The Lace Balcony (72 page)

‘Molly! We must talk – alone!'

Taking her by the hand Felix strode from the room at such a pace she needed to double her steps to keep up with him.

Mungo took a seat, smiling benignly at each in turn.

His father's expression of outrage was predictable. But Mungo's eyes kept returning to Mrs Less. There was a look in her eyes he simply could not interpret.

It's all up to Felix now. But women are funny creatures. It could go either way. I wouldn't put money on it.

•  •  •

Felix could think of nowhere to go at short notice where they would be free from the prying eyes and ears of servants, except one place. He strode across the Bridge of Sighs, looking neither left nor right, relieved that Molly was following him blindly and had not uttered a single word.

I don't know whether to hit Mungo or shake his hand. But at least he's staged the opportunity for me to get the truth out of Molly. God
willing we won't run into her mother. I couldn't face that woman again – she has all the wild unpredictability of the Celts, but more pride than a duchess.

He unlocked the door to his bedchamber and ushered Molly inside.

‘God willing no one saw us. It is quite improper for a young lady to be secreted in a bachelor's bedchamber, but needs must.'

‘Why? I've been here alone with you a half-dozen times.'

‘That was different. You were just Cook's daughter, serving me.'

Molly bridled. ‘I'm still just Cook's daughter, and don't you forget it.'

‘Of course, I didn't mean – that is. Oh dammit it, Molly, must you take exception to everything I say? I made your mother an honourable offer of marriage.'

‘Did she accept you?' she asked tartly. ‘If so that means you're my stepfather.'

‘Molly, for pity's sake, this is serious. Is what Mungo said true?
Three of us.
Does that mean we had the bad luck that one night to make . . . ?

‘A baby? Well, your luck's changed, Felix. I'm not with child and I never told Mungo I was. I reckon he was just trying to be helpful.'

‘Helpful? Father nearly had another heart attack – and as for my mother, she turned as white as snow.'

‘Well! Now I know where I stand with you. I'll go downstairs and pack my things. I've learned a lot in this house, Felix. And a lot of the tricks of the trade from Vianna. I reckon I can put it all to good use – and get paid for it.'

She was almost at the door when Felix lunged across the room and blocked her path. ‘Don't you dare leave me in this mess, Molly!'

‘Don't dare? Who are you to give me orders, Felix?'

He held her face between his hands and looked deep into her eyes.

‘I'm not ordering you to marry me, Molly. I'm – I'm
begging
you. We must put things right.'

‘Well it wouldn't be right for me – I can't marry a man who's in love with my best friend.'

‘I'm not. Oh damn. The problem is you know too much about me. I made a total fool of myself over a desperate young woman
who likes me well enough but never loved any man – except maybe Mungo. My – my – that is, Mungo –'

‘Your brother,' she supplied helpfully.

‘You
knew?
'

‘I'd have to be blind not to see you two are peas in a pod.'

‘Quite. Well, anyway Mungo and I became rivals in love – just as we've been competing at everything all our lives.'

‘So you only want me because you think I love Mungo. Well I do. But it's different.'

Felix took her hands and drew her to sit down on his bed. Both chairs were piled high with astronomy books. He pointed to the telescope. ‘The truth is, Molly, I now realise I've been looking at love the wrong way. You remember how Admiral Horatio Nelson deliberately put his telescope up to his blind eye to disregard the signal ordering him to disengage in a battle at sea?'

‘Yeah, and won the battle of Copenhagen. What's that to do with me?'

‘Well, in a sense I've been blind to real love. Until that night at
Mookaboola
. I realised that you had more true love and courage – than I've ever had.' Her silence unnerved him. ‘May I kiss you?' He did not wait for her answer and he took his time kissing her face and neck and murmuring endearments.

‘Will you give me another chance, my dear little girl?'

When she hesitated he said in desperation, ‘Molly, I need you. You are my
lodestar!'

Those were the magic words. Molly's eyes widened and she returned his kiss with passion. Until she was stopped by a sudden thought. ‘Yes. But only if we put the books straight, Felix. We must tell your parents and my ma that I am
not
going to have a child.'

