Tears of the Moon (42 page)

‘Mem say this lady trouble. But you upset mem too, tuan. She say trust gone.’ When Tyndall stayed silent, he shook his head sadly. ‘This a bad business, tuan. Very bad.’

‘Ahmed, I swear to you, I’m going to fix this mess. God knows how. It may take time, but I will get Olivia to marry me come hell or high water.’

At sunset when Tyndall quit pottering about the luggers he had no clearer idea of how to remove Amy nor how to persuade Olivia to give up her wild idea of moving to Fremantle.

He trudged into the silent house with some trepidation, wondering where Amy was, and called the houseboy to fetch him a drink. He had thought of going to the Lugger Bar but couldn’t face the questions he knew would come his way. By now the entire town was agog with the news. Amy had made frequent stops on her morning tour of the town to make herself known to shopkeepers.

The house was ominously quiet and he called for Rosminah, but the Chinese cook appeared instead. ‘No here, tuan. Gone with mem. Help her carry up her t’ings.’

‘Mem has gone?’ Tyndall’s heart leapt. ‘Where has she gone?’

‘New house, tuan. Mem ask why such little t’ings here in rich man’s house. Rosminah tell her you move to new house after wedding.’

‘
What!
She’s gone to our new house?’

The cook nodded, edging backwards at the sight of Tyndall’s outrage.

Tyndall charged from the house. This was too much. She was trespassing in the home that he and Olivia had designed together and planned to move into after their wedding.

He ran without pause to the bluff and stood outside the house panting. Olivia’s trunks had been moved outside onto the verandah. Windows were open, Amy’s sea chest was by the door, open and half-emptied.

Nearly choking for air with rage and exhaustion Tyndall surged forward, bellowing for Rosminah. The girl ran out of the door, clutching one of Amy’s hats and a pair of her shoes.

‘Rosminah, drop those,’ he ordered, gasping. ‘Get home at once.’

‘Tuan, she say I must help her.’ Tears started to tumble down her cheeks.

Tyndall snatched Amy’s clothes from her and said quietly, ‘Rosminah, you are to have nothing to do with the mem. You do only what I, tuan, say. Understand? Now go home and stay there.’

‘Really, Johnny, such a fuss. You’re frightening the girl. There’s no harm in her helping me, surely. How else am I going to get settled?’ Amy appeared at the door, calm and sweetly reasonable.

Tyndall threw the hat and shoes at her feet and shouted, ‘You are not moving in here!’

‘But I’m already in, dear. I thought you wanted me out of the other house. This seems a very satisfactory arrangement.’

‘Like hell it is. I want you back on that steamer and out of Broome. Go to Fremantle and we’ll negotiate from there.’

She gave a tinkly laugh like a patient mother with a recalcitrant child. ‘But there’s nothing to negotiate. As I’m your wife, my place is here and I don’t for one moment expect you to see me starving on the streets of Broome. What would people say?’ She settled herself in a chair on the verandah. ‘Now, Johnny. Don’t be difficult about this. I spoke to Mrs Hennessy today. I must say, she was rather ungracious, but she tells me she is moving to Fremantle, so that solves that matter doesn’t it?’

Tyndall was speechless.

‘By the way she told me she was a partner in your pearl business. I imagine you’ll need me in her place now, seeing how things have changed rather.’

Tyndall stared at Amy, seeing her steel inside for the first time. He was aghast at how fast things were moving. And moving out of his control. His mind raced, desperately searching for some way to take command of the situation.

‘Very well, Amy,’ he said, finally, ‘Stay here—
for the time being
. I will stay in the old house. As soon as I have sorted out the divorce and the settlement, you will be on your way.’

‘Johnny, dear. When are you going to get it through
that handsome head of yours that I am not going to give you a divorce. I am not going anywhere. You’ll get used to the idea.’ She gave a coquettish smirk. ‘You’ll find I’m not so undesirable as time goes on. I’m very good company. Or had you forgotten?’

‘Yes, I
had
forgotten … all about you. And I have no desire to attempt to rekindle any sort of relationship. It’s over, Amy. Dead and gone.’

‘We’ll see, we’ll see,’ she answered affably, walking back to the door. Unruffled, she turned to him, all trace of the mock goodwill gone. ‘Don’t forget, I said I had documents. And copies are lodged in Perth. You’ll find changing the
status quo
frightfully difficult. By the way, if you are going to be selfish about your staff, I’ll have to hire more servants. Naturally all my expenses are being charged to you.’ She swept inside and Rosminah sidled out, giving Tyndall a sympathetic look.

For Olivia, the next two days passed in a blur. The nights were a black hole she swam through in some mindless nightmare, waiting for the dawn, when the same reality faced her. She struggled to explain the dramatic change in their fives to Hamish.

The boy looked at her, puzzled, frightened. ‘Why has this lady come here? Why didn’t Uncle John send her away? He was going to marry you, and we were going to live together.’

‘These things sometimes happen in life … things don’t work out the way you wanted. And sometimes grown-ups fall out of love and things … change.’

‘I don’t think I want to be a grown-up.’

‘Oh darling, I promise you things will be all right. You’re going to have a lovely exciting time at a wonderful school in Perth, and I’ll be close by in our house in Fremantle. On weekends we can do all sorts of interesting things.’

‘What about Uncle John and Ahmed and Yoshi and everyone?’

Olivia swallowed. ‘You can come back … school holidays … we’ll still have our house here.’ She couldn’t bear the thought of coming back, not while she was on the verge of fleeing. But she couldn’t let Hamish think everything he knew and loved was being cast aside. ‘Your father and I always planned to send you away to boarding school. This way, I’ll be close.’ Seeing his hurt, Olivia hugged him to her. ‘Oh Hamish, just believe me and don’t worry. You must trust me, darling.’

