Band of Gold

by Deborah Challinor

  ‘Warrun just said they went to Melbourne.’

  ‘I know he did, Tahi, but he doesn’t know that, does he?’

  Tahi was quiet for a moment. Then, ‘Those tracks we’ve been following, did you think they were Uncle Rian’s?’

  ‘I had hoped so, yes.’

  ‘And do you think someone found him after the flood and took him?’

  ‘I heard something recently to suggest that may have happened.’ Kitty frowned at him, trying to fathom what he was getting at. ‘Why?’

  Tahi fidgeted in his saddle. He gathered up the reins, dropped them, then rubbed at a dirty mark on his trousers. He looked eight years old again. Then he said in a rush, ‘Because I saw what happened. And I might know where Uncle Rian is. I think Warrun was right.’

  Kitty gaped at him. ‘You saw it!’

  ‘Not in real life,’ he said quickly. ‘I saw it in here.’ He tapped his head. ‘When I was asleep. You know, like when you brought my mother home from Sydney.’

  Swallowing, Kitty thought back to 1845, when they had returned Wai’s bones from her burial place in Sydney, and the beach at Paihia in the Bay of Islands had been crowded with Wai’s people because Tahi, not even five at the time, had dreamed she would be returning that day. ‘When? When did you see it?’

  ‘Two nights after the flood. But Koro told me years ago that whenever I have the visions I should keep them under my hat, so I do. But when you said that you thought that Uncle Rian might still be alive somewhere, I thought maybe I should tell you, but I wasn’t sure. And now Warrun said that about Melbourne.’

  ‘What about Melbourne, Tahi?’ Kitty urged Finn closer, her stirrup clinking against Tahi’s. ‘What about Melbourne?’

  ‘In my vision I saw that great building with the big arches and all the horses in it—’

  ‘Tattersall’s Horse Bazaar?’

  ‘I don’t know what it’s called.’

  ‘On Lonsdale Street?’

  ‘I don’t know, Auntie!’

  Kitty realised she was frightening him. ‘I’m sorry, love, really. Just tell me what you saw.’

  ‘There were other buildings on the street with the horses, and I saw Uncle Rian in one of those. In a little room.’ He gave Kitty a wary look, as though he wasn’t sure how she was going to react. ‘I think he was sick. Or hurt.’

  ‘Which building was it, did you see?’ Kitty pressed eagerly.

  Tahi saw how bright her eyes had become, and the excited anticipation on her face, and, desperately wanting to please her, said, ‘Beside the horse place, one of those.’ He regretted it the moment the words left his mouth, but already it was too late to take them back. He had seen Uncle Rian in a little room in one of those buildings, but then, in the same vision, he had seen the room again, and it had been empty, and he didn’t know what that meant. He hardly ever knew what his visions meant, except for the one about his mother coming home.

  ‘Was he alone, Tahi?’

  ‘No, there was another man there.’ This, unfortunately, had been crystal-clear. He had been a very bad man: just the feel of him in the dream had given Tahi a horrible, creeping sense of dread.

  ‘What were they doing? Were they talking?’

  ‘They weren’t doing anything.’ Tahi struggled to put into words how he saw things in his visions. ‘They were just…there. And so was I, but I wasn’t.’ He shook his head in frustration. ‘I’m sorry, Auntie, I just see things. I don’t often know what they mean.’

  ‘But how did he get there? How did he get to Melbourne?’

  ‘They took him, after he came out of the river. I saw them pick him up off the ground.’ And beat him until he bled.

  ‘Who picked him up? Who was it?’

  ‘I don’t know. Just some men.’

  ‘So it wasn’t dingos at all? Why didn’t you say something at the time, Tahi? Even if it was only to me?’

  Tahi hung his head. ‘I was too scared. Koro said if I went around telling people about my visions, the missionaries at Paihia would think I was possessed by a demon and send me away. I didn’t want you to think I was possessed.’ He paused. ‘Or Amber.’

  Ah, Kitty thought with dawning realisation. She reached out and touched his arm. ‘Well, I don’t think you’re possessed. I think you’ve just given me the best gift I’ve ever received. But we still have to keep it a secret for now, do you understand?’

