When he asked her about her work, he found out what had been troubling her the evening before. She enjoyed teaching, she explained, but took strong exception to the headmaster's disciplinary measures. "If a boy misbehaves in my classes," she continued, "I'll bowl him out of his chair with my ruler in an instant. But to cane boys until blood runs down their legs, as he did to two lads yesterday, is savagely cruel and revolting."
"The parents don't take him to task about it?"
"They're usually so hard pressed to find the school fees that they're often in arrears, which makes them loath to object. At times, I think I would resign, but my parents made great sacrifices to pay my fees through the higher forms so I could be a teacher. I also enjoy teaching, but most of all, I would like to have my own little school in a village. However, villages usually make do with anyone who can read and write as a teacher."
Jonathan thought about the situation at the station where it was the same for the dozen or so employees' children at the home paddock. His parents had often expressed a wish to hire a qualified teacher in the unlikely event one could be found who would come and live in the outback. He started to mention it to Catherine, then decided not to for the moment. Although they were barely more than acquainted, he felt as though he might soon be searching for ways to make the outback seem attractive to her.
With that in mind, he noted with pleasure that she obviously enjoyed his company. Their lively conversation ranged from one subject to another, and they walked more and more slowly as they went up a street of modest, well-kept houses, the neat yards bordered with hedges and picket fences. Stopping at a gate in front of one of the houses, Catherine continued talking with Jonathan for a few minutes, then reached for the latch.
"This has been the most enjoyable conversation I've ever had," he told her sincerely. "I'd like to see you again tomorrow, if I may, and I'd like to meet your family whenever it would be convenient."
"I enjoyed talking with you, Jonathan, and I'd be pleased to see you again. I'll ask my mother about inviting you to . . ." She broke off, as a woman came out of the house. "Well, here's my mother now. I presume she saw us talking and wants to meet you."
Her tone reflected perplexity over why her mother had come out. The woman came down the path, and Catherine introduced her to Jonathan. Trim and meticulously neat in her late thirties, Auberta Baxter had a serene composure that indicated the source of her daughter's poise. As they were introduced, she revealed the reason she had wanted to meet Jonathan.
"I happened to look out and noticed that you're the very image of Mr. David Kerrick," she said. "You must be his son."
"That's correct, Mistress Baxter, and people do say that we're much alike. It must have been a good while ago that you knew him."
"It's been a quarter of a century, more or less, in Parramatta. He impressed me as the very finest of gentlemen, with a reserved manner. Your father isn't a man one can easily forget." She turned back to the house. "Bring Mr. Kerrick in, Catherine. He can meet your father and brothers when they get home, and then have dinner with the family."
Delighted by the unexpected turn of events, Jonathan smiled happily as he opened the gate and held it for Catherine. She was anything but displeased, a smile on her lovely face as they followed her mother up the path. In the modestly-furnished, but spotless, parlor, she seated him and brought in her younger sister to introduce her. A timid girl of seven, she quickly left to resume helping her mother in the kitchen.
A short time later, Catherine's father and brothers arrived home from work. Her father, Hiram Baxter, was an affable man in his early fifties, a shipwright who worked at a yard owned by the Underwood family. The three sons were all much younger than Catherine, the oldest about fifteen, and they were apprentices at the shipyard where their father worked.
It was a closely-knit, loving family, with no squabbling among the children, and Hiram obviously adored his wife. The placid, hard-working man was friendly toward Jonathan, talking with him in the parlor until dinnertime. During the conversation, he mentioned that he remembered Jonathan's father from years before, when they had both been at Newcastle.
When the meal was ready, the kitchen doubling as the dining room, the long, heavy table was crowded with platters of vegetables, fresh bread, a large pork roast and homemade beer. The food was expertly prepared and heartily delicious, and the youths ate with the single-minded concentration of ravenous appetites.
As Jonathan and the Baxters talked, it became evident that the Baxters had taken an entirely different approach in raising Catherine than with their other children. Her education was far above average for artisans' children, but her brothers had received only a basic education before being apprenticed. When it was mentioned, Auberta made a comment that indicated it had been through choice.
''Mothers love all of their children the same," she remarked, "but the first-born often receives more attention."
"It seems that way," Jonathan agreed. "It always appeared to me that my mother devoted more time to my brother, Morton."
"I've heard about your brother," Hiram said. "It didn't take him long to become one of the leading businessmen here. And I've read about your sheep station in the newspapers. Your father certainly has been successful as a grazier. Does he ever talk much about Newcastle?"
"No, I know very little about his life as a young man. Whenever I've brought it up, he's always said that he put his past behind him and began a new life when he met my mother." Jonathan smiled, shrugging. "But I've heard my mother say that can't be done. According to her, each day is a brick in the house of a person's life."
"Your mother is correct," Auberta commented quietly.
Hiram laughed, shaking his head. "No, I must disagree with you and Jonathan's mother, my dear. I'm not ashamed of the fact that I came here as a convict, but I've done the same as Jonathan's father."
His wife's only reply was a silent smile, but it indicated that her opinion was unchanged. After the meal, the boys and their young sister attended to the dishes, and Jonathan and the adults went into the parlor. Not wanting to overstay his welcome, he made his farewells after an hour, thanking the Baxters gratefully for their hospitality.
