‘After her!’ shouts the shop owner, based on nothing but her suspicion and her prejudice against Irish people, convicts, or both.
You realise as the soldier’s hand grabs your shoulder that you shouldn’t have run. It made you look guilty – which you are: guilty of escaping your master, abandoning your job, and forsaking your dear friend Sarah … although they don’t include that last bit in your sentence.
Soon, you find yourself behind the very same stone walls of the gaol that you rescued her from. And no one is coming to rescue you. Or so you think.
In this matter you have no choice. Go to scene 37.
You think of what a risk Sarah took for you today, going to Wapping to search for clues, despite it being such a dangerous area. Now that you have some leads on Da, the best thing to do is to wait patiently for a chance to use them.
You pick Bobby up off the rocks. ‘Let’s go,’ you say, wishing there was another way. But you’ve learned that to keep working, keep surviving, and be sensible is the only way to get by in Van Diemen’s Land.
You spend the whole trip home wishing you could turn back to Hobart Town and search for more clues, but only a week later, the answers come to you.
It is a hot January day. You are hanging out the washing when you hear a rustle in the trees. You hope that it’s Waylitja … but there’s no one there.
Soon afterwards, you are emptying the kitchen scraps onto the compost heap when you think you see a shadow flash by. Suddenly, your arms are pinned to your side, and a strong hand is clasped firmly over your mouth. You feel the barrel of a gun pushed into your back.
‘Pardon me, madam,’ says a smooth voice in your ear, ‘but your homestead is being, as they say, “bushranged”, by the Shadow Gang. Lead me to the master of the house.’
Stumbling, you lead the man inside. The kitchen is empty, but a second bushranger comes inside shortly thereafter with Joe in a headlock, followed by four more men. You manage to twist a little in the bushranger’s grip, and catch a glimpse of a red handkerchief tied over his face.
The bushrangers fan out through the house then, searching for other occupants. You are separated from Joe, prodded along by your captor, another two of the bushrangers following you, down the corridor off the kitchen, and then up the stairs towards the drawing room … where you know Sarah is serving Mr Tilsome and his guest, Mr Reid. You’re so glad that Mrs Tilsome and Bobby are out of the house running errands.
The bushrangers can hear voices murmuring from the drawing room. They follow the sound. Sarah squeals and drops a teacup as they enter the room, and the two men jump to their feet.
‘Please be seated, sirs,’ says one of the bushrangers. He has a clear, strong Irish voice and he wears a black patch over one eye. ‘We are the Shadow Gang. We do not kill unprovoked, but if any of you dares challenge us, we will not hesitate in feeding your guts to the dogs.’
The master and Mr Reid retake their seats, ashen-faced.
‘Thank you,’ says the bushranger.
Soon you, Sarah and Molly and Joe, who have been brought into the drawing room too, are all on the floor, bound together with rope, guarded at gunpoint by two men. The master and Mr Reid are bound into their chairs.
Some of the other bushrangers are circling the room, filling hessian sacks with anything valuable they find: a crystal liquor bottle, an oil painting, a lace cloth.
‘Our captain would like a chat with you,’ announces one of the men guarding you, and a giant of a man strides into the drawing room.
He wears a dirty white shirt and leather waistcoat, and he has also tied a black handkerchief over his face, so that only his light-blue eyes and fierce eyebrows are showing. His hands look strong enough to break a boulder and are laced with white scars. His footsteps make the teacups rattle in their saucers. All the bushrangers salute.
The giant stops. He’s looking at you. Those blue eyes. You know them. The realisation hits you like a tidal wave, and you struggle to breathe – it’s Da.
The silent air seems to crackle. Everyone is waiting for the bushranger captain to speak, but he seems momentarily dumbstruck. Then he wrests his eyes away from you and clears his throat. ‘I am Captain Shadow, Commander of the Shadow Gang.’
His voice throws you back in time: you can hear him on the streets outside of Newgate, fighting to get to you. To hell with you and your chains.
His voice has grown huskier but tougher, and it is deep with defiance. ‘I take no orders,’ he continues, ‘and I live outside the law. This colony is founded on theft and injustice. The Shadow Gang does not wish to spill your blood. We simply wish to live as free men.’
Captain Shadow – Da – orders one of his men to bring the master’s rum and tobacco, to share among the servants. The master, tied to his chair, is glaring so hard it looks as though his eyebrows might catch fire with outrage. Then Da kneels in front of Molly and Joe in turn, to light a pipe or offer a glass of liquor.
Da kneels in front of you. You try to swallow the lump in your throat and feel one hot tear run down your cheek. His voice comes softly, muffled under the handkerchief, so quiet that only you and Sarah hear what he says next. His huge hand is shaking as it touches yours.
‘Don’t say a word, my darling.’
‘Please,’ you whisper urgently, ‘take me with you!’
‘You don’t want this life,’ he mutters. ‘Trust me. Work until your sentence
