by Anna Jacobs
When they’d gone, there was only Gil left and a stew simmering on an open fire.
‘You’ll eat with us?’ Norah asked.
‘If you’ve enough.’
‘We’ve always enough for our friends.’
As she served the meal, she was unable to stop smiling. In this morning’s bleak mood, she hadn’t expected to feel so happy by evening. And Andrew was the same, she could see.
‘They’re good folk, our group,’ Gil said quietly as he and Andrew waited for Norah to sit at the table with them.
‘The best,’ Andrew said and blew his nose loudly.
When they’d finished eating, Gil stared down at his plate. ‘I’ve some news of my own to tell you.’
Norah exchanged worried glances with her husband. ‘You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. You don’t owe us any explanations.’
Gil leaned back in the chair they’d brought from England, the one Andrew usually sat in, smiling round at them all. ‘It’s good news. Don’t you want to hear it?’
‘Good news?’ Norah leaned forward eagerly.
‘Irene and I were married in Freo a couple of days ago.’
‘Married! You’re married! Oh, Gil.’ Norah got up and plonked a kiss on his cheek.
‘You married Auntie Irene?’ Janie asked. ‘Is she coming back here to live?’
‘She is indeed. She’ll be living with me and working with me on my farm.’
Janie clapped her hands together and cheered loudly. The boys nodded approval in a less demonstrative way.
‘So will the twins,’ Gil said when the noise had died down.
‘Twins?’ Everyone gaped at him.
He nodded. ‘Would you believe it, she’s had twins. Two little girls, called Jenny and Mary.’
‘That’s wonderful.’ It was Norah’s turn to mop her eyes.
When the meal was over, Andrew walked down to the main track to see his friend on his way. Pete had taken the horse and cart earlier because he would be fetching another load of newly felled timber the next day. Gil would send a message to Irene in Pemberton and arranged with the truck driver to fetch his wife and children home a day or two later.
The two men stopped at the entrance to the Boyds’ farm. Gil clapped Andrew on the back and they stared at one another for a minute, then nodded and went on their way. Good friends didn’t always need words.
25
Gil brought Irene home from Pemberton three days later. His friend Andrew was well on the way to being set up again on his farm. Now it was time for Gil to start his new life.
Irene was waiting for him, bright-eyed, so pretty his breath caught in his throat. He kissed her tenderly, then turned to cuddle the babies. ‘They’ve grown, even in a few days!’
‘Do you think so?’
‘I’m sure of it. They’re a pretty pair. I can see we’ll have all the lads round courting when they grow up.’
She laughed. ‘We’ve a little time before that happens. I’ve just fed them, so let’s get everything in the truck. With a bit of luck, we can get home before they need feeding again. And I’ve bought plenty of tins of baby milk powder.’
The sun was shining brightly, and his nostrils were filled not with the stink of charred wood, but with the fresh smell of her skin and hair. She said she didn’t use perfume, but she always smelled sweet to him. He’d buy her some perfume next Christmas, though. Lily of the valley, perhaps. No, that had been Mabel’s favourite. He’d ask Norah what else was nice.
As they jogged along, he thought about Mabel, fondly now, without the old desolation. She’d approve of his new family, he was sure. He looked at the woman in the front of the truck, sitting beside the driver, the babies crammed in at her feet in little nests of blanket and his heart skipped in his chest with joy.
An uneven patch of road had him clinging on in the back and laughing.
When they got to the shack, he and Irene each carried a baby into their new home. He stopped dead in surprise. The new table he’d built was covered with baked goods: a cake, freshly baked damper, a plate pie. There was a pan and when he peeped into it, he saw some stew.
‘Who are these from?’ Irene asked.
‘The other groupies, I suppose. The food wasn’t here when I left for Pemberton.’
‘How kind of them!’ She looked round and beamed at him. ‘You built them a cradle.’
He’d been busy helping Andrew, so it’d cost him some precious hours of sleep, but it was worth it. ‘Can’t have my daughters sleeping on the floor, can I? You said they always like to sleep together, so I built it wider.’
‘They do.’
Jenny stirred in her mother’s arms, her rosebud mouth opening and shutting as she searched for food.
‘Let’s put them down for a minute or two and get our things in, then when Billy’s gone I’ll deal with these two.’ She looked round. ‘You’ve done a lot of work on this place.’
‘I want you to be comfortable. Though it looks like we’ll be getting a proper house in the next few weeks. Andrew and Norah have got theirs going up this very week.’ He pulled the rocking chair forward. ‘Sit down and I’ll pass you whichever baby you’re feeding first.’
‘Jenny. She’s always more hungry than Mary.’
That night they slept chastely side by side on two stretcher beds because Irene’s body hadn’t recovered from the birth yet, so consummating their marriage would have to wait.
