A Mother's Shame (26 page)

‘Binda is a very unusual name,’ Maria commented, and he nodded.

‘It means “deep water”,’ he explained. Maria thought it was enchanting.

He placed a trunk at the side of the door as Maria looked about at what was to be her home for the next few months. The house was comfortable and cosy. A large settee was placed in front of a wooden fireplace, and animal skins were spread across the floor. The next room was a very serviceable dining room with an oak table and six solid oak chairs placed around it, and the room further on proved to be a very adequate kitchen with everything they would need.

A long corridor led to three bedrooms and a bathroom with a large enamel bath. At one end of the house was a water closet that stood slightly apart from the main building, which Maria was silently pleased about.

‘Eeh, it’s really grand,’ Kitty sighed delightedly as she skipped back along the corridor to look at the bedrooms again. After the cramped conditions she had endured in the steerage quarters aboard ship, the brass bed appeared positively enormous. There were pretty curtains fluttering at the window and the whole place was spotlessly clean.

Josh looked pleased by her reaction, but hastily assured her, ‘If there’s anything else you need, you only have to ask. Esperanza will have it sent straight over to you along with your food supplies, which will be delivered daily together with fresh milk and so on. But now perhaps we’d better get Isabelle to lie down.’ He glanced worriedly at his sister, who was as white as a sheet. Maria instantly took Isabelle’s elbow and steered her towards the best bedroom. The girl went without complaint, too weary to even comment.

As Josh watched them go, his eyebrows drew together in a frown. Isabelle didn’t seem to be herself at all and looked quite unwell. But then he supposed it was to be expected. She was with child, after all, and the long sea voyage from Liverpool had taken its toll on all of them. But now that they were here and with good fresh air and good food inside her, no doubt she would soon be her normal irritating self. Hoping he was right, he went to join Kitty who was joyfully exploring the kitchen.

It was later that evening when Maria and Kitty first met Robbie McPhee. He breezed into the kitchen with a big smile on his face and Maria knew instantly that they were going to get along. Robbie was a great giant of a man with hands like hams and a bushy beard. His hair, which was on the long side, had a tendency to curl and was bright red, and he had a freckled suntanned face from the many hours he spent outside.

When he spoke it was with a broad Scottish accent as he settled himself at the kitchen table and said, ‘So is there anything to eat going? If I’m goin’ to be stayin’ here with you lassies, I shall expect you to feed me. A grown man needs his tucker!’

Kitty giggled as she rushed away to fetch bread and cheese from the cold shelf, and as Rob watched her go he thought what a canny little lass she was. Her giggle was quite infectious.

Once Kitty had disappeared, he turned his attention to Maria to ask, ‘So do you have everything you need?’

He was thinking what a pretty girl she was although the shapeless dress she was wearing did nothing to enhance her appearance. But then Freddie had told him to expect two pregnant women, so Maria was probably one of them. Robbie had already guessed without being told that Freddie’s niece must be the other one, and a right little tartar she was by all accounts. He hadn’t actually met her yet and Robbie had always been one who liked to form his own opinion of a person.

Now Maria smiled at him as she wiped her hands down the front of her apron and answered, ‘Yes, thank you, we seem to be well supplied with everything. In fact, I’m sure we shall be very comfortable here once we settle in. But was I right in assuming that you would be staying here with us?’

‘Not exactly.’ Robbie smiled at Kitty as she came back into the room and she blushed becomingly. ‘I shall actually be staying in my own place, which is just around the back there.’ He gestured towards the open window. ‘I’m in the process of buildin’ my own cabin, as it happens.’

‘Really?’

He nodded. ‘Aye, I am that, but I still have a long way to go. There’s only three rooms habitable at present but I get by just fine.’

‘And does your wife live there too?’ Maria asked innocently, and when his face darkened she instantly wished that she had kept quiet.

Ignoring the question, he began to carve some slices from the loaf that Kitty had placed on the table while Maria busied herself making him some coffee to go with it. The atmosphere had become tense and she wondered what she could have said that was so wrong. She had only asked him about his wife, assuming that he was bound to have one.

