by Dilly Court
With Alice mollified after a breakfast of porridge and tea, and a wash in warm water using one of their precious cakes of soap, Essie felt free to take Sadie to buy some necessities. Raven gave her some money and Freddie accompanied them. They had to make their way on foot through the miners’ humpies and bark gunyahs. These, Raven had explained, were shelters made by fossickers who travelled from one area to another in an attempt to strike it lucky. The gunyahs could be dismantled easily or simply left to rot, and some of the inhabitants were best avoided, which Essie could quite believe, judging by a few of the characters they passed on the way to Tandy’s.
The sun had risen and it was pleasantly warm. Spring flowers bloomed beneath trees that were bursting into leaf. Sadie skipped along, hardly able to contain her excitement and Essie enjoyed the feeling of the hard-packed mud beneath her feet. After months at sea it was a relief to be on dry land, and with the hint of spring in the air, and the knowledge that their return home was not too far away she felt free to enjoy the new experience. Living in camp was not going to be easy, but to a girl brought up in Limehouse nothing was impossible.
‘There it is,’ Freddie said, pointing to a timber building ahead of them. ‘General Store’ had been painted in straggling black letters on a sign pinned above the entrance, and the window was filled with a jumble of pots and pans, tin dippers and tools. Freddie hurried them past a large shack, where scantily dressed females loitered in the doorway and the smell of stale alcohol and tobacco smoke wafted through the open doors. Freddie doffed his hat to two of the older women. ‘Good morning, ladies.’
It was an innocent remark but was acknowledged by a torrent of abuse. The elder of the two spat a stream of tobacco juice at him, narrowly missing his shoes.
‘I think they misunderstood,’ Essie said, chuckling. ‘They thought you were mocking them, Freddie. They aren’t used to gentlemanly behaviour.’ She waved to the frowsy-looking pair. ‘He meant no harm.’
Their reply was lost as Freddie hurried Essie and Sadie into Tandy’s store.
‘They was worse than them what hang about outside the kip-shops in Seven Dials,’ Sadie said primly. ‘I never heard such language in all me born days.’
‘Never mind them,’ Essie said hastily. ‘Let’s get what we need and then we can set about making the cabin comfortable.’
The man leaning on the counter with a clay pipe clenched between his teeth watched them with narrowed eyes. ‘You’ll find everything you need here,’ he grunted. ‘But cash on the nail only. No credit, so don’t ask for it.’
‘Wouldn’t dream of it, old chap,’ Freddie said equably.
‘Just warning you, mate.’
Essie moved on quickly. She did not like the look of Old Tandy, who could have been any age from forty to sixty, but his balding head and long grey beard were ageing, and his surly expression was far from welcoming. Freddie ignored the implied threat and wandered off to inspect the barrels of salt pork, molasses and flour. Sides of bacon hung from the rafters and strings of onions were draped around hooks screwed into the joists. The scent of tea and roasted coffee beans mingled with that of beeswax, lamp oil and candles. The shelves were piled high with tin mugs and plates, cooking utensils and gardening tools. Spades, hoes and larger implements were ranged around the walls and on the opposite side of the large square room were bolts of calico, cotton and broadcloth. Trays of cotton, needles and scissors were scattered about, and boxes of knitting needles and crochet hooks were packed together alongside spools of coloured ribbon. A dusty spinning wheel sat in one corner as if begging someone to take it home and set it working, and a baby’s cradle was filled with seed corn, onion sets and seed potatoes. Essie had a good look round, mentally working out how much she should spend as she decided what they needed most.
Half an hour later, each of them laden with their purchases, they left the store, making a wide detour of the alehouse and brothel, and retraced their steps to the shack. They were halfway there when Essie’s skirt caught on a thorn bush and with her arms full of parcels she was unable to free herself. The others were ahead of her and she was about to call for help when a creature slithered out of the shadows, crawling across the dried mud towards her. She held her breath, staring in horror at the misshapen body.
‘Who are you?’ she asked nervously.
‘What’s yer name, girl?’ The bald head did not look up as a bony hand reached out to grab her skirt.
She was too scared to cry out, but she managed to whisper her name. ‘Essie Chapman.’
