Farewell to Lancashire (36 page)

Francis’s cousin had a lot to answer for, writing lies about this place.

On the other hand, Reece liked it here, enjoyed the freer life and felt excited about the opportunities he was starting to see for himself. He even liked the warmer climate, something he’d never experienced before. The sun shone day after day and you never needed a coat. Something in him responded cheerfully to that bright warmth. He’d already known he could never go back to working in a mill again, now he knew he would never want to go back to cool, rainy Lancashire.

A
few hours after passing the island of Rottnest, the
Tartar
anchored in Gage’s Roads, a sheltered stretch of water about half a mile from the shore. The town of Fremantle lay before them, tantalisingly close, yet still out of reach.

‘There isn’t a harbour!’ Xanthe exclaimed in surprise. ‘Just long piers.’

‘I heard there’s a sand bar at the mouth of the river, so only smaller ships can go up to Perth.’ Pandora sighed. ‘Isn’t it frustrating? I’m dying to see our new – home.’ It was an effort to call it that. Home to her would always be Outham. She couldn’t even discuss the pain of leaving it with her sisters. It still hurt too much.

‘There’s a lot of forest and not many buildings,’ Maia said. ‘I thought it’d be much bigger than this. And what’s that big white building on top of the hill?’

‘A prison.’

‘I suppose they would need a big prison if they send convicts here, though Matron says most of them aren’t locked away, but are out working on new roads and other improvements. Or they’ve been given a ticket-of-leave, as long as they behave.’ She frowned. ‘Do you suppose such men are dangerous?’

‘They’d not be let out of prison if they were, surely?’

Three other ships were anchored nearby and as they continued to watch, a boat was rowed slowly out to theirs. It was carrying the health inspector, they found.

A smaller boat came out next and took off two of the cabin passengers, while the emigrants were left to crowd on deck and gaze longingly at the shore.

There was a lot of grumbling that night when they were locked down at their normal time of eight o’clock.

Cassandra was summoned to the Barretts’ cabin the next morning, as usual, and almost refused to go, she was so angry at Mr Barrett. But she couldn’t afford to be proud because they still hadn’t paid her the wages they’d promised.

Mrs Barrett was there alone and hurriedly slipped her a letter. ‘It’s a reference. Simon says we shouldn’t give you one, but I don’t agree. You’ve worked hard, done everything I’ve asked. Put it away quickly. Now, help me do my hair and finish my packing.’

‘Could I ask – about my wages, ma’am?’

She began fiddling with her wedding ring. ‘I’m afraid Simon thinks paying for your passage was enough, given the circumstances.’

‘He agreed to pay me wages as well!’ She drew herself up. ‘I shall find a lawyer and sue you for those wages, if necessary. I need every penny I can get for my child. Mr Barrett has already taken my money from me –
every penny of my savings!
Is he going to refuse to pay my wages as well? How does he expect me to live once I’m ashore?’

Mrs Barrett burst into tears, but Cassandra didn’t try to comfort her, nor did she start work.

When the door opened, she turned to see Mr Barrett standing there, scowling at her.

‘What are you doing to upset my wife?’

‘Asking for my wages.’

‘The impudence of you! Stealing money and then asking for more.’

A phrase Cassandra had read came into her mind. ‘In English law, there is a presumption of innocence until someone is proven guilty. When I’m proven innocent, what are you going to do about the wages? Will you still be in Perth even? I call
that
stealing.’

‘How dare you accuse me of such a thing! And you can stop using fancy words that you don’t understand and aren’t suitable for a maid.’

‘I understand exactly what I’m saying. I may not have as much money as you, but there’s nothing wrong with my brain.’ She watched as his wife tugged his arm.

‘Pay her the wages, Simon! She’s worked hard, deserves them. Indeed, I don’t know what I’m going to do without her.’

He turned in shock to his wife. ‘But we agreed!’

