The Far Horizon Read Online Free Page B

I’m not a politician, I’m simply a soldier for goodness sake!’
    ‘Yes, and that’s why they need someone like you now, because it is the soldiers over there who have been causing all the trouble.’
    Balfour prised himself out of his chair and grunted. ‘Let’s have a drink and discuss this some more. I know by rights I should be feeling proud of you, my boy … all these top brass recommendations … but if you accept the post I shall be very sorry to see you go.’
    After an hour of discussing it in more detail, Balfour concluded, ‘Well, if nothing else, one fact still cheers me. If you do accept the post, you’ll be back in two years. No one ever stays there for long … it’s a rotten place by all accounts. And it’s a job for a strong man, a tough man. Are you that tough, Macquarie?’
    Lachlan shrugged. It mattered not whether he was tough enough or not, because he had no intention of accepting the posting, he would resign his commission first.
    ‘Well, dear boy, are you?’ Balfour persisted. ‘Tough enough to go to Hell and back in service of your king and country?’
    Lachlan shrugged again, disinterested, and lifting his cloak to leave. ‘What do you think, sir?’
    ‘I think you’re a splendid soldier and a fine man,’ Balfour admitted. ‘But that’s all I have to say now. In the end, of course, the decision must be yours.’
    *
    When Lachlan returned home, Elizabeth was anxiously waiting for him at the front door.
    ‘The dispatch – was it about a new posting? It was, wasn’t it?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘To India?’
    ‘No, but India would be like Heaven in comparison.’
    ‘To where?’ she demanded. ‘In comparison to where?’
    Inside the parlour Lachlan made Elizabeth sit down and then explained the contents of the dispatch to her, and the reasons behind it, in the same way Balfour had explained it to him.
    ‘As heads of the Army and the Navy, the Duke of York and his brother the Duke of Clarence are both in a state of great alarm due to a mutiny that has taken place in the British Colony of New South Wales, deposing the Governor, William Bligh.’
    ‘New South Wales?’
    ‘A mutiny by the soldiers of the New South Wales Corps,’ Lachlan continued.
    New South Wales … where on earth was that? Elizabeth wondered, but managed to keep silent while he went on.
    ‘The news of the mutiny has shocked the Admiralty; this being the second that Captain Bligh has suffered. First the mutiny on HMS Bounty , and now another mutiny in New South Wales.
    ‘They want Bligh replaced, and quickly.’
    ‘By you?’
    ‘It seems so. From what Balfour said, the Duke of York and his brother have decided that the custom of New South Wales being ruled by a succession of naval captains has become inappropriate for a place controlled solely by the military. The new Viceroy, therefore, should not be a naval commodore, but a military commander.’
    Elizabeth stared at him. `And they want you – as Viceroy?’
    ‘To be the new Governor-General.’
    ‘But Lachlan …’ Elizabeth had to stand up and walk around; this was all so unexpected. ‘First tell me … where is this New South Wales – is it in Wales?’
    ‘No, my love, it’s somewhere on the other side of the world.’
    Lachlan stood up and paused for a time to stare out of the window at the greenness of his own Scotland, still unable to believe that he had been asked to fill such a post.
    He turned back to Elizabeth and gave her a wry smile as he said, ‘You might have heard of the place by another name – Botany Bay.’
    ‘Botany Bay?’ No, Elizabeth had never heard of it … and then suddenly it came to her. ‘You mean, that place … where they are sending all the criminals?’
    ‘Yes, a penal settlement, a convict colony – so why would I, an active and serving soldier, want to go to a place like that? No more than I can understand why Arthur Wellesley and John Moore recommended me!’
    ‘Wellesley?’ Elizabeth had to sit down again.