The Heather to the Hawkesbury

by Sheila Hunter

  “Blacks!” said the startled Caroline, as though she hadn’t enough to think about. “Are there blacks here? We’ve never seen them.”

  “Yes, Missus, there are blacks here. Me and Liz have been living with them. They is nice peoples around this way.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “I don’t need to tell you, Missus, but we would like some eats.”

  “Yes, of course, would you like some broth?” She ladled the rich mutton and vegetable soup into big bowls and broke pieces from a fresh loaf of bread and put them on the table. The two starved people literally shoved it into their mouths while Caroline watched in amazement.

  The two little girls had crept out from under the bed while Alistair and Donald were being tended and sat staring at the wild looking couple in complete silence.

  Jack finished his soup and pushed the plate away. “That was lovely, Missus.”

  “There is more if you want it.”

  “Yes, I would,” Jack said “Liz would too, wouldn’t you, Liz?”

  Liz had said very little and looked about her continually, rather like a caged animal and now she just sat and looked up at Caroline who was amazed to see tears running down the filthy face. “Oh, Missus, if you only knew what we been through.”

  “Now, Liz, hold on to yourself.” Jack looked at Caroline. “Now, Missus, I been thinking. Liz and me, we’ve had a rough spin and it wasn’t our fault, but it seems though you can’t manage by yourself with the boss and the boy laid up. What about giving Liz and me a go at helping you.”

  Caroline looked helplessly at first one, and then the other. “But you’re so ...” She couldn’t finish.

  “I know. We’re dirty. You’d be dirty and in rags if you done what we done and living how we have done. Give us a chance, Missus, we’ll clean up and if you could spare some clothes, well, we’d look all right then. Missus, we won’t hurt you, we’ll help you. All we want is tucker and clothes. Please, Missus, give us a go?” he pleaded.

  “My husband doesn’t encourage strangers” was all Caroline could think to say.

  “He ain’t in any state to say anything, Missus, if you don’t mind me saying. And how are you going to manage if we don’t help?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t know! I must have help from somewhere. If only Murdoch were here. I can’t manage Alistair and Donald can’t help.”

  “You got us, Missus. We’ll clean up if you will give us some soap and water and you’ll see, we’ll look better soon. I must say I’ve seen Liz look better than she does now.”

  Caroline was too concerned about her own folk to really give much deep thought about her guests. She handed soap and some clothes of hers and Alistair’s to them and told them to go to the shed for their toilet. She had no idea who they were but had a feeling that they would be escaped convicts. The thought horrified her, but she shrugged it off as something she would face later, as her concern was for Alistair.

  Donald was awake and fairly comfortable. He was very distressed at his father’s state. Every now and then he raised his head to look across at the large bed where Alistair lay.

  “Mama, he will be all right, won’t he?”

  “We hope so son, but let us have a word of prayer about him.”

  They bowed their heads.

  “I have been praying, Mother. Mother, what are we going to do? And who do you think these people are?”

  “I have no idea, Donald, but they probably saved your lives. If only they were cleaner. Well, we’ll see when they return. Perhaps Father will let them stay when he wakes.”

  “I don’t think Father will be fit to say anything.” He glanced towards his father. “Is he hurt badly?”

  “Both his legs are broken, son. I think the man has done well with those and I do think he is waking, because he moves his head and his hands now and wasn’t doing that before.”

  When Jack and Liz returned they were much improved. Liz’s dress was not a bad fit, but Alistair’s clothes hung on Jack.

  “The boss is bigger than me, Missus, but Liz will make them tighter, if we can keep the clothes. She’s good with a needle and if we had a comb we could make our hair better. I’ll shave my beard off if I could borrow the boss’s razor, please, Missus.”

  They certainly looked less wild when all this was done and Liz even gave Caroline a shy smile. “Thank you, Missus. Oh, Missus, I do feel clean now. You are good.”

  Caroline could see that she was still inclined to be misty eyed and decided she couldn’t be as hard as she had at first seemed.

  Jack looked over to Alistair. “I think he’s rousing. He’s moving more. Thank goodness we got him fixed up before he woke. My Misses, you must have wondered about us bringing your menfolk in like that.”

