by Lena Dowling
‘You’re over it now?’
It was a strange question and he had asked it fiercely, as if for some reason the answer was important to him. ‘I don’t think anyone ever gets over bein’ ripped from their loved ones, brought clear to the other side of the world knowin’ they’ll never see them or lay arms around them again. But I’m used to it, just like I got used to everything bein’ brown. The land out here takes some getting used to.’
Harry’s eyes, dark and deep as pitch, met hers. ‘To be sure it does,’ Harry said in a soft brogue.
He reached for her, brushing her cheek with the back of his hand. ‘Is Nellie your ...?’
‘Real name or me whore’s name?’
Harry pulled back as if he’d been scalded.
He pointed to the sleeve. ‘You’ll be able to repair it?’
‘I’ll have to, won’t I? There’s no money for anything new.’
***
Harry stalked out of the kitchen, through the door and back into the bar where Pike was calling last orders, and poured himself a rum. He intended to stay until Nellie had retired to bed upstairs.
Chapter 17
The next morning Harry found an axe in the stables and took to the pile of pallets, breaking them down for firewood for the laundry. He’d watched Pike do it often enough and he needed a distraction and something physical to do.
Anything to get Nellie out of his thoughts.
He was so aware of her presence.
The way she seemed to know what everyone wanted, gliding through the kitchen bringing breakfast to the customers, the way she threw her head back when she laughed, a laugh as sweet and melodic as her singing. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her when she was around, and when she wasn’t, he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
‘Smithing is one thing, but a timber man?’
Harry dropped the axe to greet his friend. ‘Tristan.’
‘I thought I should look in. The word at the club was you had trouble here after I left last night.’
‘There was a minor kerfuffle.’
‘I heard Nellie’s dress was ripped clean off her, or at least that’s what they were saying at the club.’
‘Wildly exaggerated. A few men, soldiers mostly, got overexcited and one of her sleeves parted company with its stitching, that’s all.’
‘Soldiers? That does surprise me. Anthony Tompkins usually has his men on a pretty short leash. Still, if you dangle temptation in front of men starved of female attention, it’s not surprising really.’
‘There’s none of that going on,’ Harry said defensively, even though Tristan had only been articulating his own fears. He had been there, but it almost hadn’t been enough. He was seriously considering calling a halt to this tavern business, even though it put his rent in jeopardy.
‘Is everything alright?’
‘It will be, as soon as Hunter has found a tenant.’
If he did ever become romantically involved again, the woman would have to show herself to be pure of spirit, loyal, steadfast and true. But if someone like Selina had proved to be so false, he doubted any such woman existed. Far better he concentrated on his business affairs and getting set up in the colony.
‘You want me to have a word—ask him to treat it with urgency?’
‘Yes, that would be for the best.’ The sooner he could get his own place built and move out of the guesthouse, the better.
‘You know, I had no idea the area out the back was so large. It could easily have been on two separate titles.’
‘You never arrived here by horse?’
Harry picked up a piece of timber with another still attached that he had dislodged from a crate.
‘I always walked up from the club.’
‘So Emily wouldn’t know?’
‘It was easier if she believed I was at the club. There was no harm in it. It’s not as if I was adding to the well-trodden path upstairs.’
Harry clamped one piece of timber to the ground under his boot and pulled, separating the pieces of timber.
‘Why did Nellie stay, do you think?’ Harry said, giving in to his curiosity.
It simply didn’t make sense. Nellie was a woman who grasped a chance. Even being set up as one man’s mistress would have been preferable.
‘She was waiting for someone, apparently. Someone she was involved with back in Ireland, who she wanted to be free for.’
‘But he never arrived, clearly?’
‘The talk is that when he wouldn’t give Nellie up, he was disinherited by his family. He joined the army with the idea of giving them a start together, but ended up getting himself killed in India before his commission was paid out.’
The information disturbed him. When he had come up with reasons why Nellie had chosen to work at the bawdy house, his deductions had all come down to financial ones. A debt, or an obligation to someone else, some sort of extortion, even. He hadn’t expected it would have been for love.
‘Oh and before I forget, I’ve been meaning to give you this,’ Tristan said, fishing into his pocket. ‘James and Thea have invited you to their marquee at the races.’
‘Won’t that be rather uncomfortable?’ He couldn’t imagine being hosted by an estranged couple would be a very jolly affair.
Tristan handed Harry the envelope. ‘Not as uncomfortable as standing in Sydney’s October sun all afternoon. An invitation to a marquee is a coveted thing. And you can bring a partner. And now I had better make tracks.’
‘Emily doesn’t know you’re here?’ Harry sighed.
‘I said I had to tidy up a few things at the office.’
‘You lied?’
‘A white lie. A benign little lie here and there is the pathway to a happy marriage. Trust me.’
It seemed more like a slippery slope to him. Harry had known Selina told fibs to placate him, and he had ignored it for the sake of peace. But that was without appreciating how easily she would graduate from little white lies to the pitch-black variety.
‘Oh my word. If you aren’t a sight for sore eyes. Just look at you all done up!’ Nellie cried.
