A Second Chance by Shayne Parkinson Read Free Book Online Page B

from just outside
the door. Amy was sure it was a baby crying.
    She tried to sit up, but she seemed tethered
to the bed by a wide band of cloth that went across her breasts.
The only sound she could make was a muffled sob. The sobs grew
stronger until they seemed to rack her body, and then abruptly she
was awake and retching, and scrambling for the bucket.
    When she had recovered enough to look around
the cabin, she saw that the darkness had lessened. Whatever sleep
she had snatched had done nothing to refresh her, but she had no
wish to drift back into that dream of an empty cradle.
    She waited until the cabin grew light enough
for her to see the opposite wall, then she rose and dressed
herself, moving as quietly as she could. She retrieved her hat from
under the bed, slipped on her cloak and went out onto the deck.
    The sun was up, but in the west the sky was
still pale. They were passing close to a large island. Amy tried
without success to recall its name. They must be close to Auckland
now, but all she felt was weariness and an aching sense of
loss.
    She found a seat where she could be
unobserved, and pulled her cloak more closely around herself as she
felt the pinch of a chilly breeze. Islands slid past, teasing her
with tugs at her memory. She should know their names. Her father
had named them for her. But that was on her journey home. On the
voyage to Auckland she had had no names for the islands glimpsed
through the porthole of the cabin where she had been shut away.
    Her stomach was aching, but there was
nothing left to bring up, just a grinding emptiness. She could see
the wharves of Auckland now, jutting into the harbour. A few more
minutes and some of the larger buildings were visible. There would
be cabs waiting at the wharves, eager to pick up their share of the
disembarking passengers. Susannah had hailed a cab, and it had
taken Amy to the boarding house. Amy was not sure that she knew how
to hail a cab. How would she get to the boarding house this
time?
    No, that wasn’t right. She lifted the veil
of her hat to let the cold wind sting her face, trying to clear her
head. She would not need to hail a cab for herself. She was not
going back to that lonely room in the boarding house.
    How could it be so sharp in her memory,
after so long? She could see the empty cradle, and the nurse
carrying it from the room. She could see the mark the cradle had
left on the floor. She let the veil drop again, to hide the redness
of her eyes from any prying gaze.
    The jolt as the boat bumped against the
wharf took her by surprise; she had been too lost in her thoughts
to be aware of the final approach. The blurring of her eyes and the
black net of her veil made the shapes around her seem
insubstantial, and she was startled when some of them began to
move: her fellow passengers, eager to be off the boat.
    She should be gathering her things and
getting ready to disembark. She rose and took a few steps towards
the ladies’ cabin, but there was such a crush now that she was
unsure whether she would be able to force her way against the tide
of people. A man shouldered past, muttered an apology and hurried
on his way. Amy found herself standing by the handrail. She backed
against it, trying to retreat further from the crowd, until she
felt the metal of the rail pressing into her spine.
    Before her, people pushed and shoved against
each other. Behind her she sensed the city, its buildings brooding
over her. The crush began to subside, and she managed to turn
around without being pushed more than once or twice. The veil still
made it difficult to make out the details of what she saw. A tall,
straight figure stood at the head of the steps leading from the
wharf to the street, its concentration obviously directed at the
boat. A tall woman in a dark blue dress.
    Amy pushed back her veil, and as if that one
small gesture had caught the observer’s attention, the woman’s eyes
were suddenly on her. Even from her distance, Amy could see