The Widow of Ballarat

by Darry Fraser

  Flora let out a breath and stared at her mother. ‘Ma, did you get out of the tent after Lewis left last night?’

  ‘Felled him with the first,’ Josie said and mimed her manoeuvre. ‘Hit him afore he hit the ground with the second.’ Flicking her hand in the air, she completed the move. She sniffed and looked at her daughter. ‘Lookin’ after me lass.’

  Finn looked surprised. ‘She uses a slingshot?’

  Flora bit her lip. ‘It’s a deadly aim, she has, better than me, still,’ she said quietly. ‘She wouldn’a missed, especially with the good moon last night.’ She turned away, wrung her hands. ‘But she might yet have killed him.’

  ‘Won’t have killed ’im, weren’t goin’ t’ kill him.’ Josie said softly. ‘Gentle tap on the brow, is all. Always looks a sight worse at first.’

  Finn gave a slight bow to Flora. ‘Remind me to be very careful when in your company, Miss Doyle. Would you introduce me to your mother?’

  ‘My mother, Mrs Josie Doyle. Ma, this is Mr Seymour.’

  He turned to the older woman. ‘A pleasure, Mrs Doyle. I am Finneas Seymour.’

  ‘I saw ye at the dance.’ Josie nodded at him.

  ‘You did, indeed.’

  ‘I see yer arm is mended.’ She pointed.

  He gave a small smile. ‘Sometimes it is mended.’

  Matthew walked behind Nell and looked at the bag of laundry sat on top of the tin of nuggets. ‘Thought you said you didn’t have much laundry,’ he said to Finn, who shrugged. ‘Now, for getting the tin box out of that hole.’

  Finn said, ‘Help me load up a barrow, and push it back up here. We can exchange goods, so to speak. None will be the wiser.’

  ‘I don’t need picks and pans,’ Flora said quickly.

  ‘But buckets, and a rake or two. Maybe some stools for sitting by the fire.’ Finn looked at Nell. ‘I could even bring another tent, and the makings for a cot. I’ll be back in a few minutes.’

  Flora darted a glance at Matthew, who nodded and followed Finn down to the cart.

  Nell wondered, dumbfounded, how easily the men thought the gold could be moved.

  Looking anywhere but at Nell, Flora said, ‘Not getting anything done standin’ around. Would ye tend to the billy and start on the taties for the lunch?’

  ‘I’ll get changed first, but why are we still doing lunch?’ Nell asked as she headed for Flora’s tent.

  Once inside, she heard Flora reply, ‘To look normal, and be carryin’ on the business as usual.’

  By the time Nell changed out of her widow weeds, pulled on the bloomers and apron, and gathered enough potatoes from Flora’s stores, the men had returned.

  In less than fifteen minutes the gold retrieval was done. Flora had flapped sheets and swept ash and moved boxes and the empty wash tubs as cover for the activity, all the while the two men were emptying the barrow and had hauled and loaded the tin of gold into it.

  Finn tipped his hat in a mock salute at Nell. She only nodded, and looked away. ‘Mr Worrell,’ she called. ‘You will have a receipt for me?’

  ‘I will,’ he said, coming closer to keep his voice down. ‘I am to write the specifics regarding the transaction before we leave here with it.’ He pulled out an envelope from his pocket. ‘If someone has a pen and some ink? I seem to have forgotten to bring them with me.’

  ‘I have. I use nib pen and ink for my ledger,’ Flora said.

  ‘Of course you would.’ Matthew smiled at her.

  Satisfied, Nell began to drag the tubs over the fire pits. She snatched up a bucket nearby, and then another.

  Flora called out. ‘Nell, no need for that now. We’re not—’

  Nell marched to the creek for water, a large pail in each hand.

  Finn caught her up. ‘The laundry looks like it could use the barrow, too,’ he said, and tried to take a bucket from her. ‘Fill the buckets, load them into a barrow. Easier than carrying them. I’ll supply you one.’

  ‘I’ll buy one. It’s a good suggestion.’ She kept walking.

  At the creek, he took a bucket and scooped up the water. ‘How many of these?’

  ‘Eight to begin. Each tub.’

  ‘Eight?’

  ‘Washing needs a lot of water, and water is scarce.’ She dipped the other bucket into the dirty water.

  ‘Nell, stop a moment.’

