The bushranger halted in front of her horse. He casually leant forward in his saddle, his forearms coming to rest on the pommel.
Katherine tamped down her fear. "If you're who I think you are, then you've picked a very poor target. I'm Sister Flynn, the local sister. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have nothing of worth. The best you can expect are children's primers. I doubt even you would lower yourself to rob from children," she said, nervously defiant as she pulled the reins toward her.
The bushranger let out a deep throaty laugh. "You're wrong, sister. There is something you have that I need." Man and horse advanced toward her.
Panicking, Katherine tried to wheel the horse and wagon back the way she'd come. She turned and screamed. Sitting silently astride a horse was yet another man, bareheaded, his face also masked.
Despite the fear coursing through her, she attempted to summon up her last ounce of courage. "I heard your type are not violent toward women or is that only a myth?" On a roll, Katherine gave him no time to reply. "I'm a nun, and even you must know what awaits you, not only in this life but in the hereafter, should you harm me."
The two men laughed in unison.
"Firstly, sister," the hatted man said, "given the life I lead, I already know where I'm headed, and it ain't heaven. So it's no good you trying to frighten me with your fire and brimstone. Besides, I'm more fearful of the pain awaiting me in the world of the living, should I harm a hair on your pretty Irish head. My leader would skin me alive if you got even a scratch."
A spark of hope crossed Katherine's features. "So you're going to let me go? I'm late as it is, and I'm expecting someone to come looking for me any minute." She glanced around, praying Catriona would appear.
"That's not exactly the case. You see, we do need you and we've been waiting all day for you to come back along this road. I can't let you go because, if I return to camp without you, my leader would have my head on a plate, not to mention other parts of my anatomy. I promise you'll come to no harm if you do as you're told. When we're finished, I give you my word I'll bring you right back to this spot. I'm going to cover your eyes, in case you feel the need to bring anyone back to where we're taking you. Don't worry though, honest Ben will ensure your horse doesn't stray."
Katherine had barely time to form any words of protest before the hatted man leaned forward and, in one deft motion, snatched her reins. He grabbed her hands and bound them, and placed a hood down over her head. She wasn't sure whether the sudden onset of darkness, or her own fright was the catalyst, but Katherine promptly fainted.
SHE AWOKE SOME time later, her hood still on and hands tied, with the wagon slowly moving over unsteady ground. She'd no way of knowing how long she'd been unconscious, but obviously long enough to have been pulled from the wagon seat and placed where she was now lying----where the wagon's provisions were normally stored. Frustrated by her inability to escape, she twisted, trying to right herself. This only resulted in pain to her wrists. Why did they take me, and where are they taking me?
After an interminable period of being bound hand and foot, her ears and nose alerted her to their arrival at what could only be the bushranger's camp. The smell of smoke and cooking food heralded suppertime. Katherine's stomach traitorously grumbled, reminding her of how long it had been since she'd eaten.
"What have you got there Geordie?" A voice called out.
"I caught meself a fine figure of a woman, even if she is in that silly bloody get up."
Katherine heard a bushranger laugh. She blushed, angry at being the brunt of someone's joke. The jibes continued, getting more suggestive, and causing raucous laughter with each passing comment.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" The tone of authority conveyed by the new voice was not lost on Katherine. "Are you the least bit aware of what you've got in the wagon? It's not some whore you've spirited away to have some fun with. She's a bloody nun! It may have been a while since any of you've had any religion, but I won't have her treated in this manner. Besides, have you forgotten why we brought her here?"
Katherine listened to the footsteps approaching the side of the wagon and irate voice of whom she presumed was the leader. "Take that bloody hood off her head and for Christ's sake untie her damn hands."
Katherine listened to muffled footsteps hastening toward her. She was helped into a seated position on the wagon's backboards, her hood removed and hands untied.
The leader shook his head in disgust as he walked away. "What did you expect her to do? Beat you with her cross? And give her something to eat. She looks like she could do with a feed. Then take her to Joshua."
