had no real money of her own. A single pregnant woman would be shunned by all polite society, no matter where she went. And that had made her think of her mother.

  Olivia had been a lot younger than her when she’d found herself pregnant and unmarried. Pru understood a little more now how frightened her mother must have been, how she could have agreed to give up her child. She had been sixteen, barely more than a child herself. Pru was twenty-three, and she knew she would never give up her baby. Without Jack, without anywhere to live, she had no choice but to go back. Back to Carrington Manor.

  Upon her arrival at the manor the night before, surprise had soon given way to stern lectures and admonishments. She’d been less than twelve hours in her grandmother’s company before she knew she’d made a terrible mistake leaving Little Windsor.

  In a sort of daze, she stood and walked to the giant mahogany wardrobe in her old bedroom. Opening it, Pru chose one of her old day dresses. Washed and properly attired for breakfast, she wandered down the stairs to the dining room.

  ‘Good morning, Prudence,’ Alicia said sweetly. ‘I hope you slept well.’

  Thank goodness for Alicia. She was the only person who cared how she felt and did not lecture her at every turn.

  ‘Good morning, Alicia, good morning, Grandmother,’ she said, sighing at the hard glare in her grandmother’s small grey eyes.

  ‘I’m not going to ask you where you’ve been all this time, Prudence, as I do not care to know.’

  ‘Good,’ Pru responded, sipping her tea. ‘As I do not care to tell you where I have been, we can leave the matter at that.’

  Her grandmother’s teaspoon clattered against the saucer. ‘Insolent girl.’

  ‘I am no longer a girl, Grandmother.’

  If only she knew, Pru thought. Married, pregnant. No, she was no longer a girl, no longer a child to be bullied by a mean-spirited, dishonest, old woman. The old feelings of anger and betrayal began to rise. How could she have so easily forgotten what her grandmother had done?

  Yes, Deidre had helped Olivia. She’d helped her mother to have the baby in secret, to keep Pru, an illegitimate child, from the cruelty of the world by taking her from her mother and raising her. But they were different times, and London, with all its high society, was a different place. If Pru decided to stay at Carrington Manor, she knew that no matter how hard her grandmother tried to persuade her, she would never let anyone take her baby.

  Picking up the silver spoon, Pru cracked the hard-boiled egg with shaking hands and a heavy heart. She was trapped. Without Jack—she fought the tears that threatened again—without Jack, she had no home, no money.

  ‘You are a silly girl,’ Deidre started again, making Pru sigh and put down her spoon. She had no appetite. ‘What did you think would happen? You run from the only home you know, the only family you have?’

  ‘This isn’t the only home I know.’ Certainly wasn’t the only family, she thought, rubbing a hand softly across her stomach.

  ‘So where did you live for the last six months?’

  ‘I thought you didn’t want to know.’

  ‘Answer me, Prudence. I deserve an honest answer.’

  ‘What would you know about honesty?’ Pru shot back. She might be trapped at Carrington Manor, but it didn’t mean she had to like it. ‘Were you so honest? You stole my mother from me!’

  ‘Lower your voice. It was for your own good; Olivia’s too.’

  ‘Who are you to decide that?’

  ‘If you intend to live in this house again, Prudence, you will treat me with respect.’

  Prudence bit her tongue. Trapped.

  ‘Yes,’ Deidre said, a gleam coming into her eye. ‘You have nowhere else to go, do you?’

  Pru stared at her hands in her lap.

  ‘Now,’ Deidre began again. ‘I shall ask you again. Where did you go when you left here?’

  Pru stayed quiet.

  ‘Some boarding house somewhere, I’d wager,’ Deidre went on regardless of Pru’s silence. ‘Fell for a man, didn’t you. Thought he would take care of you, didn’t you. You were always too wild for your own good. You tossed away a perfectly good proposal from a respectable man like Frederick Grantham. He’s engaged, you know. Will be marrying the mayor’s daughter come spring. You’ve thrown your life away. Just like your mother.’