With embroidery the same pink, only a few shades darker than the fabric of her dress, coupled with her shoes, cerise slippers that matched what she was wearing, and with her hair plaited and roped around her head in the fashionable style, topped off with a fancy reticule, Colleen looked like a real lady.
‘It’s the wool. The Hunters had a good clip, a very good clip, and James paid Samuel a bonus.’
‘And how are you, little man?’ Nellie said, smiling at her almost nephew.
‘Say hello to your cousin Nellie, sweetheart.’
‘Hello.’ Samuel Junior looked up at her with his huge doe eyes that he’d inherited from his mother, his head a mass of Malone curls.
‘I wasn’t expectin’ you till the end of the month.’
‘I needed a few things in town, so I thought I’d come in on my own.’
‘You never made the boat trip on your own with Little Sam?’
‘Heavens no,’ Colleen said, pulling the chair out from the head of the table. ‘Thea had things to do in town, so I was able to ride along with her.’
‘You and Lady Hunter have patched things up?’
Colleen nodded, a smile bursting out across her face. At first, Colleen being friends with Thea had made Nellie jealous. It had always been her and Colleen like two peas in a pod. But living so far out in the country, it was important for Colleen to have a friend. She needed someone to help when there were extras for the shearing and the harvest, or if Colleen or Little Sam went down sick, and so she’d gotten over being envious of their friendship.
‘Oh Coll, that’s wonderful news. And Thea and James?’
‘No joy there still, I’m afraid,’ Colleen said, sitting down and motioning Sam to come sit on her lap. ‘It’s still separate houses and no-speaks between them, except when they’re with company.’
‘It’s such a shame,’ Nellie said, sitting sideways on one of the
benches that ran down the long side of the table.
James had been a client, but a decent one. Not like Anthony Tompkins and some of the others who had no respect. And apart from the one time he came with Mr Biggs to rescue Colleen after Danny had her held against her will, she’d never seen James back at the bawdy house after his marriage.
Colleen frowned. ‘I hear things have changed here.’
‘How do you know that?’ Nellie said, suspicious now about the real reason for Colleen’s visit. She had hoped that with her cousin away out at Parramatta, the news about Harry Chester would have been slow and by the time it reached her cousin, she’d have had her future sorted one way or another.
‘We met Harry Chester on that block for sale down from Hunter Downs.’
‘Harry’s looking to buy land?’
‘Apparently.’
‘It’s a fine thing for some,’ she said, fuming. ‘He’s swanning off looking at farms while I’ve had to open me doors back up to the riffraff to meet his rent.’
‘Tell me you’re not ...?’
‘How could you even ask me that?’
‘I’m sorry. Don’t listen to me. Ever since we ran into Harry and I heard what was happening here, I’ve been going out of me mind with worry.’
Nellie tried to will the lump rising up in her throat to go back down again. Finally things were going well for Colleen, and she was spoiling it with her problems.
‘Now what’s been going on exactly?’
Nellie told her cousin what had happened and how she was working all the hours God sent to make Harry Chester see that she could be trusted to take over the lease.
‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You’ve done a deal with Tompkins?’
‘I’ve got the money for what we owe for last week.’
‘What about this week and the next and the week after that? And then there’s the customers. How long do you think they’re going to be satisfied with just your music? I know you’d never go back, but they’ll be putting the hard word on, and all the rest. How safe will you be with all those men gettin’ all worked up with your songs?’
‘I’ll be alright. I’ve got Pikelet, and Harry Chester is always hangin’ around breathin’ down my neck. He and Pike’ll pull them off me,’ she said, putting on a brave face.
‘So there’s been trouble already.’
‘It was nothin’. It was fine.’
‘This time. But next time you might not be so lucky. No, I’m not havin’ it. There’s nothin’ for it, you’ll have to stop with me and Samuel.’
‘When I think how close you came to losing Samuel on top of everything else.’
‘But I didn’t, and we’re as strong as we can be. And we’re only going to get stronger.’ Colleen smiled at her and took one hand off Sam to place it on her belly.
‘You’re not?’
‘I am. This one’s going to be a girl.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I can feel it. Just like I can feel it’s best for you to come and live with us. Now, you pack up your things.’
‘You know I can’t do that.’
‘I can send word to Thea that I’m going home on the boat. There will be two of us to watch Little Sam.’
‘That’s today. What about when Lady Hunter comes calling?’
‘If it got to that, Samuel could find another farm. There’s plenty of work for thosewilling to do it. And soon the lean-to isn’t going to be big enough anyway.’
‘But you’re settled and Samuel’s got that little parcel of land of his own just a stone’s throw away from the Hunter’s farm. You can’t be upsetting all that. ’
You’re family. You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.’
Nellie shook her head.
‘Promise me that if you lose your place here, and if it comes down to choosin’ between us and the Factory, you’ll come to us.’
Nellie scratched an imaginary itch on the back of her neck, bobbing her head in a way that she hoped Colleen would take for a nod, but her cousin knew her too well.
‘Eleanor Patricia Malone, I want to hear the words come out of your mouth.’
‘You sound just like me ma.’
Colleen laughed. ‘Every day I hear myself turning a little more into me own ma with this one.’