His receding footsteps were followed by a flurry of activity. In front of her, silhouetted in the fire's glow, was the hatted bushranger who had kidnapped her. Looking around him, she saw a man spooning out a portion of what looked like stew onto a plate while another cleared a seat for her by the fire.
"I'm sorry, Sister, about the hood and all," the hatted man awkwardly said. "We didn't mean no disrespect with what we said. We was havin' a bit of fun 'tis all." He helped her down from the wagon and led her toward the fire.
"If that's your idea of a joke, I'd hate to see what you're like when you're serious." She sat and graciously accepted the steaming plate offered her. "Now, will someone please explain what you expect from me?"
The man who had offered her the plate of food tipped his hat. "Jim Barrett, sister. It's Joshua, you see. He was winged yesterday in a job we did over at the Moreshead Downs property. We can't take him to a doctor. All he'll do is fix him up so he can be hanged. We heard about you helping others and thought you might be able to help him."
Katherine stopped the food-laden spoon halfway to her mouth. "He's been injured since yesterday, and he's yet to be treated?" She placed the plate down in the dirt in front of her and rose. "My supper can wait. If you're aware of my assistance throughout the district, then you must also know my medical skills are rudimentary, at best. Take me to him please, and I'll see what I can do."
Katherine searched the wagon, hoping the men had brought along her bag. Retrieving it, she sensed someone was observing her from the shadows. She wondered whether this was the same man who had recently chastised the bushrangers. Katherine turned and was taken by Jim Barrett to where Joshua lay.
Katherine looked at the ugly, jagged hole in Joshua's lower leg and sucked in her breath. "Winged is an understatement." She leant forward with a lantern to get a better idea of the size of the wound. Her nostrils filled with the sickly sweet smell of infection which she'd recently been exposed to while treating an infected toe just last week. She passed the lantern up the leg to Joshua's glazed eyes. Oh Lord, she thought, he's not much more than a boy.
"Your leg's the same length as the other, so I don't think you've broken it. By the looks of it though, you have a fever and your leg's infected." Her eyes scanned her surroundings. "Mr. Barrett, are you there?"
"I'm here, sister."
"I need hot water, clean rags, alcohol and a knife so--"
A voice interrupted her, the same voice she heard when she first arrived. "Jim, get her the water, rags and alcohol. Christ knows we've got far too much of that. But no knife."
Katherine glanced over her shoulder, searching for its owner. "If you won't give it to me, then at least have someone cut open his trouser leg, so I can better access the wound." The figure blended back into the shadows.
Jim Barrett returned and sliced away the lower part of Joshua's trouser leg.
"Can I have more light?" Another lantern miraculously appeared, and Katherine commenced the work of cleaning and dressing his leg. She wondered how someone so young had gotten caught up in a life of theft. Save for occasional hissing, the boy was silent while she endeavoured to clean the infection from the wound. Finished, she wiped her hands on the skirt of her habit and then stood.
"Mr. Barrett I've done all I can. Joshua has a fever from the infection and unless it breaks..." Katherine let the ramifications hang b
etween them. She glanced around. "As most of you are already asleep, it's clear I'm going nowhere tonight. If you don't mind I'll sit with him."
Jim Barrett hesitated, and she realised he was weighing up the options of letting her do just that. "I've no idea where I actually am, so I'm unlikely to escape. Besides, I wouldn't leave a person in need. Go on. I'll look after him." Katherine returned her attention to Joshua. She was vaguely aware of Jim Barrett's shuffling feet of indecision before he turned and walked into the darkness.
Despite being alone, she felt no fear. After the chastising words uttered on her arrival, from the man whom she assumed was the leader, Katherine felt it unlikely any of his gang would risk attacking her. She wondered if it had been the leader watching her while she was tending Joshua. She knew someone was still there, just out of her peripheral vision.
Katherine jumped when a figure appeared by her side.
