‘We’re staying,’ Sam said at last.
‘What?’ It was the only word I seemed able to use.
‘I’m staying with Ivy and the baby.’
‘But …’ I blurted out. ‘They might … won’t you … how …’ I dried up with Jen just shaking her head.
And so it was as we started to sail towards the sinking sun, with the sky turning oranges and pinks, with the waves still gentle in the bay, that Jenna and I stood at the ship’s rail and waved goodbye to Ivy and the two Sams. Ivy waving the baby’s hand as though to distract herself from the tears streaming down her face.
I had that sick feeling in my stomach, were we doing the wrong thing? Part of me, well quite a lot of me, felt we should have stayed. Staying was something we’d done in the caveman world, me and Jenna had felt that was better than going back to all the problems at home. What was so different? We could have stayed and made a new life here.
‘Had to go,’ Jenna said, reading my thoughts, or perhaps they were her own as well.
I just nodded.
‘Would you have stayed if it had been my baby?’ Jenna looked away.
That wasn’t a question I wanted to hear and Jen let me off the hook by turning back with a smile on her face. ‘Course you would,’ she said. ‘But after all the stuff that’s happened I want to get home.’
‘Even with all your problems back there?’ I remembered all the trouble she’d had with her stepdad.
‘I’ve faced worse here,’ Jenna’s eyes moved to that far away stare, the things I wasn’t going to ask about, how they’d survived on the boats. If Jenna could survive the convict ship, I’d be more worried about her awful relatives than my wonderful Jenna, if she made it home. I wrapped my arm around her as the town grew smaller in the distance.
I could understand Sam and Ivy. They knew that the baby might not pass through the tunnel. That had happened before when Lisa tried to take the Neanderthal child, as though nothing could move forward in time, into its future. I didn’t know that, maybe it was true. I didn’t think either of them wanted to get back to the tunnel on the moor and find baby Sam couldn’t come with us, and any thoughts of leaving him were ridiculous. Better to stay here and make a new life, easier than trying to return and live in a place where we might be hunted down.
‘They’ll be ok.’ Jenna put her own arm around me. ‘Sam’s going to keep working on that farm. They’ll be fine.’
‘Won’t someone come after them?’ I waved again although we were nearly out of sight.
‘Doubt it. They’re trying to forget people’s past here. It’s a new country.’
We were a long way off and I probably imagined that I could see very determined looks on their faces. Determined to succeed. Sam had to come to terms with looking after another man’s child but I knew his feelings for Ivy could see him through that.
As I stood staring out back over the miles of sea I knew I wanted to do more than just get home, even if getting home was possible. I’d followed Jenna all this way and found her. Now it was time to find out the truth about Miss Tregarthur, about my mum, and then there was revenge. Thinking about revenge made me tense, my hands balled into fists.
Jenna must have sensed the change. ‘You’re thinking about Zach and Demelza again,’ she said, staring into my eyes and seeing my rage.
I just nodded. Jenna didn’t tell me to let it drop, to forget or anything useless because she had the same fury in her eyes. The months of pain, the baby, the fear of death had all been the making of Alice Tregarthur along with those other two who had worked with her.
Revenge – Miss Tregarthur had screamed that word out at us once and now it was our turn. We might never succeed, so far to go and it might be impossible, but we were going to try.
The ship turned and went further up the coast and I felt safe, safer than I had done for a long time. We weren’t prisoners or stowaways, now we were passengers with Charles Darwin. Me coming along to draw and Jenna here to tell the great man of the discoveries he was going to make. I gave Jenna another hug and we went below to see how we were going to fit into the cabin space. Somehow it all felt better, less rage and more hope.
Grey Shores
-20-
It didn’t last. The first few days and weeks were ok, we were all used to long sea journeys. Even the bad weather wasn’t too bad with the ship rocking and rolling in the waves. But later we were back into hot steamy days with little wind. We found out that the Beagle was making several calls to other places on its way back to England. As the weather calmed we had longer to talk to Darwin. I suppose I should have seen how his mood was changing. At first he couldn’t get enough of Jenna’s information.
One day Jenna was talking about giraffes. I didn’t know if Darwin had ever seen a giraffe. Jenna was explaining how their necks got longer, longer necked animals surviving better as the food on the lower trees became scarce.
‘Survival of the fittest,’ Jenna said.
Darwin and the Beagle’s captain had both been listening. It might be true but it didn’t appear to be a good phrase to use.
‘Blasphemy,’ howled the captain and Darwin backed him up despite having a look of sudden realisation on his face.
It seemed that what Jenna had been saying was in some way against God’s teachings. ‘Work of the devil,’ the captain had added.
Somehow the idea that giraffes had evolved as a species conflicted with their idea about the role of God in the nature of all things. The idea that giraffes might have had their own part to play was a terrible idea.
