Farewell to Lancashire (32 page)

They’d disagreed about this before as well, so Reece bit his tongue. For all Francis’s wish to treat all men well, at times he still showed the innate arrogance of his upbringing, seeming to feel that he was superior to most other people.

Reece was growing increasingly frustrated. He wasn’t cut out to be a servant. Even with a liberal master, there were certain lines a servant didn’t cross. How would he face nearly a year and a half more of keeping quiet and doing things in ways he considered unwise, or sometimes downright sloppy? Even the hunt for land was being conducted haphazardly, not systematically.

That night he began his long-postponed letter to Cassandra, describing the voyage, which she’d surely find of interest, and his early days in the Swan River Colony. He found himself pouring out his heart and feelings to her, remembering how they’d talked and talked, their minds as in tune with one another as their bodies.

When his fingers cramped with holding the pen and he grew tired of the smell of ink, he screwed the cap on the ink bottle and put his writing materials away. He’d write about the prospects here another night. He’d be very honest ... but he’d definitely ask her to come out and marry him. He’d learned enough during his time here to feel that together they’d stand a good chance of prospering, a far better chance than they would have had in England.

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 little 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.