‘I won’t hurt you, Essie Chapman.’
The gnarled fingers worked quickly to free her, and although she was tempted to run away something made her hesitate. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured. ‘What’s your name, sir?’
He looked up and she realised that her rescuer was an old man, whose crooked body and crippled legs made him look monstrous. His clothes were torn and filthy, and he smelled worse than the Thames at low tide.
‘They say I’m mad,’ he said, cackling with humourless laughter.
‘Who says such a cruel thing?’
‘Everyone. They shun me because I’m a cripple, but I wasn’t always like this.’
‘How did it happen? Did you have an accident?’
‘The pit prop gave way and rocks fell on me. They thought I was dead, but I survived.’
Essie looked into his eyes and realised that he was blind, or at the very least partially sighted. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said softly. ‘Is there no one to care for you?’
‘I don’t need no one. Mind your own business.’ Suddenly aggressive, he shuffled away, disappearing into the shadows like a wild animal.
‘Come on, Essie,’ Freddie shouted. ‘What are you doing back there?’
‘Just coming.’ Essie hurried on.
‘What were you doing?’ Sadie demanded when Essie caught up with them.
‘My skirt snagged on a thorn bush, and then a weird old man crawled out of the trees and grabbed my skirt. He released me and then he disappeared.’
‘You’re shaking,’ Freddie said, frowning. ‘Did he hurt you, Essie? If he did—’
‘No, not at all. He scared me, but only because he looked so odd. He said he’d been injured in a rock fall, but he didn’t tell me his name.’
‘Raven will know.’ Freddie gave her an encouraging smile. ‘I’d give you a hug if I could, but let’s get you back to the hut, and I’ll cook us a meal.’
They arrived to find Alice receiving a lesson in sweeping the floor from Leah. She turned at the sound of their approach and threw down the broom. ‘There, I’ve done my bit, Mrs Halfpenny. Sadie can take over now.’
Leah shook her head. ‘We all have to do our bit here, miss. Those what don’t find themselves in a pretty pickle, and you don’t have to take my word for it. If you’re not careful you’ll have poisonous spiders, cockroaches and all manner of ants and creepy crawlies taking over. You need to sweep at least once a day and keep the place spotless.’
‘That’s what servants are for,’ Alice said wearily. ‘I was just humouring you, madam. Now, thank you for your advice, but I’m sure you have things to do in your own shack.’
Essie put the packages she had been carrying on the deck. ‘That was unkind,’ she protested as Leah pushed past her and ran towards her home. ‘That woman has a hard life and she was just trying to help.’
Freddie dumped the pots and pans, mops and scrubbing brushes in a heap, wiping his hands on the seat of his trousers. ‘You’ll have to mend your ways here, Alice. You can’t treat these people as if they were your servants.’
‘I should be doing that, my lady,’ Sadie murmured shyly. ‘It ain’t your place to sweep floors.’
‘No, it is not.’ Alice tossed her head. ‘It was Raven’s idea, and he called that woman in to show me what to do. It was humiliating, to say the least, and then, to cap it all, he went off to do whatever it is that keeps him busy all day.’
‘Do stop moaning, Alice,’ Freddie said cr
ossly. ‘We’ve got to survive in this place, so he’s right. You’ll have to do your bit, and the sooner I learn how the mining business works the better, and then we can go home and start putting things to right at Starcross Abbey.’
Alice eyed him curiously. ‘You’ve never shown any interest in that stately pile. Why now?’
‘I’ve had five long years to think about it,’ Freddie said simply. ‘I wasn’t just amusing myself daubing paint on canvas and romancing the local girls.’
Essie had had enough of their squabbles and she began sorting through their purchases. ‘I think Leah is right. We have to work together or go under. I’ll do my fair share and so will Sadie.’ She met Alice’s mutinous gaze with an unblinking stare. ‘What about you?’
‘I see that I’m outnumbered,’ Alice said stiffly. ‘All right, I’ll do what I can, but don’t expect too much of me. I’ve been waited on all my life and I don’t know how to scrub a floor or wash clothes.’
