“Well, well. Liz, did you hear that? I didn’t kill him. I like Mr. Mitchell and I’m glad I didn’t kill him.”
“Mr. Macdonald,” said Liz, “did you say Mrs. Mitchell? But she’s dead, his wife.”
“I believe she’s a new wife, Liz. In fact, I did hear that he had married his housekeeper.”
“So, maybe he has stopped beating up housekeepers.”
“Well, all I can say is, she is a massive woman and I think she’ll be able to keep him under control.”
“Oh, Jack, we can make a new life for ourselves now. No more hiding and dodging and being ashamed. Oh!” Liz fled from the room sobbing.
“’Scuse me,” said Jack, as he followed his weeping wife.
“Well, Murdoch, you are a bearer of good tidings. What a relief to poor Jack. A relief to me, too, for I am not a lawbreaker by habit, but I wouldn’t let him down,” sighed Alistair. “I must say I am very happy about it. Jack’s a very good fellow. I don’t really think he is cut out to be a murderer.”
“If you could have seen them, Alistair, that day they brought you home, you would have believed anything. They frightened me silly.” said Caroline.
“Me too, Mother. Each time I woke and saw Jack, I thought I was having a nightmare” laughed Donald. “What a good fellow he has turned out to be.”
Caroline had been so certain that Murdoch would come that she had a great deal of the packing done and he was surprised and pleased to hear that they could move off as soon as he thought they could get berths on a ship. So, in a few days, they loaded Alistair, the children and Caroline on the wagon and set off for the town, with Jack driving and Murdoch riding his hired horse. Liz came too and they all treated it as a picnic until the time came for farewells. It was a happy day for them all to remember.
At the hotel, Liz clung to Caroline, “Oh, Missus, you’re that good to us. Thank you, we’ll take care of everything, never you fear. When you get back you will find everything ship-shape.”
“Yes, Boss, you’ll see we will do everything you want done and you send Master Donald back any time you like. We’ll look after him. And you and Missus come back soon.”
“Take care, Jack. Get along home now, man. Goodbye and thank you.”
Caroline and Murdoch left Alistair in their room at the hotel and went down to the street to see them off.
“If you go now you will be home before dark, Jack. I will know you are safe then.” said Caroline, giving Liz a last hug.
“Yes, Missus. I’m going to take Liz along to the store. Just to look, mind, because she hasn’t seen a store for that long. That is, I think she deserves it.”
“Aw, Jack.”
“Now just a look, mind, no hankering after anything.”
“No, Jack. Goodbye, Mr. Macdonald.”
“Here, Liz, buy something with this. I would like to make it more,” Murdoch said as he handed a coin to her. Liz, too overcome, just beamed at Murdoch as Jack drove them off.
“Good people, Caroline. The kind to build Australia into a big country. You go back to Alistair, lass, and I’ll see about a ship. I do hope one comes soon.”
Alistair travelled on a stretcher that Jack made for him and everyone saw that he was involved with everything going on. They had waited a week, wondering whether their slim resources would last the journey back to Riverbend, when a ship came in travelling south.
It was only a short voyage to Sydney, and thankfully the sea was calm. As soon as they arrived they hired a wagon to take them to Elspeth and Fergus’s house with almost the last of their money.
Caroline wept a little as Elspeth greeted her. “Come in, love, we have everything prepared. We have a room made ready and we’ll keep you here until Alistair is fit and well.” And so they stayed.
They decided that the two little MacLeod girls, Ann and Jane, would go to Riverbend with Murdoch, leaving Donald with his parents so that a good doctor could look at him too. Murdoch took his nieces to Parramatta by ferry the next day where they caught the coach west to Riverbend on the Hawkesbury River. Fergus had provided the tickets for the trip.
“I want to do it Alistair” he said “for I have an excellent position and am making good money, and I am well! I seem to have fallen on my feet and want to share it with my family. So, Murdoch, you go home and leave these three with us and we’ll see they get the best of attention.