Colleen looked across to the window that faced the yard. ‘Lord almighty. There I was so caught up in me own whirlpool of worry, I didn’t see the bleedin’ obvious staring me right in the face.’
‘What?’
‘Would you listen to yer auntie there now, Little Sam,’ Colleen said, jiggling her little boy on her lap. ‘Speaking to us as if butter wouldn’t melt, when Mr Strapping Handsome himself is out there all sleeves rolled up chopping wood.’
Nellie peeked out the window. Harry looked as good as Colleen said, and then some, but she wasn’t going to let on to her cousin or she would never hear the end of it.
‘You sound like Rowley Somerset,’ Nellie said.
‘Then the man is talkin’ sense.’
‘Harry’s not interested in me.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I just do,’ she said, thinking of the night before when he’d pulled away from her.
‘So you’re saying you might be interested?’
‘Don’t put words in my mouth.’
‘All I’m sayin …’
‘I know what you’re sayin’ and I wouldn’t use someone just to get—oh shite. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean …’
‘I know you didn’t. I’m not sayin’ you should do what I did—go in cold like that. That worked out for me and Samuel, but that was sheer luck. But if you think you could have feelings for Harry, then that’s something different altogether.’
Nellie shook her head. ‘He’s the landlord. I’m the tenant.’ If she wanted any chance of keeping the guesthouse, she needed to steer clear.
‘Landlady has a nicer ring to it.’
‘Would you listen to yourself.’
Colleen let Little Sam off her lap and onto the floor and stood up.
‘And before I go. I have something for you.’
She took up her purse from where she had laid it down on the table and pulled out a small bottle. ‘Some lavender oil for your soaps. I’ll have some more of the rose oil for you once the gardens at Hunter Downs are in full bloom.’
‘You shouldn’t have. You should save it for the market. This stuff is gold.’
‘Lucky you know the right people then, isn’t it?’
‘Would you like me to watch him for you while you do your errands?’ Nellie said, wanting some way to pay Colleen back, and happy to have a bit of alone time with the wee man she loved like a nephew.
‘That would be grand. Would you mind?’
‘It would be me absolute pleasure.’
***
After cutting up the last of the onions, Nellie wiped her eyes with her apron, pushed open the window beside the stove, and started on chopping the meat. Luckily Sam was happy enough playing with a carrot at her feet. As much as she had been pleased to see Colleen, stopping to gossip had put her behind. If she didn’t get the stew on and put it to the back of the stove where it could cook nice and slow, come dinnertime it would be tough.
‘You put on a couple of good performances.’
Anthony Tompkins.
Nellie froze for a second, before her protective instincts had her looking down to the floor to check on Little Sam. The child hadn’t noticed, burbling happily and gnawing on the carrot she had given him. She turned, tightening her grip on the knife, grateful to have it in her hand. ‘I didn’t see you in the crowd.’
‘My men tell me everything.’ Tompkins said.
‘The money’s safe at the bank. You’ll have it before we’re needing more rum, if that’s what you’re here for. ’
‘They say you had a spot of trouble.’
‘It was nothing.’
‘If my men hadn’t been here, things might have gotten out of hand.’
That was rich. It had been mostly redcoats pawing at her. She had almost wondered if he had put them up to it, but that didn’t make sense, not when he was organising the rum and she was paying over the odds for it. If she went out of business, that would be the end of his cut.
‘And that was quite a show Chester put on,’ he added when she didn’t say anything.
‘He was protecting his property, that’s all.’
‘Couldn’t have put it better myself. Bit too pretty for the colony though, don’t you think?’
Pretty wasn’t a word she’d use. Harry was far too rugged and broad for that, but she bit her tongue. Anything good out of her mouth about Harry would only be grist for Tompkins’ mill.
‘There’s nothing between me and Harry Chester,’ she said. It came out bland and even. Believable, because that was the truth. After last night, she knew it would never be any different.
‘I hear he’s put himself up in Danny’s old accommodations. That doesn’t sound like nothing to me.’
‘Harry’s not long arrived in the colony and he owns the place. It’s hardly surprising he would stop in his own guesthouse, now is it?’ she said, her mind going nineteen to the dozen. How had Tompkins found out where Harry was staying?
‘How’s that new mattress working out?’
The furniture dealer. Harry had had a new mattress delivered.
So that’s who’d been wagging their tongue.
‘I wouldn’t know. I haven’t been the one sleepin’ on it. Why don’t you ask Harry?’
‘If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep it that way.’
Sam wailed. He was too young to understand what was being said, but he was a sensitive little boy, and he had picked up on the gist of it.
***
‘Everything alright in here?’
Harry had heard a child’s cries, and then he had seen a flash of scarlet through the kitchen window. There was no reason for a soldier to come beyond the bar into the main house; and with the regiment having its own barracks, there were none staying at the guesthouse.
‘Nell Belle and I were just talking business,’ Tompkins said, yelling over the screaming child.
Harry blanched at the familiarity of the nickname, but from Nellie’s expression and the hold she had on the paring knife, he took it that the intimacy was all on Tompkins’ side.