Toby and Mabel Metta were a constant support and help. They had agreed to transport Olivia and Hamish down to the steamer at the last possible moment to avoid her having to face too many people.

‘Olivia, I beg you to think this through. Are you sure you simply aren’t running away? Give John time to sort matters out,’ pleaded Tobias.

‘He hasn’t stopped loving you, nor you him,’ said Mabel supportively.

Olivia looked up from her packing. ‘Yes, I have thought this through. And, yes, I am running away. I cannot bear to be here and be reminded of the dreadful situation that has developed and how I was so deceived all this time.’

‘It was not malicious. We men tend not to look backwards, his past is his past. There are many people in this town who have a past they never talk about. You know yourself, sadly, that life goes on.’

‘He should have told me. I might have been better prepared,’ said Olivia stubbornly.

‘We have been over this many times. If we can’t change your mind, dear Olivia, then let us help you as best we can.’

‘Thank you, Mabel. Here are letters to people like the Hootens, briefly explaining my change of plans, if you’d send them for me.’

‘I’m sure no explanations are needed, Olivia.’

‘That’s just the point, Tobias. I do want to explain. This is my decision. I want to keep some shred of integrity.’

‘What about the business side of things? You can’t stay away too long, Olivia.’ The pearl peeler still regarded her rushed move to Fremantle as an over-reaction.

‘I’ll think things through in more detail when I’m settled.’ She gave a rueful smile.

‘I always knew you were a strong woman, Olivia. You do what you think best.’ Mabel embraced her. ‘We’ll be here keeping an eye on things and you only have to ask if you need anything.’

‘Thank you. Thank you both.’ Olivia embraced them.

This was their tearful and private farewell.

At sunset the Mettas drove Olivia and Hamish to the wharf and helped them onto the steamer. Most of
their bags had been sent ahead and Olivia did not want to stand about before they sailed on the tide. After another brief farewell and an enveloping hug for Hamish, the Mettas made their way back along the wharf, Mabel dabbing her eyes with a handker-chief.

Hamish was instantly absorbed in exploring every detail of the cabin and didn’t notice his mother’s set mouth and pained expression as she lifted the name tag—
CAPTAIN AND MRS TYNDALL
—from their state-room door. What was to have been the honeymoon suite had a bottle of champagne waiting with a welcoming note from the steamer’s captain. Olivia threw the note away and sank down onto the bed.

Hamish was standing on his bunk, busily peering out the porthole, and didn’t see the tears sliding down his mother’s face.

The foreshore camp crew worked as normal packing up at the end of the day, all aware of the steamer’s imminent departure.

Ahmed had watched the activity from the office window, knowing Tyndall was at the foreshore camp with a bottle of whisky. How strange were the ways of Allah, he thought. While he suffered with his master he nonetheless believed there was a higher reason for this alarming and sudden disruption in their lives.

Tobias Metta arrived at the shed at the foreshore camp, loosening his collar and tie.

Tyndall looked up but couldn’t raise a greeting.

‘Well, she’s on board. She’s going through with
this sad scheme. Mabel and I tried our best to talk her out of it. She’s a strong-willed woman, John. And one in a lot of pain. This has hurt her dreadfully.’

‘I don’t understand women,’ mumbled Tyndall with despair in his voice. ‘I hurt too.’

‘Mabel tried to make me see that men and women react differently about things.’

‘They certainly do. Why couldn’t she have stuck by me, Toby?’

‘Her feelings and pride are hurt. We have to let her ride things out a bit. Yes, we must let the storm pass, then maybe we will see the way ahead.’

Tyndall topped up his glass and pushed the bottle towards the pearl peeler.

Tobias poured himself a stiff drink. He wasn’t a drinker, but right now he needed a bracing snifter. He took a sip. ‘Mabel wonders why you’re not down there. At the steamer.’

‘What the hell for? To make more of a fool of myself? That’d give ’em all something else to talk about. Anyway, she sent word none of us were to go near the wharf. I didn’t want to upset her.’

‘Mabel thinks you should be down there dragging her off the damned steamer. She says you’re both in love with each other and both being stubborn and silly.’ It hurt and embarrassed him to say this and he took another sip of whisky to cover his anguish.

Tyndall looked at his friend, then suddenly slammed down his glass, grabbed his skipper’s hat and ran from the shed.

Tyndall reached the wharf as the day disappeared into the deep shade of a lavender night. Only a few
people remained at the end of the wharf, waving occasionally as the departing steamer glided across the bay, its lights twinkling on the calm aqua waters.

From the porthole Olivia could make out the dark sweep of bay and mangroves that sheltered foreshore camps. Her eyes filled with tears. For one wild moment, as the mooring lines were being cast off, she wished he had rushed to her, but he had not.

In the shadows of the wharf, John Tyndall also wept.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

T
wo years passed and still the situation had not improved. Amy stuck to her guns and refused to budge. Tyndall’s battle to divorce her was bogged down.

Meanwhile, Olivia had been steadfast in her resolve not to have contact with Tyndall, other than on a purely business level. She checked the accounts now kept by a relative of Toby Metta employed by Tyndall, and dealt with Monsieur Barat directly in Perth. Pearls and ledgers were delivered to her by registered mail and once, at the end of the last season, Ahmed had travelled to Fremantle to deliver the pearls to her.

While it was not the perfect arrangement, and she missed the excitement of seeing the pearls come to life under Toby’s deft hands, it worked satisfactorily enough. She was glad to see Ahmed and catch up on all the news of friends and life in Broome. She did
not ask about Amy but from the snippets of information offered by Ahmed, she gathered Tyndall’s situation remained unchanged. The very personal questions she wanted to ask, Ahmed couldn’t have answered anyway.