Dorothy Eden Read Online Free Page B

she was behaving like someone who had been denied conversation for a long time.
    She could hear rustles and whispers on the stairs. It must be the Kelly children wanting to have a peep at the new arrival. The children who had thoughtfully put the frangipani on her dressing-table.
    But the sweet smell and the heat were making her feel a little suffocated. The day had already held too much. She had a scarcely formed thought that if the first sight of Gilbert had filled her with unmitigated joy she would not have been so aware of the other things. The sickening glare of the sun, the dust, the rawness of the town, the ragged children, that shattering glimpse of a chain gang.
    On her first day she had hoped and expected to be aware of nothing but the pleasure of her reunion with Gilbert.
    Letters and absence, she realized, were dangerous things. They led to dreams that were too euphoric and unrealistic. She simply hadn’t expected Gilbert to have taken on the colour of his surroundings the way he had.
    ‘You’re a very fortunate young lady, do you know that?’ Mrs Kelly was saying. ‘No bride ever had more preparations made for her. Have you brought a wonderful wedding gown?’
    Eugenia shook her head. ‘No, it’s very simple. I thought a too elaborate one would be out of place.’ She tried to sound gay and excited, since this friendly woman obviously expected her to. ‘But I have a veil of Brussels lace that my grandmother and then my mother, and last year my sister Jessica wore. I have to send it back for my sister Sarah, though I am not so sure she will marry, she’s very serious and studious. But there’s still Elizabeth and Milly to come after her.’
    ‘Five girls! My, your mother must be pleased to find husbands for you, even if you had to come all the way to Australia.’
    There was no had to about it, Eugenia thought indignantly. But she remembered being surprised that Mamma and Papa had agreed so readily when Gilbert had made his request. She had thought they might have protested about this impetuous young man, of whom they knew very little, planning to carry their daughter off to such an impossible place. But they had emphasized how much they had liked his vitality and his ambitiousness.
    She herself had always known that in Gilbert’s mind she was inextricably associated with the dinner party at Uncle Henri’s chateau. He had seen her through the euphoria produced by her uncle’s vintage wine. She was part of a set piece, and therefore an essential figure in his ambition. She had wanted to be this, and still did, in spite of their somewhat uneasy meeting today. But she had to smile a little, for if she had been secretly dismayed by his sunburnt earthy appearance, what had he thought of her, wind-blown, semi-speechless, with a sunburnt nose? That was not the elegant poised young woman of the French dinner party. Had he been disappointed?
    If so, he had gallantly hidden his feelings. That was kind and thoughtful of him, and prognosticated well for the future. When her bags had arrived, and she had bathed and changed and rested, and perhaps begun a letter to Sarah, she would feel more composed. The letter-writing to Gilbert in a far-off country which had been a balm and a release would now have to be done in reverse, with her dearly loved sister Sarah as the recipient.
    Mrs Kelly did finally leave her, though not before three bashful children had been brought to meet her. They were plain sunburnt freckled children, the youngest a toddler, and a fourth, said Mrs Kelly, lying in the graveyard. The summer heat was hard on little ones.
    As always, Eugenia’s spirit calmed when she took up her pen.
Sydney, 18th June 1830
    Dearest Sarah,
    I am supposed to be resting before dinner, but I am talking to you so busily in my head, that I might just as well put my remarks on paper.
    I have arrived and safely disembarked from the Caroline. Strange as it may seem, I was sorry to leave the ship as I had grown quite fond