Boxed Set: Innocent Immigrant (4 page)

“Or answer to us,” I added.

“Do you understand?”

Griff’s voice had deepened slightly, and I recognised its shift from a point of ambivalence to authority because of his anxiety at not wanting to let Katie get away from him. It seemed he cared for her already, but he would not go soft in his effort to have her obey. “There will be consequences, Katie, of the sort you will not enjoy if you choose to go against my request. Again...do you understand?”

Katie looked at the floor for several seconds then back at Griff, her eyes blazing. “You are not my guardian, and I have no compunction to obey—”

“Enough. I will not have my future wife—”

“Your future wife? Are you a lunatic? And what say do I have in this matter?”

“Very little, unless, of course, you have the means to return to England,” I added calmly, trying to counter Griff’s rising ire. “We can offer you a more than comfortable life here; one much better than that you were destined to endure. The time will come when you will look upon Sid Watson’s passing as a blessing. Until that day, we hope you will enjoy our hospitality and obey our house rules. Come and sit now. You’re still weak from today’s shock and a lack of food.”

She appeared to think about this for a moment before shuffling to the table, one hand clutching the towel at her breasts.

Griff followed close behind her, pulling out her chair. “Please sit, and let me take the towel. You can’t enjoy your tea with one hand protecting your modesty.”

“If I could have my trunk...”

I stepped in before Griff could react. “Tomorrow, perhaps. Right now, you’re to sit and eat.”

She was indeed hungry, enjoying tea, bread and jam and a large slice of fruitcake. I was surprised that a woman so petite could manage such an amount of food. Occasionally as she leaned forward her gown gaped, and I caught a glimpse of the slope of her breasts. When I discovered Griff looking too, he winked at me. I believed he was right. Katie would make an excellent addition to our household.

By the time she had finished her tea her demeanour had changed somewhat, and she happily answered our questions about her circumstances in England. Life at the Girls’ Home where she’d lived for fifteen years sounded grim. Although she might have thought she was in a sorry position in Kotuku, I’m sure it was an improvement on the situation she’d recently left.

When tea was finished, Katie immediately cleared away the plates.

“You can leave those—”

“So long as I’m here, I’ll help where I can,” she said.

I have to say, neither Griff nor I could take our eyes off her as she moved around our kitchen in her nightgown and bare feet. It was an unnervingly provocative view, and my damned cock returned to its semi-turgid state.

When I spoke, my voice was gruff. “I’ll get your clothes, and we’ll take a walk around the property.” Griff nodded at me, and when I cast a glance down the length of his body I noticed he was similarly aroused. No doubt he thought the same as me; until we could touch Katie, we were more comfortable if she was decently clothed. I eyed her once more, the sunlight behind her making her nightgown all but transparent. God, she was a vision.

She returned quickly, fully dressed, and we set off for a tour of the property, visiting the stables, the milking shed and the hen house. Tyrol, our sheepdog, took a shine to her, as did Rip, our terrier we kept both as a pet and to control the large ship’s rats that were keen to make the farm their home.

Book 1, Part 4

KATIE

“What is that bird?” I asked. “Its song is beautiful.”

Griff took my hand and led me to stand beneath an enormous tree with a broad-spreading crown. Tiny flowers covered the tree, reminding me of snapdragons. They were a deep red, although I recall some were a more delicate cream with a scarlet blush. Then I noticed what Griff had intended me to see. There were birds feeding on the nectar in the flowers, pausing to sing before swooping to another branch.

“That’s the parson bird, or more correctly, the tui.”

At first glance, I thought the bird to be black with a white tuft of feathers at its throat. Then one swooped closer to us and I saw it was multi-coloured. Brown feathers adorned its back, and furthermore, a deep emerald sheen was evident when it was caught in the varying light. It was a pleasing-looking bird, but it was its song that made it most extraordinary: beautiful, soaring, clear notes finishing in clicks and cackles.

“It’s very pretty. I’ve never heard a birdsong like that.”