  And Tahi, desperate for Amber to remain ignorant of his unusual talent, nodded in vigorous agreement.

  They rode back towards town and parted ways at the turn-off to the Malakoff Lead. By the time Kitty reached Red Hill, she had made up her mind. Tying Finn’s reins to the rail outside a draper’s, she went in and bought a hat to replace the one she had given Warrun. Next, she paid a visit to a gunsmith’s and brought extra ammunition for Rian’s pistols and shotgun. Lastly, she purchased a capacious set of saddlebags.

  She did all this with a single purpose of mind, concentrating on the enormous and daunting task ahead of her and barely noticing those around her, which is why she walked straight into Lily Pearce as she was leaving the saddlery. The saddlebags were knocked out of her arms and fell to the ground. Kitty was on the verge of apologising when she realised whom she had banged into. Instead, she stood very still. Lily, overdressed as usual in an array of flashy finery and too much jewellery, found herself literally backed into a corner between a verandah post and a rain barrel. She glared venomously at Kitty.

  ‘You want to be careful who you bang into, Kitty Farrell,’ she snarled.

  ‘You want to be careful yourself,’ Kitty replied in an equally poisonous tone.

  The saddler looked worriedly through the doorway; he had several expensive saddles on display on the verandah and had visions of them being scuffed and thrown in all directions should an altercation break out. He stepped outside, raised his hands in what he imagined to be a placatory manner and said, ‘Ladies, ladies, please, if we could all perhaps calm down?’

  But both women ignored him, practically hissing and spitting at each other and putting him in mind of two tigresses he had once seen at the London Zoo.

  Lily smiled nastily. ‘Or should I say Widow Farrell?’

  Not taking her eyes off Lily’s, Kitty bent and retrieved the saddlebags, forcing every fibre of her being to refrain from swinging them at Lily’s head. She stepped down off the verandah, slung the bags across the pommel of her saddle, mounted Finn and rode off.

  It wasn’t until she reached Lilac Cottage that she realised she recognised the stone in the pendant Lily Pearce had been wearing around her neck.

  It had been a milky, grey-blue star sapphire cabochon.

  She was ready. She had dressed in her new hat and the trousers she wore on the Katipo, Rian’s shirt and jacket—still smelling comfortingly of him—and her boots, and had tied back her hair and tucked it under the hat. Her ‘lady’ clothes had been rolled and packed in the saddlebags, along with a little food, the pistols, money, a small lamp wrapped in a cloth, oil, matches and a few other necessities she thought she might need; and Rian’s shotgun was loaded and ready to go into the saddle holster. Finn, whom Kitty preferred over McCool, had been watered, rested and resaddled. Amber was spending the night with Will and Molly again, and all Kitty had to do was finish her letter to her, and leave it on the table where she would find it in the morning…

  My dearest Amber,

  Your father, I believe, is alive, and by the time you read this letter, I will have left Ballarat to find him. I want to tell you not to worry about either of us—or at least try not to worry too much.

  I am so very sorry that you have been angry with me these past few weeks, and I know that it has been just as hard for you as it has been for me. I couldn’t bear to think that your father had left us forever, and I know you couldn’t either.

  The crew will look after you. Talk to Haunui or Pierre, or to Leena if you need ‘women’s’ advice. They all love you almost as much as your father and I do.

 
She sat with the end of the pen in her mouth, knowing there was something else she wanted to say. Finally, she dipped the nib into the ink and added:

  I will be back with you as soon as I can, whether your father is with me or not. Even if it turns out that we have lost him, you will always have me, Amber, and I will never, ever abandon you.

  All my love always,

  Ma

  She reread what she had written, blew on the paper to dry the ink, and glanced around to see if she had forgotten anything.

  Through the window she could see the shadows thrown on the inside of Leena and Ropata’s tent some distance away as Amber and the children moved around, preparing for sleep. Leena and the men themselves had all gone into town, leaving their tents in darkness. The moon was bright but occasionally obscured by scudding cloud.

