Lily’s War (19 page)

Lily focused on Joy’s chubby face. ‘He says he’s going to Queensland to talk to some brother friend. He said you could tell me where to find him.’

Enlightenment brightened Joy’s pale blue eyes. ‘He’ll be up Cairns way, near Atherton, on the edge of the Northern Great Dividing Range. Are you going to write and let him know you’re here?’

Lily tapped the letter against her teeth and came to a decision. ‘No. I don’t trust the post. This has taken three months to reach me. I’ll go there.’

Joy stared at her and then said with almost reluctant admiration, or so it seemed to Lily, ‘I’ll say this for you, you’re not afraid to do what you think. Have you got enough money? Cairns is at least three times as far as Bourke – and it could be dangerous your travelling all the way up there on your own. The men don’t get to see so many women and it’s untamed country in some places, and can be hotter and clammier than down here.’

Lily forced a laugh. ‘Are you trying to put me off?’

Joy shook her head. ‘I was just thinking too that Matt wrote that three months ago and he phoned us only a few weeks ago. He might have changed his mind. It could be better to wait and see if he turns up here in the next few days.’

‘You’ve said that before,’ said Lily impatiently.

Joy chose to ignore that comment. ‘Men are so thoughtless, and too often men like Matt are elsewhere in the realms of the spirit. He’s not used to considering anyone else but himself normally.’

‘I wouldn’t agree with that,’ disputed Lily. ‘Matt has his feet firmly on the ground. He cares about other people. You said yourself he’d speak to anyone.’

Joy flushed. ‘I wasn’t meaning that exactly. I meant his having a wife. He’d need to give thought to your needs and he must find that difficult after being on his own for years.’

Lily thought about that but found herself defending Matt. ‘He was prepared to stay in Liverpool with me,’ she said strongly. ‘Although I wouldn’t argue with some of what you say.’ She folded the letter between her fingers. ‘Anyway, can you tell me where to find this brother friend of his?’

Joy nodded. ‘I’ll go and find the address and a map. Give you an idea of the place names up in Queensland.’

While she was gone Lily opened the other letter. It seemed the family was well. Ronnie was helping Ben out with the milking. May was serving in the shop after school, and Daisy was just about managing to face people, although she sometimes came over all queer. Her hair was still too short to perm and she hated herself. They were all missing her and hoped she and Matt were happy. Love and kisses from them all. Lily experienced that terrible homesickness again but told herself she would be cured of it when she found Matt.

As soon as Joy handed her the map, Lily spread it on the floor and knelt on the rug. Joy stabbed at the map with a finger. ‘It’s round about there! Herberton is a mining town. There’s an Anglican school and the church and the building where the brothers live. Brother Antony is Matt’s particular mate. You’ll have to get to Cairns first and then take a smaller train. It’s quite a journey. There’s lots of ravines and the train goes over spider-webby bridges as it climbs to the plateau. I’d come with you only …’

‘You look after that baby,’ said Lily firmly, staring at the map. A large reef was shown as a jagged line running beside most of the east coast of Queensland. She could imagine the sea, a deep turquoise blue, and could almost feel the hot sun on her back. She prayed fervently Matt was up there. Maybe they could have a second honeymoon by the Coral Sea? She thought how romantic that sounded.

She rose, her face alight with determination. ‘I’m definitely going! I feel right about this which must mean God wants me there.’ She thought wryly she was getting into Matt’s habit of thinking about God’s part in things now. Was he turning her holy?

‘I wouldn’t want to do it,’ said Joy, twitching her nose. ‘But if you’re so sure then perhaps you should go.’ She slapped at a fly. ‘Do watch out for anything that flies or crawls, mosquitoes, crocodiles – and don’t forget Corron oil for sunburn, and your sunhat.’

Lily smiled. ‘I won’t. Neither will I forget a good strong pair of shoes.’

‘That’s if Matt doesn’t come home tomorrow.’

‘I’ll give him to the weekend,’ said Lily.

‘We’ll go shopping tomorrow then,’ said Joy happily. ‘I’ll take you to DJs. You should be able to get a decent pair of jungle boots there.’ Lily thought she had to be joking!

It was the next day when they were returning from the David Jones departmental store that Lily saw Rob Fraser standing opposite the house. She did not say anything to Joy but made the excuse she had forgotten something and told her to go on ahead.

As soon as Joy was inside Lily went over to him. ‘Bit far from home, aren’t you, Mr Fraser?’ she murmured, wondering when he had last shaved.

