Chapters (53)
- Cover
- About Alison Stuart
- Also by Alison Stuart
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Preview of The Goldminer's Sister
As Posy busied herself with fish, she said, ‘You’ll not have heard the news?’
‘What news?’
‘Mrs Greaves is going to marry her English suitor.’
Caleb paused in the act of pulling off his boots. ‘Is she?’
‘It would be so lovely if they got married here, but no, they are going to Melbourne and then leaving for England.’
‘How do you know all this?’
Posy crouched down beside the fire and set the skillet to heat. ‘Emmy, the housemaid at The Empress overheard Mr Barnwell telling Mrs Riordan and Emmy told Betsy who works at the Britannia and Betsy told me.’
That meant the whole town knew.
After Posy served supper, she gathered up her belongings. ‘Can you smell smoke?’ she asked as she opened the front door.
Caleb sniffed the hot, heavy air. Overlaying the odours of Maiden’s Creek itself he could detect the scent of smoky eucalyptus, stronger than it had been on the previous days. ‘Yes. Down at the Italian settlement they said there’s fire in the mountains to the north of us.’
‘Will it come here?’
‘They reckon the weather will break soon.’ They had also said that if a hot northerly wind blew up, nothing would stop a fire raging through the tinder-dry woodland, but he saw no point in concerning Posy with that knowledge.
Alone in the darkening evening, Caleb leaned back in his chair and pulled his pipe and tobacco pouch from his waistcoat pocket. A crumpled paper came with it.
He tapped the bowl of his pipe on the table as he stared at the paper. What right did he have to interfere in Adelaide’s life? He didn’t know what Barnwell had told her and maybe—perhaps—he had advised her of the contents of the solicitor’s letter? Was that why she had been so quick to accept his proposal? It would guarantee her and Danny a life that Caleb could never have given them.
He lit his pipe and poured another beer as he opened the ledger and recorded the day’s events.
Maria Capelli, aged 2 years and 3 months, sustained serious burns when a pan of boiling water fell on her. Patient was still alive on my arrival and I saw her immersed in cold water. She has severe burns to her body and right hand and arm and was in great pain. A light dose of laudanum eased her suffering and she was asleep when I left. I will return in the morning.
Caleb blotted his writing and closed the book with a thump. The cold, clinical recitation of the facts did not record the depth of Maria’s mother’s guilt and grief or that of the other family members. If little Maria survived, she would be scarred for life, but the invisible scars would run deeper.