  Kitty closed the cottage door behind her and walked quickly across the grass to where she had tethered Finn, and shushed him as he welcomed her with a soft whicker. She slid Rian’s shotgun into the saddle holster, untied the reins and swung herself up, relishing at last the comfort and ease of being able to sit astride.

  She patted Finn’s neck, leant forward in the stirrups, and whispered as near to his ear as she could reach, ‘Come on, Finn, let’s see if we can make it to Melbourne by sun-up, shall we?’

  As she trotted off towards the track that would take her around and behind Red Hill and up onto the Melbourne Road, Hawk and Haunui emerged from their place of concealment in their darkened tent, and watched her until she disappeared into the shadows. All afternoon they had had a suspicion that Kitty was up to something.

  His arms belligerently folded across his chest, Hawk scowled and grumbled, ‘I still do not think we should be permitting her to do it. Rian would not have allowed it.’

  Haunui scratched his head. ‘Ae, but it is not a matter of permitting, is it? She just does things.’

  Hawk grunted. ‘I thought she had begun to accept his passing.’

  Haunui glanced at Hawk’s sharp profile. ‘Have you?’

  A short pause. ‘No. Not in my heart.’

  ‘So why are you expecting Kitty to?’ Haunui asked.

  ‘But I am not riding off to Melbourne on a wild-goose chase,’ Hawk countered. ‘I suppose she is going to Melbourne?’

  ‘But is it a wild-goose chase?’

  It was Hawk’s turn to shoot a look at Haunui. ‘I do not know. Is it?’

  Haunui recalled Flora’s counsel. ‘I don’t know, either. But I do know we have to let her do it, whatever she’s up to. Ae, we could follow her and bring her back, and then what? Lock her in the cottage? For how long? Do you want to be the one to deliver her kai, eh?’

  ‘No, thank you,’ Hawk said quickly.

  ‘And do not forget, Kitty owns the claim now that Rian has gone. And all the equipment and the livestock. And the Katipo. She is my daughter in spirit, but now she is your boss for real. We can’t lock up your boss.’

  Hawk was unusually silent, even for him. Perhaps, Haunui thought, this hadn’t occurred to him.

  Finally, Hawk said, ‘No, but she still should not be venturing out alone.’

  ‘I don’t think she will be alone,’ Haunui replied, and pointed across the grass to where the bullocks and McCool were hobbled several hundred yards away.

  As they watched, a figure crept stealthily from behind a canvas-and-iron hut, using the clouds crossing the moon as cover, and cautiously approached McCool. An arm was extended, the horse took something, and while he ate the figure slipped a bridle over his head and laid a saddle across his back. The hobbles were removed and left on top of a tree stump, then the thief mounted McCool and trotted off into the night.

  ‘Hmmm,’ Hawk said.

  ‘Ae,’ Haunui agreed.

  The thief was Daniel Royce.

  But Kitty and Daniel weren’t the only travellers to ride out of Ballarat that night. A little over two hours later, Lily Pearce also left for Melbourne.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Melbourne, late February 1855

  Kitty arrived in Melbourne just after dawn. Her eyes were gritty and sore, her backside was tender, and the skin on the inside of her legs raw from rubbing against the stirrup leathers. She was hungry and desperately needed a hot drink and a wash.

  Fighting the urge to ride straight to Lonsdale Street and start knocking on doors around Tattersall’s Horse Bazaar, Kitty instead headed for Collins Street and the Criterion Hotel, where she knew she would find a comfortable room. Forgetting she was dressed in men’s attire, and grubby men’s attire at that, she received a startled and disapproving look from the publican’s wife as she arranged her accommodation.

  Finally in her room, having been left to haul her saddlebags upstairs unaided, Kitty washed her face and hands in the bowl on the night stand and lay on the bed for a few minutes to rest her bleary eyes.

  She woke four hours later, stiff and sore, to the realisation that the sun was high in the sky and she had wasted almost half a day sleeping when she should have been looking for Rian.

  Groaning and easing herself off the bed, she tugged the bell pull and, when the house girl arrived, ordered bread and cheese and a pot of tea. While she waited she peed in the chamber pot, then emptied her saddlebags onto the bed, changed into her dress, brushed her hair and put it up in a chignon. Her late breakfast arrived, and by the time she’d eaten it and had two cups of tea she felt a little more refreshed.

