His Convict Wife
Page 17
‘Stand by the washstand ladies.’
‘On my count, Samuel.’
Samuel didn’t wait for James’ count. He made a run at the door and threw his bulk into it. He had burst through and found himself in the centre of the unfamiliar room before he even realised the lock had given way.
He registered Colleen huddled together with another woman in the opposite corner before the intense pain in his arm rendered everything else secondary. He rubbed it fiercely, uttering several oaths under his breath in quick succession.
‘Samuel. Thank God you’re here.’
Colleen threw her arms around him, while the other woman, Nellie, hung back. She had a look reminiscent of his wife, except that she was taller and thinner and her hair was blonde not brown. There could be no doubt that they were related.
Samuel yelped in pain.
‘Easy on my arm, now.’
‘Sorry.’
She pulled away.
‘Are you hurt, Colleen?’ James asked grasping her by the upper arm, looking her up and down as if she were a horse’s forelock he was inspecting for damage after a fall.
Colleen shrugged him off.
‘No. You got here in time.’
‘As you can imagine, Danny had plans,’ Nellie said, stepping into the middle of the room.
If they hadn’t arrived when they did. Samuel shuddered. He wouldn’t think about it. What might have happened, hadn’t. That’s all that mattered now.
‘Nellie. Must come with us,’ Colleen said.
Nellie shook her head.
‘You know I can’t.’
‘Samuel, please,’
‘James?’ Samuel looked to his friend for guidance. He felt out of his element in this place and as much as he might have wanted to see his wife’s cousin set free, from what had occurred so far, he doubted it would be that simple.
James pursed his lips into a grim line.
‘I’m sorry Colleen. But Nellie is right. It’s not possible. We’ll be lucky to get out of here without Danny pulling a pistol as it is. He views Nellie as his property. There may be a way, but not here, today.’
Nellie flicked her hands back and forth, shooing her cousin away. ‘You know he’s right, Coll. Go on with ya now. How else will I ever get out of here unless there’s someone to fight for me on the outside?’
Colleen reached to grasp for her cousin, but James pulled her away. ‘There’s no time for that now. Stay between Samuel and me and we’ll go down together.’
James pulled a pistol from beneath his jacket.
Samuel winced. ‘You could have mentioned you had that,’ he said, as he continued to massage his shoulder.
‘Just pray we don’t have to use it.’
At the bottom of the stairs James paused, bringing Colleen and then Samuel to a stop behind him.
Danny had appeared from the bar in to the downstairs passageway. At first he broke into a grin as if he was about to make some bawdy remark, but the lascivious smile quickly gave way to a sneer as he noticed Colleen and Samuel standing behind.
‘We’re not looking for any trouble. Just reclaiming Mrs Biggs, for her lawful husband here. Back away slowly, Danny and there’ll be no problem,’ James said.
Danny looked over James’ head to snarl at Colleen, then dropped his head again, nodding slyly at James.
‘If she really is his wife, you can take her. She usually cost me far more than she earned, anyway, as I remember it, you were one of only a select few who appreciated her talents.’
It wasn’t until they were safely out on the street back with the horses and out of immediate danger that the real significance of Danny O’Shane’s words sank in. They also explained why James had known exactly which room to go to, and that there would be a washstand in the corner.
James had been with his wife.
‘Samuel, about what Danny said in there…’ James said guessing his thoughts.
He tried to respond but Samuel’s body had lost the frame that kept him upright. He found the nearest wall and leaned against it. His mouth had filled with something dry and voluminous as if he had gulped a mouthful of sand. He wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers.
‘What? You’re going to try to tell me it’s not true.’
James backed up against the wall beside him, rubbing his eyes with his hands before dragging them down over his face.
‘No Samuel. I wouldn’t insult you by lying to you. I’ve been true to Thea these last five years, so it was a long time ago, but before that…once or twice…yes, I’m afraid...’ James’ voice petered out.
Samuel turned, sufficiently pumped up with anger now that he no longer required the wall for support.
‘Insult me? And you haven’t done that already? Letting me take up with your leavings?’
‘Leavings, who do you think you’re calling leavings?’ Colleen, who up until then had been quiet, flew at him; light eyes darkened to mahogany, her hands flying to her hips. ‘I slept with hundreds of men Samuel, as well you know, and it meant nothing.’
‘Hundreds I can handle. I don’t know the hundreds do I? But I know James.’
Samuel’s hand had involuntarily formed into a fist that he was now shaking at James.
It was bad enough that Colleen had been used by God only knew how many men. Until tonight they had been faceless, entirely hypothetical, meaningless by way of the dilution of numbers, but knowing now that James…
He struggled to bring his arm, which had been acting independently as if it belonged to an opponent in an arm wrestle, back down to his side.
He spat in the dirt and strode over to his own horse tied up at the hitching post, the one Colleen had ridden to Sydney and would now be the most rested. Once mounted he kicked it into a gallop causing it to rear up on its hind legs before it righted itself and careered out into the street, narrowly missing some overdressed matron’s phaeton.
