by Anna Jacobs
‘You’re so kind, so very kind!’
‘I like to see people happy.’
The ‘shop’ was another small wooden house, with the front room full of sacks and basic household necessities. Stock feed, farm materials and a few tools and nails were in a shed nearby, so Reece went out to see what he could find while Cassandra dealt with the other items on the list.
‘Your husband looks happy today,’ the woman who was serving her said, clearly wanting to gossip.
‘We’re not married yet, but we will be as soon as we can find someone to marry us. I was going to ask you how people round here get married.’
‘There’s a visiting clergyman who comes the first Sunday of each month. He holds a service in our barn. Most people attend, whatever their religion was back home. It’s the same God we worship, after all. He’ll marry you – and you won’t have to wait for banns to be called, because he can only come once a month.’
‘That’s wonderful news! I’ll tell Reece. We’ll come in February. Um – do you know a place called Galway House? Is it close to here?’
‘Ten minutes away by cart. He’s a strange one, that Mr Largan, never smiles though he’s civil enough, you have to give him that. Do you know him?’
‘My sisters are working there as maids. I’m hoping to go and visit them.’
‘Ah, I’ve met one of them. He brought her here shopping. She had a strange sort of name. Began with a Z, I think.’
Tears filled her eyes. ‘Xanthe.’
Reece came in just then and the women stopped chatting as the final purchases were sorted out and payment made. Quite a few things had to be specially ordered from Perth, which would disappoint Mrs Southerham, and they had to pay half their cost now to make sure the shopkeeper wouldn’t be left with them and lose money.
‘Ready to leave?’ Reece asked. ‘I’ll just load this on the cart.’
Outside he said, ‘We’ll go and visit your sisters now, if you like. I have the directions. It’s not far. We can only stay for an hour or so, though.’
She flung her arms round him and hugged him, regardless of who saw them. ‘I was going to ask you. Oh, I feel so much better to know they’re within reach.’
When they were on their way, he said, ‘We can get married—’
‘On the first Sunday in February,’ she finished for him with a smile.
‘We can live at Kevin’s afterwards. I’ve asked him. You can still work for the Southerhams for a while, but only if they pay you.’
‘I don’t think they can afford it.’
‘Then I’ll suggest they take it off the months of service I still owe them.’ He beamed at her. ‘In fact, I’d prefer that. There are so many things I want to do for myself. Oh, and Kevin wants you and Pandora to come to tea on Sunday. I hope you don’t mind living with an ex-convict. I’m building us a new bedroom on the side of his house. He was transported to New South Wales for political reasons, but was given an absolute pardon once they’d got him out of Ireland.’ He hesitated. ‘I know respectable people don’t associate with convicts, but I like him.’
‘I do, too. And I don’t look down my nose at people, as Mr Southerham does.’
Galway House was a huge place, though its roof looked slightly lopsided, some of the veranda posts were leaning a little, and many of the windows needed cleaning.
As the cart stopped in front of it and Reece helped Cassandra down, Conn Largan came round from the side of the house, but before he could say anything, there was a shriek and Xanthe flew out of the front door, flinging her arms round her sister.
It was the most joyous of reunions, and the twins were delighted that Cassandra was to marry Reece. When Conn was asked, he agreed to bring the two maids to the wedding, and his mother, if she was well enough. She’d certainly seemed better since Maia had started looking after her.
Surely an hour had never passed so quickly, Cassandra thought as Reece pulled out his watch and said they must leave. It seemed as if they’d only been there for a few minutes and she found it hard to tear herself away.
On the following Sunday Pandora walked across with the engaged couple to take tea with Kevin. She breathed a deep sigh once they were out of sight of the Southerhams. ‘I’m so glad to be away from there! I don’t think I was cut out to be a maid. The way Mr Southerham tosses orders at me makes me want to say something very sharp to him about manners.’
‘Or remind him that we’re not stupid,’ Cassandra added.
‘Anything but,’ Reece said with a smile. ‘He even treats his wife as if she’s not very clever sometimes. I can’t understand why she doesn’t pull him up on that. He didn’t seem as bad in England.’
‘She loves him dearly and I think he needs to feel superior to someone, because he’s not a very capable person, is he?’
Pandora walked along the top of the log where Reece had proposed to Cassandra, arms spread out for balance. ‘Mrs Southerham is much nicer to deal with. In other circumstances, I think she could have been a friend.’
Reece grinned. ‘He’d never countenance her making friends of our class, just as he hated having Kevin to tea on Christmas Day. I’m glad they agreed to witness Kevin’s will. It seemed to set his mind at rest. He’s says he’s left me “a little bit of something” which was why I couldn’t witness it. He’s shown me where the will is kept and has asked me to deal with it when he dies. He’s looking better, though, now I’m living with him and can see that he eats properly. I mean to keep him alive as long as I can. You don’t easily lose a good friend.’
‘Who has he left the main estate to? Will you lose your lease when he dies?’
‘I don’t know who he’s left it to. His family, I suppose. But my lease is safe for five years. He made sure of that. By then I hope to have saved up enough to lease a bigger property.’