‘We’ll teach you.’ Essie waited a second or two, expecting to be cut down to size by a furious aristocrat, but Alice merely nodded.
‘All right. I agree, but don’t ask me to cook anything unless you want to risk being poisoned.’
Whether it was the threat of an invasion of poisonous spiders and other bugs that had constrained Alice to join them in keeping the hut clean and making it more comfortable, Essie did not know, but now they were equals, at least in theory. Alice Crozier, the earl’s daughter, was making an effort, even if she slipped back into her old ways at times.
Freddie joined Raven at the diggings each morning and Essie learned to cook simple meals. She went to Leah for advice on how to make bread, setting the dough to rise overnight and baking it in the brick oven that Raven had constructed outside. In return she helped Leah on her vegetable patch, and created one of her own, aided by Sadie. Sometimes, when Leah seemed particularly tired, Essie took over, making her friend sit in the shade of a gum tree while she did the hard work.
One afternoon Sadie had accompanied Alice to Tandy’s store and Essie was weeding between the rows of beans and onions. Leah had almost fainted while pegging out lines of washing and Essie had insisted that she went to lie down. Leah agreed, but only when Essie promised to finish what she had started. Essie was hard at work when a shadow fell across the warm soil. She looked up and found herself staring at a giant of a man.
‘Where’s Ma?’
Essie scrambled to her feet. She knew that Leah had three sons, named from the Bible. ‘You must be Shem?’
He shook his head. ‘Nah!’
‘Ham?’ she said, guessing again.
‘Japheth. I’m the baby of the family.’ He took her hand and shook it, pumping her arm up and down, his mouth stretched into a wide grin, revealing a row of stained and broken teeth.
‘Japheth,’ she repeated breathlessly. ‘I’m Essie.’
‘I know who you are. I seen you often.’
‘Well, I haven’t seen you, except maybe in the distance. I’m pleased to meet you, Japheth.’
‘They call me Big Joe on account that I’m so large.’ He released her hand to push his wide-brimmed hat to the back of his head. ‘Why are you doing Ma’s work?’
‘She wasn’t feeling too well, Joe. I think she does too much.’
He shook his head and his tow-coloured hair flopped over his brow. ‘Ma’s as strong as an ox. She’s never tired.’
‘You’re wrong there. Why did you want her, anyway? Is there anything I can do?’
‘I dunno. You’re new here, and you’re with the toff who’s good with his fists. I seen him lay out three men, one after the other.’
Essie was suddenly seeing Raven in a new light. ‘That’s as maybe, Joe, but if there’s anything I can do to help your ma, then I’d be pleased to help. She’s been good to me since I arrived here.’
‘That’s Ma, all right. But it’s not for her, it’s Beasley, the creeping man, as they call him. She takes him bread and biscuits when she’s done some baking. Pa built her an oven, just like at home in Sydney.’
‘The creeping man.’ Essie shuddered as she remembered the badly crippled person who had untangled her skirt from the thorny bush. ‘His name is Beasley?’
‘That’s right. He got caught in a rock fall. Crippled his mind as well as his poor body. Ma is the only one who takes care of him.’
‘Can’t you do it for her sometimes?’
His brown eyes widened in horror and his wide mouth sagged open, as if she had said something shocking. ‘Me? No, that’s woman’s work, miss. My brothers would think I had a screw loose if I was to do anything like that.’ He put his hat straight and turned away. ‘I’m going to find Ma and tell her that Beasley is sick and can’t feed hisself.’
Essie hurried after him, sending a shower of grit off her skirts as she moved. ‘No, don’t do that, Joe. I’ll take some food to Beasley. I know where he hides out.’
‘He built hisself a humpy amongst the trees.’
‘I know,’ Essie said, nodding. ‘I’ll find him. You just let your ma rest and leave Beasley to me. I owe him a favour anyway.’
