Beyond the Sunset (7 page)

‘Why should he do that?’

‘Who knows why half-wits do anything? Now leave me alone.’ He stormed away to stand by the rail on the other side.

A man moved out of the shadows and came to stand beside Zachary. His stomach tightened in apprehension as he saw it was the doctor. Had speaking out landed him in trouble?

Dr Crawford held out his hand. ‘Well done.’

Zachary shook it, not sure why he was being congratulated.

‘I heard Gleesome taunting that poor fellow earlier and was going to speak to him myself.’

‘Well, let’s hope he’ll leave Leo alone from now on.’

‘We’ll make sure he does. He’s right about one thing, however: that young man clearly hasn’t got all his wits. I doubt he’s a danger to anyone, though. I’ve seen others like him.’

‘I’ve been trying to speak to you about him. Did you know what Leo was like before he came on board?’

‘No. They slipped him past me or I’d have refused to let him travel on his own. I did speak to the Captain, but he knows the father and told me not to interfere. Has Leo said anything about his family?’

‘He seems fond of his mother but he’s terrified of his stepfather.’

‘What that lad needs is a simple job in the country.’

‘He says he’s good with animals.’

‘There you are, then. I daresay you could keep a bit of an eye on him while he’s on board ship.’

‘I’m not responsible for him.’

The doctor smiled. ‘I’ve seen how patiently you deal with him. I’d stake good money that you don’t get rid of him until we arrive in Australia. If you need help, if Gleesome or anyone else gives you any trouble, call on me. I’ll back you up.’

He strolled off and Zachary watched him go with a sinking heart. How could he attend classes with Leo by his side every minute? Or get into conversation with people? He’d seen how they avoided Leo, especially the women.

This was not going to be an easy journey.

After breakfast Alice asked Dot to sit with her at the dining table. ‘We need to go through the accounts for the food you’ve received.’

The young maid looked at her in surprise. ‘But I don’t deal with the money, miss. It’s Mr Prebble you need to speak to.’

‘I just want to check a few things, so that I can change the order from now on.’

Dot’s face cleared. ‘Oh. I see, miss.’ She took the chair next to Alice.

She was soon frowning as she read painstakingly through the lists, one finger tracing each word as she sounded it out. ‘I think these are someone else’s accounts, miss. I’ve never had no biscuits, nor no ham neither. Not that I’m complaining. I’ve et well enough. And the weights are different. I don’t get that much flour and sugar.’

‘Tell me exactly which items are different.’

Dot went through it again, saying how much she received each week, and Alice noted the amounts down.

‘Perhaps these aren’t the right lists, miss?’

‘I’ll check with the lawyer. Don’t mention it to Prebble in case you’re right. We don’t want to upset him over a simple mistake, do we?’

‘No, we don’t, miss. He can be a bit sharp-like sometimes.’

‘Can he? Well, he’d better not get sharp with me. Now, please carry on with your work, Dot. I have to go out for a while. I’ll bring back something for dinner.’

‘Not from the shop?’

‘There’s a market in town today, isn’t there? Some things will be cheaper there, and certainly fresher.’

‘Ye-es. But Mr Prebble won’t be best pleased. He says the shop’s paying my wages, so it’s only fair for me to buy everything from them. He sends out to the greengrocer’s if I want fruit and vegetables. I mostly don’t bother.’

‘Just tell him I’ve taken over dealing with food from now on, and I like to eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, the fresher the better.’ She fixed Dot with a firm glance, the one she’d used to quell unruly pupils.

‘Very well, miss.’

She sounded so relieved that Alice stared at her. ‘Are you afraid of him?’

Dot wriggled. ‘Not afraid, exactly. But I wouldn’t like to upset him.’

‘From now on, you should be more concerned about upsetting me than Prebble. But I hope you won’t be afraid of me.’

‘No, miss. I was afraid of Mrs Blake sometimes when she acted strange, but I like working for you, because you talk to me and tell me things and I know where I stand. It got a bit lonely when I was here on my own and I kept thinking I heard noises downstairs at night. It was just my imagination, though, because nothing was ever taken.’ Dot beamed at her as she stood up. ‘I’ll do the living room while you’re out, shall I?’

