Isabelle was still quiet and pleasant, and Kitty and Maria both prayed that it would continue. In truth she had been like a different person since Maria had lost her baby. Oh, Maria still tended to her needs admittedly, but the old Isabelle was gone and in her place was a much more compassionate and considerate girl. Now she was happy to wear whatever Maria laid out for her each day, and with her glorious hair loose about her shoulders or tied back with a simple ribbon, she appeared younger and somehow more vulnerable.
Josh came back to them with a rueful smile on his face. ‘I’m afraid I have been told that there is only one hotel here, if it could be classed as such. But I dare say it will be comfortable enough and tomorrow we can return and take a boat to Port Arthur in Tasmania. That kind gentleman I approached is arranging transport right now for us.’
Behind them, all was hustle and bustle as the rest of the passengers were transported ashore. Burly seamen were toting trunks and leading livestock from down in the hold. The poor beasts had spent most of the trip in total darkness; many of them had not survived the journey and those that had, blinked in the bright light looking frail and weak. Now they had to face being dragged through the water with ropes around their necks, until they could feel the sand beneath them.
‘Eeh, the poor things,’ Kitty said.
‘Oh, they’ll soon pick up again here,’ Josh assured her with a kindly pat to her hand. ‘The grazing land around here is perfect for cattle and sheep.’ He did not have time to say any more, for then an open cart pulled by two horses drew up beside them.
‘Are you the gen’leman wanting a lift to the inn?’ the ruddy-faced driver asked in a curious accent that neither Maria nor Kitty had ever heard before.
‘We are, sir.’ Josh smiled.
The man pointed to the bench seats in the back of the cart, eyeing Isabelle curiously. ‘Then you climb up alongside o’ me,’ he said, ‘an’ help the ladies into the back while I fasten on all your luggage.’
Josh grinned, thinking how different this conveyance was to the fashionable carriage they were used to back at home, but he did as he was told without a murmur and eventually they were trundling along the rough dusty track.
Kitty sat between Maria and Isabelle giggling as they were thrown from side to side and thoroughly enjoying the adventure whilst they clung to the sides of the cart for dear life. The horses slowly pulled the cart up a steep hill with the driver urging them on all the time, and at the top they found that the view was quite breathtaking. Ahead of them, fields full of sheep stretched into the distance for as far as the eye could see, whilst behind them the ocean was a sparkling azure blue. They passed humble habitations dotted here and there on the hillside and they took in their surroundings as the cart rumbled on. Eventually they came to a small township and the cart stopped in front of a large wooden building.
‘This is it then,’ the driver informed them, hopping lithely down from his seat. ‘Ma Preston runs the inn. She does the best steak pie you’ll ever taste, an I’ll return to take you’s all back to port tomorrow.’
Josh thanked him and gave him a generous tip, then with his help began to hump all the trunks and valises to the door, which was opened by a middle-aged lady who spoke in the same strange accent as the driver who had transported them there.
‘Is it rooms you’re wanting?’ she asked with no preamble.
Josh nodded and bowed, ‘Yes, please, madam. Two singles and a double if you have them available.’
‘I reckon I can manage that.’ She could tell folk of quality when she saw them and quickly ushered them inside. ‘And how long will you be staying?’ she asked as a man, possibly her husband, appeared over her shoulder.
‘Just until we can get the ship to Port Arthur tomorrow. Our uncle lives in Tasmania,’ Josh explained.
She nodded, telling the man, ‘Frank, get this luggage up to the rooms if you please while I make these good people a nice pot of coffee. I’ve no doubt you will all be thirsty. And I have some hot biscuits straight from the oven that will keep you going until dinnertime if you’d care for some.’
Frank, a short man in a cap and plain breeches and shirt, jumped to do as he was told and Josh grinned to himself. If this was Mr Preston, there was no mistaking who was the boss in this household.
Maria and Kitty meanwhile were staring about in astonishment. Every single thing seemed to be made of wood. The walls, the floors, the ceilings; even the furniture appeared to be all hand-carved, but it was homely all the same and spotlessly clean – or at least as clean as the dusty road outside would allow it to be.
‘Come this way,’ Ma Preston urged them as Frank grabbed the first of the enormous trunks and began to haul it up a staircase that was little more than a glorified ladder.
They obediently followed her down a hallway and entered a large kitchen, again consisting mainly of wood.
‘Sit yourselves down,’ Ma Preston instructed, gesturing towards a rough plank table in the middle of the room, and while her back was turned, Josh gave Maria an amused wink. This was obviously a woman who was used to getting her own way, although for all that, she seemed pleasant enough.
Soon they were drinking fragrant coffee, liberally laced with sugar and milk, and eating home-made wheat biscuits fresh from the oven. A large range took up most of one wall and the room was stifling, making Isabelle’s cheeks glow.
‘Thank you, that was most welcome,’ Josh said after a while. ‘But now if you don’t mind, I think my sister would welcome a lie-down before dinner. She tends to tire easily.’