‘No.
You
said that’s what you were going to do. You didn’t even listen to my answer. And if you don’t pay her, I shall.’

There was a pregnant silence, then he fumbled in his pocket. ‘I’m only doing this to stop you upsetting my wife!’

He tossed some coins at Cassandra and she had to bend to pick up the ones that fell on the floor. She counted them carefully. ‘This is a pound short. Are you intending to cheat me?’ She held out her hand with the money lying on it to show him.

He glared as he fumbled in his pocket and drew out another coin, this time deliberately dropping it on the floor.

She picked it up, because a pound was a lot of money, but it made her angry that he’d behave in such a petty and vindictive manner. She turned to Mrs Barrett. ‘Thank you for your help, ma’am. Now, what did you want me to do for you this morning?’

He stalked out and Mrs Barrett closed her eyes and shuddered. ‘Men! Did your husband always think he knew best?’

It took her a minute to think of an answer. She kept forgetting that she was supposed to have had a husband. ‘No, ma’am. Nor did my father.’

‘You were lucky, then.’

They didn’t say much as Cassandra arranged her mistress’s hair and finished the packing. ‘There. And I want to thank you for teaching me so much, especially about embroidery. I love doing that.’

‘I enjoyed it.’ She laid one hand on her belly. ‘I wish you well with your baby.’

‘And you with yours, Mrs Barrett.’

When Cassandra left the cabin she wasn’t sure what to do with herself and stood for a moment outside it, relieved to have some time alone.

Then the steward’s voice made her open her eyes again. ‘Captain says you’re to wait with the other single women once you’ve finished here.’

She’d have preferred a few moments of peace, but knew better than to argue.

It was two days before the ordinary emigrants could disembark and when they did, the single women were taken up to Perth, Cassandra among them.

She was sent with her sisters to the Poorhouse-Home, which had been newly renovated and here again the single women would be under the care of a matron. Why did they always treat single women like children, Cassandra wondered rebelliously. She wasn’t a single woman, officially, but a widow. She sighed but didn’t make a fuss, not wanting to gain a bad reputation.

Xanthe grew anxious when she heard that they were being put in a poorhouse, especially when they saw that this one was surrounded by a high stone wall with broken glass set in the top. ‘Are emigrants so eager to escape that they have to be locked in?’ she muttered to her twin. ‘I don’t like this place, Maia.’

But to everyone’s relief, they found that the pauper inmates were lodged on the upper floor, while the emigrants had decent, if crowded quarters on the ground floor.

The long room they were shown into had been divided by wooden partitions into smaller spaces, and the sisters shared one with some other young women from Lancashire. To everyone’s relief, the bedsteads were new and the bedding was clean.

Cassandra was sternly warned not to try to run away by the new matron.

‘I’m not likely to leave without my trunks,’ she replied. ‘They contain all I own in the world. And I want my money back before I go as well. Mr Barrett stole it from me.’

‘I’ve been told
you
could have stolen that money,’ Matron said bluntly.

‘Well, I didn’t. And I shall prove that when I find Mrs Southerham, who gave it to me in the first place. She came out on the
Eena
.’

‘No one of that name has ever been lodged here.’

‘She wouldn’t need to have lodgings provided. She was gentry. They were going to stay with Mr Southerham’s cousin till they could buy some land.’

‘Hmm. Well, we’ll see if you’re proved correct. And in the meantime you’ve clean lodgings and food, so what are you complaining about?’ She looked at Cassandra as if daring her to try. ‘Now, I must get on. Already there are employers coming to see if they can find suitable maids, though how I’m expected to know whether you girls are suitable when I’ve only just met you all, I don’t know. You’d better not line up with the others, Lawson, not till your case is decided.’

Matron insisted on her sisters going out to talk to potential employers, however, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. ‘I’ll fetch you some sewing,’ she told Cassandra. ‘We expect people to earn their keep here. You can sew, can’t you?’