What a nice willing girl she was, Alice thought as she went to put on her bonnet. She walked slowly along the main street to the lawyer’s rooms with the accounts in her shopping basket, glad the storm had blown over. There was no warmth in the January sun, but its cheerful brightness still made you feel better.

Mr Dawson showed her straight in to see Mr Featherworth and stayed with them. When Alice explained what she’d found out, the lawyer made little distressed sounds and didn’t seem to know what to do.

The clerk bent over the lists. ‘Not a lot taken each week, but it’ll mount up. And if Miss Blair hadn’t noticed anything, no one would be any the wiser.’

‘Perhaps there’s some explanation?’

Ralph fixed his employer with a stern gaze. ‘If there is, sir, we need to hear it.’

As Alice walked along to the market, she hoped Prebble would be dismissed. She didn’t like the thought that he had a key to the whole building, which meant he had easy access to where she was living. She’d have felt better if there was a door that locked between the living quarters and the rear of the shop.

She soon forgot him in the cheerful bustle of the market. Even during hard times like this, there was still fresh farm food available for those with money. Her basket was soon so full she had to buy a string bag as well. She was particularly looking forward to eating the crumbly white cheese and the jam made by farmers’ wives. In the end she decided to find a lad to help her carry the things back.

It was a man whom the stallholder summoned, after a whispered, ‘He’s out of work, miss, hope you don’t mind? He’ll only expect the same money as a lad would.’

‘I’m happy to have his help.’

The man looked gaunt and when they got back he was puffing a little. She gave him a shilling and he stared at it as if he’d never seen one before.

‘It’s too much, miss.’

‘Do you have a family?’

He nodded.

‘Then take it for their sake.’

He drew himself up. ‘Only for their sake. I’m not strong enough to do the stone breaking, so I have to take what jobs I can.’

‘If you’ve nothing better to do, I’ll be going to the market at the same time next week, and would appreciate help with my baskets.’

He nodded, raised one hand and walked off, the tired, slouching gait of a man with no energy to spare.

That encounter decided her. She would definitely help her cousin with the relief work now she was feeling better. Well, she would do once the inventory was completed. It was going to take longer than she’d expected, because Mrs Blake had been a hoarder. She’d have to ask Mr Dawson whether she should clear out the dead woman’s drawers ready for the new occupants. Not a pleasant task, but someone had to do it.

As she turned to go inside, she saw Prebble watching her through the shop window.

She wasn’t surprised when Dot came up a short time later to say he’d asked to see her. ‘Show him up.’

She didn’t ask him to sit down.

‘I noticed you’d been to the market, Miss Blair.’

She inclined her head and waited.

‘And I couldn’t help noticing that some of the things you’d purchased are items we sell in the shop, jars of jam, for instance.’

How had he seen that? The jam had been at the bottom of her basket. Had he dared to go and poke around in her kitchen? He must have done. It was the only way he’d have been able to see some of the items. She held back her annoyance, hoping it didn’t show in her face. ‘I don’t consider that to be any concern of yours, Prebble.’

‘I beg to differ, Miss Blair. We’re both employed by the shop, have a duty to be loyal to it, and—’

‘I’m not answerable to you for what I do, Prebble, so if that’s all you wanted to see me about, you can go back to your work.
I
certainly have things to do.’

His expression was stormy for a moment or two, then it became glassy, as if he was hiding his feelings.

But though he wasn’t a large man, he radiated such menace she was glad to see him go. She could see why the young maid was afraid of him and was thankful the bedroom she slept in had a lock on the door, because the open access from the shop still worried her. Dot said it had been the bedroom the master slept in towards the end and he’d always locked the door too ‘because Mrs Blake did wander sometimes’.

The events that led to Mrs Blake being locked away were still so vivid in Dot’s mind that every now and then she shared a memory with Alice. It didn’t paint a picture of a happy household. And it was thought that the madwoman had had her own husband killed, though no one had been able to prove that or catch the person who did it for her.

It was another hot day, with the sort of heat none of them had ever experienced until they came to Australia. Pandora stopped work to wipe her sweaty brow with her forearm. She was glad of the awning Reece had built to shade the outdoor table that was used for both cooking preparations and eating. She was making damper and her sister Cassandra was chopping potatoes to put in a stew.