The hut was empty and it was easy for Essie to help herself to a small loaf and some cold salt pork that they had roasted for supper the previous evening. She wrapped the food in a clean cloth and set off to find Beasley, retracing her steps to where she thought they had met. The camp was bursting with noise and bustling with activity. The sound of sawing and the crash of trees falling to the ground was accompanied by the roar of the steam engine that powered the giant ore crushing machine. Essie had learned something of the process by listening to Freddie and Raven chatting after supper each evening. They were still finding small nuggets, although nothing like the large one that had made Raven’s fortune. Nevertheless, it was profitable enough to continue and they talked of moving on to Bendigo. There was unrest amongst the miners due to the rise in the cost of mining licences. Tempers were reaching boiling point, and trouble was coming. Leah was also worried and had warned Essie to keep away from the tented community, but she put all this out of her mind as she went to find Beasley. The image of the poor man starving in his gunyah was too much to bear, and she was in a hurry to get to him before Alice and Sadie returned from Old Tandy’s store.
She had reached the thicket of tall slender trees when she almost trod on something that moved with terrifying speed. She came to a petrified halt as the deadly brown snake raised its head, preparing to strike …
Chapter Eleven
Frozen to the spot and unable to move a muscle, Essie gazed into the cold eyes of the snake, convinced that she was about to die. Then, just as it was preparing to strike, a hand reached out to grab it by its tail. With surprising strength Beasley cracked the reptile like a whip and tossed the inert body into the scrub.
‘Are you all right, missy?’
Essie leaned against the trunk of a gum tree, gasping for breath. The pungent scent of its bark would always remind her of the moment when she narrowly escaped death. ‘I’m fine, Mr Beasley.’ Even to her own ears her voice sounded thin and shaky.
He subsided onto the ground with a ragged groan and she hurried to his side.
‘What can I do? How far is it to your hut?’
‘Give me a minute.’ He raised himself on his bony elbow, his eyes suddenly alert as he sniffed the air. ‘What you got there? Do I smell meat?’
Essie sat down beside him and started to unwrap the parcel of food, but he grabbed a chunk of salt pork, biting into it like a ravenous hound. He demolished the piece, even though he appeared to have lost all his teeth, and he finished by stuffing the bread into his mouth.
‘You were hungry.’ Essie rose to her feet. ‘What can I do to help you, sir?’
He cocked his head on one side, eyeing her with a twisted grin. ‘No one’s ever called me “sir”. Are you in your right mind, missy?’
‘My name is Esther, but everyone calls me Essie. What do your friends call you?’
‘Beasley,
’ he muttered, wiping a stream of saliva from the corner of his mouth. ‘I ain’t got no other name. Born in the penal colony and left to run wild, I never knew what it was like to have a family.’
Essie stared at him, horrified by the casual way he spoke of his past. ‘But your mother must have loved you.’
His hollow laughter echoed eerily through the stand of trees, disturbing a flock of colourful rainbow lorikeets. They flew up into the air shrieking and chattering as if complaining at the disturbance. ‘I dunno. I don’t really remember her.’
‘Your father?’ Essie asked tentatively, although she could guess at the answer.
‘I don’t think she knew, and if she did she kept it to herself. It don’t matter now, anyway. She died of consumption when I was a nipper. I got no one and that’s how I like it.’
Essie reached out to touch his hand but he snatched it away. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘You are, aren’t you?’ He peered at her beneath bushy grey eyebrows. ‘Why should you care?’
‘I wouldn’t treat a dog like the people here have treated you,’ Essie said angrily. ‘Except for Leah, that is. She’s a good woman and I know she’s been bringing you food, but surely there are others who could at least see that you have proper shelter and something to eat?’
He shuffled backwards, moving on his belly. ‘I don’t need charity. I can look after meself.’
‘You need a wash and some clean clothes.’ Essie followed him as he slithered towards his makeshift home, and for the first time she saw his gunyah. It was made entirely from sheets of bark, which were laid over wooden props, creating a tent-like shelter.
He crawled inside. ‘Ta for the food. Now go away. If they sees you here they’ll throw stones at you as well as me. The fools think I’m cursed.’ He collapsed onto the dirt floor, laying his head on his arm.
Essie could see that it was useless to argue and she walked away, but she had no intention of abandoning him. Beasley’s story had touched her heart and had made her realise just how lucky she was. With good health and good friends nothing was impossible, and grumbling about the privations they suffered seemed futile and childish when compared to the life that the poor cripple was forced to endure.