After that we were kept below decks, not allowed to speak to the crew in case we infected them with our dangerous idea. No more drawing for me. They did bring us meals and we were left with a bible to read, but it was back to being captive again. I heard them talking, wondering what to do with us. The days went by. We docked at another island. Jenna and I weren’t allowed to leave the ship. From the small porthole I could see that the island looked like the place we had reached before with the slave trip. There were many more days at sea until we reached a much larger port. It was clear that the Captain didn’t want us on the boat any longer and we were told to leave. The Beagle had tied up at a dock and we were led down the gangplank. It looked like another busy port and I had no idea where we were or how we were going to survive.
At that moment Darwin came trotting up behind us, looking furtive.
‘What was that book called you said I should write?’ he said to Jenna.
I could see Jenna struggling to remember. Darwin looked round again, checking to see if he was being watched, and he thrust a small purse into Jenna’s hand.
‘Well?’ he said, demanding an answer.
‘Oh yes … The Origin of Species, or something like that,’ Jenna smiled as she shook the purse and Darwin left us alone on the dockside with a very strange look on his face.
Money gave us possibilities and also put us in danger. Everyone on the quayside had something to sell and it was impossible to work out who was genuine and who was out to trick us. I suppose life at home had taught both Jenna and me not to trust people. There were many offers of a passage back to England. Several of the convict transportation ships were returning, some just to pick up another load of miserable people bound for Australia. Some ships had done a bit of trading and were returning to sell goods. There was space on these ships, space the captains were happy to sell.
Jenna decided we should only talk to the captain on board his ship – at least that gave a better chance of there actually being a boat. Having found a captain, getting on board was actually quite simple, despite it being several months of sea voyage it was common for passengers to join up. The captain still wanted the money before we set sail and we handed it over; it took most of Darwin’s money. It was enough to get us a cabin and a couple of days later the Lord Lydoch
, as our boat was named, set sail for England.
‘Don’t talk about any animals or evolution,’ I muttered to Jenna.
She laughed and we kept quiet. We had time, weeks to keep quiet, it wasn’t a quick trip. There were other passengers, some convicts who said they had completed their sentences and were going back home, not knowing what they would find after leaving their families for many years. Several of them had one thing on their minds – revenge.
We stayed away from most of them, not wanting to be pulled into the horrific violent retribution they had in mind – and that I thought unlikely to work. Also we didn’t want to have any links to convicts as we returned. That didn’t mean I didn’t have the same idea in my mind – revenge.
We docked on a grey morning into the same harbour we’d left from and I suppose it must have been maybe two years since Sam and I had set out to follow the girls across the world. Whatever Miss Tregarthur had planned we had now left several people scattered across the ages: Mum, if she was alive; Kan, left in the time of the Black Death along with Posy; and now Sam and Ivy with the baby. A lot of people who we weren’t likely to ever see again. No chance of getting them all back together.
Back at the quayside it was as busy as ever. Watchful faces scanning all the new arrivals. I guessed some arrivals weren’t just convicts who had completed their sentences, some had escaped. Some of the watchful faces might well see them as a source of income, taking their money and turning them over to the courts for rewards. It didn’t look safe to get off the ship here.
We talked to the captain about letting us off the ship at night. He just laughed and said that for a small fee he could help. He was taking the Lord Lydoch out to anchor and could row us into a quieter place.
‘Have to share the space,’ the captain laughed. It seemed that this was a regular way of landing those passengers who wished to arrive in secret. And profitable because the fee he wanted wasn’t that small.
We had to trust him and it was a tense trip in the dark later that day. There were six of us being rowed to the shore by one of the Lord Lydoch’s crew. As we neared land I became even more suspicious. There was something nervous about the man rowing.
I could see a small jetty that we had to be heading towards. It was very quiet, too quiet. And why was there a lantern on the dock? No one there who needed a light, but perhaps a light would make it easier to see us when we landed.
I put my hand on the crewman’s shoulder. He was quite a big man, but the last year had been pretty much a long workout for me and I didn’t feel scared confronting him although I did feel scared about him setting us up.
‘Not there,’ I said with as much menace as I could manage.
‘The captain said to put you on the jetty.’ And I think that all of us could hear fear in his voice.
‘Who’ve you got waiting for us?’ Another of the passengers moved rapidly in the small boat causing it to rock violently before he had his hands on the rower’s arms. ‘Just hold up.’ The man seized the oars.
The boat came to a stop.
‘Over you go.’ Two of the other men helped to heave the crewman over the side, where he flailed about in the dark stinking water. At least he could swim and he made for the light, shouting loudly.
Several men ran out of the shadows on the shore side, ran down the wooden planks, carrying pistols.
‘Quick,’ I moved into the rowing position and pulled away. I wasn’t great at using the oars although I had tried a few times when we had made repairs on the other ships.
Two shots rang out. Another man shouted to stop. These weren’t officials of any kind, they were just after the money they’d get if they turned us over. I don’t think they would have wanted to be found shooting in the night. I must have been right because the men ran back into the dark.
One of the other men took over from me and we picked up speed.