"I expect by now you're hungry." This time when the familiar voice spoke it wasn't so deep as before. "Jim managed to hold a bit of supper for you and some tea as well. I told him I'd bring this over. After all, not only do I owe you my gratitude, but we've not yet been introduced." Reflected in the fire's shadows was a woman in men's clothes, her hair cropped, much like Katherine's. Crouching down, the woman put the cup on the ground, and offered the plate to Katherine. "I'm Mary Carraghan, the leader of this unruly crew."
Katherine couldn't help how her jaw dropped. "Bbut you're a woman."
Mary sat beside Katherine. "It's good to see some people still know the difference. After living with this bunch for so long, I'm often mistaken for a man. I know you sent Jim packing, but if you don't mind I'd like to sit with you a while. Joshua hasn't been with us very long, and I've a responsibility for his welfare."
Katherine nodded, too stunned to reply. She took a sip of her tea and composed herself. "How does a woman get involved in a venture such as this?"
Mary pulled off a pair of leather gloves, tucked them under her arm, and lit a cigarette from the coals of the fire. "How does any man find himself caught up in such a venture? Poverty doesn't discriminate, Sister Flynn. It hits women as hard, if not harder, than men."
"How do you know my name?"
"It would be surprising if I didn't. You're becoming quite well known around the district for your kindness to others. Had it not been the case I would've never had my men, shall we say, invite you to our camp."
Katherine's eyes flared and Mary held up a hand. "I'm sorry for how the invitation was served, but I've a responsibility to my gang and myself. I still can't be sure you won't leave this place and lead the constabulary right back here."
Katherine's face lit up. "So, you're going to let me go?"
Mary raised her face to the stars. "For Christ's sake, of course we're going to let you go! If we didn't I'd have more people on my heels than I could poke a stick at, no doubt led by one Miss Catriona Pelham."
Katherine choked down her food at the thought of Catriona scouring the countryside in search of her. What would she do when she finally found her? She should have known to wait for Catriona. She struggled to swallow the lump of food caught in her suddenly dry throat. She didn't know what was worse: being held by bushrangers, or facing Catriona's wrath.
She ate her meal in silence while Mary finished her cigarette. Mary got up once to check on Joshua and sponge his brow, after which she returned to the proximate warmth of the fire.
"Sister, you're going to burst if you don't speak what's on your mind." Mary pulled a flask from her jacket pocket and took a sip.
While she ate her meal, Katherine had been aware of Mary's eyes on her. For reasons she couldn't explain, her attention unsettled her. "Miss Carraghan,"
"Given the rather social circumstances, Mary will suffice."
Katherine thought she seemed to be taking a perverse enjoyment in her discomfort. She glared at Mary. "Are there many female bushrangers? Do you enjoy such a lifestyle?"
"I don't rightly know if there are any other female bushrangers. As for liking what I do, it's better than what I left behind. I married when I was young, to a man who unfortunately took a greater interest in the bottle than he did his land. Bushranging had its hardships at first. But I've grown fond of this life. I'm sure there are many women in the predicament I was in who, if given the chance, might be tempted to leave their husbands."
She took another sip from her flask. "I try to do my best to help some of the women in the district with the meagre profits we make. But in truth, for them it's a vicious circle, of which I was lucky to escape. You're shivering. Where are my manners? Have a sip. It'll warm you up."
Katherine hesitated then took the flask from Mary's outstretched hand. Her fingers grazed Mary's and she experienced the same unsettling feeling she'd felt earlier, like her stomach was still hungry and yet she was full. Covering her confusion, she raised the flask to her lips and drank. Katherine spluttered as the fiery liquid coursed down her throat. "It's rum, isn't it?"
Mary rubbed a knuckle down the bridge of her nose. "Yes, it is."
"Don't you miss being with your husband? I mean, I know there are men here. But don't you miss being with him?"
"Given everything, I can't rightly say I miss him. As for the men out here, they don't interest me either. My interest lies, you might say, in ones of the fairer sex." Mary casually lit another cigarette.