Ann and Jane were excited to see the bustle of the city then the ferry ride to Parramatta and a coach ride too, were almost too much for them and they were very tired little people who finally arrived at Aunt Mary’s house. Mary greeted them with relief. Murdoch carried them both into the house and they nearly fell asleep in his arms.
In spite of the best treatment, Alistair’s leg refused to mend. He suffered a great deal of pain, but was always patient. Elspeth refused to let Caroline work in the house, saying that she looked really pallid and that she needed a rest more than she did. Donald had healed well and very soon was allowed to join his sisters at Riverbend.
Finally the doctor told Alistair that he would have to lose his leg as it hadn’t healed at all. Caroline took the news harder than he did, saying that a big, strong, healthy man should heal a big strong, healthy bone, but apparently the bone had been crushed when the tree fell and so refused to knit. His left leg did heal eventually, but remained weak for some time.
“Jack will be upset, Caroline” Alistair said, “but the doctor assured me that it was no reflection on his first-aid.”
“Alistair, how will you manage? What will you do?”
“We’ll just have that leg off for now, love. Don’t worry, I’ll manage. It will be better than lying in bed all the time, looking at four walls. I will be able to get about on crutches. Hush now, lass, I will be all right. The good Lord will have have something for me so stop fretting.”
He was right. He went into the Sydney Hospital and had the leg amputated above the knee. He was soon better than he had been for months. His left leg was now able to take his weight and he learned to manage crutches with an ability that amazed his family.
Fergus wondered what Alistair would do with his life. He had a feeling that farming would be too difficult for sometime yet. He was right too. Alistair announced one day that he thought he would go to Riverbend to live and start a little school for the farming children there.
“It is something I want to do and I know I can do it.” said Alistair
When the time came for them to leave Sydney, Fergus went with them to Riverbend. Mary and Murdoch rented a house in the town for them and were able to furnish is sparsely, as most of the furniture they had left on the farm with Jack and Liz. The house had a big, wide verandah along one side. Murdoch, Donald and Malcolm had turned it into a very good schoolroom by filling in the open side and putting two windows and a door in the wall, so that the schoolroom had a separate entrance. They also made long tables and forms to sit on for the pupils when they came. They had even been able to find some slate to make into writing tablets. Alistair began with the children of the family, his own daughters, Ann now twelve, Jane ten and Alec’s children, Jennet, fourteen, Effie, twelve, Jamie, ten and six year old Kate. Murdoch and Mary’s daughters, Catherine and Mary Ann, aged twelve and nearly ten, brought the number to eight. Jamie Fraser was put out when he discovered that he was the only boy, but when the nearby town and farm folk heard about the little school, he soon had male companionship and was content.
William Forrest came to see Alistair one afternoon after school. He had watched with interest the planning and establishing of the project. He admired the Scots folk who had come to live among the people of Riverbend and was ever keen to see how they coped with the difficulties they encountered. He had great admiration for them. He hadn’t been very attracted to Alistair on the ship, as he didn’t appeal to a man with a great sense of humour, but he was the first to admit, how wrong he had been when he saw the new Alistair.
The man had taken his tragedy with a fortitude that was truly adm
irable. His experience had an enlightening effect on his character and instead of the taciturn man he had been, he was now a quietly patient man with a jolly manner with the children.
“MacLeod,” he said on this afternoon, wonder if you want some more pupils? Our governess, Miss Phelps, is to be married soon and is leaving us. We would be pleased if you would take our children into your school.”
“Thank you, Mr. Forrest. I’ve no presence though of being a good teacher. I love the children and aim to teach them to be useful people.”
“What made you turn to this? What made you feel you are fitted for it? McWilliam tells me you are teaching his children Latin. Man, where did you learn Latin? It doesn’t sound like what I know of the highlands.”
Alistair chuckled. “Well, sir, I’ve always had a mind for book-learning and have read all the books I could get hold of. My father was educated with the old Laird when they were youngsters and the Laird’s father sent them off to Edinburgh for more education. So benefited by my father teaching us. He became factor to the Laird, so his education was always useful to him. My father passed it on to all his children and insisted that it would be someday of use to us. It seems that it was worthwhile. I suppose you are surprised, Mr. Forrest?” He smiled.