  She looked back at the laundry. No one was taking the slightest notice of them. Matthew was helping Flora, and they laughed at something together.

  Last night. What she’d taken for herself was not hers, much as it had been wonderful. Her bushranger had disappeared on a breeze and in his place was a real man, one whose life had been much different to hers. One who had known a good love, one who deserved a great love. Not someone who had been damaged by an ugly marriage, not someone who had thrown herself at him, and not once, but twice.

  She shook her addled head. What had she said? That her wounds would heal properly. She wasn’t so sure now. Decisions she’d made were bad ones. She’d hidden the gold on the fields and had endangered friends who were dear to her. Then she’d decided to—dared to—give herself to Finn. She shouldn’t have trusted herself there, either. Shouldn’t trust herself now.

  ‘You have your gold. I have fulfilled my promise to Mr Campbell. I think it’s best left as it is.’ Her heartbeat boomed in her ears and this felt wrong, too, but too much was happening, too much to take in all at once. She’d brought destruction here; that was the only thing she knew for sure.

  He frowned at her. ‘Nell.’ He lifted a hand towards her, but let it drop. ‘I’m not about to leave this as it is.’

  ‘You are a rich man now.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be a rich man if you weren’t honest and true. All would have been lost to this …’ He waved a hand around, ‘this end-of-the-earth place. But I don’t want to lose the chance we have because of it.’

  She stared up and felt the tempting tug of his gaze.

  ‘In a few days,’ he began, ‘after I have the gold from the Amberton House, I’ll have the lot assayed. I will go to Melbourne for stores, for more tools. The trip will be long enough if all goes well.’ He bent to catch her eyes. ‘But time will go more quickly if I know I’ll see you again on my return.’ He went on, while her only reaction was to glance away. ‘With the gold, I need not continue as a merchant here. But I have stock orders that will fill two more trips, and I can’t leave Ben to do it alone. Then I can be free of the diggings, free of sudden gunshots and deaths and corruption. I can go where I choose, try to find a peaceful place, with someone I love. Don’t let fear guide you now,’ he said earnestly. He touched her hand, caught her eye. ‘Come with me.’

  ‘I will have to think about it. But not now.’ She started to march the two buckets of water back up to the laundry until Finn caught up and took them from her.

  Nell watched as Finn climbed into the driver’s seat of the cart alongside Mr Steele at the bottom of the hill. He picked up the reins, took one glance back at her, then turned the horses. The cart pulled away.

  Matthew had walked down with him, starting up a conversation with Mr Steele as they’d loaded the spare implements and had hauled the tin box aboard. Handshakes were exchanged, they seemed as friends, and he’d waved them away as the cart moved off the fields.

  Flora stood beside her, watching the cart leave. ‘He’s a good man, that Mr Seymour. He always was nice. Cut above all those others what come onto the fields, those that aren’t diggers. Don’t speak down to anyone, if you know what I mean. And now he’s got plenty of gold again too. Wished he’d have left all that laundry.’

  Flora’s sidelong glance seemed odd. The cooking fires crackled behind. Nell’s heart was a lump, pumping hard, but she kept her voice steady. ‘We’ll be busy enough as it is. I’m glad to be working,’ she said, her chest feeling tight. ‘At least I’ll be able to buy a new tent, and a new cot. Mr Seymour said he’d have one of each sent up before he leaves for Melbourne. Means I can still get on with the l
aundry, Flora. Still work here.’

  ‘Nell,’ Flora took a deep breath, ‘I don’t want you here.’

  Stunned, Nell couldn’t move her head. ‘What?’

  ‘You brought trouble. I know you didn’t mean to, but you did. Lewis, on a rampage. Your father before him, and we don’t know what he’s goin’ to do.’ She rounded on Nell. ‘Me mam could be up for murder if Lewis dies—’

  ‘No one knows who attacked him. What Josie said, her mind—’

  ‘Don’t, Nell.’ Flora frowned. ‘I’m sorry for ye, I am. But I can’t risk my mam. I can’t.’ She waved Matthew away as he started up the hill. He veered to talk to a group of miners by the creek. ‘We stayed up talkin’ all last night, me and him.’

  Nell’s heart was beating so hard she felt faint. No place to live, no work, no money. She’d sent Finn away without an answer. In a woolly-headed daze she heard Flora go on.

