A Mother's Shame (24 page)

Maria was a sensible girl who had long ago accepted that there could never be anything between her and Josh, but now she was forced to admit her feelings, if only to herself. She loved him with all her heart and it was not the immature sort of love she had once felt for Lennie. It was all-consuming, to the point that she now knew that if she could not have Josh, she would never have anyone. She was destined to spend her life as an old maid. It was a sobering thought and she eventually fell asleep with tears still wet on her cheeks.

The following morning, a pilot joined the ship to take the
Northern Lights
closer into Hobson’s Bay and then long rowing boats arrived to transport the passengers to shore. The cabin passengers were allowed off the ship first, much to the disgust of the steerage passengers who stood back watching sullenly. It felt strange to be on firm land again and Kitty clapped her hands with joy although deep down she was a little disappointed. She had expected towering buildings and busy towns, but this place seemed very quiet.

A seaman eventually delivered their trunks to them and the women waited while Josh asked directions to the nearest hotel. Sadly, they now faced yet another 150-mile trip on another boat to get to Tasmania and he had decided that they would rest first and tackle that journey the following day.

Maria glanced back at the ship just once and her stomach lurched when she saw Lennie up on the deck, watching her closely. She had rarely ventured up on deck since the night of her attack, but sometimes she had glimpsed him – and each time he had stared at her malevolently. Kitty had heard some sailors talking the week following his flogging, saying that he was still lying flat on his stomach because the weals on his back were not healing and had become infected. Maria had taken no pleasure from the knowledge. Indeed, it had filled her with dread because she had realised then that Lennie would never forgive her for what had happened even though it was he himself who had brought it about. But she hastily turned her attention back to her travelling companions, thankful that there was a good distance between them.

Isabelle was still quiet and pleasant, and Kitty and Maria both prayed that it would continue. In truth she had been like a different person since Maria had lost her baby. Oh, Maria still tended to her needs admittedly, but the old Isabelle was gone and in her place was a much more compassionate and considerate girl. Now she was happy to wear whatever Maria laid out for her each day, and with her glorious hair loose about her shoulders or tied back with a simple ribbon, she appeared younger and somehow more vulnerable.

Josh came back to them with a rueful smile on his face. ‘I’m afraid I have been told that there is only one hotel here, if it could be classed as such. But I dare say it will be comfortable enough and tomorrow we can return and take a boat to Port Arthur in Tasmania. That kind gentleman I approached is arranging transport right now for us.’

Behind them, all was hustle and bustle as the rest of the passengers were transported ashore. Burly seamen were toting trunks and leading livestock from down in the hold. The poor beasts had spent most of the trip in total darkness; many of them had not survived the journey and those that had, blinked in the bright light looking frail and weak. Now they had to face being dragged through the water with ropes around their necks, until they could feel the sand beneath them.

‘Eeh, the poor things,’ Kitty said.

‘Oh, they’ll soon pick up again here,’ Josh assured her with a kindly pat to her hand. ‘The grazing land around here is perfect for cattle and sheep.’ He did not have time to say any more, for then an open cart pulled by two horses drew up beside them.

‘Are you the gen’leman wanting a lift to the inn?’ the ruddy-faced driver asked in a curious accent that neither Maria nor Kitty had ever heard before.

‘We are, sir.’ Josh smiled.

The man pointed to the bench seats in the back of the cart, eyeing Isabelle curiously. ‘Then you climb up alongside o’ me,’ he said, ‘an’ help the ladies into the back while I fasten on all your luggage.’

Josh grinned, thinking how different this conveyance was to the fashionable carriage they were used to back at home, but he did as he was told without a murmur and eventually they were trundling along the rough dusty track.

Kitty sat between Maria and Isabelle giggling as they were thrown from side to side and thoroughly enjoying the adventure whilst they clung to the sides of the cart for dear life. The horses slowly pulled the cart up a steep hill with the driver urging them on all the time, and at the top they found that the view was quite breathtaking. Ahead of them, fields full of sheep stretched into the distance for as far as the eye could see, whilst behind them the ocean was a sparkling azure blue. They passed humble habitations dotted here and there on the hillside and they took in their surroundings as the cart rumbled on. Eventually they came to a small township and the cart stopped in front of a large wooden building.

