Great Historical Novels by Fay Weldon Read Free Book Online Page B

sit at the table in the kitchen. It seems cruel, I know, to make you wait just a little longer, but I think it wise that we are composed and have a tonic at hand.’
    Juliette hurried away to put the kettle on the range, unable to stand still a moment longer. It had been Mrs Blake’s idea, that they – she – write to the Quakers in Sydney, to ask after the situation of her mother, Eliza Green. If Eliza had survived, she would by now be a free woman for five years since serving her seven year sentence.
    When they were both seated in Beth’s gleaming kitchen, and Beth had left to sweep out the larder, Juliette laid the letter on the table. They both looked at it nervously. It lay innocently on the smooth pine, but its contents might, at any moment, be deeply affecting. Mrs Blake had been so kind, and was so concerned, that Juliette felt almost as afraid for her disappointmentas for her own. She put her hands up to her cheeks as the seal was broken and a plain, yellowish page removed.
Friends Meeting House,
Sydney Town
 
4 July 1840
My dear Mrs Blake,
Pertaining to thy letter, written on behalf of thy domestic servant Juliette Green, we have, these past months, made certain advancements into discovering the whereabouts of her mother Eliza Green.
Eliza Green was assigned to private service after passing four years at the House of Correction for Females in Parramatta. Whilst there she worked in the laundry, cleaning linen for the hospital and orphan school. As far as we can ascertain, Eliza Green remains unmarried, is healthful, and is now engaged by a squatter with a sheep station at Rose Hill, some miles west from Sydney.
Upon hearing that her beloved daughter, Juliette, was enquiring after her, the lady was overcome by emotion and told our Quaker sister (who visited the station) that she was hopeful to return to mother England but could not find the means for her passage. This is a sad truth which strikes many of those who have served their sentence here and in Van Diemen’s Land, and is more common to the women, for the men can often work the passage home.
She bade us send to her daughter the most heartfelt love and blessings, and her ardent wish that they shall see each other again in this life. She promises that never a day passes that she does not think of her and offer a prayer. She was most comforted to hear that her daughter is no longer in theworkhouse but has found a position in a respectable household.
The Friends here are wholly at thy service to convey any further correspondence to those who have need of comfort.
Thy interested Friend,
 
Mary Warburton
    Juliette laughed and then cried and then she seemed to be doing both at once and couldn’t stop. She clasped both hands over her mouth, worried that Mrs Blake would think her hysterical. Mrs Blake only handed her a pristine white cambric square and, serenely, poured tea into each of their cups.
    ‘There, there. It is perfectly reasonable to feel overwhelmed, after all. Your poor mother. It is wonderful news, and a relief, yet at the same frustrating and terribly sad. You must not feel that you are in any way responsible for her situation, I hope that you do not? Juliette?’
    But Juliette knew that she was responsible. Eliza had only been thieving so that her daughter would not go hungry. She was less certain, though, if she was also accountable for her father’s death. It was the memory of that evil day that finally overcame her, and, in spite of wanting to appear sensible, she put her head in her hands and wailed.

Merino
    The ale house was as rowdy as ever and the Lafferty boys had the corner table. Their fiddle and tin whistle were out already. Every face was familiar. Many were assigned, like Michael; beholden to wait out the last years or months of their sentence in private service. They would be sheering merino, or working in a quarry or boot factory or, like he, as a carpenter on one of the many new public buildings on Macquarie Street. There were