‘No need to mention that detail,' he said quickly. ‘Let things stand – so we can marry soon. It's not a lie. I
am
going to give you a child – just as soon as we're married.'

Molly giggled. ‘You sound just like Mungo – turning the truth inside out to make people do what you want.'

Felix was taken aback. ‘Like Mungo? Do I indeed? Well, come to think of it we do occasionally think alike.'

She held out her hand. ‘Come, my love, let's face the music together.'

•  •  •

Mungo gave a sigh of relief when the pair re-entered the room. Molly was trying to hide a smile and Felix was tugging at his neckcloth, which was in disarray for probably the first time in his life.

Mungo knew the battle was over. After a few well-chosen words from Felix, his father was ready to remonstrate, until Mrs L'Estrange placed a restraining hand on his arm and whispered something that immediately caused him to back down.

She rang the bell and ordered tea, that traditional English cure all for every occasion. She served it beautifully from the Russian
samovar
in the best teacups, accompanied by Cook's elegant petits fours, scones and thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches. It seemed that following a short, heated confrontation in the kitchen with Molly, Cook had at last conceded defeat.

Mungo sipped his tea.
No one entering this room for the first time would suspect anything but a well-bred family united in harmony.

He was aware that the mistress of the house was the sole person taking full advantage of the tea ritual. Molly had been escorted upstairs to rest. Felix eyed him warily but silently topped up their teacups from the whisky decanter.

Felix forced himself to ask the question, quietly. ‘You owe me the truth. Exactly when did you grow close to Molly? She thinks the world of you.'

‘I was never more than her big brother,' Mungo said quickly. ‘You were always her hero – just too blind to notice her. But don't take my word for it. Ask Molly. She's nothing if not dead honest.'

‘I know,' Felix said thoughtfully. ‘Does that mean your announcement about the three us was simply a ploy?'

‘Yeah, to nudge things along. We made it work a treat, didn't we? You've got yourself a very special girl.'

Mungo offered his hand. Felix accepted it without hesitation.

Looking up, both were startled by the remarkable transformation of the warring L'Estranges. Seated together in an alcove, their heads were bent close together. Occasional phrases filtered across the room. Mungo caught the name of Magistrate Kennedy. Clearly something was being planned. He could not stand the suspense.

‘What are your parents up to, do you think?'

‘They're planning a very quiet, private wedding. As soon as possible – for obvious reasons.'

‘I see,' Mungo said sagely, ‘so none of the Top Thirteen will count on their fingers to prove exactly what came first, the chicken or the egg.'

Felix flushed with embarrassment. ‘It seems a good idea to stick with – one of your little white lies.'

‘You'll thank me, one day,' Mungo said with confidence.

‘I don't suppose you could bring yourself to be my best man?'

‘I could. Given the bridegroom can bring himself to ask me.'

Felix held out his hand. ‘Thank you.'

Both turned their eyes to the alcove, alerted by their father's sotto voce question to his wife. ‘Will you be free to attend the wedding before your ship sails for Hamburg? Quite soon, I take it? You are quite determined to leave forever?'

Albruna paused to put aside her teacup.

‘You are asking me two questions. Allow me to handle the first one first. No matter what we feel, I think we should both attend our son's wedding, yes? Close ranks, at least until the marriage is signed, sealed and delivered.'

‘Agreed,' he said quickly.

‘Molly is a very young bride, as I was myself. The fact that her own mother disapproves of the match, and given her delicate condition, Molly will need female support on her wedding day. As for the
Bussorah Merchant
it has been given a bill of health after the cholera epidemic and is scheduled to sail this week.'

There was a pause. ‘I see. Kind of you to remain for the wedding, Albruna. You appear more reconciled to Felix's
fait accompli
than I am. It will take some time to get used to the idea of a L'Estrange bride drawn from the servants' quarters.'

