Sentence of Marriage by Shayne Parkinson Read Free Book Online Page A

I don’t think that,’ said Jack. ‘Well, I was born in Dumfries, even if I don’t remember living there, so I’m as Scottish as he is.’
    They passed the boundary fence. ‘This is it,’ Jack announced proudly. ‘Your new home, my dear.’
    Susannah looked more animated for a moment, but as they passed over a particularly rough spot in the road she clutched at her stomach. Jack seemed oblivious to her discomfort.
    ‘You can see we’ve done a lot of work on the place over the years. This paddock by the road, it was one of the first we cleared—it’s a good flat one. Arthur and I broke the two farms in together. His place is next door, I’ll take you over to meet him and Edie in a day or two.’
    ‘I can’t call on her until she’s visited me first,’ said Susannah. Amy supposed this must be some mysterious rule of polite society. She could see no reason for it herself; Susannah, she thought, would find country ways rather rough and ready.
    Amy wondered how the farm must appear to a city-bred woman like Susannah. To Amy it was all so familiar that she hardly thought about it. She knew that her father looked at each paddock and remembered all the labour that had created it: clearing the undergrowth, felling the larger trees when they could use the timber, burning much of the bush where it stood, pulling out stumps when they had rotted enough, slowly getting drains dug so the paddocks wouldn’t turn into mire when stock were grazed.
    Amy knew that Jack saw the wilderness it had been, the good farm he had made it, and the even better farm he and his sons would make. Perhaps Susannah would see only a rough road leading through muddy paddocks with the dark green of the bush-clad hills as a backdrop. As they turned off the valley road on to Jack’s farm the lowering sky began a drizzle that threatened to turn into rain, and even Amy could see that the farm looked a cheerless place.
    ‘See that building there?’ Jack pointed to a two-roomed slab hut with a shingle roof. ‘Over by that patch of white pines. We use it for keeping feed in now—well, that was the first house we had on this place.’ His eyes took on a distant look. ‘Two years we had in that hut, Annie and me and the two boys. The first girl was born in it—died there, too. Amy was born there—she was meant to arrive in the new house, but you came a couple of weeks before you should have, girl.’ He ruffled Amy’s curls. ‘It took Arthur and me a bit longer than we thought it would to get the real houses finished, anyway, so Amy was a month old before we moved in. Can’t have been much fun for Annie living in that draughty hut and cooking over an open fire—the roof leaked like a sieve whenever it rained, too—but I don’t remember her ever complaining about it. She only had three years in the new house. She deserved better.’ He fell silent.
    For a few moments nothing was said, then Susannah spoke. ‘I’m sure she was a paragon of every virtue. I hope I won’t disappoint you too much.’ Amy could not tell from her tone whether she was angry or just miserable.
    ‘Eh?’ Jack said, jolted from his memories. ‘Oh, things are different here now, Susie—you’ll never have to live rough.’
    Susannah was very quiet for the last part of the drive. When they got to the house and Amy climbed down from the buggy, she saw that Susannah’s face was covered in moisture from the drizzle. But Amy did not think it was rain that had made the small trails down Susannah’s cheeks from each eye.
    ‘Ohh,’ Susannah said as Jack helped her down. ‘It is a terrible long way, isn’t it. Oh, I must sit down—I’d love a cup of tea.’
    ‘I’ll make one,’ Amy said quickly. She ran on ahead while John went to unharness the horses and Jack took Susannah’s arm.
    Amy rushed into the kitchen and found Harry sitting at the table. ‘Pa’s brought a new wife home,’ she panted out to him as she filled the kettle and set it to