Ironbark (71 page)

When Daniel reached out to comfort her she drew back.

‘Will you at least let me see the babe this time?' he asked.

Keziah rose, steeling herself for what was to come. She led him to a room where each bed had a cot beside it. The room was empty except for a woman who suckled a small boy.

Keziah felt anxious that her own babe was small for seven months. It had been a fight for her to sustain his vitality but his tiny cries signalled that he could smell his mother's milk. She pushed the bundle into Daniel's arms.

The babe gripped his finger so tightly, Daniel smiled. He gently stroked the fuzz of red hair.

‘You're the image of Jake, little chap. I'll need to dye your hair to pass you off as mine.'

When Keziah did not react, he tried again. ‘Jake asked have you chosen his name yet? I know you gave him some secret Romani name the day of his birth, but now he needs a name the world will call him.'

‘Yosef – Joseph Bloom's Hebrew name. Do you think Joseph would mind?'

‘He'll be honoured,' Daniel said. ‘I'll get Jake to tell him.'

Again she avoided Jake's name as though he was dead to her. But finally forced herself to say the words she had been rehearsing for days.

‘I'll feed Yosef. Then I want you to take him home with you. Hire a wet nurse. Pearl is a natural little mother, she'll help care for him.'

Daniel looked startled. ‘But the deputy told me prisoners are
allowed to keep a child with them until it turns four.'

‘I'm not other prisoners! Yosef must never see how low his mother has sunk.'

Daniel looked as if he didn't know what to do. ‘You can't mean it?'

In answer she gave the babe her breast. Daniel turned away.
He thinks I need privacy. What the hell does it matter?
The sound of Yosef thirstily sucking at her breast, his little hand patting her face for the very last time, should have moved her to tears. But it left her dry-eyed. All she could feel was a dull pain that filled the hollow shell of her body.
He's the only innocent thing in this ugly, brutal place. And I can't wait to get rid of him.

She tied towelling around Yosef's loins for the long journey ahead. She wrapped him in her prison blanket and tucked him into the hessian bag strapped to Daniel's back.

Daniel looked anxious. ‘Won't the theft of a prison blanket earn you hard labour?'

Her voice was devoid of emotion. ‘What does that matter now?' She turned her back on Yosef. ‘When he's hungry on the journey, knock on the door of any poor Irish farmer. His wife's bound to have an infant in the cradle. I guarantee she'll put Yosef on the breast. You can count on poor women. They never let a babe go hungry.'

Daniel hovered in the doorway. ‘Keziah, how can you bear to do this?'

The look she gave him forced him to lower his eyes. ‘Get him out of my sight, Daniel!'

Daniel walked a little distance then hesitated as if he expected her to change her mind.

Keziah stood watching Yosef's tiny red head bobbing in the pouch on Daniel's back. She felt turned to stone, unable to return Daniel's wave. Her breasts were empty of milk. Her body was now her own. She paused by the deputy superintendent's open door.

‘It is done,' she said. And walked away.

It was Saturday morning and Jake was hammering shingles on his roof – not his most urgent job because it hadn't rained properly since New Year. He was surprised when a cartload of bonneted matrons halted in the home paddock. Janet Macgregor was leading them forward, bearing a silver tea service on a tray. She asked to speak to Daniel Browne.

Jake explained that his partner was visiting his wife at the Parramatta Female Factory, but could he help them?

Janet cleared her throat. ‘Aye, you'll do. We are the members of the new Wesleyan Women for Temperance group. We took up a collection to present this Award for Bravery to Mrs Keziah Browne. It's an insult to Australian womanhood to gaol this heroine for defending herself against a drunken monster!'

Jake kept a straight face. It was clear the other women were less outraged by Iago's sodomy than his having departed this world in the grip of the Demon Drink. Janet had proven herself to be Keziah's ally.
Funny how being the Doc's woman has mellowed her.

He thanked the temperance ladies. ‘I reckon she'd be honoured if you ladies christened her tea service.'

The women nodded in unison. ‘We shall pray for Mrs Browne's speedy release.'

Jake never missed an opportunity. ‘And would you ladies sign my petition to the governor to have Mrs Browne assigned to her husband's care?'

