Sentence of Marriage by Shayne Parkinson Read Free Book Online

see the island today, it makes a fine sight in clear weather.’ He pointed in the general direction of White Island.
    ‘There’s some good farms over there,’ Jack went on, pointing in the direction of the sand dunes. ‘Course you can’t really see them from here. This part’s called Orere Beach, it turns into Waituhi Beach after the next creek. That’s Carr’s place we’re passing, I got some of my first cows from him. Now, you’ll see the difference when we go past this next one—well, you would if it wasn’t for those dunes. That’s where the Feenan lot live. Half the fences have fallen down, the pasture’s more thistles than grass, and they don’t have the sense to keep their cows away from the tutu.’
    ‘Tutu?’ Susannah echoed weakly.
    ‘Poisonous plant. Cows gorge themselves on it if they get the chance, specially when the pasture’s rough as blazes like that lot, then they go into convulsions—they usually die. The Feenans muddle along somehow, but Lord only knows how they feed that tribe of kids, they can’t make much out of that place. Now, here’s a decent farm again, Forster’s place is next, young Bob Forster farms that now the old man’s gone.’
    He gave a running commentary as they passed each property, and Amy wondered how much it meant to this strange woman. Jack’s words to her were still echoing in her head: ‘Your new mother.’ Words that made no sense.
    After another twenty minutes they jolted through a shallow stream where it emptied into the sea, and Susannah interrupted Jack for a moment to say, ‘Surely we’re nearly there now?’
    ‘About half-way,’ said Jack.
    ‘Half-way?’
    ‘Barely.’
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me it was so far from town?’ Her voice betrayed the effort it cost to appear calm.
    ‘I thought you knew… I didn’t think it mattered, anyway. Look, you can see the bluff from here.’ He pointed to the hill that marked the end of the Waituhi Valley.
    When they turned into the valley road Jack said, ‘We’re on the last leg now. But the road gets a bit rough from here.’
    ‘Rougher than what we’ve been on?’ Susannah asked in horror.
    ‘A bit rougher, yes. Now this first farm belongs to the Kelly boys, Ben and Frank. Not a bad place. Some of the fences are a bit scruffy, though, and they haven’t made much of a job of taking the stumps out of this paddock, see?’
    He pointed to the paddock beside the road, and Susannah looked dutifully, though without any interest that Amy could detect. Amy noticed Frank two paddocks away leading his cows in for milking, but she decided not to embarrass him by waving.
    The school’s horse paddock was empty when they passed it; the children had all gone home for the day. Amy turned away from the sight of the schoolroom and all it meant to her.
    ‘This is Charlie Stewart’s place squashed in between my farm and the Kellys’. It’s only a hundred acres, two of the old private’s allotments joined together.’
    ‘Privates?’
    ‘Yes, after the wars—the soldiers all got a parcel of land, but most of them weren’t interested in working it. That’s how I got my place, bought it from a captain or major or whatever he was. Got it in July 1866, and we moved out here in September that year.
    ‘Charlie bought his place about seven or eight years ago, there was a couple on it for a few years before that, but they chucked it in and moved up to Tauranga. He lives there by himself—he’s a bit of a strange one. He’s got some funny notions about the Queen and something called Jacobee—Amy, what’s that thing Charlie bailed up the new minister over when he heard Reverend Hill came from Glasgow?’
    ‘The Jacobite Succession, Pa,’ Amy answered. ‘Mr Stewart thinks…’ she struggled to recall a history lesson. ‘He thinks someone called James the Third should have been King after James the Second, instead of Mary and William. It’s to do with him being Scottish, I think.’
    ‘I’m Scottish, and