  “I still wonder - er...”

  “Jack’s me name. At least it will do for mine.”

  Caroline hardly knew what to do with them and her eyes kept wandering to Alistair as he appeared to be more restless.

  Jack took over “Listen, Missus - er...”

  “MacLeod” put in Caroline.

  “Mrs. MacLeod, listen, Missus, you just look after the men and tell us what to do. You can trust us, we won’t steal anything. Liz’s a good housekeeper and she’ll do anything you want. Won’t you, Liz, and she’ll look after the little girls too.”

  “Yes, Mrs. MacLeod, I want to help you, truly I do.”

  Caroline was only too anxious to give her mind to her men and so Jack took over the outside work and Liz worked under her directions around the house.

  Alistair opened his eyes as they ate their evening meal. He looked at Caroline and said, “Donald?”

  She was able to quieten him by saying, “Donald’s all right, Alistair. He is here in his bed.”

  “Good,” said Alistair and went to sleep again. She sat by them all night, tending them as they needed. She had worried about housing Jack and Liz, but Jack announced that they would be quite comfortable in the hay shed, it would be better than they’d had n a long time. He instructed her to bolt the door inside so she would feel safe, but not to hesitate calling him if she needed him.

  “A strange pair,” she thought as she slipped the bolt.

  The next day Alistair was conscious for longer intervals and occasionally watched them with a doubtful look on his face. It was some days before he could take in the fact that Jack and Liz had come to the rescue when they did. He took the news quietly, being too ill to really do anything else.

  By the time he was able to sit up and hold a conversation, Caroline knew the gist of her two helpers story. Jack told her as they sat by the fire, one evening.

  “Yes, Missus, we were convicts. I guess you know that. We ain’t done nothing real bad, but I guess you have only got our word for that. You see, I got a sentence for stealing a feed. We lived in Middlesex, near London, me, Mum and the kids. We didn’t have no Pa ,’cause he died years ago. Well, some boys and me we saw a man pushing a cart, of meat going to the butcher. We hustled him and stole some of the meat. Well, they caught us and they give us seven years, but we’ve both finished our time. I was in the hulks for three years before I come out to Sydney Town and I got here when I was twenty.

  “Poor boy” said Caroline.

  “It wasn’t all bad,” said Jack. “The hulks were bad, but I like the life out here. Better’n living in ol’ England I reckon. It’s warmer, anyway. Well, I was working for Mr. Mitchell out near Camden and he and Mrs. Mitchell were good people, but Mrs. Mitchell died and the boss seemed to go off a bit and then he started drinking. When he drank he got fighting mad, but he was all right when he was sober. Well, he had a housekeeper after Mrs. Mitchell died and one night he got so mad drunk that he punched her down and killed her. Nothin’ happened to him and then he got Liz in her place. He kept off the bottle for a while, but then he started again. In the meantime, I fell for Liz and we wanted to get married. Mr. Mitchell, he arranged it and twelve months ago we got married.” He looked down at Liz and smiled.
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  “Six months ago, Mr. Mitchell, he got drunk again and he hit Liz and I saw red. I didn’t mean to hit him, but I did and I hurt him real bad, mebbe I killed him. I knew no one would listen to me, an ex-convict and I was a goner, so Liz and me, we just lit out. We went to Sydney and a sailor got us a ship and hid us. We didn’t know where we was goin’ and didn’t care really. We set sail and then one night he came for us and told us to hop overboard and swim across a river. We did and found some blacks who let us live with them and we’ve been there ever since, but it’s lonely out there and we used to come down close to your farm and watch the men work and you and the little girls, just to see some white folk. I don’t reckon anyone would be looking for us and I reckon we could stay here forever and no one would find us.”

  The prospect of hiding fugitives from the law did not appeal to Caroline, even though her sympathy was with them. What Alistair would say she could only imagine.

  “Liz, what dld they send you to the colony for? I couldn’t think it was too bad.”

  “Missus, I think Liz will tell you some day if she wants, but not yet. Just believe me, she’s all right.”

