Alley Urchin Read Online Free Page A

brilliantly coloured birds, and even camels brought in from the desert countries. Most were friendly, but there were those which were not, such as certain snakes and spiders. Also a number of the dark-skinned natives whose resentment of the white man’s intrusion on their shores was not entirely appeased. And everywhere the nostrils were assailed by the fresh pungent smell of the sea, so marked as to be almost a taste on the tongue.
    Intent on appearing friendly towards a group of aborigines, two of whom were dressed in their traditional kangaroo-skin boukas – the other, a young male, wearing European trousers – Emma was startled by Nelly’s jubilant cry as her attention was drawn in another direction. ‘Look at that . . . the buggers are naked!’ Whereupon she gripped Emma by the arm and propelled her in the direction of Bathers Bay. ‘They’re naked, I tell yer . . . bare as the day they were born. We’ve got to get a closer look, gal!’ she told Emma in an excited voice, her brown eyes laughing, mischievously. ‘It’s been a while since I saw a fella in all his prime an’ glory!’
    Sure enough, Nelly was right. As Emma stared in the direction in which Nelly was rushing her at great speed, she too saw the group of swimmers in Bathers Bay. There must have been upwards of ten men, all shouting and frolicking one with the other, and all stark naked!
    ‘Nelly!’ Emma forced them both to a halt. ‘We can’t go down there. You can’t go down there.’ She saw the defiance in Nelly’s eyes that told her the temptation was much too great to resist, and to hell with the consequences. Yet Emma was equally adamant that they would about-turn and make off in the opposite direction. ‘Don’t be a fool, Nelly,’ she told her. ‘You were warned that if you were brought before the Governor just once more, you’d be thrown in the lockup.’ By this time the men had seen them, and had grown even more excited and rowdy. ‘Come on, girlies . . . take a look, we don’t mind,’ one of them yelled, clambering from the water and brazenly displaying himself. Whereupon the others laughed encouragement that they ‘needn’t be shy.’
    In a minute, Emma had succeeded in dragging the reluctant Nelly away and out of sight of the bathers. ‘Cor, bugger me, gal,’ protested Nelly, ‘it wouldn’t have hurt to watch from a safe distance.’ Emma made no comment. Instead, she hurried towards South Bay. Once there, she sat down in the sand, with Nelly sitting cross-legged beside her, irritatedly clutching up fists full of sand and throwing it into the air, where the light breeze caught it and deposited it back into their laps.
    After a while, when Nelly’s attention was taken with the lapping of the water against the sand, Emma lay back, settled herself comfortably and closed her eyes. Of a sudden she was back in England, and her heart was gladdened by warm, if painful, memories. The image of Marlow filled her being and she was standing beside him on the colourful barge which had been his home. Oh, how plainly she could see him: that strong lithe body so often stretched to breaking point in his labours at the docks. In her mind’s eye, Emma ran her fingers through his thick dark hair. She lovingly returned the smile from those black passionate eyes which had always seemed to see right into her very soul. Now his arms were about her. His warm tantalising mouth brushed her hair, her ears and, in one exquisite moment, he was kissing her with such ardour that made her tremble. With a shock, Emma sat up to find that, even in the heat of the evening sun, she was shivering violently. Both Nelly and she had been disturbed by an intruder.
    When that intruder stepped forward, it was with a feeling of disgust that Emma recognised the tall handsome figure of Foster Thomas. He was not alone. Quickly, Emma got to her feet. ‘What do you want?’ she demanded, at the same time shaking the sand from her skirt and casting her angry grey