‘I’m so glad to be back,’ she said sleepily.
‘Not half as glad as I am to have you here.’
‘Mmm.’
He lay listening to her soft, even breaths. He hadn’t expected to be as happy as this ever again.
A few days later, men turned up with a load of timber to build the first of the farmhouses.
‘It’s scheduled for Lot Seven,’ one of them said, pulling a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket.
‘That’s changed,’ Gil told him. ‘Lot Twelve is the one to start on.’
They looked at him suspiciously. ‘It says Lot Seven.’
The man held out the paper for him to see, but he pushed it aside. ‘Look, there’s been a bush fire through, and Lot Twelve was badly hit, lost all their outbuildings. Let’s give their spirits a boost, eh? Let’s build them the first proper house in this group.’
The men looked at one another and shrugged. ‘No one up in Perth is going to know where we build it, are they?’ one said.
The other smiled. ‘By the time they send an inspector out to check on it, it’ll be up and they’re not going to pull it down again, are they?’
‘If anyone asks, I’ll tell them I misheard the lot number you told me,’ Gil offered.
‘You’re on, mate.’
Andrew saw the truck pull off the track at his farm and put down his hammer. There wasn’t any more timber due. He had his farm buildings up now. ‘Can I help you?’
‘We’ve come to build your house. Yours is the first to go up.’
‘House?’ It took a few seconds for him to realise what they meant. ‘The farmhouse, you mean?’
‘Yeah. We’ll drop this stuff off today and be back with some more tomorrow. Better work out where you want it.’
Norah came out to join them and Andrew picked her up and swung her round. ‘It’s our house! They’re building our house first.’
After the men had left, they walked together to the spot they’d chosen, the children tagging along behind them.
‘This is still the best place to put it.’ She looked down the slope towards the entrance to their farm.
‘Shall we have a celebration when it’s finished?’
The children crowed with delight.
‘Oh, yes. We’ll invite all our friends, have a sing-song and then . . .’
‘Then what?’
‘Then we’ll settle down to work and make this the best farm in Northcliffe.’
When the house was finished, Andrew picked Norah up and carried her over the threshold.
‘Yes. But though this place sets the seal on it, what makes me happiest of all is you, my family and the best neighbours on earth.’ He looked round. ‘It’s not exactly free land, is it, as we thought when we read that brochure?’
‘No. We buy it with our sweat and toil.’
‘But we have the freedom to do that here, which we’d never have had in England. Still glad you came?’
‘More than ever.’ She hesitated, then added shyly. ‘Talking of family, we’re going to have another member in a few months.’
‘I wondered.’
‘Yes, I thought you’d guessed.’
‘It’d be hard to miss it, living as closely together as we do. Are you glad?’
She laid her head on his shoulder. ‘Very glad. I don’t know what the children will say, though.’
‘The boys will love their baby brother and spoil him to death. Or baby sister. And having seen the way Janie cares for that lame chook of hers, I think you’ll have trouble keeping her away from the baby.’
They stood on the front veranda, watching the children carry the first of their possessions across from the humpy. Sunlight slanted through the trees, whose leaves were already starting to grow again. One of the cows mooed, and not to be outdone a pig squealed a reply.
Then the children arrived and all was bustle and noise – just the way Norah liked it to be.
About the Author
Anna Jacobs grew up in Lancashire and emigrated to Australia, but still visits the UK regularly to see her family and do research, something she loves. She is addicted to writing and figures she’ll have to live to be 120 at least to tell all the stories that keep popping up in her imagination and nagging her to write them down.
She’s also addicted to her own hero, to whom she’s been happily married for many years.
Anna Jacobs’ novel Pride of Lancashire won the Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award in 2006.
Also by Anna Jacobs
THE GIBSON FAMILY
Salem Street
High Street
Ridge Hill
Hallam Square
Spinners Lake
THE KERSHAW SISTERS
Our Lizzie
Our Polly
Our Eva
Our Mary Ann
THE IRISH SISTERS
A Pennyworth of Sunshine
Twopenny Rainbows
Threepenny Dreams
THE SETTLERS
Lancashire Lass
Lancashire Legacy
THE STALEYS
Down Weavers Lane
Calico Road
THE PRESTON FAMILY
Pride of Lancashire
Star of the North
Bright Day Dawning
Heart of the Town
STAND ALONE NOVELS
Jessie
Like No Other
Tomorrow’s Promises
Yesterday’s Girl
Table of Contents
Freedom’s Land
Copyright
Dedication
ENGLAND, LATE 1923
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Irene and Freddie
Chapter 3
AUSTRALIA, 1923
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About the Author
Also by the Anna Jacobs