Timeless Passion: 10 Historical Romances To Savor (270 page)

It was at that moment Electra breezed into the room.

“Lieutenant, what a surprise. Have you come to tell William what the governor wants to do with his proposal?” she asked.

He stood reluctantly when she entered the room and gave an imperceptible bow. “As I said to your, er, husband, the governor will get to it in his own time.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to talk. Very nice to see you again.” She turned to leave.

“Wait, Mrs. Radcliffe, before you go. I wonder, did you notice anything suspicious with your kitchen fire?”

“Absolutely not, lieutenant. It was an accident, as I’m sure my husband has already told you. I’m sure it’s not the first time someone’s kitchen has burned down. Was there anything else?”

“No, that is all. But if you see anything suspicious, or hear of the blacks getting up to no good, please let your husband know so he can inform me of the matter.”

She glanced at William with a slight roll of her eyes, nodded, and took her leave. The lieutenant drained his glass and, mumbling that he had important things to attend to, also left. William waited until he saw the horse disappear and hurried back to the drawing room to open the governor’s letter. He slapped his leg in triumph as he read the contents.

“Good God, the man’s a saint,” he murmured. “Electra! Where are you?” He ran out of the room as she hurried toward him.

“What is it? What’s happened?”

“It’s the governor! He’s decided to grant you a conditional pardon. My God, this is wonderful news.”

Her jaw dropped. “What does it mean? Why would he do that?”

“It means you are officially no longer a convict.”

She gasped. “But how? I haven’t served enough of my sentence, have I? What does a conditional pardon mean?”

“The governor can give a pardon or a conditional pardon to anyone he chooses, if he feels their character and actions deserve it. A conditional pardon means you are treated as a free settler but must remain in the colony. And in the meantime we work on proving your innocence. Of course, he can rescind the pardon at any time if he sees the need, but I don’t think that will happen.”

Her head jerked up from the letter in surprise. “You believe I’m innocent?”

“Yes, of course I do. I should never have assumed anything without asking you but I know you are innocent and we will prove it.” The relief was clear on her face and he experienced another wave of guilt over his earlier doubts.

“But what have I done to deserve a pardon?”

William straightened the letter and read from it. “Firstly, he says he was ‘prompted to speak with Captain Hawley, who described the invaluable assistance afforded him by Mrs. Radcliffe on the voyage to New South Wales.’” William grimaced, and looking up, caught Electra biting her bottom lip to hide a grin. “He also notes, ‘Mrs. Radcliffe’s courageous dedication to the betterment of her husband’s enterprises, demonstrated when she braved the scorn of Sydney society to bring my attention to Mr. Radcliffe’s very valuable proposal.’”

She shook her head in disbelief but he gestured for her to listen as there was more. “Further, the governor had cause to speak with one Callum MacDonald two days previously, who told me of Mrs. Radcliffe’s brave actions undertaken to save her home by fighting a fire in the middle of the night.’ He says it is his mandate to populate this colony using whatever means he has at his disposal, with strong, resourceful and courageous people and he can think of no more likely candidate than you.” He looked up from the letter. “Usually these sorts of things are awarded for information leading to arrests of escaped convicts or bushrangers. Perhaps we had better look around for one of those just to seal the bargain,” he said, grinning.

“Oh William, it’s almost too much to take in.” There were tears in her eyes as she absorbed the information. Then she lifted her head and laughing excitedly, jumped up and threw her arms around him.

“We must tell Callum and Shelagh. After all, Callum seems to have been instrumental in all of this.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door.

As they made their way to the overseer’s house, William watched his wife. Her face glowed with excitement and disbelief at the news. Her spontaneous embrace, so naturally given, felt as intimate an exchange between husband and wife as the small moments of passion they had already shared.

• • •

Electra caught sight of Shelagh rounding the house with Dante at her heels. The dog, as familiar as his brother with Electra, trotted up to lick her hand and whined with excitement at the sight of William.

Clutching the governor’s letter, she waved it at Shelagh. “He’s given me a pardon. The governor. I’m not a convict any more. Where’s Callum? I must thank him; he spoke to the governor for me.”