  ‘Mr Worrell says he can find me and mam lodgings in Bendigo. He said he could pay me for ledger work, that I might find more work there with him and his lawyer cousin, or maybe I could work with a business family, on Mr Campbell’s recommendation.’

  Nell stared at her.

  Flora chewed her lip. ‘Might have to move quick because of what’s happened, but I don’t know when or how, yet. I’ve a bit put by, and I can sell off some of this.’ She lifted her shoulders. ‘I’ve thought about it. I like it.’ She looked at Nell. ‘I like him. Very much.’

  Nodding, Nell turned back to look down the slope, saw the back end of Finn’s cart slip around a corner and disappear. ‘Then I’m glad for you, Flora,’ she heard herself say.

  ‘’Course, Mr Fancy-pants Seymour seemed to take a shine to you, couldn’t take his eyes off ye,’ Flora continued as if she hadn’t heard. ‘So I thought maybe he should help you out. Mr Worrell says there’s more gold in that tin box than Mr Seymour knows. Seems your husband was hiding away lots of nuggets from who knows where.’ She dug in her pinny pocket. ‘Before they’d come back with the barrow, I took a souvenir for you.’

  In her hand sat a drawstring canvas bag and as Flora folded it down, Nell could see six good nuggets through the opening, small, snug in her palm. Flora cupped her other hand underneath to hold them.

  ‘Wouldn’t that be stealing?’ Nell’s voice trailed off. She didn’t want that on her conscience too. The morning sun beat down on her head and neck. Another sweltering day was on the march.

  ‘Not if they were Andrew’s. And who’s to know?’ Flora dropped the nuggets into Nell’s pinafore pocket. ‘Don’t be stupid,’ she said as Nell tried to stop her. ‘You know what this much gold can mean for you. You’ll find lodgings with it, for a start. You have to go, Nell, now. Today. And don’t come back. Too risky after last night.’

  Nell couldn’t grab hold of anything to make sense of it. Flora stood quietly beside her a moment before sighing, and trudging back to the laundry. Nell followed and began to look for any possessions she might still have that weren’t burned to ashen dust. She bent to kiss Josie’s warm forehead and hug her tightly. The old woman’s grip on her wrist was a tug at her heart that nearly undid her.

  From Flora’s tent, she gathered up her widow’s blacks, retrieved the promissory notes, then once outside, pitched the clothes onto the fire pit. She watched a moment until they caught alight.

  ‘I hope I did enough potatoes,’ she said to Flora, and glanced at the heavy pans as they waited to go onto the coals. The vegetables were coated in glistening lard, warmed by the heat of the fire.

  ‘Nell, you understand. I have to look after me and me mam.’

  She nodded. ‘I do.’

  She walked down the hill, her heart heavy, her pocket heavy.

  Where to go? What to do?

  Survive. She heard her own words from a day that seemed oh-so-long ago—I will do everything I can to survive.

  Finn set his mouth, itching to click the reins and get going, but Matthew was still talking to him.

  ‘By a quick reckoning, and only on the feel of it in my hand, I’d say there’s much more than a few hundred pounds worth in that box. Once you get the bars, Mrs Amberton’s got you your inheritance and then some.’

  Earlier, Finn had told Matthew where the rough cast was hidden. ‘The rest would be hers, then,’ he grunted. ‘I’ll get it back to her.’

  ‘Once it’s assayed properly, of course,’ Matthew advised. He stood back as Finn made to turn the cart. ‘I have copies of the receipts for Joseph. Is there anything else I can do for you?’

  Finn shook his head. ‘Do you need lodgings tonight?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ll sleep by the fire again here, then in the early hours I’ll move the ladies into town. Miss Doyle wants to stay a while longer, but I feel the urgency to move as soon and as quietly as possible.’ He looked across to Ben, who waited in the cart beside Finn. ‘I’ll take you up on that offer of your spare cart, Mr Steele.’

  Ben nodded. ‘A fine thing, Mr Worrell. I’ll make it as comfortable as possible in the back. You’ll have to sleep on the road somewhere, but you’ll be in Bendigo in good time. Your word is good, I know you’ll pay me.’

  ‘I will mail a banker’s note as soon as I am back at my work.’

  Finn said, ‘Ben and I will load up and go to Melbourne tonight. I’ll visit Joseph when I return after the last buying trip.’ He held out a hand and Matthew gripped it. ‘Thank you.’