  Pru finally looked up, staring horrified at the things coming out of her grandmother’s mouth. Taking a deep breath, she prepared to let fly with a few home truths of her own. She could do shock and awe as well as the next person, and it would be a pleasure to see the look on her gran’s face when she told her she was indeed pregnant. But before she could get out a word, a ruckus from the hallway interrupted her.

  ‘Where is she?’

  Jack’s voice echoed in the grand foyer, his loud baritone reaching her easily.

  ‘Sir, you cannot just barge in here.’ Gerald’s voice shot back insistently.

  ‘Like hell I can’t.’

  A moment later, Jack burst into the breakfast room.

  ‘Jack!’ she exclaimed, staggered by how thrilled she was that he had come for her.

  He started towards her. ‘Pru …’

  ‘Just what in God’s name do you think you are doing?’ Deidre demanded, standing with the help of her walking stick. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘I’ve come to get Pru.’

  ‘Come to get her? Get her for what?’ Her beady eyes narrowed on Jack as recognition registered. ‘Aren’t you that Fairweather person from the races?’

  Ignoring Deidre, he took Pru’s hands. ‘I’m sorry. Please, Pru, you have to come back with me.’

  ‘Why, Jack? Nothing has changed has it? You’re still …’ she hesitated, glancing warily at her grandmother and Alicia who were looking on in astonishment. ‘You’re still not ready to give up that other life.’

  ‘Let’s go home and talk about it,’ Jack said.

  Pru sighed. He still wasn’t willing to say that he would give up bushranging. How could she go back, when she had a much more pressing responsibility growing inside her? Staying here wasn’t an option either though. She belonged with Jack, and he deserved to know about the baby.

  ‘Prudence!’ Deidre demanded attention. ‘What is he talking about? You cannot possibly be having a relationship with this man?’

  ‘Why not?’ Jack asked, insult evident in his expression.

  ‘He may be a successful businessman here in Victoria, but he is not an appropriate sort of man to enter into an arrangement with the granddaughter of the Earl of Carrington.’

  Jack opened his mouth to speak but Pru got in first.

  ‘I am sorry you feel that way, Grandmother,’ she said calmly. ‘Because Jack is my husband.’

  Pru saw the colour drain from her face. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Jack and I were married five months ago,’ Pru said proudly. ‘And I have been living with him.’

  ‘Living …?’ Deidre fell back into her chair in horror.

  ‘Yes,’ Pru responded, feeling her strength returning. ‘We’ve been having sex and everything, like a real married couple.’ Oh, how she ached to tell her about the baby now. But considering Jack didn’t know yet, she held her tongue.

  ‘Don’t you speak to me that way, Prudence Stanforth.’

  ‘Uh, it’s Prudence Fairweather actually,’ Jack piped in with a grin. Pru gave a chuckle and took his hand.

  �
��So this is why you showed up on our doorstep so late last night,’ Deidre said. ‘Running from a husband. You married a man so obviously beneath you, threw your life away and then wondered why it didn’t work out.’

  ‘Now hang on—’ Jack began to argue, but Pru stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  She walked across to stand in front of her grandmother.

  ‘You’re right. I came back because Jack and I had a fight,’ she said. ‘But I was naïve, Grandmother, to think we could mend the rift between us. You’ve just reminded me of why that is not possible. And if you will not accept my husband …’

  ‘Of course I will not accept him.’

  ‘Then we have nothing more to talk about,’ Pru answered Deidre’s flustered admission. ‘Goodbye, Grandmother.’

  She turned her back and taking Jack’s hand she walked to the door.

  ‘You will never be welcome in this house again!’ Deidre called after her. ‘You have brought shame to this family.’

  Pru stopped, turned slowly to take one last look at the woman who’d raised her.

  ‘Then I guess I take after my mother.’

  She left the room.

  ‘Bravo, wife,’ Jack said, beaming proudly at her.

