They stared at each other; she looked away. A moment later, as gently as a moth folding its wings, she withdrew her hand from his.
The other party was very close, now.
‘At least answer me,’ he said.
She did not speak but turned and walked slowly up the flight of stone steps. He followed, anger tight within him. At the top of the steps she did not go indoors, as he had expected, but turned, paced slowly to the end of the terrace and rested her hands on the stone balustrade. Below them, the parallel lines of flares bisected the night. There was a chatter of voices as the group crossed the terrace and went into the house. A gust of music came through the open door and died away as it closed.
Cash stood at Virginia’s side, saying nothing, determined to wait her out. He had spoken; now it was up to her to respond, or not, as she chose.
Eventually, in a voice so low he had to strain to hear it, she said, ‘My father is a man of … of strong views, Mr Tremain. He would never permit me to be … courted by anyone he had not approved himself.’
‘Are you saying he would not approve of me?’ He looked at her but again she would not turn her head. He was angry and frustrated. They both knew they had to go in. ‘Perhaps you would prefer me not to pursue the matter at all?’
She turned, then, the blue eyes distressed. ‘I … please, Mr Tremain, I did not say that. I know my father, that is all. He is … very ambitious for me. I want no trouble. For you or anyone.’
‘You think he will say I am not good enough for you?’
‘It is not a question of being good enough. We are a … wealthy family. That is why, whenever any young men have approached me in the past, he has always driven them away. He believes they are after my fortune, you see.’
Cash hated the idea of anyone approaching her, fortune or not.
‘Do you think I am a fortune hunter?’
She put her hand on his arm. ‘It is not a question of what I think. We are new in the colony. We know no one. He does not know you. I am saying he will view any approach you make with the gravest suspicion, that is all.’
‘You think I should do nothing then.’
A long pause.
‘I … I think it would be best.’
‘I don’t,’ Cash said.
‘We met only this evening.’
Anger, frustration, desire combined to make him push recklessly ahead. ‘I know how I feel. If you feel the same …’
‘No,’ she said.
He stopped. Looked at her. ‘Are you saying you feel nothing for me?’
She watched the darkness. ‘Yes. That is what I am saying. Yes.’
‘I do not believe you.’
A slight lift of her shoulders.
‘Look at me and say it. Look at me and say you have no feelings for me.’
‘We don’t know each other.’ A hint of desperation in her voice. ‘How can I be expected to have feelings for someone I don’t know?’
‘I don’t know you,’ he said.
Silence.
‘I have feelings,’ he said.
Silence.
‘Look at me,’ he said.
She did not move.
He leant closer. ‘Look at me and say you have no feelings for me. Look at me and say you do not want me to speak to your father.’
Distressed, she said, ‘I am so afraid …’
His heart leapt in triumph. ‘There is nothing to be afraid of.’
‘Can’t we wait?’ She turned urgently to him, her voice entreating. ‘Let us go on seeing each other like this. It will give us the chance to know each other better. It will give him the chance to get to know you. Do you have to try to take things further now?’
What she said was sensible but Cash was not in the mood to be sensible. He felt like running away with her, tonight. The idea of waiting, of jumping obediently through the social hoops in order to earn her father’s approval, was abhorrent.
‘I have a boat,’ he said. ‘A sealer. She is in the water at Sydney Cove. I shall be working on her tomorrow. If you happened to be in the area,’ he glanced quickly at her, ‘and were interested, I could perhaps show her to you.’
She did not seem to hear him. ‘If you go to my father now, before he has the chance to know you, he will say no. Then we shall not be able to see each other at all. That is something to be afraid of.’
Her words made him high with excitement. She had admitted her feelings for him and he would allow nothing to stand in his way. ‘He will not say no. I will speak to him and he will say yes.’
She shook her head. ‘I know him. He will say no.’