He had a pencil at the ready to record their names. Most could only make their mark.

Janet pointed out that none of the other temperance women had ever seen Keziah.

‘I can soon fix that!' He raced inside the house, hastily bypassed Keziah's naked portrait over his bed and brought out Daniel's earlier portrait of her with little Gabriel.

The ladies exclaimed over it in admiration and one asked Jake confidentially if Mrs Browne shared their views about total abstinence.

‘Alcohol never touches her lips!' he said fervently and tried to avoid the laughter in Janet Macgregor's eyes.

The temperance wagon had barely disappeared over the rise when Jake recognised the rider approaching over the crest of the hill. He was too astonished to speak when he saw the hessian sack on his back was wriggling.

Daniel thrust it into Jake's arms. ‘Keziah wants you to teach your son to be a man. Haven't slept since Parramatta, I'm buggered.' Daniel headed for the forge house. ‘Keziah sends her love.'

Jake looked down at the son he had never seen. The babe's little fringe of red hair looked like a monk's tonsure. Unblinking dark blue eyes stared back at him. The boy looked contented enough even though milk dribbled from his mouth.

Jake spoke his first ever words to his son. ‘No bloody wonder you're chucking, mate. Galloping on horseback can do that to a bloke.'

He called after Daniel's retreating back. ‘Hey! Did
our wife
give him a name yet?'

‘Yeah. Yosef Jakob Andersen Browne. Sorry he has to cop the Browne bit.'

‘He could do a lot worse,' said Jake.

• • • 

In Goulburn the following week, Jake was ushered into Mrs Hamberton's sitting room. He felt awkward in such an elegant setting but was determined to press his case.

Daniel had told him the magistrate's wife was a beautiful woman ‘of a certain age', and Jake saw this was no exaggeration. She appeared to be much younger than her husband. Finely boned and fashionably
gowned, her blonde hair was coiled on top of her head like a princess. For some odd reason Jake found her dark blue eyes disturbing. When she gracefully held out her hand he didn't know whether he was supposed to shake it or kiss it. So he touched it and backed away.

‘Jake Andersen, Ma'am. Had no luck tracking down the magistrate. Reckon I was a bit desperate coming here to present my petition to the governor.'

‘You are the young man who was recently granted a full pardon, due to the false testimony of a witness the law should
never
have allowed to condemn you.'

‘That's a polite way of putting it, Ma'am!'

‘And you have a friend, Mrs Keziah Browne?'

‘She's the wife of my partner, Daniel Browne. The jury found her guilty of murder, but the truth is she shot the Devil Himself, Iago, for what he did to my Romani mate, Gem Smith. Saved me the trouble of killing the bastard.'

Aghast at his careless choice of words, Jake added quickly, ‘Forgive me, Ma'am. I can't find no words low enough for him.'

Mrs Hamberton nodded in agreement. ‘I attended your friend's trial. The English language is barely adequate to describe that man. He was the embodiment of evil.'

She gently prompted him. ‘How is your friend adjusting to conditions in Parramatta?'

‘Keziah's a model prisoner, Ma'am. She's earned special privileges to see Daniel, her husband. Of course I ain't seen her myself,' he added quickly.

‘And how are you managing with the children?'

‘Real well, thanks. Yosef's taken to cow's milk like a duck to water. The other two help us around the farm. They're real bright with their school lessons.'

‘That handsome little boy I saw with his mother?' She added tactfully, ‘During your own day in court. I understand from Mr Browne
that his wife adopted him?'

Jake was suddenly absorbed in studying the wallpaper.
This is tricky. Mrs Hamberton was in court when Pearl identified me as her father and Gabe had to be muzzled to stop him. What's she playing at?

‘Gabriel Stanley's near six and a half and as game as they come. He plays at soldiers, loves fighting the Battle of Waterloo. He's got a real way with horses and knows what they're thinking. What's more he's musical. There's nothing that lad couldn't play if he put his mind to it.'

There was an odd note in Mrs Hamberton's voice. ‘Ah yes, musical gifts are often inherited from a grandparent.' She pulled the bell rope. ‘I shall order tea. Please tell me about your petition.'