‘I admit I had grander plans in mind for a wife for Felix. But I have observed Molly for some time. The girl possesses a great deal of courage – and a certain natural dignity. It seems she is genuinely interested in astronomy – a girl in a million.'

‘Aye, I'll grant you that. It may surprise you to know the girl reminds me of you at her age, when we first met, remember?'

‘How could I ever forget? I am being sent by my
Grossmutter
on
my first ever visit to London – overcome with nerves on meeting my tall, handsome English cousin. I fell instantly in love.'

‘You were not alone in that.'

As if caught out by the sentiment of his words, he helped himself to another drink. ‘Despite all that followed and the way I have let you down, we did at least share first love, Albruna. I guess that is something, eh?'

Albruna lowered her voice. ‘I am forgetting nothing. Good and bad. I remember the L'Estrange family's antagonism to your impoverished Prussian cousin – despite my aristocratic ancestry. Yet you stood up to them. You declined the modest dowry my mother was only able to offer. And against your father's wishes you came here to the Colony to make your own fortune. I was so proud of you.'

‘Then later – I broke your heart,' he said bleakly.

Albruna's voice was so low that Mungo and Felix strained to hear her words.

‘Yes. But I also never forget you married me knowing how my father died in battle before I was born.'

‘Nonsense. A child is not responsible for its parents.'

‘No. But through all these years no matter how bitterly we fought, never once did you remind me I am being illegitimate. I always admire you for that, Kentigern.'

Albruna made a swift, graceful exit to attend to Molly, leaving her husband deep in thought.

Mungo and Felix avoided each other's eyes, embarrassed to feel so moved, caught eavesdropping on an old, well-kept family secret.

Mungo broke the silence. ‘She's quite a woman, your mother.'

‘So is yours,' Felix said with a sigh. ‘Pity they don't get on.'

Mungo drained his glass. ‘I've never been a best man before. We didn't have much call for weddings at Moreton Bay. But you can count on me to stand by you.'

‘Thank you for that.'

‘And just for the record, mate, in case you've been wondering about Toby. It's a long story but my mother has sorted it out. He's
my
son. So Toby's your nephew.'

Felix thought that over for a few moments. ‘Toby's the one person I don't mind sharing with you, Mungo.'

‘I'll drink to that,' said Mungo.

Seagulls scudded over the marine blue surface of the harbour, playfully diving for tiny fish in the sunlight-chequered patterns broken by the white-crested waves of the incoming tide that lapped at the scores of bays and coves along Port Jackson's shorelines.

Vianna stood watching the sunset from King's Wharf, her carpetbag at her feet. Lying at anchor, the
Bussorah Merchant
was being loaded with colonial wheat for export and merino wool bound for Yorkshire's woollen mills. No doubt tomorrow it would take on board the prized locally-bred horses bred for the British army in India.

Beyond the Parramatta River that fed into the harbour, the setting sun sank slowly below the western horizon in a rich riot of colour like the giant palette of some Italian Master.

Colonial-built river craft, including the
Surprize,
the Colony's first paddle steamer, were plying their trade on excursions between Sydney Town and Rosehill. The Colony's second oldest township was now growing rapidly under its true name, Parramatta – the whimsical Aboriginal word Mungo had translated for her as ‘the place where eels sit down'.

The thought of Mungo weighed heavily on Vianna's heart as she said a silent farewell to the port where less than five years earlier, as a suspected thief, she had first sought refuge from the law.

In the manner claimed to be a drowning man's experience, images of her life rushed helter-skelter before her eyes. Virtually all were linked to Mungo. From their first meeting, on the second day after her arrival in the Colony, Mungo had left indelible marks on her life.
Most of them lies! I was irresistibly drawn to him from that first meeting, when I granted ‘Will Eden' his dying wish to kiss me before he was hanged. What a romantic fool I was.

Despite the pain of it, she smiled at the memory. The breeze off the harbour touched her lips as if to remind her of the magic of that first kiss – that had irrevocably changed her life. Because no matter what
degradation followed with Severin, that kiss had reminded her that true, romantic love was a memory to be treasured.