‘This is it then,’ the driver informed them, hopping lithely down from his seat. ‘Ma Preston runs the inn. She does the best steak pie you’ll ever taste, an I’ll return to take you’s all back to port tomorrow.’

Josh thanked him and gave him a generous tip, then with his help began to hump all the trunks and valises to the door, which was opened by a middle-aged lady who spoke in the same strange accent as the driver who had transported them there.

‘Is it rooms you’re wanting?’ she asked with no preamble.

Josh nodded and bowed, ‘Yes, please, madam. Two singles and a double if you have them available.’

‘I reckon I can manage that.’ She could tell folk of quality when she saw them and quickly ushered them inside. ‘And how long will you be staying?’ she asked as a man, possibly her husband, appeared over her shoulder.

‘Just until we can get the ship to Port Arthur tomorrow. Our uncle lives in Tasmania,’ Josh explained.

She nodded, telling the man, ‘Frank, get this luggage up to the rooms if you please while I make these good people a nice pot of coffee. I’ve no doubt you will all be thirsty. And I have some hot biscuits straight from the oven that will keep you going until dinnertime if you’d care for some.’

Frank, a short man in a cap and plain breeches and shirt, jumped to do as he was told and Josh grinned to himself. If this was Mr Preston, there was no mistaking who was the boss in this household.

Maria and Kitty meanwhile were staring about in astonishment. Every single thing seemed to be made of wood. The walls, the floors, the ceilings; even the furniture appeared to be all hand-carved, but it was homely all the same and spotlessly clean – or at least as clean as the dusty road outside would allow it to be.

‘Come this way,’ Ma Preston urged them as Frank grabbed the first of the enormous trunks and began to haul it up a staircase that was little more than a glorified ladder.

They obediently followed her down a hallway and entered a large kitchen, again consisting mainly of wood.

‘Sit yourselves down,’ Ma Preston instructed, gesturing towards a rough plank table in the middle of the room, and while her back was turned, Josh gave Maria an amused wink. This was obviously a woman who was used to getting her own way, although for all that, she seemed pleasant enough.

Soon they were drinking fragrant coffee, liberally laced with sugar and milk, and eating home-made wheat biscuits fresh from the oven. A large range took up most of one wall and the room was stifling, making Isabelle’s cheeks glow.

‘Thank you, that was most welcome,’ Josh said after a while. ‘But now if you don’t mind, I think my sister would welcome a lie-down before dinner. She tends to tire easily.’

‘Hmm, I dare say she does.’ Ma Preston made a point of staring at the third finger of Isabelle’s left hand before her eyes dropped to her protruding stomach. But she made no comment. They were paying guests, after all, and what the young madam had been up to was no business of hers at the end of the day, although she wouldn’t mind betting the girl wasn’t wed.

Frank, who was obviously as far under the thumb as it was possible to be, had just entered the room after shifting all the luggage up to the rooms and now she barked at him, ‘Kindly show these good folk up to their rooms, please, Frank. Mrs er . . . the young lady wishes to have a lay-down afore dinner.’

He nodded obligingly and they all rose and trooped after him, Josh bowing politely before he took his leave of Ma Preston.

When her husband entered the kitchen again some minutes later, the woman grinned at him. ‘That young lady won’t be long before she drops her load,’ she whispered conspiratorially. ‘An’ I’ll bet you any money it’s a bastard she’s carryin’. Why else would her brother be bringin’ her all this way in that condition, I ask yer?’

Her long-suffering husband shrugged. ‘Well, Mother, ’t’ain’t none of our business, is it, just so long as they pay their bill an’ don’t make any mischief for us.’

She sniffed but she supposed he was right and went about her chores. Ma Preston prided herself on having the cleanest house in town, and winter or not, the damn dust floating through the open window was settling all across the furniture again like nobody’s business.

Upstairs, Maria was helping Isabelle out of her gown so that she could rest before their meal.