  Matthew hesitated. ‘I know we were successful, but it somehow doesn’t feel like it,’ he said.

  ‘It’s a strange thing, a hollow victory. Till next time, Matthew.’

  The cart pulled away and they drove to Ben’s stables where they would divest it of its excess implements and conceal the tin box. Finn would drive to Amberton House and take the gold bars from their hiding place and then prepare for the trip to Melbourne.

  Ben sat alongside, silent until now. He looked across at Finn. ‘Reckon you’ve got a reason, but why are we in such a hurry to leave tonight?’

  Finn wiped a hand over his mouth. He thought of soft blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a determined frown on a beautiful face. ‘To stop me doing something I might regret.’

  Ben gave him a long look. ‘And that tells me all I need to know.’

  Finn wanted to march back to the laundry, put his case to Nell again, make damn sure she knew what he wanted, no mistake. But he’d regret it. She’d said she’d think about it, and she needed to do it without any added pressure from him.

  Ben was waiting.

  ‘I’m thinking of marrying again,’ Finn said.

  ‘All right, I think I understand the connection—marryin’, regrettin’.’

  ‘Not what I meant.’

  ‘So, let me keep guessin’.’ Despite Finn’s look, Ben carried on. ‘Yer only thinking about marryin’.’

  Finn flicked the reins, kept quiet.

  ‘And I reckon I might know who the lucky lady is. I didn’t know you were courtin’.’

  A brief glance at Ben, and Finn said, ‘Not yet. But I hope to.’ Then his mouth set.

  ‘It’s Mrs Amberton, isn’t it?’ Ben said. ‘She was up at Miss Doyle’s laundry just before.’ A curt nod from Finn and Ben tsk-tsked. ‘She know you’re that dashed bushranger chappie?’ He grinned and slapped his thigh as he caught a glare, and another nod from Finn. ‘Hah! Yer sweet on her and ye dunno if she’ll say yes. That’s what’s up yer nose, isn’t it?’

  Finn turned the cart down Ben’s street, Steele and Son’s shed ahead. ‘I’ll be thinking on what to do while we’re gone.’ He looked across. ‘Pray we don’t have rain either way. Can’t afford the money nor the time to be bogged.’

  Thirty-Seven

  As she walked, Nell put everything from her mind but the next step. And the one after that, until she had reached Mrs Willey’s store on Bakery Hill.

  Hot, thirsty, and not a little worried for herself, she stepped inside to peruse the goods for sale. A sensible dress was what she needed, or two, and a blouse and sk
irt—if she could find so ordinary a thing, such was the splendour of the merchandise on offer in this shop. New boots and new underclothing would be required. That would see the first promissory note taken care of. She headed for the tables and the racks to choose her garments.

  When she took her selections and laid them on the counter, the shop assistant looked at the note Nell handed her. ‘What is this?’ the woman said, eyebrows arched.

  ‘It is a note for credits, I believe,’ Nell said evenly, though her stomach fluttered. ‘My late husband must have returned some goods, and this is the receipt.’

  ‘Just a moment.’ After a glance up and down at Nell’s bloomers and her pinafore, the woman disappeared behind a curtain, the note in her hand.

  Voices low and urgent reached Nell’s ears and again, flutters waved in her stomach. The urge to run was strong, but she had no reason to do so. She touched the envelope and checked the other note inside. At least if there was something wrong with the first one, the second one should be perfectly fine.

  A pleasantly dressed woman, older than Nell, came out from behind the curtain. Her demeanour was anything but pleasant, and Nell was struck by the anger in her voice.

  ‘Where did you get this?’ The paper was scrunched in her hand in front of Nell’s face.

  ‘It was in my husband’s possession, and now he has died, I am in need to redeem the credit.’ She flustered a moment. ‘But if there is something wrong with that one, I have another here in—’

  ‘These have been stolen from this store, and fraudulent credits have been written on them, Mrs …?’

  Stolen. Nell shook her head in shock. ‘I am so sorry. I had no idea. Please, take the other one. If it is indeed stolen, I cannot abide to have it on my person.’

  The other was snatched from her, read quickly, and the angry set of the woman’s mouth returned. ‘I’ve a mind to have the police come and speak to you.’

  Nell backed up, her hands, palms out, in front of her. ‘I had no idea,’ she repeated, shaken. ‘I mean no trouble. He is dead. There’ll be no trouble.’