Corroboree by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page A

Men like my father don’t think anything of the blackfellows; they don’t even believe that they’re human. Father’s always striking Yanluga with his riding-crop. Once he made him pick up a coin that he had dropped, and then stepped on his fingers, just to hear him howl. He says they’re like babies, the blackfellows, it’s good for them to howl.’
    Eyre was silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘Yanluga told me you’d quite care to marry me, if you could.’
    Charlotte slowly smiled.
    â€˜Is it true?’ Eyre asked her.
    She nodded. ‘But he wasn’t supposed to tell you. I shall whip him myself when I get back to the house.’
    Eyre said, ‘I want to marry you, too. And if that sounds like a proposal, well, I suppose it is. I very much like the sound of “Mrs Charlotte Walker.” ’
    Charlotte said, ‘Father won’t allow it, you know. He won’t even let you come near the house.’
    â€˜Can’t your mother intervene?’
    â€˜She’s tried. Poor dear mother. She was trying all evening to persuade father what a wonderful upright person you were; but he wasn’t listening. He doesn’t
want
to listen. He never thinks of my happiness, that’s why. All he can think about is being the father-in-law to some English baron; or some famous explorer; or something that will give him glory.’
    Eyre looked down at her, and stroked her cheek, and then her neck. ‘What can we do, then?’ he whispered.
    â€˜We could wait until I’m twenty-one; although he can make it difficult for me even then, because of my inheritance. Or you could go off and do some magnificent deed, and be knighted for it.’
    â€˜What magnificent deed could a clerk do?’ asked Eyre. ‘Fill in three thousand bills of lading in a week? Write up a record number of ledgers? And even if I
could
think of something magnificent to do, how are we to manage in the meantime, with a love that can’t even be admitted in daylight?’
    Charlotte reached up and held the hand that was stroking her cheek. She kissed his fingers, and then she said, ‘We can manage. We must manage. But you mustn’t be shocked.’
    â€˜Shocked?’ he asked her.
    She put her fingertip up to her pursed lips. ‘Sssh,’ she said; and then she reached down and unlaced the ribbon that held the bodice of her pale blue dress.
    Eyre said, ‘Charlotte?’ but she shushed him again, and slowly drew out the criss-cross ribbon until her bodice was open to the waist. Then, eyes dreamily half-closed, she took his hand and slid it underneath the white silk lining until it was cupping her warm bare breast.
    She whispered, ‘You mustn’t be shocked, or then I will shock myself. I love you, Eyre; I want you to touch me. I want you to love me just as much in return. Sometimes I tease you but I want you. I have dreams about you, dreams about kissing you; dreams that make me wake up feeling hot, and confused.’
    Slowly, fascinated, he caressed her nipple between finger and thumb until he could feel it crinkle tight. Charlotte let her head drop back on to the blanket, her eyes completely closed now, her breath coming quick and harsh from between her parted lips.
    â€˜We must
make-believe
that we are married, if my father won’t allow us,’ she told him, in the same urgent, sleepy voice. ‘If he discovers us, he will probably kill you, and he will most certainly whip me. But we don’t mind the danger, do we, my darling lover? The risk is what makes us both so excited!’
    Eyre was so aroused now that his britches could hardly contain him. He knelt over Charlotte, and drew the bodice of her dress wide apart, so that both her breasts were exposed to the moonlight. They were high young breasts, very white, well-rounded, and the nipples were as wide and pink as rose-petals stuck to a rainy window.
    A night-parrot shrieked