by Anna Jacobs
He looked down at the pile of pages. At least he’d made a start on the letter now.
Was she thinking of him? Would she come out to join him?
What would he do if she didn’t?
It was a long time before he got to sleep and he dreamed of her, dreamed of the smile that lit up her whole face, the way her eyes sparkled when she was interested in something, the way she was just – Cassandra.
Unfortunately, there was nowhere on the ship for the young women emigrants to find complete privacy. Cassandra waited till she and her sisters were standing at the rail, then spoke in a low voice, hoping no one would bother to listen to their conversation.
‘I’m ... expecting a child,’ she said at last, not finding any softer way of breaking the news. As she stared out at the ocean, the sunlight glinting on it was turned into a blur of light by the tears in her eyes. She cried so easily now, had heard other women say they’d been like that when they were carrying a child.
There was silence, then Pandora’s arm went round her shoulders. ‘Oh, Cassandra.’
The tears would fall, try as she might to hold them back.
‘We’ll manage, love,’ Pandora said quietly. ‘We three will find employment and look after you.’
‘Yes.’ They knew she had some money, but she didn’t tell them how much, because other people were too close. It was safely locked in the trunk, thank goodness.
‘Do you – feel well?’ Maia asked.
‘Most of the time. Not in the early mornings, but that soon passes if I take things slowly when I first get up.’
‘We’re going to be aunts,’ Xanthe said, forgetting to keep her voice down.
‘Shh!’ Pandora nudged her.
‘Sorry. I’ll start sewing for the baby. There are all sorts of scraps of material in the sewing box. I’m sure Matron will let me have some when I tell her why.’
Cassandra spoke more sharply than she’d intended. ‘Don’t say anything! I don’t want anyone to know. Let’s get this voyage over with first. I don’t seem to be putting on much weight. I’m sure I can continue to hide my condition.’
Some of the more rowdy young women pushed in next to them and Pandora quickly changed the subject. ‘We seem to have been travelling for such a long time. Still, they say we should be there in December. It’ll be summer in Australia then. Just imagine that!’
They all stared out across the water. It was hard, Cassandra thought, to imagine what things would be like in Australia, what it would look like, what their daily life would be – and how they’d earn a living.
Mrs Barrett had shown her pictures of the Swan River Colony in a book, but they’d seemed very unreal, with trees that looked like a child’s drawing, so sparse of foliage and the wrong colour of green. There were little figures of black men standing beneath the trees, some with spears.
Her employer had already said she wanted to keep her on as lady’s maid once they arrived, and Cassandra was quite willing to do that for a time. She could work for another couple of months after their arrival, at the very least, without her condition showing, longer if it was permitted.
‘Are you coming to the concert tonight?’ Maia asked. ‘The choir’s been practising some really nice songs.’
‘If Mrs Barrett doesn’t need me.’
‘It’s like being a slave, working for her,’ Xanthe said. ‘You hardly have a minute for yourself and they decide everything for you. I don’t know how you stand it. I couldn’t.’
‘They’ve paid my fare to Australia. In return I try to do everything they want.’ She smiled. ‘And anyway, even if she doesn’t let me come, I’ll still hear the singing. I’ve heard you rehearsing, too. There’s nowhere out of hearing on a ship.’
But she’d have liked to be part of the concert group, to sit with the others and listen to the concert.
Reece jogged along on the old mare Francis had hired for him. He was, he felt, an adequate rider now, because the Southerhams had taken the time to teach him. That was one of the few things they did superbly, ride.
‘You’re wishing you hadn’t come to Australia, aren’t you?’ Francis said suddenly.
‘Sometimes, yes.’ He glanced at the other man’s expression and cursed himself for betraying his feelings. ‘Sorry. You’ve been very kind, but I feel just as unsettled as I was in England because there’s no purpose to my life yet.’
‘If you want to return to England, I’ll pay your passage,’ Francis said huffily.
Reece took a few moments to think about this, glad when his employer didn’t say anything. ‘Thank you for that kind offer, but no. I’ve not given things a fair chance here yet, have I? However ... I’d appreciate your help in securing a small parcel of land after you’ve found yours, even if I can’t settle on it until my two years’ service with you are over. If it’s near yours, I can work on it during my free time, clear it a little, perhaps.’ A quick glance showed that his companion was startled by this.
‘So you’re not intending to stay with me after the two years are over?’
‘No.’
‘Did you ever intend to?’
‘No.’
‘I see. Well, I’m not best pleased with that attitude, I must say.’
‘But you just offered to send me back to England!’
Francis let out an angry snort. ‘I didn’t expect you to take me up on the offer.’
‘And if I change my mind now and accept it?’
‘We Southerhams always honour our word.’
As if others didn’t, Reece thought, half-amused and half-irritated. He decided to say something he’d been thinking for a few weeks. ‘It seems to me that there’s little difference between master and man here, the ones who aren’t convicts, anyway – except for the money. You’d be better working in partnership with me than using me only as a servant, because I do know something about farming, and I’m a good worker. If I had some share in the land, something of my own, I’d work every hour I could stand upright to look after it and make it productive.’