  She didn’t smile in return. ‘Wait here while I gather my belongings,’ she told him as she headed up the stairs to her room to pack, not only the belongings she had brought with her, but anything else she deemed hers. Some of her favourite books made it into the bags she could carry, as did a few less extravagant dresses from her wardrobe.

  She wasn’t running this time. She was going home. Standing up for her family: her husband and the tiny person they had created together. She was no longer a child. She was a wife, and about to be a mother, and she was taking control of her life.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Jack took the heavy bags from her. ‘Let’s go home, Jack.’

  ‘I’m so proud of you,’ Jack said with a grin, as they headed out to the stables to get Pru’s horse. ‘You stood up to her.’

  ‘Just get on your horse and take me home,’ she said, overcome by weariness all of a sudden. They had things to talk about. She was still angry and hurt by the things he had said, but all the drama of the last twenty-four hours had worn her out. She’d barely slept the night before and she needed to get home to rest.

  Jack took the reins of his horse from a stableman just as Brock walked Misha out for Pru.

  ‘I’m sorry to say goodbye to her again,’ Brock said, patting Misha’s nose and handing the reins to Pru. ‘She’s a great horse. Take care of her.’

  ‘I will,’ Pru promised.

  ‘I’m sorry to say goodbye to you too, Prudence,’ Brock said.

  ‘I belong with my husband, Brock.’

  ‘I know. That’s not what I meant,’ he said smiling. ‘I leave for America tomorrow.’

  ‘America?’

  ‘Yes, back home,’ he said.

  ‘But you don’t have any family left in Kentucky, you said.’

  ‘No ma’am, but if war indeed does break out between the states then I don’t feel right being all the way over here while good men fight and die for the south.’

  Pru stared at her friend, surprised and concerned. She wished she could tell him not to go. She hated the thought of someone else she loved possibly taking a bullet.

  ‘I’m glad I got to say goodbye, but I’ll worry about you, Brock,’ she said. ‘Please take care and try not to get yourself shot or killed.’

  ‘I’ll do my best ma’am,’ he said. ‘The war will probably only last a few months. I’m sure it will all be over before you can say “succession”.’

  Pru tried to smile but her heart ached.

  Brock turned hard on eyes on Jack. ‘You’d better take better care of her this time.’

  She caught Jack’s quick look of offence and stepped in before his temper could flare.

  ‘Don’t worry about me, Brock, I can take care of myself and him,’ she said with a reassuring smile.

  Brock chuckled richly. ‘I have no doubt about you, Miss Prudence.’

  She kissed his cheek and mounted the horse. Jack was still glaring at Brock even as he mounted and turned his horse away from the stables.

  ‘That man takes too much liberty with you,’ Jack grumbled.

  ‘Brock is a friend,’ Pru said. ‘He saved me from going slowly mad living here. Kept quiet when I took long morning rides off the property.’

  Jack just grunted. ‘At least he’s leaving the country.’

  ‘Yes, he is going into battle, into war. And if he gets shot it will be for something he believes in and not just because he got distracted while he was stealing from others.’

  Jack grunted again.

  Pru sighed heavily. God, she was exhausted. ‘Jack, we need to talk.’

  ‘Always a frightening prospect,’ he said with a sigh. ‘You know you outwit me. I haven’t the intellect to win any argument with you.’

  ‘Then don’t argue,’ she shot back.

  ‘You said you would take me as I am,’ Jack reminded her. ‘When we married, you said …’

  ‘I said I would accept the challenge of trying to make you see the error of your ways.’

  ‘God, woman, you have the memory of a card counter.’

  ‘Jack, I need a husband who will be around for his child.’

  ‘There’s time for that yet,’ he tossed back with a laugh. ‘We’ve barely been married more than a minute.’

  ‘Actually, Jack, there isn’t time. You only have about five months.’

  ‘Five months for what?’ he asked confused.