  Downstairs, she asked that Finn be saddled and brought around from the hotel’s stables, but it wasn’t until he appeared that it suddenly occurred to her that she couldn’t ride him astride in long skirts.

  ‘Shite,’ she said under her breath, feeling suddenly deflated and more than a little overwhelmed by the task ahead of her.

  The boy leading Finn, an undernourished ginger-haired lad of about eleven wearing a uniform clearly too big for him and notably baggy in the arse, glanced at her in momentary astonishment, then smirked.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re smiling at,’ Kitty snapped, ‘especially if you’re expecting a tip, which you certainly won’t be getting now. Take him back and unsaddle him, go on.’

  But the boy turned out to be a lot more wily than Kitty had given him credit for. ‘Would ya be wantin’ a lady’s seat, then?’

  ‘Why? I suppose you happen to have one, do you?’ Kitty said, without much hope.

  ‘I might,’ the boy said, squinting up at her. ‘For the right price.’

  Kitty rolled her eyes. ‘Go on, then—let’s see it.’

  ‘Hold this,’ the boy said, handing Finn’s reins to Kitty before scampering off on bare feet.

  He was back less than five minutes later, almost staggering under the weight of a very fine side-saddle in cinnamon-coloured tooled leather with a suede seat and double pommels.

  ‘Have you just stolen that?’ Kitty asked reprovingly.

  The boy’s freckled countenance took on an expression commensurate with Kitty having just accused him of murdering his entire family, including his grandmother. ‘I did not! I borrowed it.’

  ‘Borrowed. I see.’

  ‘Yeah, and ya can rent it if ya like.’

  ‘How much?’

  The boy named an extortionate fee, which Kitty considered only because she might have days of riding around Melbourne ahead of her.

  When the deal had been concluded and the saddles transferred, Kitty asked, ‘And with whom have I had the pleasure of entering into this transaction?’

  The boy scratched a scabby shin and said, ‘Wot?’

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Oh. Israel.’

  ‘Israel what?’

  ‘Israel ya-little-bastard,’ the boy said, making a joke of it, but Kitty could see the veiled sadness in his hazel eyes.

  ‘All right, Israel, when I’ve finished with this saddle I want mine back, and I don’t want to discover that it, too, has been “rented out”, do you understand?’

  ‘Aye aye, missus,’ Israel said, saluti
ng smartly. ‘Ya don’t want a gig as well, do ya? Or a dogcart?’

  Kitty pulled herself up onto Finn and gathered the reins. ‘Not just now, thank you.’

  Israel waved cheerfully as she rode off, then his smiled faded as he noticed a dark-haired man standing in the shadows on the other side of the street, watching the lady as a circling hawk in the sky watches a rabbit on the ground.

  Kitty rode straight to Lonsdale Street and began systematically knocking on doors to the buildings on either side of Tattersall’s Horse Bazaar. Some were dwellings and some were business premises, but none was empty. A few curious owners and tenants allowed her inside to look about, but most would not, simply shutting the door in her face when she asked. But Kitty had a plan: the buildings were rambling but no taller than double-storeyed, and festooned with narrow drainpipes and very flimsy ladders to comply with at least the letter of the law regarding fire escapes. A small boy, say around eleven years old, would easily be able to scale them under the cover of darkness and peep through shutters and windows, especially if he had a pound coin nestling comfortably in his trouser pocket.

  In her heart, though, she suspected that Rian wasn’t here, regardless of what Tahi had seen in his dream. She was sure that if he were this close to her she would know—she would feel it, somehow.

  She went next door to the horse bazaar in case Tahi’s vision had somehow been geographically askew. In the summer heat the huge stone building reeked, despite the lofty arches designed to funnel breezes through the complex, and flies buzzed thickly around piles of horse shit in the stalls, and floated along channels of urine like tiny mariners bound for voyages across Melbourne’s open sewers. There were carriage stands, tack rooms and stables on the ground floor, and haylofts and granaries above, but no sign of Rian, and, apart from an offer to buy Finn, Kitty came away with as little as she’d taken in.