The Penny Heart (58 page)

I will never know her name, but wonder if everywhere Mary Jebb and her cast of false characters went, she left a discarded twin – a real Peg Blissett, formerly an alderman’s cook, and a nameless missionary’s daughter abandoned to a heathen tribe. And of course, a discarded Grace Croxon, mistress of Delafosse Hall. For a moment I experience a sisterly connection with that warrior’s wife, who chose to stay at the ends of the earth. We have both survived, but not as we used to be – we are no longer gullible sleepwalkers. We have both clung to the mastheads of our selfhoods and not let go, while Mary Jebb raged about us like a tempest. And now we are both changed and cannot turn back into our former selves. Our victory is too hard won.

Is it possible to ever know such a character as Mary Jebb? Each time I thought I knew her, I poured my credulous trust into a figure of iron, casting a host of shadows. And when she wasn’t playing parts? I remember the vicious murder of Mrs Harper. It is the echoing unlit stage between Mary’s public performances that frightens me most.

I recollect the coroner’s remark on that corroded Penny Heart that refused to give up its secret to the end. Perhaps we are all born with a blank heart, and choose which lines are etched upon it. Mary incised hers with vengeance, but the mordant waters dissolved it away. Sometimes I even pity her. Mortality stalked her with a scythe in hand, and felled her at her moment of sweet revenge.

With five bright chimes the church across the square rings out the hour. In seventeen hours I will gladly marry John Francis. I have found my true love again, and we must snatch what remains of happiness in our span of days. I think of that sundial on the tower at Delafosse: the long shadow cast by a shape unseen, relentlessly circling the dial. In time the iron rod will rust, and the brass-bound face will crumble. Time devours all things: love and murder and secrets. And though the sun sinks, and the golden numerals fade, we must believe that our own fragile hearts will guide us, like pin-pricks of starlight through the approaching night.

Acknowledgements

This novel was inspired by the Penny Heart tokens created by convicts as keepsakes, to be left behind with loved ones when the British government transported them to ‘the ends of the earth’, as the Antipodes were described. Coins were generally engraved with the convict’s name, length of sentence and a sentimental verse or message. Much of the imagery and choice of words signifies a vibrant working class subculture also expressed on the convicts’ skin in elaborate tattoos; it was surprising to me to find that as many as twenty-five per cent of female convicts put on trial in mainland Britain carried such ‘personal marks’. Though pain at separation is the overwhelming emotion expressed on convict tokens, anger, defiance and contempt are also found. Peg’s use of a token to express a vow to return and take revenge is however, my own invention. On a few occasions I have blurred the chronology of history to write this fiction, but in the larger backdrop of crime, punishment and the position of women, I have tried to be true to the times.

A great many books, articles, people and experiences helped me in the writing of this book but the following deserve a special mention:

Michele Field & Timothy Millet,
Convict Love Tokens: the Leaden Hearts the Convicts Left Behind
(Wakefield Press, 1998)

Roy Porter,
Quacks: Fakers and Charlatans in Medicine
(NPI Media, 2003)

Amanda Vickery,
The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England
(Yale, 2003)

Prudence Bebb,
Life in Regency York
(1992)
and Shopping in Regency York
(1994) (Sessions of York)

E P Thompson,
The Making of the English Working Class
(Penguin History, 1991)

David Sekers,
A Lady of Cotton: Hannah Greg, Mistress of Quarry Bank
Mill
(The History Press, 2013)

Laura Mason,
Sugar-plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets
(Prospect Books, 2003)

Elizabeth Raffald,
The Experienced English Housekeeper
(Southover Press, 1996 [first edition 1769])

Stephen Hart,
Cant - A Gentleman’s Guide: The Language of Rogues in Georgian London
(Improbable Fictions, 2014). The author’s online database of Cant was also invaluable: http://www.pascalbonenfant.com

Watkins Tench,
A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay
(1789) and
A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, (1793)
www.gutenberg.org

James Hardy Vaux,
Vocabulary of the Flash Language
(1812) www.gutenberg.net.au

Peg’s adventures were in part inspired by Mary Bryant (also known as Mary Broad) of Fowey, England, who escaped from Botany Bay with her husband, William. In a feat of astonishing navigation, they sailed 3254 miles in 69 days in an open boat up the uncharted coast of Australia, before being recaptured in the Dutch East Indies. Mary Bryant was a very different character from Peg and her life can be discovered in an excellent book,
To Brave Every Danger: The Epic Life of Mary Bryant of Fowey
(Truran, 1993) by Judith Cook, or a less authentic but entertaining film,
The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant
(2005).

Interpretations of the earliest collisions between Maori and Pakeha cultures in New Zealand vary widely. While I found Trevor Bentley’s
Captured by Maori: White Female Captives, Sex and Racism on the Nineteenth-century New Zealand Frontier
(Penguin Books, 2004) a fascinating collection of early accounts, I cannot always agree with his conclusions about the positive aspects of captivity.

Parts of this book were written in New Zealand and Australia, where my husband and I lived for almost two years on a mid-life journey accomplished by house-swaps. It therefore recalls our friends in Whakatane and Ohope, our special home for a magical year. Also in New Zealand, thanks go to Nancy King for our Creative Arts Scholarship at the eco-house at Muriwai and The New Zealand Society of Authors for a place on their mentorship programme with Joan Rosier-Jones, whose wise words and deadlines were always helpful.

The NZSA also guided me towards Peter Beatson, who gave my son and me the opportunity to write at Foxton Beach and to find his article on ‘Richard Nunns: the Renaissance of Traditional Maori Instruments’ (
Music in the Air,
Summer 2003), about a traditional bone flute. It also led me to the Flax Stripper Museum where I could handle and wear traditional Maori objects. Heritage New Zealand, National Trust of Australia and The National Trust all sparked my imagination, as did the generous network of libraries across New Zealand that offer wonderful materials, wi-fi, comfortable chairs and the best views in the world.

I would also like to thank the following people for their help and inspiration: Ivan Day, for the opportunity to learn about Period Sugarwork and Confectionary, consult his library and for the online bounty of www.historicfood.com.

Two writer friends, Elaine Walker and Alison Layland, continued to give me invaluable feedback, support and inspiration, and Lucienne Boyce provided advice on the legal situation of married women of property.

A retreat as Writer in Residence at Church Cottage, Clifford Chambers, came at the perfect time, thanks to Sarah Hosking of the Hosking Houses Trust.

For their crucial encouragement and belief in the novel, thanks to all at Andrew Nurnberg Associates, especially Sarah Nundy, and in the novel’s early days, Ella Kahn, while Imogen Russell Williams provided invaluable assistance.

Thank you to all at Hodder and Stoughton for encouragement and support, especially Laura Macdougall and Nick Sayers.

And finally, thanks to my son Chris and my husband Martin, both ever ready with their cameras and great ideas.