‘Thank you, dear,’ Isabelle told her meekly as she swung her legs up onto the bed. Again Maria was struck by the change in her mistress – not that she was complaining, far from it. In the weeks since Maria had lost her baby, Isabelle had changed almost beyond recognition and the changes were all to the good. It was hard to believe that this was the same wilful, selfish young lady who had boarded the ship in Liverpool. The foot-stamping and tantrums seemed to be things of the past now. Instead, she would sit contentedly for hours quietly stroking the mound that was her unborn child and Maria wondered now if she had had a change of heart about it. Maria could scarcely remember the last time Isabelle had called it a bastard or raged about the condition she found herself in.

Now Isabelle sighed happily as she settled back onto the soft pillows in their crisp white covers. ‘I do believe this is a feather mattress,’ she said. After the stiff straw mattresses on board ship, she felt as if she had died and gone to heaven.

Maria smiled indulgently as she slid the clean woollen blanket that was neatly folded across the bottom of the bed over Isabelle’s ungainly shape.

‘Good, I’m glad you are comfortable. Now you try to rest while I just go and check on Kitty, then I might come back and have a nap myself.’ Another, narrower bed stood across from Isabelle’s and at the moment it was looking very tempting. She was much better now following her miscarriage, although she still tended to tire easily and she had not regained all the weight she had lost, despite Kitty’s and Josh’s best efforts to persuade her to eat. The food on board, particularly during the latter part of their voyage, had not been very appetising, but she was sure that now she was on dry land again she would soon make a full recovery. She folded Isabelle’s gown across the back of the chair and tiptoed away to see Kitty, who was in the next room, leaving Isabelle to rest.

Kitty was grinning like a Cheshire cat as she pointed towards the window with a look of wonder on her face. ‘Eeh, yer’d never think they were comin’ up to their winter, would yer? It’s so warm, ain’t it? An’ when do yer reckon we’ll get to see one o’ them kangaroos?’

‘I shouldn’t think it will be too long,’ Maria told her with a smile. ‘Have you everything you need?’

‘Ooh, not ’alf,’ Kitty chuckled. ‘An’ to think I’m havin’ me dinner cooked fer me an’ bein’ waited on, eh?’

‘Well, don’t get too used to it,’ Maria warned with a wry grin. ‘Once we get to Isabelle’s uncle’s I’ve no doubt we’ll both have to pull our weight again.’

Kitty was standing at the window now, staring down into the street and suddenly she gasped as she spotted a brightly coloured bird settle on the branch of a nearby tree.

‘Why, would yer just look at that!’ she breathed in awe. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anythin’ so pretty!’

Maria hurried to join her and had to agree. ‘I think it might be a parrot,’ she remarked.

‘I knew this were goin’ to turn into an adventure, I just
knew
it,’ Kitty said dreamily, and with a grin Maria left her to it and went to rest.

The next morning following a hearty breakfast Mr Preston arranged for the same open-backed trap that had delivered them to his home to take them all to the port, and so at last the party of four began the final leg of their sea journey on the
Dolphin.
None of them was too keen to leave terra firma again, but feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep and knowing that this voyage would be nowhere near as long as the first, they all endured it cheerfully.

‘Oh my, would you just look at that.’ Kitty clapped her hands with delight as the boat approached Port Arthur. Lush green hills covered in an array of colourful plants and flowers towered above them and Kitty was sure she had never seen anything quite so pretty. The boat they had travelled on was smaller than the
Northern Lights
and the crossing from Hobson’s Bay to Port Arthur had been calm and pleasant.

Once the boat was anchored, they were rowed ashore and their luggage was unloaded onto the jetty by a ruddy-faced seaman. Josh gave him a handsome tip that sent the sailor scuttling off to find transport for them. Meanwhile other sailors continued to unload great barrels of rum and flour, livestock and any number of goods from the ship’s hold. Isabelle was looking enchanting in a loose satin dress of sapphire blue that she had purchased from the emporium in Liverpool, and she was receiving more than a few admiring glances, despite her condition. However, she seemed oblivious to them as she stared dreamily up into the hills. She wore a fringed shawl about her shoulders in a lighter shade of blue and her magnificent hair was tied back with a matching ribbon. Kitty and Maria had also gone to great lengths to look their best to meet Josh and Isabelle’s uncle and were neatly turned out in their finest, although they were plainly dressed compared to their mistress.