She stifled a sigh. ‘Yes. I’ve had plenty of practice during the past year.’

‘Good. Come with me and I’ll give you a petticoat to piece together.’

When she returned with the bundle of sewing, Cassandra sat on her bed, hearing others talking nearby in the garden, feeling very alone and apprehensive about the future. What if she was unable to prove the money was hers? What would she do without it once she was unable to work?

And what sort of job would she be able to find anyway? There were no cotton mills here. Anyway, she couldn’t accept a job without telling employers about her condition and they might not want her for only a short time.

After the baby was born it would be even more difficult to find work, but she didn’t intend to let anyone take her baby away from her. She’d seen what happened when young women from the mill sent their babies away to be cared for ‘in the country’. A lot of those babies had died from neglect, that’s what.

Pride had kept her head up and her expression calm while she spoke to Matron, but now, with no one to see her, she couldn’t hold back the tears, which plopped on to the material as she threaded her needle and sorted out the pieces.

Reece drove the cart up to Perth for the Southerhams and they rode their horses, since they couldn’t leave the poor animals to fend on their own without a stream and meadow. The grass was beige and tinder dry with the summer heat.

By setting off very early, they managed to give the horses a good rest during the heat of the day and find a place to stay for the night.

The following day they pressed on, leaving the horses and cart at a livery stable and taking a ferry across to the north side of the river. In Perth they went to the hotel where they’d stayed previously because at least it was clean.

‘It wasn’t too bad, was it, my dear?’ Francis said to his wife.

Neither of them thought to ask Reece what his accommodation at the small hotel had been like and he didn’t say anything. He was getting hardened to sleeping in rough places. Same old shed for me, he thought with a wry smile as he stowed his bag of clothes under a lower bunk bed.

In the morning, however, Francis was unwell, so Livia sent for Reece and asked him to postpone his own business and go with her to the Poorhouse-Home, where the new arrivals were lodged. ‘I’m afraid all the maids will be hired if I wait until tomorrow. There’s such a shortage of good servants here.’

They walked through the streets as soon as Livia had had breakfast, leaving Francis in the bedroom nursing his upset stomach.

‘I think it was the crab,’ Livia said. ‘I didn’t eat any, but Francis had two helpings. I gather another of the guests is also unwell. Francis has stopped being sick now but he was bad during the night and he’s not fit to walk anywhere yet.’

There was a crowd of people at the Home and Livia stopped for a minute in dismay at the sight of them. ‘I was right to come today. Oh dear, I hope there are still some maids left to hire.’

‘If you stay behind me, I’ll push my way through the crowd,’ he offered.

They edged their way towards the area where the young women were standing, some talking to prospective employers, others to one another. Before Livia could talk to anyone, there was a shriek and one of the young women ran across to throw herself into Reece’s arms.

He stared in blank astonishment at Pandora. ‘What the—’ Even as she stepped back, flushing as if embarrassed at what she’d done, two others ran up to join them and hugged him as well. ‘What are you doing here?’ He looked round. ‘Where’s Cassandra?’

‘It’s a long story. Not for public telling and—’ Pandora began, then stopped as she saw the lady behind him. ‘Mrs Southerham! Oh, I can’t believe our luck! You’re just the person we need to see.’

Livia smiled at her and looked round, also asking, ‘Isn’t Cassandra with you?’

‘They won’t let her come outside. They think she stole some money. She says
you
gave it to her.’

Matron came across to them. ‘Is this man a relative?’ she demanded frostily. ‘I’m not having you girls throwing yourselves at men who are not.’

Livia stepped forward. ‘Mr Gregory works for me. We both know these young women. We all come from the same town in Lancashire.’

As Matron relaxed a little at the sound of a lady’s cultured accent, another man came up to them, eyeing the sisters in a way that annoyed Reece.

The stranger pushed into the group. ‘You can’t hog them all, my dear lady. I’m looking for a maid too. My wife and I live out at York and we’ll pay well.’