The tea party went just as well as the visit to the twins had done, with much laughter and an occasional piece of wise advice from Kevin. They inspected the house and the half-built room which would be their bedroom. Reece promised to build them a bed frame, and buy enough straw to stuff a mattress with. It wouldn’t be a very good one, but it would be enough. Cassandra would make curtains out of one of the old sheets Kevin had offered them.
‘We won’t own much, I’m afraid,’ Reece said as they walked back just before dusk.
‘I don’t mind. We’ll have each other.’
Pandora had been more cheerful while away from the farm, distracted by helping plan her sister’s first home as a married woman. However, she grew silent again as they approached Westview.
Cassandra glanced at Reece and saw that he too had noticed the sadness return to her sister’s face.
Sometimes you could do nothing about a situation.
EPILOGUE
Cassandra wore her best skirt and bodice for the wedding, though she’d put on weight and had to alter them. They were a soft blue in colour and she’d found some creamy lace in Hilda’s trunk, so was able to add that to the bodice. She got up as soon as it was light each day to put in an hour’s sewing before her duties began, because she had the straw mattress ticking to sew as well, for their marital bed.
She smiled when Pandora made a fuss over her, insisting on helping her wash her hair in the washing tub the night before, and helping her dress in the morning before they left. It didn’t really matter what she looked like. She was quite sure that Reece would have loved her just as much in sackcloth as in silk.
It filled her with warmth and a sense of wonder every time she thought of him, and she was excited about making a life together. In spite of the horrors she’d been subjected to, she was surprised to find that she wanted him to touch her and he’d promised her it’d be very different when you loved someone.
She’d lost most of her fear already, because Reece was so gentle, so concerned not to upset her that his kissing and caressing bore no resemblance whatsoever to the acts that still occasionally gave her nightmares. Making love, he said, was very different fr
om animals rutting.
She beamed as they drove across to the barn in which monthly services were held, enjoying the hot weather and bright sunshine that left poor Pandora and Mr Southerham drooping with exhaustion.
Reece had insisted on Kevin joining them for the wedding, which made Francis Southerham pull a face but with Livia on their side, the old man’s presence was accepted.
The journey passed very pleasantly, with the ladies using umbrellas as parasols, and the horses clopping along in an unhurried way, one cart under Mr Southerham’s charge, the other under Reece’s.
The four sisters hugged and kissed one another, moving to one side for a little private conversation.
‘You can tell they’re sisters, can’t you?’ Livia said to Reece. ‘It must be nice to have sisters. Do you have any?’
‘Just a brother. He’s older than me, lives in Yorkshire. We’re not close. I’m much closer to my cousins.’
The ceremony was brief, as theirs was one of three weddings to be conducted by the visiting clergyman that day.
Afterwards Cassandra walked out of the barn on Reece’s arm, trying to feel married. But being with him now was no different from before. He was just – Reece, her love, the man with whom she hoped to spend the rest of her life.
After the ceremony, Conn Largan took everyone a short distance along the road to a clearing where logs provided seats and a picnic could be eaten in the dappled light under the trees.
‘Happy, Mrs Gregory?’ Reece whispered.
‘Very happy, Mr Gregory,’ Cassandra answered with a smile.
‘I’ll work my fingers to the bone for you and this child and any other children we’re fortunate enough to have,’ he said softly, raising his tin mug of tea as if it were the finest wine in a crystal glass.
‘We’ll work together. I’ll—’
‘Kiss the bride properly now, Reece!’ Xanthe called. ‘You only pecked her cheek after the ceremony.’
He stopped Cassandra protesting at this with a kiss and there was a round of applause from their friends and families.
Cassandra blushed but on a sudden impulse, she pulled him closer and kissed him again, wanting to show everyone that his loving was fully returned. They would make a good life together, she was quite certain of that.
Also by Anna Jacobs
THE GIBSON FAMILY
Salem Street
High Street
Ridge Hill
Hallam Square
Spinners Lake
THE KERSHAW SISTERS
Our Lizzie
Our Polly
Our Eva
Our Mary Ann
THE IRISH SISTERS
A Pennyworth of Sunshine
Twopenny Rainbows
Threepenny Dreams
THE SETTLERS
Lancashire Lass
Lancashire Legacy
THE STALEYS
Down Weavers Lane
Calico Road
THE PRESTON FAMILY
Pride of Lancashire
Star of the North
Bright Day Dawning
Heart of the Town
STAND ALONE NOVELS
Jessie
Like No Other
Tomorrow’s Promises
Yesterday’s Girl
Freedom’s Land
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Jacobs grew up in Lancashire and emigrated to Australia, but she returns each year to the UK to see her family and do research, something she loves. She is addicted to writing and she figures she’ll have to live to be 120 at least to tell all the stories that keep popping up in her imagination and nagging her to write them down. She’s also addicted to her own hero, to whom she’s been happily married for many years.
Read on for an extract of the dramatic sequel to
Farewell to Lancashire:
BEYOND THE SUNSET
Anna Jacobs
In the untamed outback of Western Australia,
the Blake sisters are together again despite what
seemed like insurmountable odds.