Shelagh grabbed the letter from Electra’s outstretched hand and read. She whooped excitedly and hugged Electra. Thrusting the letter into William’s hands, she ran around the back of the house calling for Callum, who had just ridden in. On hearing the news, the burly Scot, grinning broadly, picked Electra up and planted a loud, bristly kiss on her cheek.

“Callum, I can never repay you for speaking to the governor about this. You have changed everything for me,” she said, breathless with excitement.

“Och, ye think it’s me has made this happen, lass? I dinna think so. It’s yon lad been workin’ on the governor since he marrit ye. Who do ye think told him to speak to the captain? The governor had all but made the decision and wanted to meet ye at the dinner ye attended. Your bravery with the fire just gave him a good reason to keep his detractors happy.”

As she spun around, she caught William glaring at Callum. He quickly rearranged his face but she admonished him anyway.

“You let me think you had nothing to do with it. Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?”

“I didn’t want you to get your hopes up and then have it come to nothing. Anyway, all that matters is that it’s done. Come on, I think this calls for a celebration.” Gesturing for the others to follow him, he turned around and headed back to the big house.

Electra, walking behind William and Callum, watched her husband. He had rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows and his arms, like his face, were brown from the sun. The firmness of his arms and the force of his shoulders made her want to reach out and touch him. As he turned to laugh at something Callum said, she caught sight of his profile and took a deep, pleasurable breath. The straight, almost aristocratic nose had a slight downturn and his blue eyes crinkled as he smiled. With a shock she realized she could fall in love with this man. Had she already? She hoped not. That would be a foolish move, making it too hard to leave. But she had to admit, as they trooped into the house companionably, that she was actually happy.

A state she had not experienced for far too long.

Chapter Nine

The chestnut mare picked its way carefully around the mottled trunks of the eucalypts, brushing against the soft papery bark of a tall melaleuca. Electra leaned forward over the horse’s neck, peering into the depths of the forest and ducked as a low-hanging branch brushed her head. She was sure this was the same place. There must be something she recognised.
The small circle of eucalypt trees near the clearing; that had to be it.
She jumped at the shrill whip-cracking call of a bird, but to her disappointment, there were no human sounds. Dismounting, she led the horse in the direction she had seen the native women disappear.

The going was more difficult than she expected. Brittle twigs snagged at her clothes, forcing her to stop continually and disentangle her skirts. Small, invisible creatures scuttled or slithered out of her path. And the sight of a thin, glistening tail disappearing under a mound of leaves made her squeal and hop frantically onto a rock. As she stepped over a fallen log, her foot caught on a branch. With a loud exclamation, Electra lurched forward and fell face down on to the ground. A sharp pain shot through her right hand and as she struggled to her feet, she noticed blood running down her arm. Tears of frustration stung her eyes as she berated herself for being so foolish as to think this would be easy. This was the rough Australian bush. And she was a girl from the city. She sniffed and, with pursed lips, ripped a strip off her petticoat. With her left hand and her teeth, she tied it around the injury and pushed on through the bush.

The vegetation gradually became sparser and she could smell smoke.
What was that sound?
There, she heard it again. It was the playful laughter of children. Hardly daring to breathe, she crept forward, peering through the trees. There, not fifty feet away, was a space of cleared ground with three bark huts in a semicircle and a fire pit in the centre. The children she had heard were in the clearing, playing a game of tag.

As she crouched in the bush, considering her next move, the mare suddenly threw back her head, stamped, and shook her mane impatiently. The result was pandemonium.

“Eeeeeey!” shrieked one of the children.

The others joined in the fear-filled screaming, pointing, and jabbering. Electra, frightened by the shrieking children, also screamed. Two women appeared and added their high-pitched voices to the children’s. The women ran to the huts, each grabbed a spear and ran at her, yelling in their strange language.

One of them gestured for her to approach. Electra’s heart thumped wildly as she wondered if these were to be her final moments. No one would ever find her here because, as usual, she had told no one of her plans. Hardly able to breathe, she stepped forward, holding up both her hands to show she had not come to hurt them. The screaming and spear jabbing continued until she dropped, trembling, to the ground.

The crushing fear slowed her mind; even the voices became dim. The spear was inches from her eyes. She could see the pieces of grass binding the stone chips of its lethal head to the shaft and a dark stain, like blood, on the tip. She closed her eyes and wished she had listened to William. What arrogance had made her think these people would want her friendship?

