A Mother's Shame (22 page)

‘Thank Gawd fer that,’ Kitty said in her own inimitable way. ‘I thought she’d gone off her rocker fer a while there.’

‘I-I’m fine,’ Maria said faintly. ‘But I really should be up and dressed. What time is it?’

‘Don’t worry about that for now,’ Josh soothed. ‘I think you should have a day of complete rest now. You can cope, can’t you, Kitty?’

‘Not ’alf.’ Kitty would have walked over hot coals for Maria, and even though she was tired to the bone she had no intention of deserting her.

‘In that case I shall have your meals delivered from the dining salon for you all,’ Josh told her. ‘And should you need me during the day, Kitty, ask the steward to fetch me.’

‘Right you are, sir.’ Kitty bobbed her knee, her eyes dreamy. He was right handsome, was Mr Josh, and kind too, into the bargain. But then Isabelle was loudly demanding something again and she had no more time for daydreams as she scuttled off to see to her mistress.

Maria moaned as memories of the night before crowded back into her mind. She could still feel Lennie’s rough hands kneading her tender breasts, and remember how terrified she had been as he had tried to force himself upon her. If not for Master Josh intervening he would have succeeded – and she would be forever grateful to him for that. Had Lennie no concern for the child –
his
child – that he knew she was carrying! And then she vaguely remembered the feel of soft lips on her forehead and muttered endearments when Josh had got her back to the cabin, and colour stained her tearstreaked cheeks. But of course, she scolded herself, he was only being kind. Anyone would have done the same in his position. Even so, the feel of the kiss lingered and she gave herself a mental shake. What was she thinking of? Joshua was a gentleman and she was a servant. There could never be anything between them – ever. His family would never allow it. But now that Lennie was here, what was he capable of? She was still reeling from the shock of discovering that he was still alive after believing him to be dead. Throwing her legs over the side of the narrow bunk, she feverishly began to put her clothes on, much to Kitty’s horror.

‘But Maria, Mr Josh said you was to rest today,’ she protested. ‘You’s had a nasty shock.’

‘I am perfectly all right now,’ Maria answered stubbornly as she slid a petticoat over her head. Her breasts were crisscrossed with black and purple bruises but she tried to ignore the pain as she struggled into her chemise. ‘Now you get off back to your quarters and get some rest. You look fit to drop, bless you. And thank you for taking such good care of me.’

Kitty looked doubtful. ‘Well, all right then. But only if yer sure you can manage.’

‘I’m quite sure.’ In truth, Maria was still feeling very shaky but she was made of stern stuff and she knew her place. She had been paid to care for Isabelle and that was exactly what she intended to do. Much better that, than lie in bed weaving silly daydreams. She said goodbye to Kitty, then with a determined sigh she turned to Isabelle to ask, ‘Now what can I do for you?’

Two weeks later, the first case of measles was diagnosed by the ship’s doctor and in no time at all, people were dropping like flies.

‘A poor little lass down in steerage died wi’ it this mornin’,’ Kitty informed them one day with tears in her eyes. ‘An’ they reckon the ship’s sickbay is full to overflowin’.’

‘Oh, how awful.’ Isabelle shuddered. ‘I do hope we don’t get it. Can’t they quarantine them or something?’

Kitty glared at her. ‘How’s they supposed to do that on a bloody ship?’ she answered cheekily, sickened by Isabelle’s heartless attitude. ‘They ain’t got enough people to nurse the sick so I reckon I’m goin’ to volunteer.’

‘And I’ll help too,’ Maria piped up.

‘You most certainly will
not!’
Isabelle shrieked. ‘If you expose yourself to it, you could bring it back here and pass it on to me.’

‘Then I won’t come back here. I’ll stay in steerage with the patients.’ Maria was sick and tired of Isabelle’s spoiled ways by now, and with every day that passed it was getting harder to control her temper, especially as she was now terrified of stepping out of the cabin in case she bumped into Lennie again.

‘But then who will look after me? How am I supposed to manage without someone to help me dress and do my hair?’

It was then that something snapped inside Maria. Leaning towards her, she informed her coldly, ‘Do you know what, Isabelle? I really don’t care! You are nothing but a spoiled, vain brat and you should be ashamed of yourself. People are dying and all you can think of is how you look.’