Francis stared at him in shock, breathed deeply and said, ‘I’m afraid that’s not what I want, however.’ He immediately began to talk about something else.
Reece followed suit. He hoped he’d given the other man – he hated to call anyone his ‘master’ – something to think about, hoped Francis would see the sense in it.
But he doubted it.
He still intended to get some land of his own, though.
As the Tartar drew closer to Australia, they began to see sharks and sea birds of all kinds. During the journey they’d all enjoyed the sight of the giant albatrosses soaring over the ship, seeming to be keeping an eye on them. Near the Cape of Good Hope, they’d seen cape pigeons and flying fishes, too, which had caused great excitement.
In Australia they were all eager to see kangaroos hopping about and Matron said parrots flew about everywhere, were common wild birds.
‘So many wonders to come,’ Maia said one day, dreamy-eyed.
Pandora didn’t reply. She was enjoying the new things she was seeing and doing, but she was still homesick and it wasn’t getting any better. She missed the moors dreadfully, even missed the soft, clinging rain of Lancashire. It was no use dwelling on that, though. Even if they did go back to England, they’d never dare return to Outham, because of their uncle’s wife.
‘You’re thinking about home again, aren’t you?’ Cassandra said, linking her arm with her youngest sister’s.
‘Yes. Does it show?’
‘There are times when you get a sad expression and you look into the distance as if you’re seeing something else.’
‘You look sad too sometimes. Cassandra ... what about Reece? He’ll be there. How do you think he’ll feel about – your condition?’
‘I couldn’t ask any man to take on this child. He’d never be able to forget how it had been conceived, and what sort of life would the child have then? It’d be like little Timmy. Remember him?’
‘Yes. Poor lit
tle thing. But you should give Reece the chance to offer, surely? He’d not be unkind to a child.’
‘No. I’ve thought and thought about it, and now that I’m used to the idea, I feel very protective towards the baby and love it already.’ She smiled wryly. ‘I hadn’t expected that.’
‘Well, I’ll stay with you, help you look after the baby. You won’t be on your own.’
Cassandra smiled. ‘You’ve never been the sort to cuddle babies!’
‘I can learn, can’t I? It can’t be that hard. Other women do it all the time. And anyway, you’ll need someone. You can’t manage on your own.’
‘Thanks, love.’
In November, at long last, Francis found a piece of land he really liked, one which had a reasonable chance of providing a living one day, even in Reece’s careful estimation. It was in the foothills near a place called Serpentine and was well forested, with some of the lower land on the block cleared. There was a spring behind the house, a small affair, but they were told it didn’t run dry even in the height of summer. A rudimentary shack had been built there and abandoned.
Before he agreed to lease it, Francis took Livia to see the block, making the journey there by horse and cart, with Reece in attendance on horseback. The roads were mere dirt tracks but it was the dry season, so there was no chance of getting bogged down.
They stayed one night at a small inn, because of Livia, though Reece would rather have camped out.
On the second day they arrived at the farm.
The land was tinder-dry, which worried Reece, who had heard about bush fires. What would they do if one burned through here? People had told him they moved more quickly than a horse could gallop if it was windy. He mentioned this to Francis, but his employer was so eager to get away from his cousin’s house and start his own life, that any objection was waved away. In the end, Reece stopped trying.
There was no land nearby for him, but he too liked the district, which was more attractive than the flat land near Perth. Francis didn’t think of his servant’s needs, but Reece decided to keep searching for his own place, however small.
They camped at the farm for two nights, Francis and Livia sharing the shack, which Reece had insisted on checking for spiders and snakes, something his employers hadn’t even thought of. He couldn’t believe how careless they were, or how little they seemed to have learned about Australia compared to what he’d found out by talking to anyone he could.
He was only too aware that this wasn’t England and you had to be more careful about insects and other wildlife, because he’d found a redback spider in his bed one day. Its bite wouldn’t have killed him, but it’d have made him very uncomfortable for a few days. And then there were snakes. Their bite could kill you. But if you didn’t attack them, his informant had said, they usually slithered away.
In his opinion you could learn a lot from those whom the Southerhams considered inferior. He was prepared to defer to the superior knowledge even of convict workers, whereas Francis turned up his nose at speaking to the latter, let alone allowing his wife to do so.
‘You’re entitled to two convicts to help you,’ Reece said one day. ‘Shouldn’t you apply for them?’
Francis wrinkled his nose, as if he’d smelled something distasteful. ‘I shall wait until I have somewhere safe to lock them up at night, for Livia’s sake.’
Reece bit back angry words. You couldn’t force a man to be sensible. Didn’t Francis see that the two of them couldn’t turn mainly uncleared bush into a farm without help?
They moved to the block on a searing hot day. It took two big carts to carry all the furniture and boxes the Southerhams had brought with them from England.
The horses pulling the carts went slowly, needing regular rests, so Francis and Livia went ahead in another, much smaller cart he’d purchased, with their riding horses tied to the rear of it and Reece’s horse, a much less spirited animal, pulling it. They left him to oversee the transportation of all they possessed in the world.