There was a loud exclamation and the screaming stopped. She gingerly raised her head to see the woman who had given her the wooden bowl step into the clearing. The newcomer slapped the spears out of the other women’s hands and grinned in welcome to Electra.

“
Yaraay
,” she said, slowly pointing at her chest. The children crept out from behind the huts, curiosity overcoming their fear.

Electra, still in shock, shakily pointed at her chest saying, “Electra.” The children giggled at her name, chanting, “
Ecca, Ecca
.”

Yaraay then pointed at the others, one at a time. “
Thulumaay, Waruu
.”

Electra swallowed and repeated the names. Yaraay reached down and helped Electra to her feet, clucking her tongue at the other two women when Electra’s legs buckled beneath her. Yaraay directed her to a tree stump and watched in silence as Electra took two deep breaths. Finally, she smiled and the three faces watching her split into wide grins in response. After warily testing her legs, she indicated she had something for them and returned to her horse. Seven pairs of eyes followed her every move as Electra cautiously lifted items out of the saddlebag. Then waiting for a nod from Yaraay, she handed peaches and apples to the children.

As they ate the juicy fruit, the children were calling out their names to Electra: “
Gumi, Bibil, Murrgu, Pinyaa
,” and rolling on the ground with laughter as she tried to pronounce them.

Electra pulled bright scarves from her bag for the women. Their eyes widened as she held them out, commenting to each other on the colours. With a mischievous look at Electra, Yaraay, mimicked by the others, put the scarf on her head and around her shoulders. Then she wiggled her backside and placed it across her lower regions, laughing as Electra’s mouth dropped open in shock.

Finally, Yaraay put down her scarf and with a frown at Electra’s hand, gestured for her to remove the rough bandage. Electra waved her hand, saying it was nothing, but the woman insisted. When her hand was unwrapped, they all shook their heads, tut-tutted and frowned at the wound.

Yaraay rattled off an order to the woman called Waruu, who ran into the bush behind the huts. Minutes later, she returned with a resiny gum in a leaf. At Electra’s questioning gestures, she pointed some yards away to a River Red Gum tree where she had scored the trunk to release the sticky substance. Yaraay took Electra’s hand and led her to the small creek behind the huts and made a brown tannin wash with the bark of the tree to clean the injury. She then applied the resin with her fingers and pointed at the wound, nodding in satisfaction, obviously pleased this white woman had trusted her.

Thulumaay dipped a small bark water pouch into the creek and handed Electra some water. She lifted it to her mouth and gulped as the water ran down the sides of her mouth. Her earlier fear had left her mouth dry. The native women sat cross-legged on the ground and Waruu reached for Electra’s hand to pull her down beside them.

The children chased each other around the women, raising small eddies of dust until a sharp retort sent two of them clambering up a tree, showering seedpods onto the other two. Hesitantly at first, but then more boldly, the women touched Electra’s hair, marvelling at its colour. They poked at her clothes and laughed incredulously at their restrictions.

After an hour of inquisitive hand gestures and a lot of laughter, Electra reluctantly stood to leave. Yaraay offered to lead her out of the bush and she gratefully accepted. The children scrambled to hold both her hands until she reached her horse. Waruu and Thulumaay called the children back as she gathered up the reins of her mare and walked into the bush with Yaraay by her side.

Yaraay, somehow aware of Electra’s curiosity, pointed to different seeds, pods, and roots, showing her which were edible and which were not. She reached up, plucked a small fruit resembling a bluish plum and passed it to Electra to taste. It was so bitter, Electra closed her eyes, her lips puckered; she shivered and spat it on the ground. Yaraay doubled over with laughter and with mischief in her eyes, called Electra’s attention to a large lizard running up a tree. She rubbed her belly and licked her lips. Electra coughed, mimed being sick, and shuddered with revulsion. Minutes later, Yaraay stopped and squatted on her haunches. She pointed to a set of barely discernible tracks and mimicked an animal Electra could not identify. With Yaraay’s help, she finally picked up its movements and the direction in which it was headed. She felt a rush of elation at acquiring her first bush skill but was doubtful she would ever require tracking skills.