scheme to add to the tiny settlement and subtract from the big and overburdened one.
When Major Ross sent for him on the last day of September, Richard knew what he was going to say. He had not long turned forty years old and every birthday since his thirty-sixth had been spent in a different place- Gloucester Gaol, Ceres hulk, Alexander and New South Wales. He would go somewhere else before he turned one- and-forty, though this was sooner than he had expected. In a few weeks he would be at Norfolk Island. Nothing surer.
“Ye’ve worked wonders with Private Stanfield, Morgan,” said the Lieutenant-Governor, “and ye’ve left us with two trained saw sharpeners as well. I had thought of sending Stanfield to Norfolk Island, but he is concerned for the welfare of Mistress Harmsworth and her children, and I am obliged to consider not only my marines, but also their wives, widows and dependents. Stanfield will stay here and continue with the muskets. Ye’ll go to Norfolk Island as a sawyer, saw sharpener and gunsmith. Lieutenant King has informed His Excellency that his only skilled sawyer has drowned. While ye’re not a skilled sawyer, Morgan, I have no doubt ye’ll soon pick up the art. Ye’re that sort of man. I have told Lieutenant King in my own despatches that ye’ll be an asset to Norfolk Island.” The thin lips stretched in a sour smile. “As well that
“May I take my wife, sir?” Richard asked.
“I am afraid not. There are no vacant berths for women-His Excellency has given me a list of the women who will be going. I have Blackall from Alexander in mind as another sawyer because I suspect ye’ll have a lot of sharpening to do. Our building timber for Port Jackson is coming from Norfolk Island until we can find a proper source of limestone to use stone or brick. The local timber is impossible, whereas the beams and planks Supply has brought back with her are ideal. Supply had a very rough voyage and has to be laid up, which is why Golden Grove has been commissioned to drop ye off at Norfolk Island.”
“May I take my tools with me?”
Ross looked offended. “His Majesty’s Government of New South Wales is not empowered to deprive ye of a single nail or stocking,” he said stiffly. “Take
Private Daniel Stanfield was absorbed in a Brown Bess, did not look up when Richard entered the tent.
“Mr. Stanfield,” Richard said.
That made him jump. “Ah! Ye’re to Norfolk Island.”
“Aye, and have been ordered to take every tool and item I own, for which I am sorry. Major Ross assures me that ye’ll be able to continue out of Government issue.”
“Indeed I will,” said Stanfield cheerfully. He got to his feet and held out his hand. “I thank ye, Richard, for your generosity and time. And I am sorry it has to be you who goes. If it were not for poor Mistress Harmsworth, I would welcome the change.”
Richard shook the hand warmly. “I hope we meet again, Daniel.”
“Oh, I fancy that we will. I am not of a mind to go home in a hurry. Nor is Mistress Harmsworth. Sooner or later there will be plenty of food, we both believe that. As a private of marines I would be lucky to end my career as a sergeant, so life in England upon retirement would be hard. Whereas here I have the opportunity to be a landowner once my three years are expired, and I can farm. Looking twenty years into the future, I believe I will be better off in New South Wales than in England,” said Daniel Stanfield. He began to help Richard pack his tool chest. “When does your sentence end?”
“March of 1792.”
“Then in all probability ye’ll finish your time at Norfolk Island. Where,” said Stanfield, making sure a cork was tied down thoroughly, “I am undoubtedly going to be sent at some time or other before I am through. Major Ross does not intend to have any marines permanently stationed on the island, we will all do our turns. Which is why I have to persuade Mistress Harmsworth to marry me before I am posted there.”
“She would be foolish to turn ye down, Daniel. However, if history continues as it has with me,” Richard said, adjusting the lint wadding, “by the time ye’re sent to Norfolk Island the Crown will have developed another settlement elsewhere in this vast place and I will have been sent there.”
“Not for some years at least,” said the young marine emphatically. “Those here have first to prove that settling Englishmen so far away will succeed. Especially because few of them wanted to come or had any choice. The Governor is determined not to fail, but there are many others not very junior to him who do not feel the same.” His fine, light grey eyes looked at Richard very directly. “I take it that this conversation will not go any further?”
“Not from my mouth,” said Richard. “There is nothing wrong here that could not have been solved before we set sail. Whatever the official attitudes are here, it is lack of planning and specific orders in London to blame. And the rivalries between naval officers and marine officers.”
“In a nutshell.” Stanfield smiled.
Richard drew a breath and put the welfare of his back in Daniel Stanfield’s hands. “The Major is a curious mixture,” he said.
“That he is. He sees his commissioned duties as any marine major would, and disapproves of duties which don’t contribute to the well-being of the Corps or marines’ pockets. So he will let those of us with a trade work as carpenters or masons or smiths, but he will not countenance his officers serving on criminal courts because they are not paid for the extra duty. The Governor insists that it is every man’s duty to do whatever the Crown asks, and in New South Wales he is the Crown. Then there is Captain Hunter, who sides with the Governor for no other reason than that both are Royal Navy.” He shrugged. “It makes things very difficult.”
“Especially,” said Richard thoughtfully, “because ye’re more grown up than many of the officers, Daniel. They act like children-quarrel in their cups, fight duels-refuse to get on together.”
“How,” asked Stanfield, “d’ye know that, Richard?”
“In a place this size? With not many more than a thousand souls? We may be felons, Daniel, but we have eyes and ears the same as free men. And, no matter how low our status at the moment, all of us were born free Englishmen, even if some of us hail from Ireland or Wales. None from Scotland, where they do not use English judges.”
“Aye, that is another bone of contention. The majority of our officers are Scotchmen, whereas the sailors can be anything.”
“Let us hope,” said Richard, locking his chest, “that those who do remain in this place learn to bury the differences this place renders meaningless. Though I doubt that will happen.” He held out his hand a second time. “I wish ye luck.”
“And I you.”
The men were all home to dinner, which Lizzie cooked; had she only a few ingredients it would have been obvious that she was a good cook. As it was, the menu consisted of pease pottage to coat a kettle of rice. And a spoonful of sour crout each.
Richard put his tool box away and joined the circle around the fire; of wood for sawing there might be none, but of wood for burning there was plenty.
How to do it? How to tell them? Ought he to tell Lizzie in private? Yes, of course he had to tell her first, and in private, no matter how he dreaded the tears and protestations. She would assume he had asked not to take her with him.
He ate his food in silence, glad that no one had noticed him deposit the tool box in their belongings room. Of long experience they saved a little of the pease-and-rice for a cold breakfast, even though every one of them could have devoured the lot and still felt hungry.
How would they survive without him? Well enough, he thought; after eight months here, each of them has forged some kind of life for himself independent of the group. Only food and shelter keep them intact. The Government Stores men-and that is most-have excellent relationships with other convicts in Stores and with Lieutenant Furzer, and the others all sharpen together. If I worry about any of them, it is Joey Long, such a simple and easily led soul. I pray the rest watch out for him. As for Lizzie-she would survive the sinking of the Royal George. Mine has never been a push sort of leadership; they will hardly know I am gone, and maybe some of them will be glad to strike out on their own.
“Walk with me, Lizzie,” he said when the meal was over.
