The Gallant (35 page)

Oscar met her gaze uneasily. “Truth to tell, I don’t know, ma’am. But he was right determined-I reckon he’ll have made a good try.”

Dominic got to his feet. “My people will have a list of ships departing this port and their destinations.

I’ll get it. We might be able to narrow the search, at least. Michael may still be on board one that hasn’t yet sailed.”

It was a slim hope, Kitty reflected, but .

. . perhaps it

would

narrow their search.

“Can I go now, Mr. Broome?” Oscar asked diffidently. “They’ll be expectin” me back home, and-was

“Wait a minute, Oscar,” Patrick said quickly. “There’s one other thing-one other service you could perform that will help Mr. Wexford. Johnny-was He looked across at Johnny for confirmation. “If Oscar were to tell the story he’s just told us to the police or, better still, perhaps, to a police magistrate, it might save Michael from being charged with any offense against the Meldrums.”

“Swear an affidavit, you mean? Yes.”

Johnny nodded emphatically. “Indeed it would.

We could go and find a magistrate right away, if you are willing, Oscar. Then you can set off home comx shouldn’t take too long.”

Dominic returned with a list in his hand.

“My father’s a magistrate,” he offered. “And he’ll be at home for luncheon. And I agree, Pat-it would be a wise precaution, in view of the false claims made by the rogues they arrested.”

He spread the handwritten list on the desk in front of him. “Here we are … the choices aren’t great. Only two vessels

left port this morning-the brig

Mercedes,

master Silas Deacon, destination Geelong, with a cargo of New Zealand timber. And the wool clipper

Avalon,

master Joseph Mercer, destination Port Jackson, cargo trade goods and machinery.” He frowned. “One of my people said that the Avalon

was taking on hands. A number of her crew deserted, and two were injured in a storm. Sounds the more likely, don’t you think?”

“Perhaps,” Patrick conceded. He turned to Oscar. “Are you sure Mr. Wexford was aiming to take passage to Victoria?”

Oscar shrugged. was “Deed I’m not certain sure, sir. He just mentioned it, that was all. I reckon though-well, I reckon he’d have signed on any ship, whatever its destination, just to get clean away from Tasmania.”

“There are five other vessels in port, due to sail within the next ten days,” Dominic put in.

He read the names from his list and then looked up, brows raised in mute question. “I can send one of my reporters out to the ships that are still in the port. He can make discreet inquiries as to whom they’ve signed on his

“Oh, thanks, Dominic,” Patrick

acknowledged. He hesitated. “I think I’d better go with your man, just in case Michael is

on board one of these ships. There are two or three sealers, too, that might bear investigation. Can you arrange for Oscar to swear an affidavit, Johnny, if I go? We don’t want to hold him up.”

“Yes, gladly,” Johnny agreed. “You ready, Oscar? If we can settle the matter now, you’ll be able to leave well before dusk.” Receiving Oscar’s assent, he glanced inquiringly at Kitty, but Dominic swiftly intervened.

“Kitty is lunching with me, John, and then we’re going for a ride. You promised,” he added, lowering his voice, as Kitty started to demur.

“Please, Kitty, don’t deprive me of the pleasure. It may not be mine for much longer. If Michael has managed to reach Sydney or Melbourne, you said yourself that you’ll follow him.” His tone was almost pleading, bereft of the arrogance he habitually displayed, and Kitty found herself once again reluctant to hurt him.

She gave her assent, avoiding Johnny’s gaze but conscious of his unspoken

reproach, and Dominic, seizing on his momentary advantage, said with a swift change of tone, “I’m giving you

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another chance to ingratiate yourself with my father, John. He’s thinking of setting up in competition with the

Chronicle,

I’ve heard, with

you

as his right hand! This story will delight him.”

Johnny stared at him in surprise. “I didn’t think-was

“You didn’t think I knew? Good God, there are no secrets in Hobart, and the old man’s been talking to my printers. It’s true, isn’t it?”

“It’s a possibility, yes,” Johnny

admitted. “But that’s all it is, and I haven’t come to any decision yet. It depends on-oh, a number of things. But mainly, of course, it depends on Kitty, as I’m sure you are aware.” He grasped Oscar’s arm and left the office before either Kitty or Dominic could reply.

“The devil take him!” Dominic

swore softly under his breath. Then, realizing that Patrick was scowling at him, he recovered himself.