TWENTY-SIX
The next day, back at Sydney Cove, Cash walked down the wharf, feeling the sun hot on his back, watching the colour and scurry of the passers-by. He could not believe how the place had grown since his arrival less than a year ago. There was nothing here, then, he thought. No wharf, no buildings, not a quarter of the people. Now look what’s happened to it. To say nothing of what’s happened to me. Came here with nothing. Now I’ve got Nantucket, a half-share in Pelican and a cargo on the water somewhere between here and England. If we beat the East India Company, and we will, I shall have money. At last. All the contacts in London I need. I shall be able to buy more ships, more cargo. The colony needs everything – furniture, building materials, equipment, farm goods, iron, tools, cloth – there’s no end to it. We’ll be able to cater for it all.
I’ll buy land, he thought. Somewhere with a view over the harbour. Build my own house. Start a dynasty.
Two ladies were walking towards him. The elder’s bulky frame was protected by a voluminous grey cloak from the warm and barely perceptible breeze; the younger, braver or possibly more hale, was wearing a dress of a pleasing yellow material, slightly hooped and parted in front to show a blue bodice and underskirt that were the exact colour of her brilliant eyes.
Cash’s heart leapt. Mrs Carter and her daughter, taking a turn by the water’s edge.
‘Why, Mr Tremain …’ Mrs Carter bared her smile, like the broadside of a man of war. ‘How extraordinary to meet you here.’ She spoke as though he, a man who made his living from the sea, had no business to be here at the harbour’s edge.
He bowed, eyes on Virginia. She returned his glance for a second and he was pleased to see a faint blush touch her cheeks.
‘Are you going anywhere in particular?’ he enquired. ‘May I escort you?’
‘That will be most kind of you,’ Virginia said.
Mrs Carter sniffed disapprovingly. ‘Mr Birkett was to have accompanied us,’ she said. ‘Unfortunately he sent a message to say he was indisposed.’
‘I am sorry to hear that,’ Cash said gravely, not sorry at all. Drunk, no doubt, or recovering from being so.
Mrs Carter said, ‘I would not have come but Virginia was anxious to take the air.’
‘It is too nice a day to skulk indoors,’ Virginia observed. ‘Even if it is not as warm as it was in Calcutta.’
They strolled along the waterfront, moving aside from time to time as men rushed past carrying bales and boxes. Gulls cackled, cart wheels rumbled, voices shouted. As they passed the open doors of Thornton’s warehouse, the smell of the water’s edge was overlaid by something more exotic – spices, perhaps.
‘My husband is planning to build his own warehouse,’ Mrs Carter said. ‘Mr Carter was in a very substantial way of business in Bengal. He feels there will be many opportunities here, in the colony. He believes it will be a great adventure.’ But looked as though, personally speaking, she had her doubts.
‘I agree with him,’ Cash said.
‘Are you interested in adventuring?’ Virginia wondered.
He glanced at her. Her expression revealed nothing.
‘What else is life?’
‘Which is your sealer?’ she asked.
He pointed across the water. ‘With the blue-painted hull.’
‘It is very small,’ Mrs Carter said.
‘Sealers are.’
‘At least you own your own vessel,’ she said patronisingly.
‘Indeed. And in a few days I shall be sailing south in her.’
‘So soon?’ Virginia was aghast.
Mrs Carter looked at her quickly, frowning.
Her cheeks on fire, Virginia said, ‘I mean, I had not realised you were leaving so quickly.’
‘Sailing in her?’ Mrs Carter repeated. ‘Yourself? How … unusual. Is that not a rather dangerous pastime?’
‘It is indeed, ma’am. And dirty.’
‘Then why do it?’
‘For the same reason your husband has come here to New South Wales. Because it is an adventure.’
‘A point of view, certainly …’ Mrs Carter’s inflection made it plain that some adventures were more acceptable than others.
‘How long will you be away?’ Virginia asked.
‘Two months. Longer, perhaps.’
They had reached the end of the wharf where the waters of the harbour swirled murkily around the piles.