Fancy leaving all their worldly possessions in others’ care like that! He’d not have done that. And fancy spending so much on two high-bred riding horses instead of working animals. But the Southerhams were both horse mad.
‘Run things for them two, do you?’ Jack asked.
‘I don’t know what I’ll be doing yet,’ he said ruefully, and explained the terms under which he was employed.
‘Had it easy in life, they have. You can see it. Things ain’t easy here, though, ain’t easy anywhere for most folk.’ He spat over to one side to show what he thought of that. He drove along in silence for a while, except for encouraging his horses to keep moving forward and yelling the occasional remark about the state of the road to the two men in charge of the second wagon.
‘What brought you to Australia?’ Reece asked.
Jack grinned. ‘The government, when I was a nipper. Landed in Sydney, I did, in a convict ship.’
‘What had you done to deserve transportation, if you don’t mind me asking?’
Jack’s face went grim. ‘Stole some food to keep my family alive. Stole a shawl for my mum, too. We was starving after Dad died and she was blue with cold that winter, her clothes were so thin. Didn’t help her much, did I?’
‘I’m sorry. Have you heard from your family since?’
‘No.’
‘That must have been hard to bear.’
The man shrugged. ‘Nothin’ I could do about it.’
‘But you own this cart now?’
Jack nodded, failing to hide his pride in this. ‘Got an early pardon, I did, for saving the life of a guard who fell into a river. Best thing I ever done, hauling that fat sod out of the water. I got a job as drayman’s helper afterwards and he taught me to drive. Good bloke, Matt was. And then I met my lass. She’d been brung out here too. Stealing as a servant. Same reason as me: her family was hungry. Anyway, I married Nellie, was lucky to find her.’
‘You seem to have prospered.’
Jack shrugged. ‘Me and Nellie worked all the hours God sent and built up gradual to owning our own business. I’m doing all right now and she’s never gone hungry since we met. That’s my son on the other wagon, the big chap. Tommo. He’s never gone hungry in his life, my son hasn’t. And he owns that cart. Good worker, he is.’
‘I admire what you’ve done and hope to follow your example. I’ve a lot to learn about Australia, though. If you’ve any advice about how to get on out here, I’d appreciate you sharing it.’
The driver thought hard for a while, then shrugged. ‘If you’ve got what it takes, an’ you don’t get no bad luck, you’ll get on by working hard and not drinking away what you earn. You’re the sort to get on, I reckon.’
‘How can you tell?’
‘You’re a worker. You didn’t stand and watch us load stuff on the cart like your master did, you helped us.’
When they were a few miles away from the farm, there was a yell from behind, and they turned to see that one of the wheels of the other wagon had hit a half-buried piece of rock and was skewed at an angle.
Cursing, Jack yelled at his beasts to stop and thrust the reins at Reece. He jumped down and ran back to look at the damage.
‘Good thing we always carry a spare wheel!’ he called to Reece. ‘Some don’t, but it can cost you days if a wheel gets damaged when you’re out in the bush.’
By the time they’d changed the wheel it was fully dark and Jack decided to make camp and spend the night here, since there was a farm nearby where they could get water for the horses.
Reece had no choice but to stay with them, but wondered how Francis and Livia would get on overnight without anyone to help them.
As the sun sank slowly in the west, sending long shadows across the bare earth in front of the shack, Francis paced up and down. ‘Where are they? They should have been here an hour ago.’
Livia, who was sitting on the edge of the tiny veranda, shrugged. ‘Perhaps one of the horses went lame.’
�
�That’d only account for one wagon. Reece should have brought the other one here. How are we to manage without proper beds?’
She smiled. ‘It’s not going to be cold. We have a rug in the cart, and food. We can have bread and cheese for supper.’
But the butter she’d brought had melted, which made Francis pull a face, and the cheese had sweated and looked unappealing.
‘No use worrying,’ she said cheerfully. ‘It’s not poisonous and I’m ravenous. Light me a fire to boil some water, Francis, then go and check the shack for spiders and snakes.’
A few minutes later there was a yell from the shack and he erupted out of the door, standing staring back into it.
She swung round. ‘What’s wrong.’
‘Snake. I think there’s a shovel on the cart. I’ll chop its head off. Watch the door in case it comes out.’
It took him several minutes to corner the snake, then he brought its separated head and body out and tossed them to one side with a shudder. By that time she’d brewed a pot of tea and had their simple supper laid out on the blanket.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said as he sat beside her on the ground.
‘What for?’
‘Bringing you to such a primitive place, with no comforts or servants. I didn’t think it’d be this bad.’
‘We have Reece to help us, though he’s not like a servant, is he? But he’s very capable. And anyway, I’m not helpless. I can milk cows, thanks to our lessons with Reece’s cousin, and feed hens, and cook bread. Come and eat your food. We shall do fine. Your health is far more important than living in luxury.’
‘We’ll get you a maid as soon as we possibly can. They say there’s another ship due soon, so we’ll see if we can hire one of the women from it.’