‘I got to thinking,’ he drawled.

‘Congratulations! You’ve realised how wrong you are about Matt at last.’

‘Nope. I realised I should have stuck with you. If you think that much of your husband, you’ll find him for me.’

A disbelieving laugh escaped her. ‘You mean you’re going to tail me?’

He grinned. ‘You’ve got it! You’re smart for a Pom.’

Her faced stiffened. ‘And you’re stupid. I’ll have the police on you if you start harassing me.’

His eyes hardened. ‘You do that and I’ll tell them and a certain Sydney journalist I know just why I’m here. Married preacher runs off with sixteen-year-old should make a bonzer headlines.’

Fury surged inside her. ‘You snake!’ she said explosively.

His expression hardened. ‘He’s with her. You just don’t want to see it.’

Lily controlled her anger and smiled sweetly. ‘Matt is in North Queensland. He’s up there visiting a friend. I received a letter from him yesterday. Go home, Mr Fraser, and look after your sheep. You won’t find your sister in my husband’s company.’ His jaw dropped and she found great satisfaction in knowing she had taken the wind out of his sails. ‘G’day, Mr Fraser,’ she said in a mocking voice, and walked across the street, convinced it was the last she would see of him.

A couple of days later he was back. Lily could scarcely believe her eyes. What the hell was he playing at? Why couldn’t he go away? She tried to ignore him but could not. So when Joy was resting in the backyard she went out to him. ‘Why are you here?’

‘Abby’s not back and I got to thinking …’

‘Again?’

‘Sure, why not? It keeps the brain ticking over,’ he drawled. ‘If he’s in Queensland, why haven’t you joined him? What are you doing here in Sydney? If you love him so much, you’d be up there with him.’

‘I plan to join him as soon as I can arrange it.’

‘I don’t believe he’s in Queensland.’ His eyes were a hard blue.

‘Tough luck!’ she said softly, controlling her anger and leaving him.

For the rest of the day Lily could not get Rob Fraser’s words out of her mind. Perhaps she shouldn’t wait for the weekend but leave for Queensland right away? She would sleep on it.

That night she dreamed of Matt fighting with a crocodile in a mangrove swamp. She woke in a sweat and prayed, please God, let him come tomorrow! But Matt did not come.

The next day Rob Fraser returned, knocking on the front door to Lily’s annoyance. The last thing she wanted was him accosting Joy and telling her his lies about Matt. ‘Will you go away?’ She made to close the door but he wedged it open with his foot and took something out of his shirt pocket and waved it under her nose.

‘I’ve got two tickets here that’ll take us to Cairns tomorrow morning, Mrs Gibson. How about it?’

‘Are you crazy?’ She almost laughed in his face.

‘More than crazy, I reckon, but there you are. I want to find my sister. You say you love that husband of yours. What say we go looking for them together? I want to see your face when I’m proved right.’

Lily’s hands curled into fists. She would have enjoyed punching him on the nose. ‘I’ll buy my own ticket, thank you.’

‘I did think you’d pay me for this one.’ His weathered face was unsmiling.

But he had made Lily’s mind up for her. ‘I’ll get you some money.’

‘Good. We could travel up on the same train but we don’t have to stay in each other’s company.’

‘That suits me fine. I can’t wait to see you proved wrong, Mr Fraser.’ She gave herself no chance for second thoughts but paid for the ticket and hoped she could avoid seeing him the next day.

Joy helped her pack but after looking in her wardrobe, said, ‘You’d best buy a waterproof. Matt said when it rains, it really can rain up there.’

So Lily bought a mackintosh, as well as a book by Australian author Arthur Hoey Davis who had lived in Queensland. With another couple of novels she had brought from England, it should do to pass the time on the long journey ahead. She packed Carron oil, face cream, iodine, plasters, writing paper, envelopes, and the silk nightdress she had bought for her honeymoon, as well as several dresses, underwear, and the jungle boots she had purchased. She believed, physically and mentally, she was prepared for all eventualities. Emotionally, she was a little mixed up. Rob Fraser’s persistence worried her, and yet she would not believe Matt had betrayed her and was hopeful that time would prove her right.

There was no sign of Rob Fraser as Lily boarded the train and it was her hope he would not appear until they reached Cairns over a thousand miles away. Then she caught a glimpse of him while changing trains at the Queensland border and hurried into a carriage, hoping he had not seen her.