When the coffee was made she poured it into a jug and carried it to the table along with sugar and milk so that Robbie could help himself. Kitty skittered off to fetch him a mug and Maria was amused to see that the girl seemed to be very taken with him. From the corner of her eye Maria glanced at him, trying to assess how old he might be, but it was hard to judge with his heavy beard and his weatherworn skin. He could be anywhere from his early twenties to forty, from what she could see of him – not that it was any of her business, she told herself hastily.

Robbie finished the rest of his meal in silence then rising from the table he told them, ‘I’ll be away to fetch the logs in for you now. You need to keep the range stoked up for cooking. I’ll also see to the cleaning out of the closet each day and do any heavy work that needs doing, but during the day hours I shall be away working around the ranch. I’ll also need to teach you both how to handle a gun and ride.’

‘Whatever would we need a gun for?’ Maria asked, horrified, and he smiled again now.

‘Just in case you get any visits during the day from any stray bears,’ he told her calmly. ‘But don’t look so scared, it isna a regular occurrence. And you need to be on the lookout for spiders too. Most of them are harmless, but some of them can pack a rare old bite. The male Funnel Web is the worst – he’ll rear up at you and attack if he thinks he’s being cornered. He tends to like warm moist conditions, so take care when you visit the dunny, eh? The little devil likes to hide beneath the seat.’

Kitty visibly paled as her hand went to her throat but Robbie hadn’t finished. ‘Be on the look-out fer snakes too, especially of an evening when everywhere is quieter. The three to watch out for are the Taipan, the Brown Snake and the Tiger Snake.’

Seeing how distressed Kitty was getting, Maria quickly changed the subject when she asked, ‘And why do we need to know how to ride?’ She had never been astride a horse in her whole life and had absolutely no inclination to do so.

‘Just in case you should need help here in the day whilst I’m out on the ranch,’ he explained affably. ‘There’s a stables out back with my own and another horse in it. Gentle as a lamb, old Bessie is, so you might enjoy learning to ride her. Handy if you want to go into town too. Hobart is the nearest settlement, and it’s where we go to get any provisions that we can’t grow ourselves. Esperanza shops for clothes there and all, and some of the ranch hands go there of a night for a pint or two. Being able to ride will make you feel less isolated.’

‘I dare say it would,’ Maria agreed, although she still wasn’t at ease with the idea.

‘Right, well, there’s no need to rush things.’ Robbie headed for the door. ‘I dare say you’ll all be wanting to turn in, after your journey. You must be bushed so I’ll get the logs in and then I’ll leave you in peace to bunk down.’

The minute he had left the room, Kitty looked around fearfully as if a spider or a snake might appear at any second. ‘I like the sound o’ the kangaroos an’ the wallabies but I ain’t so keen on the idea o’ the snakes an’ spiders,’ she muttered.

‘Well, I dare say Robbie was only warning us, but I doubt we’ll even see one,’ Maria answered stoutly, praying that she was right. She didn’t much like the sound of them herself, but Kitty was quite spooked enough so she wisely didn’t say so.

Maria stifled a yawn as she flicked the mosquito net aside on Isabelle’s bed and peeped in at her. It had been a long, long day and now she was ready for bed herself – but first she wanted to check that there was nothing that her mistress needed.

‘Are you all right?’ she asked softly as she lifted the candle she was holding high.

The light spilled onto Isabelle’s face and she smiled sleepily. She had been in bed ever since they had arrived, but then Maria supposed this wasn’t a bad thing. The journey had been long and tiresome, and Isabelle was heavily pregnant now. She had roused just once to eat the meal that Maria had carried into her earlier on but now she shook her head.

‘I’m fine, thank you. Go and get some rest.’

‘Are you sure that there’s nothing you need?’

‘No, nothing. Goodnight, Maria.’ Isabelle then turned over and was fast asleep again before the other girl had even had time to answer her.

After carefully dropping the net into place Maria quietly made her way to her own room further along the corridor. The night was warm and balmy and the curtains in the corridor fluttered gently in the breeze. Outside she could hear the night creatures in the forest and she shuddered as she thought of the snakes and the spiders Robbie had warned them about. Through one of the windows she could see the glow of an oil lamp and she guessed that this must be coming from the cabin that Robbie was in the process of constructing. It was nice to think that a man was close by, should they need him. She moved slowly into her room where she slumped exhaustedly on to her bed and slept like a baby till early the next morning.