“You’ll join us, won’t you, Pat? It will be time enough to go out to the anchorage after we’ve eaten.”

“Yes, do, Pat,” Kitty urged, and the awkward moment passed. Over an excellent luncheon, they talked amicably enough, but Kitty was tense and unhappy, wishing that she had not agreed to the ride and seeking for some excuse to break her promise, without giving Dominic cause to reproach her. He, however, behaved with punctilious courtesy throughout the afternoon, making no mention of his feelings, and finally Kitty gave herself up to the sheer exhilaration of their ride together in the beautiful, deserted country beyond the boundaries of the town. She had always loved horses and was happily at her ease on the mettlesome filly Snowgoose as she galloped at Dominic’s side, now passing him, then reining in to enable him to draw level with her, hair flying loose in the wind and cheeks aglow.

“It will be a thousand pities if you have to leave here just as our racing season is beginning,” Dominic told her, when they pulled up and prepared to turn for home. “You’d make a superb jockey for that filly, you know. She’s entered for a sweepstake race over at Bell Farm on Saturday. It’s a private affair, organized by the Hunt, but there are some pretty substantial wagers on it.”

“But women do not ride in races here, do they?”

Kitty suggested.

“No. Do they in Ireland-in County Wexford?”

She laughed. “No, not officially. But I’ve ridden in a few races-in Pat’s name, with my hair tucked under my cap. It was wonderful! I never won, but I enjoyed every moment of it-until my father found out and put a stop to it. We rode over fences, not on the flat, of course-and there was always the hunting, even if I wasn’t allowed to race anymore. I loved the hunting.”

“I don’t imagine there were many who could match you,” Dominic said.

“Michael was better than any of us,” Kitty asserted.

“That’s hard to believe!”

“All, but you’ve never met Michael.”

“True,” Dominic answered thoughtfully. “But there must be something very special about him to inspire such devotion in his brother and sister. To bring you and Pat to the other side of the world in search of him, I mean.”

It was true, Kitty thought. She said, with quiet conviction, “I don’t regret coming. How could I, after reading that diary we found on Norfolk Island?

You read it-you know what Michael endured at the hands of Commandant Price. In his case, as you said this morning, the mills of God did grind exceeding small, and I cannot feel the smallest pang of sorrow for his death or the manner of it. I wonder if Michael knows that Mr. Price is dead?”

“It will be in all the papers, Kitty-the Chronicle

will publish the obituary I showed you. And there’ll be talk, of course. Wherever he is,” Dominic offered consolingly, “I’m sure that your brother will get to know. And he’ll feel no sorrow.”

“No. I just pray to God that we may find him, Dominic, before-was A lump rose in Kitty’s throat, and she could not go on.

“Before it’s too late,” Dominic finished for her, as he had done earlier, when they had talked in the

Chronicle

office. This time she sensed genuine pity in his voice as he added gravely, “Perhaps he hasn’t left Hobart yet, Kitty-perhaps he’s on board one of the ships in the anchorage and Pat will find him.” His hand closed about hers. “Come with me to Bell Farm on Saturday, my dear. It will take your mind off your worries, at least for an afternoon. Please, Kitty!”

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She consented abstractedly, her thoughts elsewhere, but when she returned to the hotel, neither Patrick nor Johnny had any news to give her.

“All I know,” Patrick said despondently, “is that Michael’s not in this harbor. We visited every ship. The only information I was able to glean was that the wool clipper, the

Avalon,

signed eleven men before she sailed. Her master interviewed men yesterday, in a waterfront tavern.

There’s no record of the

Mercedes

signing anyone-only that one of her mates came ashore last night, to round up drunks. Johnny says she’s owned by a very old friend of his, a man named Claus Van Buren, who owns

several trading vessels. And-was He turned to Johnny. “You tell her the rest, Johnny.”

“Claus just came into port,” Johnny said eagerly. “In his American-built clipper, the Dolphin. I

went out to her, and Claus told me he would be sailing for Sydney within the next two or three days. He offered to give us passage, and-she’s a very fast sailer, Kitty. We could not hope to catch the

Avalon,

but we shouldn’t be far behind her. And-I think the chances are that Michael was one of the men who signed on as deckhands, so-was He looked at her

expectantly. “What do you say? Shall we go back to Sydney and hope our guess is the right one?”

