Potato Factory

by Bryce Courtenay

  Hannah had objected strongly to this assignment as she was of a good mind to enter her old profession. Hobart was host to the American whaling ships during the season, as well as to sealers and convict transports, and to this itinerant population was added a large underclass of criminals and society’s dregs well suited to Hannah’s style of bawdy house.

  She had pleaded her case to remain in Hobart because of her children, which was not an untruthful assertion. She asked for custody of Sarah and Mark from the orphanage, and begged that they might all be allowed to live with David and Ann, who now resided in the tiny cottage which had once been Ikey’s tobacconist shop.

  The chief magistrate finally agreed to a compromise. Ann was now fourteen and David sixteen and they were considered adults who no longer required the ministrations of a mother. But as Sarah had only just turned twelve and Mark was ten years old, they were allowed to accompany their mother to New Norfolk.

  Being a practical woman Hannah soon enough adapted, taking up with a certain George Madden, an emancipist who had become a wealthy grain merchant, and also acted as a district constable.

  Hannah was happy enough to swap bed for bread in preference to finding employment as a servant in the small town and Madden, who had a reputation as an energetic though often difficult man, also felt himself well served. He had gained the services of a skilful concubine in exchange for two children accustomed to life in an orphanage, who knew to stay well away from irascible adults.

  Living with Madden allowed for a lazy life and Hannah was content to lord it over most of the locals as a grand lady on the arm of a wealthy and handsome man. That there was a good deal of gossip from the country folk regarding her lewd behaviour troubled her not at all. The people of New Norfolk were of no consequence to Hannah. They were emancipists who had served their sentences on Norfolk Island and later settled New Norfolk, and in the peculiar pecking order of the Van Diemen’s Land convict, they were considered below the station of a main islander.

  As for the few free settlers in the town, Hannah knew that no amount of airs and graces or playing at the grande dame could persuade them to include her in their society. So she made no attempt to enter it. Besides, New Norfolk was only a temporary expedient forced upon her, and Madden a most convenient happen-stance. She dreamed of securing the fortune which lay waiting for her in the safe in Whitechapel and moving to Hobart Town, or perhaps even the mainland. There her wealth would soon secure good marriages for her two pretty daughters and sound careers for her two remaining sons.

  Hannah also knew that sooner or later she would be confronted by the irksome presence of Ikey Solomon. But she comforted herself with the fact that he would need to serve at least seven years before he could expect his ticket of leave. This left her two years to contemplate her future, and to put into place several plans in order to defeat Ikey in that singular purpose which would preoccupy their lives the moment he was released.

  Ikey must somehow be lulled into giving her his part of the combination. Hannah knew he would only do this if he felt completely confident about their shared future, and controlled their joint fortune. To accomplish the task of gaining Ikey’s complete confidence, she needed to gather her family together and win back the affection of David and Ann, her two elder children. In particular David, who would play an important part in the plan to undermine her husband.

  However, there was another reason why Hannah wished to regain the esteem and love of the two elder children still in Van Diemen’s Land. She was determined to destroy any affection they might feel for Mary Abacus. Hannah was convinced that Mary had sought revenge for being transported. She felt certain that Ikey’s scar-faced goyem shiksa whore had deliberately set out to steal the hearts and minds of her children, and turn them against their own flesh and blood.

  Of course, this was entirely untrue. Mary was not even aware that Hannah had been the cause of her downfall. But no amount of persuasion would have convinced Hannah this was so. She had brooded on the matter too long, and what she had imagined in the dark recesses of her own vengeful mind had become an unshakable truth. Hannah had also concluded that Ikey and Mary were the collective cause of her demise, and it was a matter of personal honour to regain the love of David and Ann. She vowed to live long enough to punish Mary for plotting against her, and stealing her children’s love.

  Hannah intended to persuade David to win the complete trust of his father, while secretly maintaining his loyalty to her. After contriving a reconciliation with Ikey and convincing him that they should serve out their old age together, Hannah presumed David would logically be chosen to return to London, open the safe, and bring the contents back to Van Diemen’s Land.

  To this end Hannah needed David and his sister to settle in New Norfolk. She planned that they would take up a separate residence there so that when Ikey obtained his ticket of leave she would appear to leave Madden out of loyalty and affection for her real husband, and welcome Ikey back into the bosom of a loving and united family.