The sound of Yellowtails and Cockatoos in the surrounding trees brought Maria springing awake, and as she yawned and stretched she saw with dismay that she must have overslept. Brilliant sunlight was pouring through a gap in the curtains and sounds were issuing from the kitchen which could only mean that either Kitty or Isabelle was already up and about. She lifted the mosquito net hastily aside and after slipping her feet into her house shoes she put on her dressing-gown and headed along the passage. When she burst into the kitchen to find Robbie sitting at the kitchen table with Kitty, her hand rose self-consciously to her hair which was tangled about her shoulders.

Nodding a greeting at Robbie she asked Kitty, ‘Why didn’t you wake me? What time is it? And have you been in to see if Miss Isabelle wants anything?’

‘Hold yer horses,’ Kitty chuckled. ‘I can only answer one question at a time, yer know.’ Her eyes were sparkling and she looked happy and almost pretty. Her cheeky personality, which had been thoroughly repressed in the asylum, was beginning to shine through and her bright smile was infectious. Robbie obviously thought so too, if the way his eyes were following her about was anything to go by.

‘Right then, in answer to yer first question: I didn’t wake yer ’cos I have everythin’ under control in here an’ I thought yer looked done in last night an’ that a little lie-in would do yer the power o’ good. The time is . . .’ she glanced at the clock on the wall and after studying it closely and narrowing her eyes, she said cautiously, ‘half past eight.’ Maria had been teaching her on the voyage to tell the time as well as to read and write. ‘Not so very late, yer see. An’ yes, I have been in to Miss Isabelle an’ she’s right at this minute enjoyin’ her porridge an’ a cup o’ tea in bed. So I ain’t completely useless, am I?’

‘I never for a second meant to imply that you were,’ Maria muttered, feeling somewhat foolish, then without another word she scuttled off to her room to wash and dress.

On her way back to the kitchen she called into Isabelle’s room to find her propped up against her pillows, staring blankly towards the window. Her breakfast had barely been touched. ‘So how are you feeling today then?’ Maria asked cheerfully. ‘Better, I hope, now that you have rested.’

‘What? Oh yes . . . thank you, Maria. I am quite well but I think I should like to stay here for a while if it’s all the same with you.’

Maria straightened the colourful eiderdown. ‘But I thought you said that Esperanza had invited you over to the ranch this morning?’

‘Did I?’ Isabelle shrugged carelessly. ‘Well, I dare say I could always go over this afternoon if I feel like it, but for now I am quite comfortable where I am.’

‘Very well.’ Maria pointed to a small bell on the bedside table. ‘I shall go and help Kitty with the cleaning now, but if you need anything, just ring.’

No answer was forthcoming so after a moment she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Robbie was gone when she next entered the kitchen, and Kitty told her, ‘Robbie has gone to work but he said he’d pop back mid-morning to see if there was anything we needed and to bring fresh supplies.’ She sighed happily as she gazed about the tidy kitchen. ‘It’s lovely here, ain’t it? Like another world. All fresh air and wide open spaces.’

‘And all snakes and spiders too,’ Maria said without thinking, and then could have bitten her tongue out as she saw Kitty’s face fall.

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I think I must have got out of bed the wrong side this morning. But what was Robbie doing here?’

‘Well, he stuck his head round the door to see if there were owt we needed before he left, an’ seein’ as I’d made far too much breakfast, I gave him some. He enjoyed it an’ all an’ said I were a right fair little cook.’ She giggled then. ‘An’ he also said as how tonight he’s gonna give us our first lesson on how to handle a gun,’ Kitty rattled on.

Maria wasn’t too keen on that idea at all but this time she wisely held her tongue and concentrated on her food as Kitty flitted about humming merrily to herself.

An hour later when the kitchen was once again swept and clean as a new pin, she went back to check on Isabelle, but the girl was still in the same position as she had left her in, wide awake and simply staring off into space.

‘So what would you like to wear today?’ Maria asked, crossing to the large pine wardrobe that took up almost all of one wall. She had only unpacked one of Miss Isabelle’s trunks up to now, but there were a number of day dresses available for her to choose from.