Josh had just entered the cabin and his mouth gaped as he witnessed Maria and Isabelle rowing.

‘So what’s going on here then?’

Maria lowered her eyes, embarrassed that she had let her feelings get the better of her.

‘It were my fault,’ Kitty piped up and went on to tell him about the measles epidemic. ‘The problem is, there’s too many people down wi’ it fer the ship’s doctor to cope wi’, so me an’ Maria were saying we ought to help wi’ the nursin’ but Miss Isabelle ain’t keen on having no one to look after her, sir,’ she ended breathlessly.

‘I see.’ Joshua was looking very handsome in a dark frockcoat, under which he wore a heavily embroidered waistcoat and a silk cravat. His trousers were tucked into knee-length shining leather boots and he looked every inch the gentleman, so he shocked them all when he said, ‘I think your offer is most commendable, Kitty, and yours too, Maria.’ He paused then to frown at his sister. ‘And as for
you,
miss, well, it wouldn’t hurt for you to pitch in and help too. People are dying; in fact, I just heard there is to be a burial later today!’

‘What?’ Isabelle was horrified. ‘But surely there are enough servants to attend to their own kind!’

‘Illness does not recognise where it strikes,’ Josh informed her flatly. ‘And should it spread to the cabin passengers, I assume
you
will expect someone to care for you.’

‘Of course I should.’ Isabelle tossed her pretty head. ‘The ship’s doctor should give priority to the cabin passengers. We are paying more, after all.’

Josh sighed, then turning his attention back to Maria and Kitty, he told them, ‘You go and see what you can do to help and I will join you shortly.’

‘You!’
Hardly able to believe what she was hearing, Isabelle stared at him incredulously. ‘Josh, I forbid you to expose yourself to this! And Maria cannot go yet, I need her to help me to dress. I don’t know where anything is.’

‘Then I suggest you look for it.’ Josh gave her a last contemptuous glance before ushering the two young women out into the corridor and closing the door behind them. The smell from the water closets situated there was overpowering now and they were all keen to get up on deck into the fresh air. There they found two grim-faced sailors wrapping two bodies into canvas shrouds ready for burial.

‘Oh dear,’ Kitty groaned. ‘Looks like there’s been another death besides the little lass that passed away earlier.’

The conditions they found down in the steerage part of the ship were abominable, and the smell was even worse than the ones issuing from the water closets. The sick lay on straw mattresses all along the length of one wall as people who looked little better than the patients rushed to and fro trying their best to tend to them – not that there was much they could do apart from bathe the feverish foreheads and offer kind words.

‘My God!’ Josh looked shocked as he stared around him. But then after shrugging off his fine jacket he yanked his sleeves up and with a determined expression he approached the ship’s doctor, asking, ‘What can we do to help, sir?’

The doctor, a harassed little chap with thinning grey hair and a droopy moustache glanced up from the person he was tending. He initially looked surprised but then he shrugged helplessly.

‘As long as you realise the danger you are exposing yourselves to I’ll not refuse help,’ he said quietly. ‘Just tend to whoever looks in the most need.’

And so for the next few hours, that is exactly what they all did.

As the afternoon darkened they all began to tire but still they went from one person to another, dripping water into parched mouths or soothing those who were delirious and burning with fever.

It was the doctor who finally told them, ‘I think you should all take a break now. There is no point in making yourselves ill. Go up to the dining salon and get something to eat, but be sure to wash thoroughly first.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Josh rounded up Kitty and Maria and led them away. Back up on deck, they were just in time to see the burials. Two sailors stood on either side of a plank resting on the rail on which was balanced the weighed-down canvas shroud containing a body. Across the body was stretched the Union Jack flag. The ship’s captain led the prayers and then the minister recited the words of the funeral service and finally ended, ‘We now commit the body of Mary Jane White to the sea. May God have mercy on her soul.’

The two sailors then tipped the plank and they all watched horrified as the small bundle plopped into the sea to instantly disappear from view beneath the waves. Only yesterday Maria had watched that poor child playing with her friends on the deck. It was sobering to think that the little mite would never get the chance to experience a new life in Australia. As they stifled their sobs, they washed in the huge barrel of seawater that a sailor had been instructed to place there for the purpose.