“Nothing really surprises me about people I meet in this colony. I’ve grown up with convicts who range from lawyers and doctors, down to the worst criminal, so nothing surprises me now. I take it you are happy to have my children then?”
“Willingly,” Alistair laughed up at William Forrest. “If I have any more I will have to enlarge my schoolroom. Come and see it.”
He awkwardly got up from his chair and hobbled out to the schoolroom. There he eagerly showed all the work that Murdoch and the boys had done making the place Alistair’s pride.
“MacLeod, I’ll be paying you, of course, for my children’s education. You cannot do without payment.”
“You are right, sir, I could not afford to take children without payment. I must charge for my teaching.”
“I’ll pay you what we were paying Miss Phelps. Willie will have to go to The Kings School in Parramatta soon, but you will have Catriona and Grant for some time. Grant will follow Willie later to Kings. It seems like these two schools will make a difference to our children.”
“You’re not sending them to school in England then?”
“Indeed not, I want them to be Australians. They would lose touch with the colony if they were sent away. Besides, I couldn’t do without them. Parramatta is not so far away and we can visit him whenever we go in for supplies.”
“Aye, it is good to have your children about you.”
“I’ll bid you ‘good day’ then, MacLeod. Mind that you are strict with them.”
Chapter 19 - Ballarat, Victoria
The valley had been beautiful before the inhabitants took over. It used to have grassy slopes all the way down to the bubbling creek the eucalypts standing serene and graceful, lords surveying all around. Now all was mud, mud when it was wet and dust when it was dry. No grass, just mud or dust, depending on the weather, and all through this desecration, was a city of tents. Tents everywhere and of every description some so small that they barely covered the needs of one miner and some quite large that housed a family.
This was Ballarat, one of the many such valleys in the diggings, where hundreds of people came for the gold that would give them all they wanted so they thought.
Bill Turner had been working his claim for a year now. Backbreaking work at the best of times, but worse since his mate Larry McGuire had died a few weeks ago. Now Bill had to work the claim alone. He dug the spoil and when his buckets were filled he had to go to the surface and wind the windlass to bring the buckets up for washing day.
He thought he’d had enough for the day, so he packed his tools away and headed for the pub. As he walked up the hill he saw a group of louts throwing stones at something huddled under a bush. Hearing a whimper he went to investigate and saw that it was a man crouching there.
“Get away, you rotten louts. What are you doing there?”
The boys ran away and Bill got in under the bush and pulled out a cowering, bloody mess of a man.
Bill knew the little white-haired man who just lay in a heap, a shivering mass.
“Ah Scotty, what on earth have they done to you? Come on up, can you stand? I’ll help you to my tent.”
No one knew where Scotty had come from. He’d been around the valley for longer than Bill had. No one knew anything about him. It was said that he staggered into someone’s camp one night about a year ago, bloodied as he was now, and not knowing who he was or from where he had come. Most people were kind to him. He lived on the edge of starvation because the residents of the valley were too poor to take on another mouth to feed. So, many helped to keep the man in food and clothing. They named him Scotty because of his brogue. Anyway, he knew no other.
He was a sorry mess when Bill looked at him in the light of the lamp. He cleaned him up as best he could and bedded him down in Larry’s bed roll.
The little man said nothing but sat up and gladly ate the stew that Bill offered him.
Scotty was up and about in ten days and tried to repay Bill’s kindness by working around the camp. He filled the gap that Larry’s death had made and Bill was glad enough to have him. Scotty had very little to say, but was quite a cheerful mate to have. He was very easy-going and agreed to do anything to help that he could. They soon became firm friends and shared the work of the claim. For many months Bill watched over little Scotty who was still very wary. When any young men were around in groups, Bill tried to act as buffer. One day while Bill was working down the shaft, a group of young fellows came tearing through the camps in high spirits, not meaning any harm.