  Hannah immediately set about cultivating the affection of her two elder children, who were frequently invited upriver to New Norfolk. This had not been a difficult thing to achieve. Ann had acted as a mother to young Mark and had always cared for her younger sister, and when Hannah had removed them from the orphanage Ann had been broken-hearted. She persuaded David that they should take the boat to New Norfolk and pay their respects to their mother, so that they might visit Sarah and Mark.

  The first visit had been highly successful and was followed at regular intervals by others. Hannah was always sure to pay their two and sixpenny each-way ticket on the boat, and to furnish their return to Hobart with a handsome hamper, its crowning glory being a large fruit cake with sugar icing. She knew this to be a special favourite with David, who craved sweet things.

  George Madden, too, seemed taken with Hannah’s elder son. Hannah was pleasantly surprised when he offered David a position as a clerk in his grain business. Ann, most anxious to be close to her siblings, had pleaded with David to accept the offer. David, who was too bright for the dullards who were his superiors at the Hobart Water Works, and flattered by Madden’s interest, accepted the position with alacrity. David rented the cottage in Liverpool Street, and brother and sister moved to New Norfolk.

  Hannah had achieved her initial purpose with a minimum of fuss. There now remained plenty of time for her to win David’s loyalty and affection before revealing her grand plan to sabotage Ikey.

  But Ikey, as usual, was unpredictable, and he was released not five months after Hannah, rescued from servitude by a high-ranking government official who wished to remain anonymous. The official offered surety for Ikey and the government accepted his bond, whereupon Ikey left Port Arthur where he had served the past year of his sentence. He appealed to the reviewing magistrate to allow him to serve the first three years of his ticket of leave in New Norfolk.

  ‘To live peaceably with my dear wife and children in New Norfolk, your honour. So that we may regain the lost years and grow old in love and kindness to each other.’

  The magistrate who had signed Ikey’s ticket of leave papers, a man known for his brusque manner, was quick to reply.

  ‘There is much in your record of arrest of this kind of mawkish pronouncement, but very little demonstration of its successful consequence! I trust that on this occasion your high-blown rhetoric means more than the empty words of sentimental balderdash they have been in the past.’

  For a moment Ikey’s courage returned to him and he begged leave to make a statement. With an expression of deep hurt he offered the following pious testament.

  ‘Your worship, I must beg to defend myself. My record will show that I escaped from custody in England to the safe and welcoming shores of America where no rules of extradition applied to send me back to England. Here I was immediately successful in matters of business but so missed the company of my dear wife and children that I risked all to walk back into the jaws of the English lion in order tha
t we might be reunited.’

  ‘A most fortunate circumstance for justice, but nonetheless a very foolish decision,’ the magistrate interrupted.

  Ikey continued. ‘A decision of the heart, your worship. A decision made by a husband and father who could not bear to be parted from his loving wife and six children. I have suffered much for what your worship calls my mawkish sentimentality, but I would do it again if it should put me even a mile nearer to my loved ones!’

  ‘Methinks you might have made an excellent barrister, Mr Solomon,’ the magistrate replied, then added, ‘Neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring!’ He looked sternly at the prisoner. ‘Hear me well now, Isaac Solomon, I should advise you not to return to this court. My patience is well nigh worn through!’

  The Colonial Times reported Ikey’s little oration and many a tear was shed by every class of woman in the colony. Ikey’s testament was held up as the epitome of a husband’s love for his wife and children. Officers of the court were never popular, even with the free settlers, and the acerbic tongue of the reviewing magistrate served only to enhance the heroic nature of Ikey’s charming speech. Despite his notoriety, there were those in the colony who would forever remain most kindly disposed to a man who could sacrifice his own freedom and welfare for the love of his family.

  It was this same reportage in the Colonial Times that alerted Hannah to Ikey’s imminent return. She scarcely had time to extricate herself and her two youngest children from the home of George Madden and take up residence with David and Ann before Ikey appeared on the doorstep.

  Whatever may have happened to Ikey and Hannah in the six years they had been parted, their low regard for each other had changed little. After the initial euphoria of homecoming, much pretended by both, the curmudgeonly Ikey and the vociferous, sharp-tongued Hannah were soon back to their old ways.