The food they were served was very unappetising – some sort of watery stew with chunks of vegetables and slices of salted beef floating in it – and none of them ate much. But even if they had been faced with a feast fit for a king, the sights they had seen that day had robbed them of their appetite.

‘Ah well, at least it filled an ’ole,’ Kitty remarked, ever the optimist once she had eaten. ‘I reckon I feel ready to go back down below now.’

‘I shall just go and check on Isabelle and then I am going back too,’ Maria told them as she rose from her seat. She was feeling very weary but knew that she couldn’t rest when there were so many poor souls still needing help.

Josh’s eyes were full of admiration as he watched her leave the dining salon. She had worked tirelessly all day without a word of complaint and he could not help but think what a remarkable young woman she was. She had been very subdued since the night of the attack and very nervy – but then he supposed that was to be expected. She seemed to jump at her own shadow and was forever looking over her shoulder.

Maria found Isabelle in a flaming temper, with a face as dark as a thundercloud.

‘Oh, so you decided to come back at last, did you?’ she said sarcastically. ‘Have you any idea at all how tedious it has been for me today? No one to talk to; no one to read to me; no one to help me dress. And I dare not even go out on deck for fear of meeting someone who is contaminated with this filthy illness.’

‘How awful for you,’ Maria said with fake sympathy, her hands on her hips. She had hoped to find Isabelle in a more reasonable frame of mind, but she might as well have hoped for snow in summer. ‘Cramped up in here all alone whilst people are
dying
all around you.’

Isabelle sniffed. ‘Well, now that you are back you can read to me for a while.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t,’ Maria told her firmly. ‘I only came to see that you were all right, and now I am going back to the people who are sick. I think they need me much more than you do at present.’ Maria then turned and left the cabin without another word, thinking what a thoroughly selfish young woman Isabelle was.

Back down in the bowels of the ship, the doctor was still doing his best to help those worst affected, but it seemed that his was a thankless task. Maria saw him wipe a tear from his eye as he pulled a thin blanket across the face of yet another victim who had succumbed to the illness. Seamen appeared at regular intervals to collect the bodies of the departed and carry them up on deck where they were prepared for a sea burial, and Kitty and Maria felt as if they had been caught in the grip of a nightmare.

The epidemic lasted for a further four weeks before it started to abate, and during that time it claimed five more lives. By then they had sailed into warmer seas. The children were being encouraged to go back on deck into the fresh air, and they shouted with delight as they stared down into the crystal-clear waters.

‘Look! What’s that over there?’ A little boy tugged excitedly at Maria’s skirts as he pointed towards the back of the ship and Maria smiled as she told him, ‘I think it’s a whale but I don’t know what sort. You’d have to ask one of the sailors.’

It was nice to see the children smiling again, but there was still work to be done, so gently untangling his fingers Maria made her way back below.

The heat was stifling and those who had survived the illness were still very fragile and weak, so there was no let-up for Josh, Maria or Kitty as yet.

‘I really don’t know what I would have done without you all,’ the doctor told them when they joined him after a few snatched hours’ sleep. He then peered across the top of the glasses that were perched on the end of his nose to ask Kitty, ‘Are you feeling all right, my dear? You look very flushed.’

Maria peered at her too then, and was distraught to see the tell-tale red blotches beneath her skin. ‘Let me look behind your ears.’ And without waiting for permission she tugged Kitty’s ear to one side and gasped with dismay to see the cluster of angry spots there. She then felt her forehead and groaned softly.

‘I’m afraid you have caught it too, Kitty,’ she told the girl, placing a comforting arm about her shoulders. ‘Come along, we must get you into bed.’

Within twenty-four hours, Kitty was burning up with fever and Maria and Josh took it in turns to be with her constantly, praying that she would pull through. Kitty had worked tirelessly for weeks, and now in her weakened state they were gravely concerned about her, as was the doctor. She had become delirious, and did not even seem to know them although they spoke to her and murmured endearments.

‘I have no medication left to give her,’ the doctor said sadly. ‘And even if I had, I fear it is in God’s hands now. When the fever breaks, she could go either way.’