‘Over there,’ I called, pointing to the shore line. There was no jetty but even in the dark I could see flat land, probably sand, leading up to a row of houses with a narrow lane between them. Light at the end of the land and otherwise it was all dark.
We rowed the boat up onto the beach, it was sand and strewn with debris and what smelt like an overrun sewer.
Then it was everyone for themselves as we scrambled out of the boat and ran. In the distance I could hear shouts and whistles. Was that the men looking for us or had someone come after them having heard the shots? We weren’t going to hang around to find out. At the top of the lane we separated in different directions, with no waving goodbye. Jenna and I hurried towards the main part of town. Hurrying and not running. Surely it wouldn’t be long before someone knew that a boatload of people had landed, people who didn’t want to be seen, probably escaped convicts, and I suppose we all could have had a price on our heads. Returning a convicted murderer to the gallows must have been worth something. I walked a little faster. We stood out in the town, neither of us had clothes that looked anything other than rags. Although there were other very poor people huddling together in corners.
Jenna grabbed me and pulled me down. ‘Best place to hide,’ she said pulling me into a tight cuddle, and we spent some time like that.
It was the right thing to do because it wasn’t long before a group of men carrying truncheons came searching, asking if anyone had seen the escaped convicts. Just saying convicts made people worry and everyone on the street scuttled out of sight. We joined them, moving into the darkest alleys along with other people. Perhaps a few of them didn’t want to be found either. Around one corner someone was selling mugs of beer and we had enough of Darwin’s money left to buy two.
‘Good disguise,’ said Jenna as she handed me a rough earthenware mug. ‘Not too many convicts able to afford booze I hope.’
Jenna and I had talked about what we should do, we’d had plenty of time to talk on the boat trip, a lot of talk and no real idea of what was possible. I suppose we had too much anger and no facts. It had just made us argue. Should we go straight back to the moor to look for the tunnel or should we look for Zach and Demelza.
I had explained the little I knew about Hugh and how he’d got us out of prison. ‘He knows a lot more than he told me,’ I said. I was sure there was a lot more to find out about Hugh. He must know about Miss Tregarthur and I had no idea how that had happened.
‘We’re going to the house where Nancy helped you? Right?’ Jenna said. We’d at least agreed on that.
Much later that night we walked as confidently as we could back along the quayside and knocked at the small door.
There had been sounds inside but everything went quiet when I knocked. I didn’t think Nancy would have liked visitors at that time of night.
‘Nancy,’ I said in a loud whisper. ‘It’s Alvin, you remember me, you helped us, Hugh sent us.’
There was still no sound.
‘You must remember, Sam and me.’ I tried to think what to say that might work and it came to me. ‘You remember Sam, he was the one who gave birth.’
Jenna behind me said, ‘What?’ quite loudly because I hadn’t given her a complete account of our escape in the dresses we’d been given, nor of Sam’s convincing screams of labour pains.
Nancy must have remembered because there was a loud laugh from inside, the door swung open and she pulled us inside after a rapid glance to make sure we hadn’t been followed.
Mr Connoy
-21-
Nancy laughed and she did let us in, but it was obvious she wasn’t too pleased to see us.
‘What do you want?’ she said, picking up her own baby who had started to make snivelling noises.
The room was as dark and as shabby as I had remembered it. A few pieces of furniture looked more broken than before. Nancy saw me staring around at the damage.
‘That happened after you came last time
,’ her voice sounding unfriendly. ‘They found out that you’d escaped and someone said I’d helped. So they came back. You think this is a mess – you should have seen the place after they’d left.’ She gave a sob. ‘You should have seen me.’
Nancy’s hand strayed to her face. There was no sign of bruising now and I could only imagine what had happened.
Jenna mumbled something about sorry.
‘Don’t know why you came back with him.’ Nancy was more friendly towards Jen than me. ‘He’s trouble. If they hear he’s been back I’ll have to leave – not staying for another beating like last time.’
‘We need to find the man who brought us here. He said his name was Hugh.’
‘He uses a lot of names,’ Nancy snorted. ‘Mind you he did pay me for the trouble afterwards.’
I wondered why Hugh had done that. I had no idea why he helped us. We just had to find him. I was sure he knew more about Miss Tregarthur, knew more about the tunnel.
‘Where can we find him?’ Jenna asked, and I suppose she could see that Nancy might answer her rather than me.
‘He won’t thank me for telling you.’ Nancy turned on me. ‘You’re a murderer, they say, part of this Carter gang. Hugh, or whoever he is, won’t want an escaped murderer turning up on his doorstep, will he.’
‘He helped us once,’ I said.
‘Don’t know why he did that.’ Nancy sounded as though that was a question she had considered before. ‘He certainly wanted you out of the way. I couldn’t see why he didn’t just let them hang you.’
My throat tightened at the mention of hanging.
‘He might help again,’ Jenna was trying to sound hopeful.
Tregarthur's Prisoners: Book 3 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 15
