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
‘The good news is you can go down from the top and follow the reef without the need to construct an adit—at least not for a while.’ Penrose paused. ‘I have some money saved. I would like to put it into the mine … if you’ll have me as a partner.’
Caleb looked at his friend. ‘Penrose, you need every penny.’
‘But I have faith in the Shenandoah. Sometimes you have to take a risk, Hunt, and I am prepared to take a risk on this.’
Caleb nodded. ‘I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring into this enterprise. Adelaide and I are going down to Melbourne on tomorrow’s coach. We’ve some legal matters to sort out. Let’s talk when I get back.’
The two men clasped hands and Caleb retired to his surgery.
Caleb stood at the surgery window, watching as Penrose crossed the road, returning to his uncle’s mine. He pulled out the little nugget of gold and turned it over in his fingers.
Enough for a ring, Penrose had said.
Forty-Two
Forty-Two
Melbourne
23 February 1872
Caleb tugged at his best, but decidedly shabby, scarlet and gold waistcoat and Adelaide tightened her grip on his arm. She had reverted to her best black dress trimmed with jet beads but it was sadly outmoded and frayed around the hem. Adelaide had insisted they stay at the Menzies Hotel over Caleb’s protestations about the expense and now he wondered if she regretted that decision. They did not suit the rarefied atmosphere of Melbourne’s best hotel with its pristine white linen, gold-trimmed plasterwork and waiters with silver platters moving on silent feet.
The maître d’ of the Menzies’ dining room looked the hotel’s two guests up and down, his waxed moustache twitching with disapproval as he led them to a table in a dark corner near the kitchen. As they passed, the other diners, mostly dressed in evening dress or something very close, hid smiles behind hands or turned their attention to their soup bowls.
‘I feel like a country hick come to town,’ Caleb muttered after the waiter had swept the large linen napkins from the table and placed them across their knees.
Adelaide smiled, reaching across the table for his hand. ‘You are,’ she said. ‘Tomorrow we will visit the lawyer and I will see to cashing the banker’s draft. Then we’ll go shopping. We both need new clothes and there is an excellent gentleman’s outfitters in Collins Street.’
They gave their orders to the waiter and as the man glided away, Caleb took a breath and coughed. On the long uncomfortable coach ride from Shady Creek he had been brooding on this strange new situation he found himself in and he had concluded that if they were to be wed, he believed they needed to be honest from the start.