  Liz looked at Jack with scared eves, then to Caroline. “I think I will tell you, Mrs. MacLeod, some day, but not yet, not now.”

  Alistair’s recovery was slow at first, being too sick to ask many questions and only too pleased to think that Caroline was not alone.

  When Caroline suggested again that Jack might find a doctor for Alistair, he refused, saying, “No, Missus, I would do a lot for you, but I don’t go to town for you yet awhile.”

  She had the same reply when she suggested taking a letter for Murdoch. However, time passed and her patients improved. Jack made a sort of walking splint for Donald and a pair of crutches so he could hobble out of bed and sit in a chair. Alistair was quite unable to leave his bed. As time went on he sat up watching all about him. He learned Liz and Jack’s story and to Caroline’s surprise said nothing, but seemed a little tight-lipped. He looked up at Jack and said, “Well, I thought about what Caroline would have done if you hadn’t turned up when you did and so I just accept that you were instruments of the Lord. I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done and shall be ever in your debt.”

  “Boss, I’ve been called a lot of things in me time, but I ain’t never been told I was a instrument of the Lord.”

  So a strange friendship developed between the large farmer and the ex-convict.

  Caroline was amazed at the continued care Jack gave Alistair and the patience with which Alistair accepted his ministrations.

  In two months Donald was quite active and tentatively putting his foot to the ground. Alistair was a more difficult proposition, for even after that time, Jack could see that there had been little or no healing of the bones.

  “It’s no use, is it Jack? Be honest with me, man. Surely I should be getting better by now.”

  “Now, Boss, you be patient a little longer.”

  “Jack,” thundered Alistair, “tell me, I am not a child.”

  “All right, Boss, I will. I don’t know much about broken legs, but I can see that your right leg moves where it shouldn’t when I move you. I just dunno what to do.”

  “Murdoch, that’s who we want. We need Murdoch here, but how to get him?” He talked it over with Caroline and decided that when the parson came, (he said he would come again), they would send a letter to Murdoch asking him to come and take the family back to Riverbend until Alistair was better or perhaps a doctor in Sydney Town would be able to do something. They would leave the farm in Jack and Liz’s care.

  When they told the pair what they had decided, Jack and Liz were overcome that the MacLeods’ felt so confident about them, but as Alistair said, “Jack, if I can’t trust you after all you’ve done, well, I cannot trust anyone.”

  “But, Boss, look at what you’ve done for us. We think we could make a real go of it here and soon we’ll be so fat that no one will recognise us. Anyway, without my beard, I look different. One day I’ll be game enough to go to town, just to try it out.”

  “Jack, I’m wondering if you would take our name and call yourselves our cousins. It would give you some standing and a reason for taking the farm over. Maybe, man, I’ll not be able to come back, so you could keep it going until Donald can come back, if he wants to.”

  “Boss, oh Boss, thank you. Jack MacLeod, eh? Liz, how does that sound? Jack and Liz MacLeod. Aw. Boss.”

  So the letter was written and when the parson came two weeks later he assured them he would send it on, at the same time passing very few remarks about the ‘cousins’ on the farm. As he only saw them from a distance he had no need to know anything about them. He was more taken up with the story of the tree fall and Alistair and Donald’s injuries than inquiring about the stray ‘cousins’.

  Chapter 18 - Murdoch helps again

  Mary found it hard to wait for Murdoch to come home the day the letter arrived, but her excitement turned to sorrow as Murdoch read it to her. He looked at her as he finished …

  “… and so, Murdoch, you see the predicament we are in. We are sure Alistair’s legs are not healing and we must move him somewhere where we can get help. We appeal to you, brother, and you Mary, to help us and we need monetary help as well as physical help as our resources are low. We pray that Alistair will soon mend and we can repay you in time, but in the meanwhile we need you, dear Murdoch. Please, please come. Dear ones, you will find Alistair a changed man, a humble and loving one. He is now so patient. With my love, Caroline.”

  “Well, poor Caroline, poor Alistair. What a terrible time they have been through.”