‘Much smaller than the docks in Calcutta.’ Mrs Carter pronounced judgment like a magistrate sentencing an unworthy offender. She added disapprovingly, ‘It is strange to see all the physical work being done by white men.’
‘They are convicts,’ Cash said. ‘As British as you and I.’
Mrs Carter was as unsure of that as she was that a real gentleman would go sealing himself. ‘It takes a great deal of getting used to, life in a new country,’ she said.
They walked back through the rush and pandemonium of the dockside. It was here, Cash remembered, that he had met Jane Somers after his return from his previous trip. He had always believed she had come here especially to meet him; he did not dare believe the same thing now, although it was true he had told Virginia he would be here.
He racked his brain to find something to say to her, to let her know how he felt. He knew she felt the same way he did. But how could he speak with Mrs Carter present? She seemed preoccupied with the sights of the waterfront but Cash was not deceived. Speak one word privately to her daughter and she would want to know about it at once.
‘Where are you staying?’ Cash asked.
‘The governor has most kindly provided us with a house,’ Mrs Carter said. ‘It is not as large or convenient as we are used to, of course, but it will serve until we have our own residence.’
The house proved to be one of the largest in the colony, exceeded only by the Somers residence and Government House itself and, of course, by Elizabeth Knoll, which was bigger than any of them.
Still Cash had not spoken, the silence between himself and Virginia increasingly awkward as he battled vainly to say what was in his mind.
Then an unlooked-for opportunity occurred. Mr Carter had also been out and his return to the house coincided with their own. Mrs Carter greeted him. From the corner of his mouth, Cash said, ‘We can’t go on like this.’
She glanced nervously at her parents and whispered, ‘What can we do about it?’
‘I must speak to your father.’
‘No!’
He ignored her, his mind made up. He did not believe Carter would refuse him. Why should he? He had his own business and if things went their way in England, he would have money, plenty of it. He was young, healthy, of good family, with the whole continent at his feet. Carter would not say no.
‘I wonder if I might have a word with you, sir?’ He did not look at Virginia.
Carter glowered at him. ‘Ye mean now?’
Cash forced himself to smile. ‘If that’s possible.’
Carter pulled out his watch. ‘I can spare ye five minutes.’
The four of them went into the house. Disapproval radiated from Virginia but she said nothing and neither did Cash.
Carter opened a door to a small room with a desk and shelves filled with books. There was a large, upholstered chair behind the desk, a smaller one facing it.
‘In here, Mr Tremain. If you please.’ To his wife he said, ‘I’ll be with ye shortly. I doot Mr Tremain will be staying long.’
He closed the door and came and sat behind the desk. He gestured abruptly at the other chair and Cash sat down.
Carter’s eyes, small, green and suspicious, watched Cash across the desk. He took out his gold watch, opened it and placed it conspicuously between them on the desk. ‘Five minutes, Mr Tremain.’
‘One will be sufficient. I should like your permission to call on your daughter, sir.’
The tiny eyes grew still. ‘Would ye, now? And what does she have to say aboot that, I wonder?’
‘I have reason to believe she would be agreeable.’
‘Aye, well, maybe she would and maybe she wouldna. The thing is, Mr Tremain, I am no’ agreeable, sir. No’ agreeable, at all.’
Virginia had warned him. His lips tightened. ‘Would you mind telling me why? I am very fond of your daughter, sir, and I …’
Carter closed his watch and slipped it back into his waistcoat pocket. ‘I have nae need to explain myself, Mr Tremain, but since ye ask, I will. Ye’re too young, sir. Ye still hae to make your way in the world. It’s far too soon to be thinking of marriage. That for a start, but there’s mair. I dinna ken much aboot ye but the little I have heard is nae at all to your credit.’
The contemptuous words sent anger frothing like yeast through Cash’s veins. ‘I cannot imagine what you have heard but …’
Carter interrupted him. ‘Ye said yoursel’ ye’re in a very small way of business in the colony. I have eyes, sir. I saw the way ye were looking at my daughter, so I took the trouble to make some enquiries of my ain. I understand ye’ve little or no money. Is that true, Mr Tremain? Or is it false?’
