It was Carolan she liked though. Not Esther. Mealy mouthed, that was Esther. Carolan, she fondly supposed, was something of what she herself had been at that age.
"Thieving was something I never could abide," she said.
"I wouldn't have thought you would have been sent out for thieving; you don't look the kind. Still, you are here now and I don't mind telling you you are the dead spit of what I was at your age. I was married then though; we had our little shop. There I was. ladling out the sugar; we used to make love behind the sacks of flour. Funny it was when customers come in. I can laugh at it now. Look here, you see that whip hanging over the mantel? That's for them that can't do as I say, do you see? Do you see?" she asked Esther.
She looked with disfavour on Esther. Thin! Lovely hair though. Not one for the men. and the men wouldn't be for her either, because men were for those who liked them, and she didn't blame them for that!
Jin, the parlourmaid, was a good-looking girl of the gipsy type. She had flashing black eyes and vital, black, curling hair; in her ears she wore brass ear-rings, and she had tied a piece of string about the waist of her yellow frock to accentuate the smallness of her waist and the line of the bosom above.
"Now Jin here," said Margery, and her voice took on a note almost of reverence as she spoke, "Jin was transported for attempted murder. She stabbed her lover. Mind you, I wouldn't say but what he deserved it; he was carrying on with somebody else right under her very nose, so she stabbed him. Now I was never a one for violence myself and a good deal I had to put up with particularly from my pedlar! He would go take his pack into a house, and, given half a chance, he'd take advantage of the lady of the house in the twinkling of an eye and scarce say thank you.
There was a man to take up with, and mad he could make me, but I trust I'm a woman who can control herself. Still. I understand Jin.”
Jin eyed both Carolan and Esther from under lowered brows. She was sullen, not inclined to be friendly.
"Jin's got a mighty temper, she has!" chuckled Margery.
"Show 'em what you carries around with you, Jin!”
Jin did not answer, and Margery pulled at her skirt and chuckled throatily.
"Where do you keep it today, Jin? In your pocket, eh? There it is; take a look at it. She carries that knife around with her. and she'd as like bring it out as look at you. That's what gipsy blood does for you. I know. I knew a gipsy once; he come to out door, a fine-looking man, flash as they made "em. Baskets he had for sale, and he asked me to cross his hand with silver.
"Lady," he says, "there's a dark man coming into your life. You are going to be glad of this dark man, lady!" And believe me, I was ... curate's being a bit tame now and then. Talk about temper, he'd got one. They was encamped near the cottage for days. I saw a lot of him.
And his wife carried a knife around, just like Jin. You've got to keep clear of people what carries knives. I'm not so sure of what Mr.
Masterman mightn't say if he was to know you carried that knife around.”
"I ain't hurting no one," muttered Jin.
"It's my knife, ain't it?”
"No!" said Margery.
"It ain't. It's Mr. Masterman's. Everything here is Mr. Masterman's.
You and Poll and these two here. Why, if he liked...”
"I did not know," said Carolan, 'that he had bought us body and soul.”
Margery rocked backwards and forwards, laughing.
"Don't it make you laugh, Jin? The way she talks, eh? Body and soul!
Tell you who she reminds me of? The mistress. Talks just like that, the mistress does. And every time I looks at the -poor lady I says to myself: "Poor Mr. Masterman!" You would think ... but there you are, men is funny creatures, no mistake. Well Miss, do you think we're going to suit your ladyship here? Speak up, lady. We've got to suit you, haven't we; now whether you was to suit us, that ain't no importance at all, it ain't!”
"Well," said Carolan, 'you asked for my opinion; I have given it.”
"I say, Jin, I do like to hear her talk. You'd think she was out for politics, not thieving. Here, you! Why don't you say something?”
"What do you want me to say?" asked Esther.
"How do you like us?”
"I... I think I am going to like it here.”
"This is good, this is! A pair of "em! Now my curate, he spoke soft and gentle just like her... but soft and gentle, rough as you like, they're all the same between the sheets. That's men for you! Women's the same, I bet! Where's Poll? Poll! Polly! Come here and meet your new friends.”
Poll came from the sink, wiping her hands. She was very thin and pale and ugly; her nose was large, her eyes small, and her mouth was crooked; her teeth were uneven and brown.
"Poor Poll," said Margery.
"She come from the workhouse and was took advantage of. She murdered her baby; that's why she's here.”
Poll started to cry.
"Now, don't snivel, Poll," said Margery sharply.
"And it was your own fault for getting took advantage of. Come here and meet her ladyship. What do we call your ladyship, eh?”
"My name is Carolan Haredon.”
"Really now! Are you sure it ain't Lady Carolan Haredon?”
"Quite sure.”
"A pity. I'd have liked to have a ladyship in my kitchen.”
When Margery heard Esther's story, she was a little more pleased with her.
"But you shouldn't have been cruel to the young gent, my love! That's why you got to Newgate ... being cruel. Why, if you'd done what the young man wanted, you might have been ladying it in London Town instead of working in a Sydney basement.”
So much for life in the basement. It was not so easy to know what went on in the upper part of the house. Mr. Masterman was engaged in much business. He owned several stations, but that strip of country shut in on one side by the Blue Mountains and on the other by a great ocean had not proved such rich and fertile land as the first settlers had hoped it would. While the mountains remained an impenetrable barrier, the activities of pioneers on land must necessarily be restricted, and Mr.
Masterman was not the sort to endure restrictions. At one time he had taken a schooner to the Bass Strait Islands and done very well out of the venture, returning with many sealskins and tons of oil; but these did not attract him as the land did. He kept an interest in the sealing business, but did not himself go again to sea. He arranged for the putting up of houses and other buildings; he dabbled in the politics of the town, and was a friend and supporter of the influential John MacArthur. though he managed to keep clear of the man's quarrels with Governor King. He was clever and alert, a pioneer who had come to this country, not in the grip of the law, but in that of his own relentless and dynamic ambition. A new country had been discovered; he wanted to write his name boldly at the head of its history, side by side with that of Phillip, that man of genius and such patience who was the real founder of the colony and had brought out the first fleet; he wanted to write it beside that of MacArthur, him whom they called Kingmaker. There was little cruelty in his house; the lash was hardly ever used. But to him, Carolan was sure, the convicts were not people; they were merely a cheap and convenient form of getting labour. He had convicts on his sheep farms, convicts building roads and houses. Cheap convict labour was one of those stepping stones which were helping Gunnar Masterman to glory. But much of this was conjecture on Carolan's part, built up from scraps of conversation chiefly with Margery, the talkative, who saw all men through amorous eyes.
"Poor man," said Margery, 'with that sickly wife of his! And not a son, nor yet a daughter to call his own. And him not the man to go around whoring. And her. with her room all to herself ... Poor Mr.