  “And poor Donald, too. Mary, love, I’ll have to go and see Mr. Forrest now, I think. He will know how to arrange things.”

  “Yes, Murdoch, you must go. Why did they have to go so far away? How long will you be away? I daresay Mr. Forrest will be put out with your going.”

  “He is not one to kick about an accident. I don’t know how long I will be away, but perhaps Mr. Forrest will have some idea. How fortunate that those friends are there to help Caroline. How would she have managed otherwise? It will use some of our money up, lass.

  “We mustn’t worry about that now Murd. We have no choice.”

  Mr. Forrest saw that there was no alternative but for Murdoch to go. He offered money to help, but Murdoch refused.

  “It is enough sir, that you are letting me go. I am sure Malcolm and Ian will do as many of my jobs as they can and I will not be longer than I can help.”

  Murdoch made his way to Sydney and thence by coaster to the Manning River. In the town nearest the MacLeod farm he hired a horse from the hotel and made his way up river to the farm. Caroline had her arms in the wash tub when she saw him come up the track.

  “Murdoch, Oh, Murdoch, I knew you’d come.”

  “Caro, dear lass, it is good to see you” he said as he dismounted, hugging her to him. “You couldn’t have found a place more isolated, sister. I didn’t think I would ever get here.”

  “Come inside quickly, Murdoch. Hitch the horse there and we’ll attend to it later. Come and see Alistair.”

  The door opened and Donald stood there smiling. “Uncle Murdoch, it is good to see you. We do need you.”

  “It is nice to be needed, lad. How is that leg of yours? Your arm too?”

  “My arm is not so bad and my leg is too, but slower than my arm, thank you Uncle Murdoch.”

  They walked in to where Alistair was propped up in bed. “Alistair, my friend,” was all Murdoch could say as he saw the pale pain-lined face of the man.

  For a while Alistair said nothing, just clasped Murdoch’s hand in his, then he said, “Man, it is good to see you. I’m sorry we had to call on you to get us out of our mess. You didn’t waste time getting here either.”

  They sat and talked while Caroline prepared tea. Murdoch heard the story that Alistair had to tell and he told it with a humility that Murdoch had never heard in him before.

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bsp; “I had to come here, Murd, to lose myself. Praise the Lord have found myself. I can honestly say that even though I cannot yet walk, I am content. I am surprised at myself, I am happy.”

  “It is a good thing to see you so, my friend. I feel sure you will be right in no time. Tell me, were your legs set straight?”

  “As well as Jack could do them. They even seem straight now, but Jack thinks they haven’t healed, especially the right leg. We haven’t dared get me out of bed as we are sure they won’t hold me up.”

  “Here come Liz and Jack now, Alistair. I’ll make fresh tea.”

  Murdoch greeted the pair with friendliness and with thanks for their care of his sister. “They could all have died,” he said, “and we are grateful.”

  “We think we have a lot to thank them for they have been that kind to us, Mr. Macdonald. If you only knew.”

  “He does know, Jack. I have told him the full story. That is only right.”

  “Yes

  “It is Boss. If you are going to leave us in charge, it’s only fair.”

  “Is that right, Alistair? Will you leave Jack in charge?”

  “Yes, I will, Murd. There’s no knowing how long I’ll be, and Jack and Liz will stay, either until we all get back or at least until Donald comes back. There will always be a place for them here.”

  “I am sure they would look after the place very well.”

  “Do you object being part of the scheme, Murd? I must admit, don’t like being party to any wrongdoing, but I feel that if Jack did kill Reginald Mitchell, it was in defense of his wife and it could not be called murder. It is only his past that would cause him trouble, I would think.”

  “Did you say Reginald Mitchell? Of ‘Longacre Park’, near Camden?” Murdoch asked with a chuckle.

  “Yes, that’s it. We worked at Longacre.”

  “How long ago did you hit him?”

  “Nearly nine months ago, now.”

  “Well, I collected some sheep from him personally only three months ago for my boss, William Forrest of ‘Forrest Park’. He wasn’t dead then, in fact he looked remarkably fit and Mrs. Mitchell did too, so I think you are hiding for nothing.”