A Crooked Rib Read Online Free

sound of a quarrel. As Lucy had said, the walls of Government House were no better than paper so I was able to distinguish, more clearly than I wished, every word of what passed between them.
    ‘You do nothing to elevate my position, Eliza. A wife should be a helpmeet to her husband, but you’re so young and silly — even the chiefs call you a mere child.’
    I heard the remembered note of defiance in Lucy’s voice. ‘I see you place the opinions of cannibal savages above those of your wife.’
    ‘It is not a wife’s duty to have opinions.’
    ‘But I would so much like to come with you. I could show Fanny something of the countryside. We could search out plant and flower species for my collection.’
    ‘I am engaged in attempting to subdue Te Rau-paraha and Te Rangi-hae-ata, and I must urgently speak with Octavius Hadfield in Wellington. I’m far too busy with official duties to allow you time to dally along the way for bushes and branches.’
    ‘But we shouldn’t delay you, I promise, and Fanny could see in what esteem the chiefs hold you. After all, many of the chiefs take their senior wives on visits with them. We’ve entertained them here at Government House.’
    ‘Really, Eliza, with every word you utter you display your ignorance of the workings of the world. Do you not realise we’re atwar? Men are falling every day in the service of Queen and Country, the tribes are engaged constantly in internecine strife, and yet you feel your own selfish needs must be considered above all of these.’
    ‘But when you’re away from me, I’m so uneasy until your return. And if I were to ride with you sometimes, we could share the burden of your duties.’
    ‘Nonsense. You have Miss Fanny with you now and it’s the lot of women to tend the home fires. I don’t hear Mrs Selwyn complaining when the Bishop must be abroad.’
    ‘Sarah Selwyn travels often with her husband.’ She paused. ‘And … and she has her children to occupy her while I—’
    The Governor’s tone was curt. ‘My dear Aunt Julia has no children but she has devoted herself to good works and literary matters. You should follow her example.’
    How sad, I thought, that in a mere six years their relations with each other have dwindled to this.
     
    ‘I find it strange to hear the Governor calling you Eliza.’
    ‘Only my husband and those people who have known us since we left England do so. Even George’s family didn’t address me that way at first. I dislike Eliza intensely.’
    ‘But then why does he …?’
    ‘About a year after we arrived in England, while we were staying at his stepfather’s house at Bodiam, an express messenger arrived from Lord John Russell offering my husband the governorship of South Australia. He went straight up to London, resigned his commission and accepted. And when he returned, he told me he considered Lucy too frivolous a name for a colonial administrator’s wife.’
    I spoke before I could stop myself. ‘How ridiculous. Why did you not say so?’
    ‘I was dismayed, I confess, but I felt … I believed that if it was his wish, I should agree. But, even now, I sometimes find myself turning about to see whom he is addressing.’
     
    Lucy and I sat together before the fire, listening to the howling of the wind.
    ‘I detest the way the slightest noise resounds through this dreadful wooden building,’ she said. ‘When we first landed, I hadn’t a single friend or acquaintance here. After six days we settled into this gloomy house and a day later, merely one week after our arrival, the Governor left me to ride north to the Bay of Islands and I had no idea when he might return. I lay in bed, feverish, with perfect strangers round me, listening to the horrible haunting sighings and creakings. I can’t tell you how much I longed to be back with you all in Albany.’
    ‘That was not a very happy beginning,’ I said cautiously. ‘And it has never been like you to be ill.’
    ‘It started when we were in