“We?” Kitty echoed uncertainly. “Do you mean-was

Patrick answered her. “You and Johnny. He has to go back to Sydney to square things with his editor. But we cannot be sure Michael sailed in the Avalon,

Kit. It’s within the bounds of possibility that he managed to get a berth on board Claus Van Buren’s

Mercedes,

so …” He came to take both her hands in his. “We’ll have to divide our forces. I’ll stay On here and continue the search until I can take passage to Geelong or Port Phillip.

And-was

“Why can’t I stay with you?” Kitty objected.

“The Victoria goldfields are no place for a lady, Kit,” Patrick pointed out gently.

“And that’s probably where I’ll be headed, if Michael

did

sail with the

Mercedes

after all. I’d let you know, of course, if I manage to find any trace of him. There’s a regular mail service between Melbourne and Sydney, and we could arrange a rendezvous.”

“Yes, but-was Kitty faced him, tears in her eyes. “We’ve always been together, Pat, and we-we started this search together. I want to stay with you.”

“Kit”, Michael’s going to need a home, someone to care for him if he’s in Sydney-and I’m pretty sure that’s where he’ll be. Mine could well turn out to be a wild goose

chase, you know, but we can’t take the risk of not

looking for him in Geelong. And again, love, he might decide to stay with the

Mercedes

- she’s bound for Sydney, after she’s discharged her cargo in Geelong, Van Buren told us…

.” He talked on, his arguments and his reasoning impossible to refute, and finally Kitty gave her unhappy consent to the change in their plans.

Johnny, she knew, could not be the one to stay in Hobart, without risking the loss of his job on the Sydney

Morning Herald.

And old Mr. Hayes had not yet launched his new paper. There were unexpected holdups, Johnny told her, and in addition there was strong opposition from Dominic, which, understandably, worried his father.

“I’ve my living to earn, Kitty,” he added apologetically. “And Pat’s a free agent. It has to be this way, I’m afraid.”

His tone, Kitty realized, was more than a little hurt, and her conscience pricked her on his account, not for the first time. Even more than Dominic had done, Johnny had gone out of his way to help their search, she reminded herself, and she was swiftly contrite.

“I understand, Johnny,” she assured him. “And I’m truly grateful to you. Both Pat and I know how much we owe you. It’s just that, as I said, Pat and I have always been together. We’re twins, you see, and-was

“It won’t be for long, Kit,” her brother assured her. “And of course, if you

do

find Michael in Sydney, I’ll be on my way back there the instant you tell me so.”

Johnny left them to go out again to the Dolphin

to confirm with Claus Van Buren the passages he had provisionally been offered, and on his return to join Kitty and Patrick for dinner, he was waving a letter in his hand;

“The Sydney mail’s just in,” he told them, “and there’s a letter from Red. He writes that he was back in time for the arrival of his firstborn. I’m now the proud uncle.of a lovely little

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girl, weighing seven pounds, two

ounces, at birth, who is to be christened Jessica. But, alas, Red will not be there when we arrive-the

Galah

is ordered to Singapore, to pick up troops for China, where, it seems, the war goes on. And there is trouble in India, Red says, but so far it’s only a rumor, and it may not amount to anything serious.”

Kitty was suddenly reminded of Colonel William De Lancey and his wife-Johnny Broome’s sister-whose farewell reception she had attended in Sydney. She looked at Johnny and guessed, from his expression, that he too was thinking of the De Lanceys. “Perhaps,” she offered sympathetically, “the trouble in India will blow over. There are always rumors, Johnny.”

“Yes,” Johnny agreed, tightlipped.

“There are always rumors, Kitty. I hope and pray that is all there are.” He shrugged and added, “Claus Van Buren won’t be sailing until Monday-he has to fit a new foretopmast, he told me. But our passage is confirmed, and we can go on board any time we like on Sunday.”

Which would leave her free to attend the race meeting to which Dominic had invited her, Kitty thought, recalling the invitation with some slight misgiving. But perhaps it

would

distract her from her worries; and if Pat came with her, there would be no risk of giving offense to Marion Hayes, if, as seemed probable, she accompanied her husband to … what had Dominic called the place? Bell Farm-that was it. A private meeting, organized by the Hunt, could well be very entertaining, although it was unlikely to engender the excitement and friendly informality of a similar meeting in her native Ireland, where everyone knew everyone else and the wagers were in sixpences and shillings, rather than pounds.