Seeing him out, Catherine walked down the path in the moonlight with him. "This has been a most pleasant evening," he told her as they stopped at the gate. "It's been an evening that I'll never forget."
"It was very pleasant for me as well, Jonathan, and my mother and father certainly enjoyed it. My mother told me that you would be welcome to have dinner with us again tomorrow, if you wish."
"I'd like nothing better, but I don't want to impose."
"It won't be an imposition. I trust, though, that your cousins haven't arranged engagements that you would find more entertaining."
"Nothing can compare to how much I enjoy your company, Catherine. I could say far more, but I don't think I should yet."
With the moon shining on her beautiful face and catching glints in her gleaming black hair, she silently smiled at him and then went back up the path. Jonathan closed the gate and set out across town toward the Hammond home, his steps light with joy.
Four days later, having spent every evening with Catherine and her family, Jonathan knew with absolute certainty that he loved her and would never be content until she was his wife. It seemed favorable, because Catherine was apparently strongly drawn to him, and her parents liked him. But he speculated that they might expect him to settle in or near Sydney if he and Catherine were married. Asking her to make her life in the outback could possibly bring an unfavorable reaction from her, her parents, or both.
Time was also a problem, because he had planned to spend no more than a week or so in Sydney. The time had slipped away as he visited Dierdre every day at her school, occasionally saw Morton briefly, and attended to station affairs. When those affairs were completed, which would take another four or five days at most, his parents expected him to set out for the station with the supplies that were needed there. Even if
Catherine agreed to be his wife and go with him, there was far too little time for a wedding.
After another evening at the Baxter home, Jonathan discussed plans for the next day with Catherine as they walked to the gate. The following day was Saturday, and the school closed for the weekend. Jonathan wanted hours of privacy with Catherine to talk with her, and he suggested that they go for a long drive, to Parramatta and beyond.
"I can get a buggy from the livery stable where I'm keeping the horses," he added. "It should be a pleasant outing."
"Yes, it should. Shall I prepare a lunch?"
"No, let's find a place where we can build a fire, and I'll prepare a stockman's meal. That'll be something new for you, won't it?"
"Indeed it will," she agreed, laughing. "Very well, Jonathan."
"I've obtained permission from Dierdre's school for her to have dinner at my uncle's home Sunday evening. Would you like to come to dinner then? My aunt and uncle would like to meet you, as would Dierdre."
"Yes, I will, Jonathan. I'd like to meet them as well."
Stopping at the gate, she stood invitingly close to him. As he put his arms around her and bent down to kiss her, the magnetism between them drew them into a passionate embrace. She clung to him for a moment, then pulled away and walked toward the house. With the sweet taste of her lips still on his as he went out the gate and down the street, Jonathan was euphorically happy. But he also wondered if the next day, when he asked her to spend the rest of her life at Tibooburra Station as his wife, she would consent to marry him only if they remained in Sydney.
The next morning, when he drew the buggy up in front of her home and she came down the path, his certainty that he could live nowhere but in the outback wavered. Her dress, expensive but unadorned as usual, was a pale green muslin that brought out the shimmering emerald of her eyes. With a smile on her lovely face and the sunshine highlighting the thick, raven hair arranged under her hat, she was so bewitchingly beautiful that no sacrifice seemed too great if she would be his wife.
A team of young, spirited horses hitched to the light buggy moved swiftly through the town and up the road flanking the Parramatta River. The weather was sunny, but a fresh breeze dispelled the torrid heat of early January, making the day balmy. The conversation with Catherine was as lively as usual, and Jonathan knew they were meant to be together.
Looking at the cooking utensils and bag of foodstuffs behind the seat, Catherine commented jokingly on the quantity of things for a single meal. "There might be more," he replied in the same tone. "Perhaps I've brought enough for a good while, and I intend to take you away."
Catherine laughed, then fell silent and looked out over the countryside with a reflective smile. Just as he was going to pursue the subject in more serious terms, she asked him about the station affairs he had been attending to in town. He told her about the things he had bought, along with a wagon to transport them, then the conversation moved on to other topics.
It was market day in Parramatta, farmers from the surrounding area having brought livestock, produce, and handicrafts to barter and sell. On the main street, Jonathan held the horses to a slow walk, picking a path through the congestion of vehicles and people. At the other end of the village, the last houses fell behind, and the road was deserted.
Never having been beyond Parramatta before, Catherine looked around in interest as the buggy moved down the road. With private land on both sides, Jonathan drove to the river. A few yards from the bridge, a narrow track opened on the left side of the road which Jonathan turned onto. The track led through the edge of thick trees flanking the river, and a few minutes later, coming to a grassy opening where the horses could graze, he stopped the buggy and helped Catherine out.
When the horses were unhitched and grazing, Jonathan took a blanket and the other things out of the buggy. As he searched about for stones to place around the fire, he found a circle of large stones and the rotted remains of a bark hut where someone had camped decades before. He spread the blanket beside the rocks, then gathered firewood.