He wanted nothing more to do with James and even less to do with his wife.
‘I’m sorry, Colleen, but even if it I thought it was a good idea, we can’t follow him. We drove the horses within an inch of their lives to get here. I thought if we didn’t make it before late afternoon…’
Colleen gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and nodded. Every sinew in her body screamed out to dash after Samuel screaming, to try to explain. But the way he had looked at her, like she was nothing to him anymore. She couldn’t bear to see the disgust in his eyes. She could easily have flung herself into the dirt and beat the ground with frustration at not being able to go after him, but James was right. He knew the schedule the bawdy house worked to. The girls filed out for their first showing when the customers started arriving at three o’clock. He’d had no choice but to thrash the horses if they were to get there in time to save her from the evil Danny had planned.
‘We’ll wait a few hours before we head off. It wouldn’t do for us to stay any longer and have to spend the night, and of course Thea will have to be told about this. There’s going to be another difficult conversation to have when I get back home.’
Colleen lips trembled as she tried to hold back the tears long enough to speak.
‘Samuel will never speak to me again and nor will Thea.’
‘I think that’s a real possibility you should prepare yourself for.’
That was the fact of the matter, but to hear James agree so baldly brought it home even more. In one eejit move she had managed to lose a friend and a husband.
‘Where will I go?’
James frowned at her as if he didn’t understand.
‘What do you mean go? Samuel isn’t the sort of man who would desert his wife. It will be awkward, that’s all.’
‘Awkward.’
My God. Awkward didn’t even begin to describe what it would be like to have to live with a man who despised her. To see him look at her like that again. She didn’t think her heart could bear it. Danny hadn’t let it slip that she was pregnant when she had left O’Shane’s for The Factory, but it
was cold comfort. What he had said was more than enough to ruin everything.
She grasped her head with her hands and shook it, huffing a pained breath out through her nose.
‘Jesus, how can I stay with Samuel after this?’
‘Colleen, you’ve got no choice. If you’re found wandering you’ll be picked up and sent back to The Factory, or worse, assigned to another man, one who’ll take advantage of your situation.’
She was trapped. No matter how angry or resentful her husband was, she would just have to put up with it or return to the Factory and face losing her child.
That evening Samuel laid out his swag beside the billabong. He couldn’t stay at the cabin, not now. As soon as he had reached Hunter Downs he had thrown together some supplies and ridden out to the farthest reaches of the farm.
He had swallowed his pride to the fact that Colleen had been a whore, but to accept that his friend and employer had carnal knowledge of his wife before him and then conspired with her to keep their secret was too much to ask a man to bear.
He would be damned before he would accept that. He was stuck with her of course. There was no getting out of their marriage now, but it was over between them.
And Hunter. He had come to think of him as a friend, but not anymore. From now on it would be strictly business between them.
Chapter 16
Of course it would have to have been Liza who eventually delivered the message Colleen had been dreading — the announcement that Thea wanted to see her.
It had taken a few weeks but Colleen had been expecting it sooner or later. Cook had told her that after James arrived home from Sydney there had been yelling and crying, and ever since then Thea had been sleeping in the nursery with the children.
Liza looked dead pleased with herself too, no doubt having guessed what was going on. Once Colleen would have liked nothing better than to have wiped that smug look off her face, but she didn’t have the bottle for it. It was as if Samuel’s reaction to finding out about her and James had knocked all the stuffing out of her.
As it was, she was trembling in her boots as she made the short walk from the cabin to the big house, every step forced, she would much sooner have turned tail and run.
Expecting Thea to go for her as soon as she entered the parlour, she pulled off her mob-cap and pulled out a handful of hair.
‘Thea. I’m so sorry. I understand if you want to scratch me eyes out or pull me hair off me scalp. Here…’
Thea got up from her chair, making it clear that it was going to be a short visit, but she made no move to go for Colleen, clasping her hands together in front of her.
‘Tempting as that may be, Colleen. It’s not what I asked you here for. You were in an impossible situation and as much as it pains me to say it, I know that I would have done the same in your position. It was self-preservation. I’m not saying we’ll ever be friends in the same way that we were before. But I understand. It was years before James even knew me. It’s not like he was unfaithful. He paid for you, that was all.’
He paid for you.
The words stung the way that they were meant to, and Colleen bit back the rise that expanded in her throat.
Once she would have launched herself at Thea for that. The injustice of her standing there calling her a whore because she couldn’t take the truth of it — who her husband really was.
James hadn’t just paid for her. He had paid to have a woman who he knew very well was as good as a slave. He might have been a convict himself but it didn’t make it right. Without money from men like James, Danny O’Shane wouldn’t have had a business.
She held her peace. With Samuel having set up camp on the other side of the farm she was living in the cabin on James and Thea’s goodwill and charity.
Thea had been right when she warned her not to go to O’Shane’s. Sometimes it paid to think things through. She should never have gone to see Nellie. Only someone with mash for brains would have done it.