Jake took this cue. The law was no help to him so he poured out his heart. Who knew what influence Mrs Hamberton had? He never under-estimated good women. The law gave the fair sex no advantages so they had to use devious methods to run the world.

Mrs Hamberton's eyes never left his face as Jake told her how he had collected 649 signatures from every estate, farm, store and public house in the locality, and how he had even swum across a flooded creek to collect names from a remote farmhouse.

‘Men and women are pretty much all on her side, Ma'am. All I'm asking is for her to be assigned to her husband. She's a great mother – the children need her.'

‘Your petition is impressive. I would be most pleased to add my own signature.'

Jake grinned as he watched her sign it, imagining Magistrate Hamberton's surprise when he read his own wife's name on the petition – Stella Hamberton.

‘Don't allow your friend to lose heart. A woman needs courage to rebuild her life. That first day I saw Keziah Stanley in court at your trial I recognised a woman of valour.'

‘She's got more guts than most men. Saved my life and I'd gladly trade mine to free her.'

Mrs Hamberton gracefully nodded her head. ‘Your friend is fortunate to have you as her champion. I am
certain
my husband will make adequate time for you to state your case before his next visit to his friend Governor Gipps. And when you pass this way feel free to bring Gabriel. My husband has a miniature model of the Battle of Waterloo that might interest the boy.'

Jake took his leave feeling pleased but bemused.
I'm buggered if I know why, but I reckon she's fighting for our cause.
Then it struck him, her slip of the tongue.
Stanley. The first time she had seen Kez was at my trial when the world knew her as Saranna Browne. The way she said it sounded like she knew Kez in another life.

As Jake turned Horatio towards home, he decided that strange feeling he had on meeting Stella Hamberton was no accident. It was like seeing Keziah in her eyes.

Westerly winds carried the unmistakable threat of distant bushfires. It was the smell of a danger Jake accepted had always been wedded to this land and always would be.

He was in the open stables proudly overseeing Gabriel as he brushed Alinta's coat. The club-footed filly was the boy's special love. The task of grooming her was the reward Jake had assigned to Gabriel last Christmas when he brought Alinta home from Ogden Park. Gabriel knew Alinta's story, but Jake was aware the boy never tired of hearing it over and over again.

‘Well mate, I'd treated one of Mr Ogden's racehorses. He wanted to pay me in kind with one of his other thoroughbred fillies. He claimed a horse deformed as bad as Alinta would never race and was no use to him or me. But just look at her, Gabe! She won my heart right off.'

Gabriel's eyes shone as he prompted Jake to continue. ‘And then you and Uncle Bran made her a false hoof, right?'

‘Yeah, and her special training shoes. A lot of trial and error but we finally got it right. And just look at her go. Did you watch her training yesterday?'

‘Yeah. Dick Gideon rode her like the wind. He says she's going to win lots of races, just like the silver cup Sarishan won for us.'

‘Watch Dick ride every chance you get. He's a great horseman. You're going to be flash yourself.' Jake tapped his own forehead with one finger. ‘I know these things.'

Gabriel basked in the pleasure of this vote of confidence and redoubled his energy grooming Alinta. ‘You did it, Papa! She'll be a champ. That'll show Mr Ogden!'

‘Don't worry, he's already impressed.' Jake tried to be fair. ‘Remember, Gabe, an Exclusive who loves horses can't be all bad. Some other thoroughbred owners would have given up on her and sent her to the knackery. Alinta will always need special care.'

‘Just wait till Mama sees her!' They exchanged their special knowing grin, always confident that the day of her return might lie just over the horizon.

Jake looked across at the house where Pearl was bathing little Yosie in a tin tub on the veranda. He felt a wave of guilt that his ten-year-old daughter had taken on the role of nursemaid. He made sure she and Gabriel continued to ride Pony to school each day, but it made him uncomfortable to think that history was repeating itself. His father had pulled him out of school because he needed him to do a man's work on the farm. Was he exploiting child labour?

Jake was distracted by the sight of Daniel on horseback belting across the paddock towards them. ‘Jesus wept. He looks like the traps are after him.'