She was empty, except for fear. Except for hope, a thin flame, like one carried in a bone. For when Mrs Drinkwater’s baby was born Mrs Flora would return to Overflow and Rose would go with her.

And somehow — even if her people had gone forever, even if she must walk alone forever and hers were the only footprints in the sand — she would leave these captors and be free.

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

An extremely useful ink

Crush mulberry or the fruit of an inkbush, strain out the juice, add a little cornflour, heat till thick. For a superior ink place 8fl oz mulberry juice in a pan with 3 egg yolks and 2tsp salt. Stir over low heat till it thickens.

OVERFLOW, 1878

MARIA

Maria carefully separated a bracket fungi from its branch. It was the size of her hand, striated and nibbled by weevils. She was fairly sure it was the fungi the native woman had been gathering when she’d come upon her five years before. They had communicated by gestures, but it had been enough. This fungi was burned to make bad thoughts calm again and to reduce pain.

She had tried burning a little of it, as she had been shown, in a precious moment of solitude. It smouldered with a thick, fragrant smoke, which did feel calming, though she had cautiously put it out almost at once, in case it induced sleep, like laudanum, and Ezekiel had discovered what she had been doing.

Flora’s arrival had put a stop to such experiments.

She missed Clementine with an almost physical ache, not just the small hands that reached up to ‘A’n Maria’ but the only joy on Overflow, laughter at cockatoos quarrelling for corn droppings, that wide gap-toothed smile at the sheer joy of life each time Maria led her outdoors into the bush that Clementine seemed as fascinated with as her aunt. She missed Clementine like a knife slash. Her arms had been empty for so long. Now they were empty again, with no small warm body to cuddle. And yet caring for the baby had added to her weariness.

At least now, for a while, with Flora in Sydney, Maria was free: free of conjuring the long meals the Ladies’ Own Companion decreed were essential for civilised life. Her father and brother were content with a stew or roast then syrup dumplings. Maria had enjoyed the chance to cook soups and jellies at first, but not the continuous labour that meant she had to rise before sun-up to find the ingredients, begin the meal preparation and do all the other work necessary before Flora expected her companionship.