  Hannah denied Ikey her bed either as a place for rest or recreation. This did not unduly upset Ikey, whose libido had not increased any during his captivity. He was forced to sleep in a corner of their tiny bedroom on a narrow horsehair mattress not much better than the one he’d recently vacated in Port Arthur. When their relationship had settled back into their customary mutual dislike, Hannah had forced him from this space as well. Ikey’s adenoidal snoring kept Hannah awake at night, so he was banished to a tiny compartment in the sloping roof where his nocturnal melodies had the advantage of rising heavenwards.

  Several months went by, though there was not a day among them that was not fired with vitriol from one or both partners. Ikey had somewhere picked up the habit of drinking, without learning the knack of holding his drink.A mere tipple would send him home cantankerous, with the inevitable result of a dreadful fight with Hannah.

  The four children kept their own counsel. They were reared as orphans and knew when to keep out of the way. Nevertheless, David and Ann did not take easily to Ikey treating them like children and, what’s more, in a rude and imperious manner. Ikey failed to grasp this; as a child of eight he had been on the streets selling oranges and lemons and his father had beaten him severely if he held back a single penny earned. Now he demanded only that David give him a half portion of his salary. He expected Ann, who had obtained work as a shop assistant, to hand over her entire wage.

  They found Ikey smelly and dirty and, as he seldom addressed them by their names, they had little reason to feel he cared for them. In fact, for the most part, he seemed to forget who they were, frequently referring to the nearest child as, ‘You, c’mere!’ The two younger children were terrified of him and fled at his approach.

  Hannah had taken David aside when Ikey first arrived and carefully explained the reason why he should always appear to side with his father. David immediately understood the future advantage to him so he readily agreed. He capitulated to Ikey’s demands for money, and dutifully took Ikey’s side in his parents’ frequent arguments.

  But Ikey was not an easy friend to make, and he considered his son a fool to be exploited and humiliated. The young man’s patience was growing increasingly thin. He had never liked Ikey, but now he found that he loathed him. David warned his mother that, whatever the reward, he could not take much more.

  Hannah, aware that time was running out, decided to broach the subject of the Whitechapel safe with Ikey. She cooked him a mutton stew well flavoured with rosemary, and followed it with fresh curds. She then joined him at the kitchen table after he had pronounced the meal much to his liking.

  ‘Ikey, it’s six months we’ve been together.’ Hannah smiled brightly and spread her hands. ‘And,’ she sighed, ‘ ’ere we still are!’

  Ikey let out a loud burp. ‘So?’

  ‘Well, we should begin to, you know, make plans, don’t you think?’

  ‘Plan? What plans?’

  ‘The safe?’

  Ikey picked at his teeth with the sharp nail of his pinkie, retrieved a tiny morsel of meat, glanced at it briefly, then placed his finger back into his mouth and sucked the sliver from it. ‘We can’t do nothing until I have a full pardon, my dear. It would be too great a risk if we were to be seen to come into a great fortune while we are both still ticket o’ leave lags.’

  ‘We could send David to England. ‘E could return with the money and purchase property on the stum and to yer instructions,’ Hannah suggested.

  ‘And just ‘ow would we send ‘im?’ Ikey asked, a fair degree of sarcasm in his voice. Then he shrugged. ‘We are penniless, my dear, stony broke and without a brass razoo!’

  ‘The cottage in Hobart - we could sell it. That would be sufficient with some to spare.’

  ‘And ‘ow do we know we may trust him?’ Ikey asked.

  ‘But ‘e’s our son!’ Hannah protested.

  ‘So?’

  ‘ ’E’s our own flesh and blood, and a fine young man what we should be proud to call our own!’

  ‘Is that so, my dear? ‘E were a boy when ‘e went into the orphanage, and ‘e came out a man. But what sort of man, eh? We don’t know, we ain’t been there to watch ‘im grow. What sort of boys do you think come from orphanages then? I know boys well, very well! Let me tell you somethin’ for nothin’, boys what has been in an orphanage are good for bloody nothin’ and not to be trusted under any circumstances.’