“The tui is also a terrific mimic, so wherever you are in New Zealand, some of their calls will be familiar, and others will be songs you’ve never heard them sing before. You can even teach them to talk, the same way a parrot can be taught. Wait until dawn,” said Ari. “You’re in for a treat.”

Across a dirt track that was loosely named a road, though not paved the way the roads were in the town I came from in England, was the beach. Dunes covered in wild grasses flattened out to the sweep of the sandy bay, and the rolling waves that continued to pummel the shore. It seemed wherever you were on the property, you could not get away from the echo of the pounding surf.

The view from the house in the kitchen was framed by the wide boughs of what I learned was the pohutukawa tree. These trees seemed to tumble and fall, then continue to grow, gnarled and twisted, so that they stretched and reached out towards the ocean. The bush was so different to the forests I was accustomed to in England. The cleared farmland quickly ran out, and large stands of enormous trees created a canopy for the wild range of ferns and scrub that grew beneath.

It was all well and good to admire the country, but I didn’t allow myself to consider that for long when I had the pressing matter of my future forefront in my mind.

We took a supper of a cold roast leg of lamb, potatoes, greens and an unusual purple-skinned knobbly tuber that the local Māori grew called
kumara
. It was sweeter than a potato and an easy taste to become accustomed to, especially when served with butter, salt and pepper. The meal was tastier than anything I’d enjoyed for a long while.

During supper, Griff and Ari shared a bottle of ale and after dinner, when they each poured a whiskey, they encouraged me to take a small glass of sweet port. They told me a little about their life, how they’d been born in New Zealand so had the advantage of the country not appearing strange and wild as it did to me.

Griff’s parents were originally from the north of England and had settled first in Australia before coming to New Zealand to start a small shipping company that had grown under Griff’s management. Ari, however, was part Māori, which accounted for his deep brown skin and magnificent dark eyes.

The port was my first taste of liquor, and after a sharp catch at the back of my throat, I enjoyed the way it warmed me once I had swallowed. I would have to be careful; at the orphanage we had endured many lectures about temperance and the evil of drink. At some stage, my small glass was refilled, and I could feel a rosy glow on my cheeks and a pleasant calm seep into my bones.

I stole many looks at the men through dinner and again, as we sat in the living room, I studied them even more carefully. They were certainly attractive and strong, and I could see how easily a young woman would fall for their charms. Griff seemed the more authoritative of the two, Ari’s character appearing to be gentler. Perhaps this was because he tended the animals and the land, whereas Griff was dealing with commerce, men, and money.

“Katie, there is something important we must talk about with you tonight,” Ari said.

“Oh?” I knew my circumstances were difficult, but I expected to have some time to gather my wits and make new plans.

“As we’ve told you, you’re under our protection...but this can’t last. A single woman will be scandalised living in the house of two bachelor men.”

Bachelor men, so neither of them was married. “Then I must find lodgings?” Surely that couldn’t be as difficult as Griff made out, but when I looked to him he was shaking his head.

“You know that would be impossible in Kotuku. The accommodation is filled and anyway, if there was a spare room available, the men of the town would soon discover the single woman living there. I don’t think I have to tell you what the result of that would be.”

My breathing became uneasy through my tightening chest. “Clearly you have something in mind. Please, tell me what it is you propose?”

Ari answered. “Propose is the right idea...”

Griff fixed me with his intense blue eyes. “We propose, or should I say, I propose, to marry you. Immediately.”

My hand flew to my chest. To have lost one fiancé only to have a new one at my feet in one day was more than I could take in. I didn’t know these men, but then, I hadn’t known Sid Watson, either, and by all accounts he wasn’t a man I ever wished to know. The two men in this room seemed kind and genuine. Now I had a new opportunity, in a new country, and I wasn’t sure I should rush into the first offer that came my way.

Just as at the Girls’ Home, I hadn’t rushed into a life of service to escape the Home the way many of the others had. Instead, I had looked at my options, of which there weren’t many, and the idea of becoming a mail-order bride struck me as the likeliest way I could improve my lot.

