Isle of Tears (27 page)

‘Yes, we have met.’ Charity smiled prettily.

‘Well, he won it at cards, and given that I lent him the money to play, it’s now half mine.’

Charity clapped her hands. ‘Wonderful! Think of the lovely
jaunts we’ll have! Shall I fetch my hat and cape?’

‘Er, actually, it’s Isla I’ve come to see.’

Charity’s face fell, then her lips compressed with sudden ill-humour. ‘Oh. I see.’

Robert felt horribly awkward. ‘It’s just that I need to speak with her about, well, about her, ah, apprehension. Major Blainey’s orders.’ Which was true, after a fashion.

‘And you’re going to do that in your new gig, are you?’ Charity demanded.

Aware of the flush creeping up his face, Robert made it worse by saying, ‘Well, actually, we thought she might be more forthcoming if she wasn’t here. Wasn’t in the house, I mean.’ Which wasn’t true at all.

‘Oh, what a lot of piffle, Robert. You just want to show off. And I thought Isla wasn’t allowed out without a guard?’

Reluctantly, Robert pointed out, ‘Actually, I am a guard, Charity.’

But, even more tight-lipped now, Charity flounced off, her skirts almost knocking over the hall table.

Robert called after her, ‘We could go for a ride afterwards, if you’d like to!’

But if she’d heard him, she gave no indication. He watched the hem of her dress disappear up the stairs and breathed a sigh that was part relief and part trepidation at what she might do to retaliate.

Hope Fairweather appeared from the drawing room. ‘Oh, hello, Robert. I thought I heard the door. Did Charity not let you in?
We saw you coming up the drive. What a smart gig you were driving. Is it yours?’

‘Hello, Hope. Yes, it is, sort of. Won it at cards.’ He regarded Hope’s pretty, open face and the warm light shining in her eyes and wondered how it was that two sisters could be so different in nature. ‘I think I might have upset Charity.’

‘Again?’

Robert nodded. ‘I need to talk to Isla, and I think Charity thought I had come to visit her.’

Hope’s eyes widened in mock surprise. ‘Captain Yale, surely you can’t be implying that my sister was thinking only of herself?’

They both burst into stifled giggles. Robert was shocked: Hope wasn’t usually unkind at the expense of others. But it was very funny, not to mention wickedly apt. He hoped to God that Charity wasn’t listening at the top of the stairs. ‘Shush, she might hear us,’ he whispered belatedly.

‘Oh, who cares, Robert? Really, you do let her boss you around! It’s not as though you’ve made her any promises, is it? I’ll go and get Isla for you.’

As she disappeared down the hall, Robert wondered what on earth had got into her, but decided after a moment that he rather liked it, whatever it was.

Isla appeared ten minutes later, swinging herself along on her crutches, a shawl draped over her shoulders and carrying a single knitting needle. There was a definite gleam in her eye.

She didn’t even bother to greet him. ‘Hope says we’re going oot. Is that right?’

‘Well, yes, I thought we might go for a ride in my, er, new gig. If you’d like to. May I ask, what’s the knitting needle for?’

‘Scratching doon ma cast, it’s awfu’ itchy. O’ course I’d like tae go for a ride, I’ve no’ been oot o’ this hoose in months!’

Robert opened the front door. ‘Yes, well, I hope you don’t get any ideas about absconding. I’m under strict orders not to let you out of my sight.’

‘Who says?’ Isla demanded, deftly negotiating the wooden steps leading down to the gravel at the front of the house. ‘Your Major Blainey?’

Robert hurried after her and took her elbow. ‘Yes, actually.’

Isla tapped her cast with a crutch. ‘No’ verra likely.’ She set off at a great pace around the side of the house, her crutches grinding into the gravel. ‘Aye, it is nice,’ she commented when she saw the gig. ‘Hope said ye won it at cards.’

Robert helped her up into the seat, then climbed in beside her and took the reins from Chisolm, who gave a half-salute.

‘The horse as well?’ Isla asked as he turned the gig and drove out through the gate and onto Parnell Road.

‘Yes, the horse as well.’

They sat in silence as they rode. There were a few houses, both grand and small, on each side of the dirt road, but most of the land was open fields divided up by post-and-rail fences and low hedges, and punctuated by windswept trees here and there. In the middle distance, at the bottom of Parnell Road’s long hill, lay the sparkling Waitemata Harbour, North Head on the far side and Rangitoto rising out of the sea to the right. The sun was
warm, but the breeze brisk, and Isla tightened her shawl around her shoulders. Hope had offered her a bonnet, but Isla had been looking forward to the feel of the sun and the wind on her face. She watched the horse’s glossy mane fly and its hooves flicking out as it trotted along, and wondered if she should have brought Laddie along for the ride.