  ‘David be a lovely boy, Ikey! ‘Ard working and most clever with numbers!’

  ‘I don’t like ‘im, too clever for ‘is own good, and there is much of the weasel in ‘im.’ Ikey paused. ‘It be ‘is smile, all friendly like, but it comes with eyes ‘ard as agate stones. Orphanage boys be all the same, dead sneaky and not to be trusted at all and under no circumstances whatsoever!’

  ‘Well then, what about John or Moses?’ Hannah asked. Her two sons in Sydney had always been a part of her contingency plan. ‘They could leave from Sydney, nobody’d know, come back, invest the money like ya say they should, and when we gets our pardon it’s happily ever after fer us, ain’t that right, lovey?’

  ‘Those two useless buggers!’ Ikey exploded. ‘Soon as we were nicked they scarpered, gorn, back to Sydney! No stickin’ around to bring comfort, or to see if you or I could be assigned to them as servants. They simply sells up the shop,’ Ikey thumped his chest several times, ‘what yours bloody truly bought for ‘em in Hobart and buggers off with the money, leaving us to fend for ourselves!’

  ‘That’s not fair, Ikey!’ Hannah exclaimed. ‘They tried to get me assigned, but the magistrate wouldn’t ‘ave no bar of it. John first, then Moses later, both tried.’

  ‘Bullshit! They didn’t try ‘ard enough. What about me? They didn’t try to get me assigned to them, did they? Not a letter, not a morsel o’ concern these six years!’

  ‘Ikey, you was road gang! You couldn’t be assigned to nobody now could ya?’

  ‘They could ‘ave tried, anyway,’ Ikey growled. ‘They’re no bloody good, spoilt by their mother they was! I wouldn’t trust ‘em further than I could blow me snot!’

  ‘What then?’ Hannah said exasperated. ‘
’Ow are we gunna get the stuff out o’ the peter if we can’t trust our own kind to fetch it? You tell me.’

  ‘I got a plan. You give me your set o’ numbers and I’ll take care of it,’ Ikey said morosely, though suddenly his heart started to beat faster.

  ‘What’s ya take me for, meshugannah or summink?’ Hannah asked, astonished. ‘What plan? Let me hear yer plan, Ikey Solomon.’

  ‘I can’t tell you, it involves someone what has agreed to co-operate and what must remain a secret.’

  ‘Secret, is it?’ Hannah stood up abruptly from the table, her chair scooting off behind her. ‘Some person what’s secret? You’ve told some person what’s secret ‘bout the bloody safe, ‘ave ya?’ She paused, her nostrils dilating as her temper rose. But when she spoke again her voice, though menacing, remained even. ‘It’s ‘er, ain’t it?’

  Ikey looked up at his wife in surprise. ‘ ’Er? What do you mean, ‘er?’

  ‘It’s ‘er, it’s Mary bloody Abacus, ain’t it!’ Hannah leaned forward, pressing her palms down flat on the table, her shoulders hunched directly over the seated Ikey.

  ‘Of course not! Whatever gave you such a peculiar notion, my dear?’ Ikey tried to keep his voice calm, though Hannah’s presence so near to him was unsettling.

  Hannah’s eyes narrowed and her face, now pulled into a furious expression, almost matched her flame-coloured hair.

  ‘You bastard! Ya want me fuckin’ numbers to give to that goyim slut, don’t ya? That fuckin’ dog’s breath was gunna be the one to knap the ding!’

  Hannah looked about her for something with which to strike Ikey, and he, sensing it was time to escape, fled from the room and out into the street.

  ‘You bastard, you’ll get nuffink from me, ya ‘ear!’ Hannah screamed after him, shaking her small fist at Ikey’s rapidly diminishing back.

  Ikey made for the nearest public house, ordered a double brandy and found a corner to himself. He had never been a drinking man and a double of brandy was usually more than enough to put him on his ear. But this time the liquor seemed to act in a benign way, bringing back into focus that glorious time when he was a leading member of London’s criminal class. ‘Practically the Lord Mayor o’ thieves and villains. Prince o’ Fences!’ he mumbled pitifully to himself. It had a grand ring to it. Though now, on this miserable little island, it all seemed to be spun from the gossamer of an excitable imagination.