Clearly Kotuku wasn’t the town I should be settling in to once again make a decision about my future because the prospects for employment seemed extremely low. My instinct was to return to Auckland and find my acquaintances from the ship.

I could see by the men’s faces they eagerly sought an answer from me. “That’s a very kind offer, Mr. Tucker, but I can’t give you an answer right now.”

“I shall be honest. The offer isn’t just to be my wife, but to be a wife, though not in the legal sense, to Ari, too. It is our way in this town, given that there are so few women. Ari and I would share you, and both welcome the task of caring for you, too.”

This I couldn’t take in. It was shocking and surely depraved in the eyes of our Lord, and I told them so.

“On the contrary, it is sanctioned and encouraged by our Pastor. The men outnumber the women to the extent that sharing is a valid way to take care of the physical needs of many of the men who are not lucky enough to have their own wife. In the view of Pastor Fraser Mackay’s Mission of Perpetual Divinity, this is the way a woman does her duty.”

Two husbands! I had heard stories of a community in America which condoned a man taking more than one wife, but never a wife taking more than one husband. “Please,” I begged, “you surely have the grace to give me time to think about your unusual proposition.”

“You will be well cared for and protected by both of us, Katie. Likely better than any other men in the whole region can care for you. We only ask for your obedience and companionship. But we must move quickly. You may have until the morning to give us your decision. Then, Griff will go directly to the Pastor to register his intention to marry.”

I nodded, my pounding heart still making it difficult to speak. “Fine, thank you. You will have your answer in the morning.”

While we talked, I had already made a plan. I would agree with anything they said so that they would relax their guard. In that way, my belongings would be left with me tonight, and I could devise a way to get back to Auckland and find Mary and Janet. Surely my two friends would be able to help me.

The pressing problem was that the only transport I knew of to take me there was one of the Tucker vessels. In fact, my only way of embarkation would be for Griff to carry me willingly and place me at the foot of the steamship’s ladder. I decided I would worry about that when the time came. If I made enough of a fuss on the beach, I believed one of the other men in Griff’s employ would assist me.

First, though, I had to get myself from the house, even though already part of me wanted to stay with two such handsome and seemingly kind men. As the men were so eager to enforce, Kotuku was not a safe place for a single woman. Was I silly to turn down their offer? Perhaps, but already I’d been shown that a decision made in haste, as was my agreement to marry Sid Watson, was not a good decision.

If I excused myself for bed, they would surely let me be. I would wait until either they retired themselves, or I heard them settled and talking in the drawing room; then I could sneak away. I think it must have been the alcohol that both gave me the courage to tackle this plan and robbed me of my common sense.

I stood and excused myself, saying that I wished to retire for I was still weary from the day’s events. Both men stood and bid me goodnight, Griff handing me an oil lamp to light my way.

In my room, I packed together my most important things. I was now one outfit short, for the daily help had taken it for washing. Again that was something I’d concern myself with once I was back in the company of my friends in Auckland. I counted out many minutes, and when I crept down the hallway and listened at the door, I heard the muffled conversation of the two men, so I took my chance to leave.

The first problem I encountered was that I was unable to move my trunk. Although small, it was too heavy for me to carry. I would have to leave it behind and hope that when I reached my destination, Griff would forgive me and be gracious enough to forward it on.

I walked cautiously to the closed drawing room door at the end of the hallway and listened again. Most certainly I could hear a conversation taking place, although I couldn’t discern their words. With my heart hammering, and the blood pounding so loud in my ears that I was sure they too could hear it, I crept towards the door at the back of the house. I released the latch and stepped into the moonlit night.

The path along the side of the house was partially lit by the lamps hanging in the kitchen and living room. I took careful steps that became even slower once I found myself in complete darkness near the road. As my luck was running, the moon took a moment to slip behind thick cloud and the little light I had was gone. Inching my way forward, I took care not to trip myself on the ruts and small rocks that littered the way.