Katherine took a few moments to digest Mary's words. Thinking back to Ireland, she'd once heard the servants speak of people who shared the love of the same gender. But she'd thought that was gossip. Shocked and confused, she fell back on familiar territory. "How can you, when the Bible clearly forbids such acts?"
"Unless you haven't already noticed, I think my actions as a bushranger have already guaranteed my mortal fate. So I expect the issue of my interest in women will be bunched in together with me being an outlaw. And besides, Sister, how many times can you be damned?"
As Katherine fought to understand, an unfamiliar feeling again entered her stomach. "Mrs. Carraghan."
"Mary."
Katherine gritted her teeth. "Damnation is not simply a matter of one bad act covering a series of other bad acts. How can you live in such a manner with another woman?"
"Why don't you stop and think about what you've just said? Do you not live out on the Pelham property? Is that not where the Pelham male is currently away, as he is for the greater majority of the year? Does that not leave you living with a woman? If you weren't a nun, what do you think would be said about you?" Mary threw her cigarette into the fire and stood.
Katherine jumped up and stood toe to toe with Mary. "How, how dare you! How dare you even insinuate the life you pursue and the fact that Catri...Miss Pelham and I share the same house is even remotely the same? We're nothing but friends, and she's been gracious enough to let me stay with her after my home was ruined in a dust storm. How dare you insinuate such impropriety!" She was close enough to Mary to smell the liquor and tobacco on her breath. Katherine's breathing quickened and her stomach, unbidden, drummed out a tattoo of its own. Pride and anger forced her to remain in her spot.
Mary stood her ground. "If that's all there is, then why are you so angry?"
Stumped for words Katherine turned on her heel. "I'm going to check on Joshua. You can stay right here."
While she tended Joshua, out of the corner of her eye Katherine saw Mary shake her head and take another sip from her flask. She had no idea how the bushranger could ever think the friendship between her and Catriona was the same kind of friendship she shared with other women. Yet Mary's intimations left her with an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Finally satisfied that the boy was sleeping soundly, she had no other choice than to return to the fire, where Mary had made herself comfortable. Their earlier discussion wasn't revisited, and Mary instead chose to regale her with stories of bushranging and narrow escapes. Katherine listened inattentively, a part of her mind still playing over Mary's words, regarding her and Catr
iona, while another part tried to rationalise her body's reactions to Mary's proximity.
KATHERINE AWOKE TO the gentle shaking of her shoulder. She looked up at Mary, who looked as tired as Katherine felt. "Did you get any sleep, Mary?"
"Not a lot. I stayed up with Joshua."
Katherine sat bolt upright and looked to where the boy lay. "Is he all right?"
"Yes," Mary replied. "The fever's broken. Hopefully, he's on the mend. I expect it's time we got you on your way, or I'll have the town after me."
In the early light of dawn, Katherine's hands were again loosely tied and a hood placed over her head. Jim Barrett led the wagon this time, all the while thanking her for helping Joshua. When they reached the road, her hands were untied and, when the sound of horses had sufficiently receded into the distance, she took the hood from her head. She took her bearings and the reins and turned horse and wagon for home, her thoughts filled with the events of the previous night.
CATRIONA, HAVING SPENT a sleepless night worrying over Katherine, was confirming the scope of the search, when her concentration was broken by the sound of a man yelling inside the house. Breaking through the parlour door, the man skidded to a halt on the polished wooden floors, barely managing to keep his balance. "She's back! Sister Flynn's back! Coming up the driveway as bold as brass you might say." He turned, again skidding on the floor, and then returned from whence he came.
Catriona's heart leapt with relief at the news. Her relief was short-lived. Clenching her jaw in an attempt not to swear in front of the group of men, she turned on her heel and made her way out the front door.
SEEING CATRIONA ON the steps reminded Katherine of Mary's words. Surely no one thought of Catriona and her in that manner? Did they? She climbed off the wagon.
And Those Who Trespass Against Us Page 10