Olga - A Daughter's Tale Read Online Free Page A

the city where women and children come down from the hillside, virtually every day, sometimes with donkeys and mules but more often, carrying baskets on their heads, laden with vegetables, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, pimento, annatto, honey, bananas, ackee, spices, ropes of tobacco and whatever else they have grown and set themselves up with a stall and sell their provisions to the local people. Martha likes to go to the Constant Spring Hotel where I suspect she’s taken a fancy to James McTavis, the manager.
    It has been good to have them both here. Martha’s demeanour has changed since she has been in Jamaica probably because she is happy and has been enjoying herself. I think she is considering settling here and it is understandable, Martha has seen that she can have a standard of living and a way of life she cannot equal in London and her skills with a needle will help her find employment on the island so, who knows, it may work well for her.

    Last night : News reached me that Becky and Martha were returning to “Mon Repose” after visiting friends at Mount James and involved in an accident with the horse and buggy they were travelling in. One of the horses slipped under the trace whilst going down the hill and the hind legs of the horse, nearest to the edge of a precipice, slid down the descent and pulled the other horse and buggy down the precipice also. Neither Becky, Martha or the driver had any time to get out of the buggy and they too went, about 36 feet, down the cliff.
    Some people, who lived nearby, saw the accident occur and gave the alarm with the result that help was soon on the scene and the girls and driver were rescued. The two horses were uninjured but the buggy was completely smashed up. Becky and Martha and the driver were taken to a house nearby which was owned by a Mrs Nutall and who very kindly arranged for her buggy to bring the girls back to “Mon Repose”. Although they have not sustained any life threatening injuries, they were severely battered, bruised and are in a state of shock. Our doctor will visit them this evening.

    ******

    Telegram from Lucy Sinclair, “Mon Repose”, Jamaica
    to
    Samuel and Harriet Ross, Droop Street, Paddington, London

    BECKY AND MARTHA INVOLVED IN BUGGY ACCIDENT. NO LIFE THREATENING INJURIES. DOCTOR ADVISES GIRLS DO NOT UNDERTAKE JOURNEY BACK TO ENGLAND UNTIL THEY ARE FEELING BETTER. PLEASE ADVISE THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY LANE, MARTHA’S RETURN DELAYED. LOVE LUCY.

    ******

Chapter Five

Becky’s Diary

    Strange Folklore : Lucy and John have a baby boy and they’ve named him Bobbie. Lucy say’s it was the shock of hearing about our recent accident that hastened his arrival. I’m amazed that Lucy wasn’t attended by her own doctor but instead by a black woman called Ernestine who has no nursing qualifications although is well know in the area for having delivered scores of babies, black, white and coloured.
    “I was in good hands Becky. Ernestine gave me some herbs which helped me relax and, believe me Becky, I’ve been long enough in Jamaica to know that old women like her understand how and when to use herbs that grow naturally in Jamaica and I was happy to take whatever medicine she prescribed”.
    According to Lucy it was a straightforward birth, long and painful, but bearable and both Lucy and little Bobbie are fine. I’ve learnt a lot about Jamaica’s history and culture in a short space of time, but Rosa, one of Lucy’s servants, gave me a severe shock a few days after Bobbie was born.
    I was lying on the lawn in the back garden, enjoying the warmth of the sun on my body, inhaling the heady scent of the flowers and listening to the hum of the bees as they flew between the flowers when, suddenly, Rosa came running into the garden shattering the stillness of the afternoon and I noticed that she was holding something.
    Whatever it was Rosa wasn’t very happy about it, running with her arms outstretched and holding her head back and tilted to one