‘Hmm, I dare say she does.’ Ma Preston made a point of staring at the third finger of Isabelle’s left hand before her eyes dropped to her protruding stomach. But she made no comment. They were paying guests, after all, and what the young madam had been up to was no business of hers at the end of the day, although she wouldn’t mind betting the girl wasn’t wed.
Frank, who was obviously as far under the thumb as it was possible to be, had just entered the room after shifting all the luggage up to the rooms and now she barked at him, ‘Kindly show these good folk up to their rooms, please, Frank. Mrs er . . . the young lady wishes to have a lay-down afore dinner.’
He nodded obligingly and they all rose and trooped after him, Josh bowing politely before he took his leave of Ma Preston.
When her husband entered the kitchen again some minutes later, the woman grinned at him. ‘That young lady won’t be long before she drops her load,’ she whispered conspiratorially. ‘An’ I’ll bet you any money it’s a bastard she’s carryin’. Why else would her brother be bringin’ her all this way in that condition, I ask yer?’
Her long-suffering husband shrugged. ‘Well, Mother, ’t’ain’t none of our business, is it, just so long as they pay their bill an’ don’t make any mischief for us.’
She sniffed but she supposed he was right and went about her chores. Ma Preston prided herself on having the cleanest house in town, and winter or not, the damn dust floating through the open window was settling all across the furniture again like nobody’s business.
Upstairs, Maria was helping Isabelle out of her gown so that she could rest before their meal.
‘Thank you, dear,’ Isabelle told her meekly as she swung her legs up onto the bed. Again Maria was struck by the change in her mistress – not that she was complaining, far from it. In the weeks since Maria had lost her baby, Isabelle had changed almost beyond recognition and the changes were all to the good. It was hard to believe that this was the same wilful, selfish young lady who had boarded the ship in Liverpool. The foot-stamping and tantrums seemed to be things of the past now. Instead, she would sit contentedly for hours quietly stroking the mound that was her unborn child and Maria wondered now if she had had a change of heart about it. Maria could scarcely remember the last time Isabelle had called it a bastard or raged about the condition she found herself in.
Now Isabelle sighed happily as she settled back onto the soft pillows in their crisp white covers. ‘I do
believe this is a feather mattress,’ she said. After the stiff straw mattresses on board ship, she felt as if she had died and gone to heaven.
Maria smiled indulgently as she slid the clean woollen blanket that was neatly folded across the bottom of the bed over Isabelle’s ungainly shape.
‘Good, I’m glad you are comfortable. Now you try to rest while I just go and check on Kitty, then I might come back and have a nap myself.’ Another, narrower bed stood across from Isabelle’s and at the moment it was looking very tempting. She was much better now following her miscarriage, although she still tended to tire easily and she had not regained all the weight she had lost, despite Kitty’s and Josh’s best efforts to persuade her to eat. The food on board, particularly during the latter part of their voyage, had not been very appetising, but she was sure that now she was on dry land again she would soon make a full recovery. She folded Isabelle’s gown across the back of the chair and tiptoed away to see Kitty, who was in the next room, leaving Isabelle to rest.
Kitty was grinning like a Cheshire cat as she pointed towards the window with a look of wonder on her face. ‘Eeh, yer’d never think they were comin’ up to their winter, would yer? It’s so warm, ain’t it? An’ when do yer reckon we’ll get to see one o’ them kangaroos?’
‘I shouldn’t think it will be too long,’ Maria told her with a smile. ‘Have you everything you need?’
‘Ooh, not ’alf,’ Kitty chuckled. ‘An’ to think I’m havin’ me dinner cooked fer me an’ bein’ waited on, eh?’
‘Well, don’t get too used to it,’ Maria warned with a wry grin. ‘Once we get to Isabelle’s uncle’s I’ve no doubt we’ll both have to pull our weight again.’
Kitty was standing at the window now, staring down into the street and suddenly she gasped as she spotted a brightly coloured bird settle on the branch of a nearby tree.
‘Why, would yer just look at that!’ she breathed in awe. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anythin’ so pretty!’
Maria hurried to join her and had to agree. ‘I think it might be a parrot,’ she remarked.
‘I knew this were goin’ to turn into an adventure, I just knew it,’ Kitty said dreamily, and with a grin Maria left her to it and went to rest.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning following a hearty breakfast Mr Preston arranged for the same open-backed trap that had delivered them to his home to take them all to the port, and so at last the party of four began the final leg of their sea journey on the Dolphin. None of them was too keen to leave terra firma again, but feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep and knowing that this voyage would be nowhere near as long as the first, they all endured it cheerfully.
‘Oh my, would you just look at that.’ Kitty clapped her hands with delight as the boat approached Port Arthur. Lush green hills covered in an array of colourful plants and flowers towered above them and Kitty was sure she had never seen anything quite so pretty. The boat they had travelled on was smaller than the Northern Lights and the crossing from Hobson’s Bay to Port Arthur had been calm and pleasant.