Thea reached for a package on the table beside her. ‘Here, take it. It’s nothing really, just some calico and thread to make some things for the baby. None of this is the baby’s fault. There might be enough there for something for you as well. Just take it.’ She flung the packet at her and Colleen took it from her just as quickly lest Thea changed her mind and decided to keep it.
‘Thank you, Lady Hunter. I’m ever so grateful and I’ll be getting out of your sight now.’
Colleen backed away towards the door and then all but turned and ran. She had little enough to clothe herself in now. Her old convict clothing had been roomy when she arrived but now she was in danger of busting out of it, and she didn’t have a hope of squeezing into her only proper dress. As far as clothing the baby when it came, she had nothing bar her apron and the few old rags she had found in the dresser to wrap it in.
She was so relieved that having to face up to Thea was over and so grateful for the material she thought she might keel over. And at least now she didn’t feel so guilty like she was keeping some sort of terrible secret. As terrible as it was, it was all out in the open.
And now she knew Thea didn’t hate her. Not deep down. She was mad as a cut snake and she had a right to be.
She hugged the parcel of calico to her chest.
Thea didn’t hate her, not really, or she would never have given her the material for the baby.
‘Mr Biggs.’
Thea’s heart nearly stopped when she stepped back inside the hut and found Samuel sitting at the table. He was ashen-faced, his hat on the table beside him, but at least he was here, and now they could talk.
‘Mrs Biggs,’ he said looking up at her. ‘Are you well?’
Still shaky from her run-in with Thea, Colleen’s heart beat furiously, her legs wobbling at the knees like a couple of insecure hinges flapping about threatening to fold her up.
She flung the bundle of material onto the table and sank into a chair opposite.
At first, Colleen had been almost relieved that Samuel had chosen to stay away for a few days. It meant she didn’t have to face him, but the longer he was gone the more she was afraid that he might never come back.
The nights had been bad. She missed having his big strong body beside her in the bed, but waking up was even worse, because for the first few seconds she would forget what had happened and then have to relive the realisation all over again.
‘Well enough,’ she said watching for his reaction, and when there was none carried on. ‘I’ve a roof over me head, meals, and some material to make things for the baby,’ she said pointing to the package trying not to get carried away with thinking what Samuel turning up might mean.
‘I got my first payment of wages today and there’s a portion for you.’
Mr Biggs placed a sum of money on the table. She grimaced with disappointment then tried to turn it into a smile. She didn’t want him to think she was ungrateful, but if he was leaving her money he wasn’t planning to stay.
‘I don’t want any more of your charity. I’ll get by.’
‘There’s no charity involved in a man providing for his lawful wife.’
Her breath caught in her throat.
He had called her wife.
‘So you still see me that way?’
‘Of course,’ he said looking surprised, as if hadn’t occurred to him to see her as anything else.
Maybe there was some hope after all? Perhaps they could go back to the way it had been between them at first?
If she had only listened and hadn’t pressed him to be a proper husband, been honest about being pregnant and if she had never gone to his bed, Samuel might have been able to accept what had happened before with James and things would never have come to this.
‘Then let’s put things back the way they were,’ she said quickly barely stopping to draw breath. ‘I’ll go back to sleepin’ in the scullery and it will all be the way it was.’
Samuel looked at her. ‘But that’s not how it was and you know it. Things ha
d moved on. There’s no going back to that, not now.’
‘But why does it have to be so different that it’s with James when you could accept that I slept with so many others?’
‘It just is.’
‘But why?’
‘Can you tell me what you did with him? Tell me what he did to you.’
She looked down at her hands in her lap. Fortunately the exact details were something she couldn’t remember. Unless they were cruel or perverted one customer blended into the next.
‘Go on, tell me.’
His voice rising to a shout.
‘Sam — ’
Samuel held up his hands. ‘No stop I don’t want to know.’
‘Even if I could remember and I can’t, I would never tell you. It’s forgotten. It was nothing, it’s as if it never happened. He was just one of hundreds.’
‘But that’s the point, it’s not forgotten. Every time I think of you, look at you…’ He turned his face away from her. ‘I’m asking the same question. What did Hunter do to my wife? Where did he touch you? Where did you touch him?’
She clasped her hands into fists, pushing them down against the table when all she wanted to do was reach over and grasp him, hold on to him, make it better, if only she knew how, and never let him go.
‘Samuel, you can’t be torturing yourself like this.’
‘But that’s the thing. I can’t stop. Not now I know you and James were lying to me. Have a good laugh about it did you? Conspiring to “keep Samuel in the dark”, “what stupid Samuel doesn’t know won’t worry him”?’
She couldn’t believe he could even think that of her.
‘Of course we didn’t. We never spoke of it. Not once.’
‘You never spoke of it? How can I believe that?’
‘Because it’s the truth. He just told me with his eyes like — that it was something never to be spoken of — not ever.’