It was hard working in such heat, though her sister didn’t seem upset by it. And as for Reece, he positively loved the warmth. The Southerhams stayed out of the sun during the middle of the day. Lucky them! She wished she could do the same.

The food they ate was fairly monotonous, though they’d now brought back quite a few much-needed ingredients from the shop on the highway, which was close to where their other two sisters lived. To call a dusty track a highway had surprised them both. The track was quite narrow, with an occasional wider part. Kevin next door said this was where the wheels of wagons made deep ruts in winter so that other drivers took their vehicles to one side to keep to firmer ground.

The track led all the way down to a port called Albany on the south coast, about three hundred miles from Perth. Mail to England was sent from there because of the sheltered anchorage, which seemed strange when most of the population of the colony lived in and around Perth.

‘I’m looking forward to living with Kevin. He’s so interesting to talk to.’ Cassandra scooped the potato pieces off the chopping board into a bowl.

‘Reece seems fond of him.’

‘I am too. I don’t care if he was once a convict. He’s kind and helpful, and that’s what matters. Reece is building an extra bedroom for us on the side of Kevin’s wooden house. There was a spare bedroom, but it was tiny, so he’s removing the inner wall to that, which will make the living area bigger.’

Pandora suppressed an envious sigh. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to living under canvas, or to the horrible insects and creeping things that joined them there. She lived in terror of finding a snake in her bed. Kevin said Australian snakes were very poisonous and some could kill you with one bite. She checked her bedding every night before she lay down because her bed was only a straw mattresses on a piece of old canvas. Reece said he’d build her a wooden bed frame before winter. She didn’t like to trouble him to ask for it earlier because he worked from dawn to dusk every day.

‘Have you decided what you’re going to wear for the wedding, Cassandra?’

‘The dress I wore at Christmas. It hides this better than my others do.’ She laid one hand briefly on her expanding belly.

‘I’ve got a lace collar you can borrow.’

‘The one on your blue dress? Won’t you need it yourself?’

‘I’m not the person getting married, am I?’

‘Thank you. I will borrow it, then. I do want to look as nice as I can.’ Her face briefly took on the blissful glow it got when she spoke of marrying Reece, then the smile faded and she looked at her sister in concern. ‘I keep worrying about how you’ll go on when you’re alone here afterwards?’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘You could look for another job if you’re unhappy. Something closer to the twins, perhaps.’

‘I’d rather stay near you. Truly.’ She patted the lump of dough into shape and thumped it down into the second of the pair of heavy bread tins they’d persuaded the Southerhams to buy. ‘There. That’s done. I’m sick of making soda bread every day. Do you remember how easy it was when we just popped round to the baker’s for a loaf?’

‘Yes. But it’s different here, with the nearest shop an hour’s cart ride away. If we want to eat bread we have to make it. And at least we have a proper stove to cook on now.’

‘Mrs Southerham didn’t provide very well when it came to food supplies and cooking utensils, did she?’

Cassandra looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was near. ‘They’re the most impractical pair. Why on earth they wanted to become settlers, I can’t think. If Mr Southerham didn’t have Reece to help him, he’d be in serious trouble. Once Reece has served the agreed time to pay back his fare to Australia, we’re going to set up on our own and I can’t think what Mr Southerham will do then. We’ve arranged for my work to be taken off what Reece owes them, a day of my work cancels out half a day of his. Mr Southerham didn’t like that, but he didn’t have much choice. Reece told him straight out he wouldn’t let his wife work for nothing.’

‘Why they think women’s work isn’t worth as much as men’s, I’ll never know,’ Pandora said. She checked the beans that had been soaking overnight. ‘I’ll put these on to cook now, shall I? Thank goodness for dried peas and beans.’

‘And tins of jam. We eat a lot of bread and jam here, don’t we? I just wish there was more fruit and vegetables. Kevin’s got a lemon tree and he grows melons, too. But he only put in enough for himself this year. Reece says he’ll bring us a slice or two. They’re delicious. There are grape vines too, but they’ve not fruited yet.’

‘At least we get plenty of fresh meat. It’s so easy for Mr Southerham to go out and kill a kangaroo. He’s a very good shot.’