Scotty was in the process of bringing some buckets of spoil up on the windlass. When he saw the young ruffians heading towards him he panicked, dropped the handle of the windlass which flew round, hitting him hard in the midriff and he turned in mid air as he shot headfirst down the shaft. Luckily the buckets caught half way down on the ladder and so he only fell about ten feet, but he was badly hurt.
Bill was in a terrible predicament as he was below the buckets down the shaft and couldn’t get to the injured Scotty. The boys who were the cause of it all had seen what had happened and formed themselves into a rescue team.
Poor Scotty was broken once more in many places. He was a sad sight when they got him onto a stretcher.
Bill eventually struggled out of the shaft, covered with dirt dislodged from the sides and out of the buckets. He tried to make his friend as comfortable as he could but didn’t think much of his chances of recovery this time. “Poor Scotty, he’s a goner this time, I think,” muttered Bill as he washed him.
Scotty was making no sound, no movement.
Dr. Landsdowne came into the tent and knelt beside the injured man. He found a broken leg and he thought he had a broken spine and perhaps a fractured skull as well.
“Just keep him warm, Bill, there’s nothing else you can do. I’ll set his leg while he cannot feel it, but I don’t think he can move his legs anyway. His arms look all right and he’s moving those.”
Scotty was still unconscious the next day and the doctor shook his head over him.
“He’ll be a lucky man to survive this Bill, and even if he does he may not want to. I’m sure his back is broken and he will never move again. What’s to become of him? Do you know anything about him?”
“No, I don’t, Doc, nor does he. I daresay you know as much about him as I do. Anyway, he’s me mate and I’ll look after him while I can.”
“You’re a good man, but I don’t think you know what you’re taking on.”
When Bill awoke the next morning he looked over to his mate and saw his eyes on his own.
“Hello, old mate, how do you feel?”
“Not very well, I must say, and I don’t seem to be able to move my legs. What happened to me?”
“You f
ell down the shaft, Scotty. Don’t you remember?”
“No, I don’t, I’m sorry, and I don’t remember you. Should I? You seem to be my friend. How did I get here? I think I can remember two men coming at me out of the dark. Where’s my horse, my clothes?”
“Well, Scotty, you just lie still and don’t fuss yourself. It looks as though I’ve got some talking to do, but that can wait.” Bill stood thinking, looking down at Scotty. “Do you remember your name, mate?”
“Yes of course I do, it’s Alec, Alexander Fraser. How long have I been here?”
“Well, I’m Bill Turner and mate, but as I say, we’ve got a lot of talking to do, but now isn’t the time. Do you feel like a pot of tea and some breakfast? You stay still while I get you some.”
“Thank you, Bill. I seem to have no choice, and anyway, tea sounds great.”
After feeding his patient, Bill waited for Dr. Landsdowne impatiently. He refused to be drawn into explanations with Alec, anyway, he was not well enough to be too curious. He slept, Bill thought, or at least he lay with his eves closed.
It was late morning when Dr. Landsdowne’s horse trotted up the slope. Bill hurried to meet the doctor and kept him out of earshot.
“He’s awake, Doc, and has his memory back, at least he remembers who he really is and doesn’t seem to know about the last year or so. Seems he was attacked by a couple of men. He remembers that his name is Alexander Fraser, and is called Alec.”
“Did you question him, Bill?”
“No, Doc, I tried to head off too much talk. I didn’t think I should let him talk. He’ll be too ill to worry anyway. Let’s go and look at him.”
The doctor bent down as he came into the tent. His patient looked up.
“I’m Dr. Landsdowne. I hear you are Fraser. You’ve been knocking yourself around, man.”
“Yes, I’m not feeling too sprightly. Tell me what happened, Doctor, I’m all at sea.”
“Let me look at you first before we have anymore talk. Lift your leg. Hm. Lift this arm, now the other. Does your broken leg hurt ?”
The Heather to the Hawkesbury Page 13