Once the boat was anchored, they were rowed ashore and their luggage was unloaded onto the jetty by a ruddy-faced seaman. Josh gave him a handsome tip that sent the sailor scuttling off to find transport for them. Meanwhile other sailors continued to unload great barrels of rum and flour, livestock and any number of goods from the ship’s hold. Isabelle was looking enchanting in a loose satin dress of sapphire blue that she had purchased from the emporium in Liverpool, and she was receiving more than a few admiring glances, despite her condition. However, she seemed oblivious to them as she stared dreamily up into the hills. She wore a fringed shawl about her shoulders in a lighter shade of blue and her magnificent hair was tied back with a matching ribbon. Kitty and Maria had also gone to great lengths to look their best to meet Josh and Isabelle’s uncle and were neatly turned out in their finest, although they were plainly dressed compared to their mistress.
‘Ah, here we are,’ Josh said after a while as an open-backed carriage pulled by two tired-looking horses trotted towards them. ‘It won’t be long now, ladies, and you’ll get to meet the rebel of Mama’s family.’
Maria would have liked to ask him what he meant, but knowing that it was not her place she remained silent as Josh helped them all up onto the seats. The luggage was strapped to the back, and then after being given directions, the driver climbed into the seat and they set off slowly up the steep hill leaving the pretty little port with its cerulean blue seas behind them.
On the way Josh pointed out different plants and flowers, and Kitty listened enthralled.
‘That is a cactus plant over there – look. It thrives here because of the warm dry climate.’
Kitty studied the prickly green leaves and the vivid pink trumpet-like flowers.
‘And that there is funnel, and over there are wild orchids. Those on that side are wax flowers, very common here, as are those Blue Gum and Golden Wattle trees.’
He then went on to tell them that until quite recently, Tasmania had been known as Van Diemen’s Land, and they listened intently.
It seemed to take forever for them to reach the top of the hill and Maria began to worry about the poor horses but at last they made it and the countryside was spread before them in all its glory. It was like something Maria had read about in fairytales. Green and lush and so beautiful it almost took her breath away. Wild rhododendrons grew in profusion on either side of the rough dirt track, thick with blooms, and the scent of flowers hung heavy on the air. There were vast areas of woodland and streams that sparkled in the sunlight.
‘Uncle Freddie’s ranch is about four miles away,’ Josh informed them as the horse picked up speed. ‘And I’m sure you’ll like it.’
They all fell silent then as they admired the passing countryside and there was nothing to be heard but the buzz of insects and the sound of the horses’ hooves. They passed a waterfall cascading down into a pool so clear that they could see right to the bottom of it and Maria would have loved nothing better than to take her clothes off and scramble into it – not that it would have been a very ladylike thing to do, of course, but the thought made her smile all the same.
Another two miles further on, the horses suddenly slowed and Kitty’s eyes stretched wide with pleasure at her first sight of a kangaroo as it hopped across the lane in front of them.
‘Would you just look at that little Joey in her pouch,’ she screeched excitedly. ‘Ain’t it clever? Why, it’s a shame we humans can’t have a little sack o’ skin on our bellies fer the same purpose. It would beat havin’ to carry the babies about all day, wouldn’t it?’
Josh beamed at her pleasure. Kitty had really come out of her shell since leaving England and in no way resembled the shy, downtrodden girl they had taken from Hatter’s Hall. Her hair was now streaked with gold from the sun and she had regained a little weight following her illness, which suited her. But it was her eyes where he saw the greatest change. They had lost their haunted look and now sparkled with delight.
Poor child, he found himself thinking, for even now what future could she have? She was an orphaned bastard brought up in a mental asylum – and who would want her when they discovered that? But then the Colonies were a place for new beginnings, where different rules applied. She might thrive here. He turned his attention to Isabelle, who was sitting quietly with her parasol shielding her from the sun. She had spoken scarcely two words the whole morning, and even though he felt the change in his sister was for the better, it was taking some getting used to.
And then finally he allowed himself to peep at Maria. She still had dark shadows under her eyes and her clothes hung loosely on her now, but he hoped that this would change once they reached his uncle’s ranch and she could get some decent food inside her.
They continued in silence, each of them enjoying the picturesque landscape, and then at last as they reached the top of yet another rise Josh pointed down into a valley.
�
�There is Uncle Freddie’s ranch.’
All eyes turned in the direction of his pointing finger and Maria’s face lit up brighter than the sun that was shining down on them.
The homestead, which looked enormous even from a distance, was nestled deep down in a valley surrounded by lush green fields where fat sheep were contentedly grazing. Maria was sure that there must have been hundreds of them. The house was a long, one-storey building surrounded by a white picket fence, and like the rest of the buildings they had passed it was made entirely of wood. People were rushing around like ants and even from this distance Maria could see that the majority of them were black. They were no doubt the local indigenous people employed by Uncle Freddie to help run the sheep-farming business.
As the carriage began its descent into the valley, Maria peered out, intent on not missing anything. It took quite a while to coax the horses down the steep incline, even when all the passengers jumped down to walk until they were back on level ground, and she soon realised that the ranch was much further away than it had appeared to be. But then this whole place was enormous, as she was fast learning.
Eventually the horses drew to a halt in front of a long verandah that wrapped right the way around the wooden structure. A wooden swing, which would offer shelter from the sun, stood to one side of the door, and Maria saw that all the doors and windows that were visible were open and draped in fine mosquito nets.
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