‘I have an interest in a ship that is on its way to London at the moment. If she gets there safely …’
‘She’s like to be confiscated by the courts. What else do ye have?’
Cash flushed angrily. ‘I own a seal boat …’
‘Seventy-five tons. I know all aboot her, Mr Tremain. A wee boat that’s never been south in her life and never caught a seal, either, if I understand correctly. What else?’
‘A half-interest in another one that has done both –’
‘Half-interests do not interest me.’
‘Apart from that, nothing. But –’
‘Nothing,’ Carter was whipping himself into a rage. ‘Precisely, sir. Nothing. And ye presume to come to me, sir, a penniless adventurer, and ask my permission to call on my daughter? Well, sir, ye have your answer. The answer is no, sir. No.’ The green eyes glared at him maliciously across the desk. ‘Is that clear enough for ye?’
TWENTY-SEVEN
After leaving Carter’s house, Cash went back to the harbour and spent the rest of the day working on Nantucket.
At seventy-five tons, Nantucket was the same size as Pelican, and built for the trade: slow but strong enough to withstand the toughest weather with oversized planking and gear. She had been owned by a brawling, foul-mouthed Yankee skipper who had arrived in port one day and been killed in a tavern brawl the next. The boat had been auctioned to pay harbour dues and Cash had picked her up very cheaply.
He had been pleasantly surprised. He had expected either Thornton or Hagwood to bid against him but neither had put in an appearance and Cash had been the only bidder.
He had kept those members of the crew who wanted to stay on. They were a rough bunch of vagabonds but polite young gentlemen were few and far between in the sealing trade and these men knew what they were doing. He’d been lucky enough to keep the mate, a cut-throat called Hank who had been a sealer from the age of nine and ruled the deck with fists like hammers.
He had offered Hank a share of the profits and they were planning to leave for the south within days. Ever since he had taken delivery, Cash had thought of little else but Nantucket but today he could not keep his mind off Virginia and the way her father had sent him packing. He finished up his work while it was still light and went home early.
As
soon as Cash came through the door, Cuddy knew something was wrong.
‘Everything all right wiv the boat?’
He was sitting in a trance, eyes looking at nothing. The question seemed to wake him. ‘What? Oh … yes. Yes, fine.’
‘Still goin’ nex’ week?’
‘Yes.’
If it wasn’t work it had to be a woman. What she had been frightened of had happened. He had found someone else. She didn’t think it was the Somers girl – there’d been no sign of her, recently. She was glad of that, at least. She had heard there was a new family in town, a wealthy man who owned the big ship that now lay off the entrance to the cove. His daughter was supposed to be a beauty. Virginia Carter. Perhaps it was her.
She probably was a virgin, at that. The gentry always wanted to marry virgins, no matter how much they’d played around themselves. One thing was sure, this Virginia would be able to offer a lot more than she could. Money, family, a woman respected in his class of society, not someone who’d be chucked out of every decent home as a convict and snot-nosed whore. Virginity, too, perhaps. Who knew? And hated the world as she thought it.
‘Tell me what you’ve been doing,’ Cash said to Cuddy when she brought him his drink.
Her expression was resentful. ‘The usual. Nuffin much.’
‘You’ve been keeping the place nice. Thank you.’
‘My job.’ Ungraciously.
‘I know it’s your job,’ he said tartly. ‘Anyone could do it badly. You do it well. That’s why I say thank you.’
She grunted, face still sour.
‘What’s the matter?’
She watched him through her fall of hair. ‘Nuffin’s the matter.’
‘Is it because I’m going away?’
She shook her head.
‘There is something.’ Exasperated, too tired at the end of the day to play games.
Silence.
A thought struck him. ‘I never thanked you for the flowers. They were pretty. I liked them.’
A tear escaped from one eye and ran slowly down her cheek.
This he didn’t need.
‘Get me another drink,’ he said.
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