She bent down, hitched up her skirt, slid the knitting needle down the side of her cast and scratched luxuriously. ‘So, why are we having this wee jaunt?’

Robert slowed the horse as a dog rushed out into the road and barked at them. ‘Well, Major Blainey ordered me to make another attempt at extracting information from you—intelligence, he calls it—but actually I just thought you might enjoy getting out.’

‘There’s no more information tae be extracted, Robert.’

‘Yes, I know, but you’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you?’

‘Oh, aye, verra much.’

As they neared the bottom of the hill, there were more houses and the people they passed waved in greeting. We must look an odd pair, Isla thought: the dashing captain in his uniform and the scruffy pale-skinned girl with wild hair and a moko on her face.

‘I was talking to Hope before,’ Robert said, ‘and it occurred to me that, well, she was behaving in quite an un-Hope-like manner.’

‘Oh, aye?’

‘Yes, she said something rather scathing about her sister, and it
just seemed very unlike her. It was funny, though. I just wondered if you knew, well, what was going on.’

‘Have ye ever heard the term “kicking o’er the traces”?’

‘Of course.’

‘Well, I believe Hope is aboot tae kick o’er hers.’ Isla’s mouth twitched as Robert’s eyebrows shot up. ‘I think she’s fed up wi’ tip-toeing around Charity. And Faith. And I think she’s realizing there’s more tae life than making scones and crocheting.’

‘Really? And where would she have got that from, I wonder?’

‘I’ve no idea.’

Robert tried to suppress a smile, but couldn’t. ‘And what does Eleanor think about all this?’

‘Oh, I dinnae think she’s too worried.’ Isla had another go at her itch with the knitting needle. ‘What’s that big hoose o’er there?’

‘That’s the Church of England Grammar School, and I believe that’s the master’s house across the road.’

‘We went tae the parish school on Skye, then Mam taught us when we came tae New Zealand. Robert, why are ye no’ away fighting? Ye’ve been in Auckland as long as I have, nearly five months.’

Robert hesitated, looking embarrassed. ‘I’ve been seconded.’

‘Because o’ me?’

‘To a degree, yes,’ he said eventually.

Most of the regiment had been sent south, but his company had remained temporarily in Auckland, for various reasons. Later, they would be joining the rest of the regiment. Meanwhile, as
Major Blainey was constantly reminding him, he was to find out what Isla McKinnon knew.

‘Your regiment,’ she said. ‘Where is it now?’

Another hesitation, longer this time. ‘Taranaki.’

‘Oh, so it wis
your
lot who drove ma people oot o’ Te Arei last month?’

Robert flicked the reins angrily. ‘I’m sorry, Isla, but I don’t have any say in where the regiment is sent. I don’t have any say in where
I’m
sent. Or not sent, for that matter.’

After that, neither of them spoke for some time, but as they neared the centre of town, Robert began to point out various sights. Wynyard Pier and Queen Street wharf were both busy, and there were plenty of people about. Isla was disconcerted by the number of soldiers wandering around—she hadn’t realized there would be so many still in Auckland. Robert took her along the busiest streets, showing her the austere Wesleyan chapel in High Street, St Paul’s in Emily Place, and the buildings and warehouses along Fort Street, perched among great piles of sawn timber, firewood and barrels on land that had been reclaimed from the sea. Finally, as the tide was almost out, he drove the gig across the sand along the shoreline, past Queen Street wharf, and pointed out the different ships at anchor in the harbour.

‘They’re no’ all military ships, though, are they?’ Isla asked.

‘No, lots of them are traders. You can tell their nationality by their flags, see? That one just past the wharf is Dutch, I think.’

As they neared the end of the beach below Point Britomart, Isla asked, ‘Why have ye never married, Robert?’

Startled, he glanced at her, then looked away. ‘I’m a soldier, Isla. Professional soldiers don’t make good husbands.’

She stared at his profile, at the ginger-brown stubble already evident on his jaw even though it wasn’t yet five o’clock. ‘And that’s it? No other reason?’

He shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’ve never met the right woman,’ he admitted finally. And thought: until now. He was deeply embarrassed, suspicious that she knew damn well how he felt about her, that his fascination with her had months ago turned into infatuation.

‘Charity thinks ye’ll marry her.’

‘I’d rather have my kidney stones removed with a spoon.’

Isla threw her head back and laughed.

Desperate to change the subject, Robert said, ‘What would make you happy, Isla? What is it you want more than anything else?’

Isla pretended she hadn’t heard, and asked him to repeat the question while she thought about the best way to answer, the best way to avoid hurting his feelings. In the end, she decided to just tell him the truth. ‘Tae have ma husband back, but that’s no’ gonnae happen, is it? And tae find ma brother and sister. If that’s all I manage tae do, I’ll be satisfied.’

And he knew then with certainty that he’d lost her. That, in fact, there had been no real chance that he would ever have her.

A runner had delivered the message that Blainey wanted to
speak to him, and now he sat on an uncomfortable wooden chair outside the major’s office at Albert Barracks. The appointment had been made for eleven o’clock; it was now a quarter to twelve, and Robert’s stomach was growling. He didn’t particularly like Blainey at the best of times, and their professional relationship had become more and more strained over the past few months as the major had grown increasingly convinced that Isla McKinnon held the key to an imperial victory in New Zealand.

Finally, Blainey appeared and waved him into his office.

Robert sat on another hard wooden chair before the major’s desk and waited while he shuffled some papers about, then eventually deigned to look up.

Blainey’s port-reddened complexion contrasted sharply with his sandy beard and precisely clipped sideburns. Watery pale blue eyes peered out beneath bushy brows, and the strong teeth were stained with tobacco tar. Many of the more senior officers smoked a pipe, but it wasn’t an indulgence Robert had ever aspired to.

The major set his hands firmly on the desktop and met Robert’s gaze. ‘Something was brought to my attention late yesterday afternoon, Captain Yale.’

Robert waited politely.

‘You were seen in town in the company of the McKinnon girl the day before yesterday. Is that correct?’

‘I don’t know whether I was seen or not, sir,’ Robert replied.

Major Blainey scowled. ‘Don’t be impertinent, Captain. That isn’t what I mean. Is it correct that you were in town with her?’

‘Yes, sir, it is correct.’

‘Well, what were you doing?’

‘Sir, you ordered me to make another attempt at extracting information from her. I thought she might be more responsive if she were given something of a treat,’ Robert lied.

‘A treat?’ The major’s brow furrowed even further.

‘Yes, sir. She’s been confined to the Fairweather house for months—’

‘Since her last attempt at escape,’ Blainey interrupted.

Robert tried not to let his irritation show. ‘Yes, since her last attempt at escape; and I thought that if I showed her some leniency, she might be more forthcoming.’

Blainey grunted. ‘And was she?’

‘No, sir, she wasn’t.’

‘Well, I have to say that more than one person has complained to me about it. One officer and two officers’ wives, in fact. It’s very poor form, Captain, to be seen gallivanting about town with a prisoner. And in particular a
female
prisoner. I thought you might have had more sense. Clearly I was mistaken. I don’t wish to hear that it has happened again.’ Blainey sat back and made a steeple out of his hands. ‘How long has she been at the Fairweather house?’

‘Since the end of May, sir.’

‘Has her leg healed?’

‘According to Eleanor Fairweather, the plaster cast will be coming off in a fortnight’s time, I presume because the leg will have mended by then.’

‘Good.’ Major Blainey sat forward. ‘I don’t think she’s going
to tell us anything. I didn’t think she would, and I said so at the outset.’

Robert tried not to gape in amazement.

The major went on. ‘So that being the case, and if she’s physically fit again, then I think she can be imprisoned with the rest of them, don’t you? Yes, I think that’s an excellent idea.’ He noticed that Robert was staring at him. ‘What? Well, what else are we going to do with her? We can’t just let her go. She’s a self-confessed Kingite. God knows what information she’s picked up during her time in Auckland.’

‘Very little, I expect, sir,’ Robert replied tartly, ‘given that she’s been housebound for the entire time.’

‘Except for your little jaunt the other day. And her escape attempt.’

Robert wished Blainey would shut up. For God’s sake, Isla hadn’t scaled Fort Britomart’s walls and gone through General Cameron’s private cache of military papers.

‘Nevertheless, as soon as she’s fit I want you to arrange to have her transported out to the Maori prison, do you understand? That’s an order, Captain. Dismissed.’