They were well past Brisbane when Lily saw him again. Weary, but unable to sleep because she was too keyed up with not knowing what lay ahead, she was gazing out of the window at the slow brown waters of a river when the corridor door opened and he entered. Without speaking he sat opposite her.

‘Do you know Rockhampton is almost directly on the Tropic of Capricorn?’ he drawled.

‘Is that information supposed to excite me?’ she said, gazing at him from beneath drooping eyelids.

‘I thought you might be interested – you being from England.’

‘Why?’

He shrugged. ‘You wouldn’t cross the Tropic of Capricorn in England.’

‘No.’ She was not going to encourage him.

He clasped his hands loosely between his knees and leaned closer. ‘Money from the goldfields further inland helped to build Rockhampton and Cairns. Can you picture it, only sixty, seventy years ago, men coping with heat, dust, thirst, plagued by mosquitoes, but driven on by the desire to strike it rich?’

‘I’m not without imagination,’ she said drily. ‘And besides Matt told me about such things. He lived among the miners for a while, although not as far back as that in time, of course.’

His face set in moody lines. ‘Hard to believe that of the preacher.’

‘You don’t really know him, though, do you?’ she said softly.

‘I reckon I’m a good judge of character.’

‘Oh? Then why did you say you liked Matt at first – that he was a mate?’

He frowned. ‘That’s beside the point. Let’s get back to what I was saying. Now my Scottish grandfather was a miner. He married a girl from over the border in New South Wales. It was her father who built the house I was brought up in and his great-grandmother came over with the First Fleet when she was only a child. It was 1787 and they were bringing the first convicts over.’

Lily was interested despite herself. ‘You’re proud of your ancestors?’

‘They fought with the land, the climate, starvation and disease. A lot died, some went mad. It made men out of those that survived.’

‘Even the women, I suppose?’ she said lightly.

He wasn’t amused. ‘They couldn’t keep up with the men but those that worked alongside them had to be tough! Soft city women like you would have gone under.’

Her temper rose and she closed her eyes to shut him out while she thought of a way to get back. When she spoke her voice was harsh, ‘My paternal grandfather was a farmer in Yorkshire. They breed men and women like granite up there to cope with wild moorland and weather to match. Then things got bad moneywise and he moved to Liverpool, which is a huge port built on trade in slaves, tobacco, cotton and sugar. It’s a mean place for some and you need a sense of humour and a certain toughness to cope with it. Our family business was dairying. From childhood I milked cows every day. Mam died when I was fourteen and I had to be mother to the younger ones.’ She opened her eyes. ‘So don’t go telling me I’m a soft city woman, Mister Fraser.’

She had silenced him but only for a moment. ‘I suppose you married the preacher to escape.’

‘I did not!’

‘You mightn’t believe it but you did.’ A smile played round his mouth as he leaned back. ‘I reckon his coming from Australia had a lot do to with it. You should have come over as a single women, lady.’

‘Don’t call me lady! I’m not one.’ A frown clouded her features, ‘Just lose yourself, I want to read.’

‘Sure you do.’ His grin widened but he stood up. ‘I’ll see you in Cairns.’

‘Not if I see you first,’ she said under her breath, picking up her book and determinedly ignoring him as he went out, but she could not help thinking there were some women who would have gone for his dark good looks.

‘I’ll carry that.’

Lily shifted her gaze from the swinging baskets of tropical ferns which decorated Cairns station to Rob Fraser’s face. Her weariness was overlaid by a mixture of excitement and homesickness. She felt as if she was in a world far removed not only from Liverpool but Sydney as well. The atmosphere was more than just warm, it was humid, and there was a sweet smell in the air mingling with the salty tang of the sea and other odours that were alien to her. A short while ago the train had passed through bright green fields which Rob had told her were of sugar cane. There were houses riding high on stilts, built, he said, to keep termites at bay. In the near distance she could see jungle-clad cliffs and a mountain which was shaped rather like a pyramid. Now she could understand why Joy had recommended jungle boots. It was all so foreign! Suddenly she was relieved to have Rob’s company and without a word handed her suitcase to him.

They did not speak as she quickened her pace to keep up with his long stride. The white sandy street reflected the bright tropical sunlight, hurting her eyes. It was flanked by huge fig trees where people walked slowly in the shade. The buildings were of wood, metal-roofed, and some had latticework verandahs with stairways leading down to the ground. She paused to put on sunglasses, the heat sapping her energy. ‘Do you know where you’re going?’