Enjoying the novelty of cooking over a fire, Catherine sat on the blanket and helped Jonathan. He had bought thick slices of choice cured bacon, fresh vegetables, a bottle of Camden Park wine, fruit preserves, mustard pickle, and dark, rich treacle bread bottled by Crosse & Blackwell in London. Catherine commented that the foodstuffs were very lavish, reminding Jonathan that they had intended to have a stockman's meal.
"It won't be entirely typical," he admitted, laughing. "But stockmen don't have the company at meals that I do, either."
Catherine smiled, asking how the station was organized. Jonathan explained that it was divided into paddocks which had acquired names over the years. Some, such as Quandong and Gidgee, had the Aborigine names of plants or terrain features. In other instances, incidents had provided names. A head stockman named Daniel Corbett had been killed by a wild boar in Boar Paddock, and Bushranger Paddock was where three outlaws had been killed.
"Do very many bushrangers venture into the outback?" she asked.
"No, there was only one time when any of them were at the station. I know nothing more than that about it, because it happened years before I was born, and Mother and Dad never talk about it. What we're seeing more and more of during recent years are swagmen."
"What do they do?"
Jonathan explained that swagmen were footloose wanderers who roamed the tracks from one sheep station to another. At each one, because of the hospitality code of the outback, they were given lodgings for the night and enough rations to last them until they reached the next station. They would do odd jobs and help when grass fires and other calamities occurred, but other than that, they were always gone with the sunrise.
When the food was cooked, Catherine served it as Jonathan opened the wine. It was delicious, but to Jonathan, sitting beside the fire with Catherine in the forest glade made it the most enjoyable meal of his life. He continued talking about the station and the outback, reserving until later one fact that he had waited for days to tell her.
After they finished eating, comfortably full and relaxed from the rich, flavorful meal, he emptied the bottle into their pannikins. As they sipped the wine, Jonathan told her what he had thought about on the first day he had walked home with her from the school. He explained that there were several families at the station as a number of the stockmen were married.
"All together," he continued, "there are about a dozen children. For years, my parents have wanted to get a qualified teacher for them."
Catherine lifted her eyebrows, smiling. "Are you offering me a position as a teacher there, Jonathan?" she asked.
"No," he replied, putting his pannikin aside. He took hers and placed it with his, then put an arm around her and pulled her close. "I'm begging you to take the position of my wife there. I realize we haven't known each other very long, but I couldn't love you more if I'd known you all my life. And as much as I love you, I can't help but believe that you must feel something for me. Please say that you'll marry me, Catherine."
She looked down at her hands on her lap as he spoke, a smile that came from deep within her flowering into a blushing radiance on her beautiful face. "I love you as well, Jonathan," she whispered softly. Lifting her head, she turned to him. "And, yes, I'll marry you."
Joy exploding within him, he clasped her in his arms and kissed her, then moved his lips over her face. "What will your parents say?" he asked. "Will they object to your going so far away?"
"I trust not," she sighed. "I love them, and I want their blessing. But I will go regardless, because I love you most of all."
His happiness soaring to dizzying heights, he had to restrain himself from using the full strength of his arms as he pulled her closer and kissed her again. She used no restraint, her fingers pushing up the sides of his face and tugging his hair as they combed through it. Locking her arms tightly around his neck, she lifted herself and pushed him back onto the blanket. Then she lay across him as they kissed, her body
pressing against his.
The fiery spirit that drove her moods flared into passion, and his joy ignited his raging desire. Her open mouth was damp and warm against his lips. As her hair came loose, spilling down over his face in thick, fragrant tresses, she pushed her hands inside his shirt and moved them over his chest. Unfastening her clothes and pulling them down, he caressed her soft, smooth shoulders and then the yielding firmness of her breasts.
Moments later, their clothes cast to one side, they clasped together on the blanket in a pulsing frenzy of lovemaking. Her fingers digging into his shoulders and back, she arched to meet him as her soft cries joined the chattering of the birds in the canopy of foliage. The demanding submission of her lithe, slender body enfolded him in numbing rapture, and together they exploded in spasms of ecstasy.
Passion gave way to affection and mutual gratitude as they lay in each other's arms, her heart beating against his. When she shivered in the cool, damp air off the river, he pulled the edge of the blanket over her. "No, put wood on the fire," she told him, pushing the blanket away. Then she smiled and blushed furiously in embarrassment, covering her eyes with her hand as he sat up and looked at her. "I'm shameless, but only for you, Jonathan."
Her naked body was more poignantly beautiful than the masterwork of a supremely skilled sculptor. He caressed her, then pulled her hand away from her eyes and kissed them. "You're the most wonderful, most lovely woman in the world. And I'm the most fortunate man."
She smiled at him, resting her head on her arm. "I feel the same, so we're both fortunate, Jonathan. I trust your parents will like me."
He tossed wood on the fire as he assured her they would, knowing his mother and father would be delighted with her. They discussed marriage plans, agreeing to have the wedding as soon as possible. Jonathan knew that the most simple of weddings, with the posting of the banns, would take at least three weeks. While that presented a problem, he said nothing to her about it, determined to resolve it.
Outback Station Page 35