For Cassandra – reunited at last with the man she loves –
the Swan River Colony is a refuge that seems like a miracle
after her ordeals. And two of her sisters have fallen in love
with their new way of life. But then a messenger arrives
from faraway England, and it is the fourth sister, Pandora,
who jumps at the chance to make her way back to the
Lancashire moors she misses so badly.
The way home, though, will be even harder than the voyage
to Australia. The only ship that can take her and her new
protector back to England lies many days’ journey away,
across country that would daunt even a hardened explorer.
And when she reaches Outham, a devious, dangerous
enemy will do anything to prevent her taking charge of her
family’s inheritance …
Out now in hardback and ebook
PROLOGUE
Swan River Colony (Western Australia) December 1863
Pandora Blake heard footsteps and tried to brush away the tears as she saw her eldest sister coming across the garden of the Migrants’ Home towards her.
‘Breakfast is ready.’ Cassandra put an arm round her shoulders. ‘Oh, dear! I don’t like to see you so upset. You know we can’t return to Lancashire. If we did, I’m quite sure our lives would be in danger.’
She nodded and tried to summon up a smile.
‘Don’t,’ Cassandra said softly.
‘Don’t what?’
‘Don’t pretend with me. Isn’t the homesickness getting any better at all?’
Pandora could only shake her head blindly and try to swallow the lump of grief that seemed permanently lodged in her throat. ‘It was cruel of our aunt to force us to leave England. Why does she hate us so much?’
‘Father always thought it was because she couldn’t have children.’
‘That’s not our fault.’
Cassandra gave her a quick hug. ‘I know.’
‘You should have seen her that last time she came to visit us. She was terrifying, and strange too. She had that piece of your hair that they’d cut off, still tied with your ribbon, and we were certain if we didn’t do as she asked and leave the country, she’d have you killed. We thought we’d never see you again. It was a miracle you escaped to join us on the ship.’
A bell rang from inside the building. ‘Breakfast is ready,’ Cassandra said again.
‘I’ll join you in a few minutes. I need to calm down.’
‘All right.’
Pandora sighed as she looked round the garden, relishing a few moments on her own.The ship had been crowded with other single women brought out to the Swan River Colony as maids, some of them quarrelsome and noisy. All the Lancashire lasses had been thin at first after the long months without work because of the lack of raw cotton, but no one else seemed so badly affected by homesickness as she was. What was wrong with her?
She stared round. She’d thought she’d feel differently once they got here, but she didn’t. It was so unlike the soft cool colours of her native Lancashire. Even at this early hour, the sun blazed down from a cloudless blue sky and she felt uncomfortably hot. Wiping her brow, she went to sit on a bench in the shade of a gum tree. It had pretty red flowers, but the leaves were sickle-shaped and leathery, of a dull green. Even the stray clumps of grass in the garden were more beige than green, burnt by the searing sun, while the ground was sandy, shifting beneath your feet as you walked. How anything grew in it, she couldn’t think.
A pair of galahs flew across to perch in the tree, squawking harshly at one another. She’d called them ‘parrots’ when she first arrived but Matron had laughed and told her they were cocka toos, not parrots. Their calls were ugly, but they were pretty to look at, with pink throats and chests, pale grey wings, heads and crests.
One began to nip the flowers off the gum tree w
ith its strong beak, not eating them but simply letting each one drop to the ground while it sought another blossom to pinch out. Was it doing this for sheer devilment or was there some purpose?
Even if she wanted to take the risk, how could she return to Lancashire? She didn’t have the money for the fare and she didn’t want to leave her sisters. No, somehow she’d have to come to terms with this terrible longing for home. She stood up, took a deep breath and went inside.
As usual the twins were sitting with their heads close together, talking animatedly. Pandora got herself a plate of food and didn’t comment on the way Cassandra was staring at her plate, eating very little. Her eldest sister had her own problems, was now carrying the child of a man who’d raped her just before she left England.
Afterwards Pandora helped with the clearing up, trying to speak cheerfully to the other women.
She would get over this homesickness, she told herself firmly – or learn to hide it better. She’d never been a whiner, wasn’t going to start now.
1
Lancashire: 1st January, 1864
Mr Featherworth leaned back in his chair and studied the young man sitting on the other side of his desk. Not good-looking, Zachary Carr, too tall and bony for that, but still, he had a reputation for honesty and common sense, and a steady gaze. The late Mr Blake had thought a lot of him, had said several times that you’d go a long way to find a more decent fellow. That was much more important to the lawyer than how a man looked.
The more he talked to the young man, the more he warmed to him. Carr had been the breadwinner for his mother and sister for several years, so was clearly a responsible person, and he seemed intelligent too. He might never have travelled overseas before, but he was young and strong, and at twenty-five, he’d grown beyond a young man’s rashness. He even knew how to ride a horse, because his uncle had a farm. That was a big advantage, because Mr Featherworth had been told there were no railways in the Swan River Colony.