  ‘To give up the highway and make the transport company a reputable business that your child can be proud of and perhaps even take over one day.’

  Jack shook his head as he studied her.

  ‘Why do you keep referring to a child we don’t even …’

  Pru watched as realisation struck like a plank of wood across the back of his head.

  ‘Or do we? A baby?’ he asked hoarsely. ‘Pru, are you pregnant?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He stopped his horse and she halted hers to stand beside him. After a moment spent staring open-mouthed like a fish, he frowned. ‘Is that why you ran from me?’

  She fiddled with the horse’s reins.

  ‘Why didn’t you just tell me?’

  ‘When you were shot I begged you to stop bushranging and you didn’t. You know that I had no issue with what you did for a living until you were injured. I can’t live without you, Jack, and I can’t bring a baby into a world where his father is a criminal who may end up in prison or dead.’

  ‘A son?’ he asked excitedly, latching on to her use of the word “his”.

  ‘I don’t know. You’re missing the point,’ Pru said, her exhaustion making her impatient. ‘We have a baby on the way, Jack. You have to stop now. Can you do that? You couldn’t stop for me, but will you do it for your child.’

  Jack nodded quickly. ‘I will stop, Pru. I will go to work like a normal man. A normal family man with a wife and a son waiting for him to come home to at the end of the day.’

  Pru smiled. ‘It could be a girl, you know.’

  ‘A tiny little Prudence?’ he asked, beaming like a madman. ‘Even better.’

  He leaned over and placed a hand over her belly.

  ‘I will do my best for you,’ he said talking to her stomach, before he gazed up at her in awe. Drawing her head towards his, he kissed her strongly before looking into her tear-filled eyes. ‘For you both.’

  Then throwing his hands in the air he yelled, ‘I’m going to be a father!’

  Pru laughed and together they rode back to their house to prepare for this new chapter in their lives.

  Chapter 14

  It wasn’t easy for a career criminal to go legit.

  While Bobby had been supportive of Jack’s decision, Garrett didn’t give a damn, almost as though he’d been waiting for the day he could take over Jack’s role on the high
way. But without the transport business hand feeding them information, the two men found it increasingly difficult over the next few months to know when and where to bail up a coach.

  After a few near misses, Bobby decided it was too much like hard work now that their honey-pot had been taken from them, and he gave up the road as well, taking a job at the Duchess of Kent to be closer to Katie. Garrett finally hightailed it to New South Wales, looking for more fertile roads to plunder.

  Since Jack was now a full-time employee of his own business, Alfred Jones took the opportunity to retire to Melbourne to live with his daughter and her husband. And so Jack was left to run a business he really had no clue about.

  Pru went into the office with him before Alfred left, and the old man handed over as much information about the legitimate running of the transport company as he could before he left for Melbourne. Pru had been well educated, and she did her best to teach Jack all he needed to know. Sadly, he was about as good a student as he’d been a patient, but eventually they had the inner workings of the company sorted and new roles and responsibilities were divided between them.

  As the months passed, they worked side by side, doing their best to increase business, in order to cover for the loss of income they would have made had Jack still been ranging the highways.

  For the most part, Jack settled in and was happy with the work. But occasionally, that familiar thrill would come across him when a particularly wealthy passenger retained their services. Nothing got passed Pru though, and she would recognise the glint in his eye when he spied a prospect, shutting him down before the glint could ignite.

  One warm December afternoon, the coach arrived from Melbourne, its passengers in an uproar.

  ‘We were robbed!’ the gentleman announced as he climbed out of the coach.

  ‘Robbed?’ Pru asked shocked and looked immediately at Jack.

  He shook his head quickly.

  ‘How awful for you?’ Pru went on placating the gentleman and his wife as they took inventory of the losses.

  Jack took the coach driver aside. Sam Carruthers was a good man who had been with the company since the beginning and had been complicit in all robberies staged by Jack the Devil and his crew.

  ‘Did you recognise the thief, Sam?’