Meet Letty Page 5

  ‘Don’t go with him,’ Jemima’s mother muttered darkly.

  The man tipped his hat at Lavinia. ‘Need lodgings? Cheap rates, nice rooms. Employment?’

  ‘We’ve got somewhere to go, thank you,’ answered Lavinia.

  ‘Suit yourself,’ he said cheerily.

  ‘Where are you going?’ asked Jemima’s mother.

  Lavinia took out the letter and unfolded it.

  ‘Parramatta,’ she said. ‘Mr Robert Hutch, Esquire.’

  ‘How much is he offering you?’ Jemima’s mother wanted to know.

  ‘Ten pounds a year, plus food and lodging, for general household duties.’

  ‘Sounds all right,’ said Jemima’s mother.

  ‘Parramatta’s up the river,’ said the Hotel man, who’d been listening in. ‘It’ll take your Mr Hutch another day or two to get here. Why don’t you come ashore for a bit of fun?’

  ‘No, thank you,’ said Lavinia firmly. Letty was relieved.

  So Letty and Lavinia stayed on the Duchess for another two days, waiting for Lavinia’s employer. Other passengers, including Jemima and her mother, were waiting for relatives.

  The Doctor approached Lavinia. ‘Miss Beddows, this ship isn’t a hotel,’ he told her. ‘Passengers are allowed three days after the ship reaches harbour. I’ve made enough allowances in your case already. I believe your time is up.’

  ‘I’d rather not inconvenience you, I’m sure,’ said Lavinia. ‘We have our own arrangements.’

  The Doctor walked stiffly away.

  ‘What happens if Mr Hutch doesn’t come?’ Letty wondered. What would she and Lavinia do in a strange place, ten thousand miles from home, with no money and no belongings?

  ‘Then we go find him!’ Lavinia snapped.

  Another rowboat pulled alongside the ship. There were only two passengers in it, a sunburnt man and a stout woman in a too-frilly green dress.

  Letty and Jemima giggled at the woman struggling to get up the ladder in a great fuss of frills and petticoats.

  As the woman huffed and puffed over the rails, the sunburnt man below leaned out to see around her.

  ‘Suzanne!’ he cried. ‘Don’t ya recognise me?’

  ‘Jim!’ shrieked Jemima’s mother.

  ‘It’s my father!’ Jemima raced to the ladder.

  Letty felt a sudden pang. Her father would not turn up looking for her. Letty realised how much she had been through by herself, since leaving Papa. She had done more daring things than she had ever thought possible. But she still missed him.

  Lavinia was biting her lip. ‘No Mr Hutch then,’ she said.

  The stout lady bustled up to the Doctor. ‘Sir,’ said the woman, very loudly, ‘I must see your passengers. I want one L. Beddows.’

  Lavinia started.

  ‘Miss L. Beddows?’ said the Doctor. ‘There they are.’

  ‘Hmmph!’ the woman stood in front of Lavinia with both hands on her hips. At least she tried to, but she wasn’t used to the ship’s movement and she had to grab the rigging.

  ‘I’m Mrs R. Hutch,’ she announced.

  Lavinia curtsied. ‘Pleased to meet you, Madam.’

  ‘You are much too pretty,’ said Mrs Hutch.

  Lavinia tossed her hair.

  ‘And see how sickly white you are!’ Mrs Hutch continued.

  ‘I’ve been ill with fever,’ Lavinia explained. ‘I’m recovering. I’ll work well for you.’

  ‘No, you won’t,’ said Mrs Hutch. ‘You’re not the sort I want at all. A flirter. I should have known from your fancy name. I’m going to find myself a reliable plain Jane.’

  ‘But Mr Hutch –’

  The woman interrupted. ‘Mr Hutch will have it from me that the right Miss Beddows didn’t make it.’ With that, and a lot more fussing about the ladder, Mrs Hutch left the ship.

  Lavinia’s eyes flashed. ‘I don’t want to live in her rabbit hutch anyway,’ she said.

  The trouble was, Letty thought, they had nowhere else to live.

  ‘We’re off, dears!’ Jemima’s mother shouted. Jemima’s father straddled the rail, with Jemima in his arms. Jemima blew kisses to Letty.

  Letty blew kisses back with both hands and tried to smile.

  ‘Wait!’ called Lavinia. Twisting her shawl through her fingers, she told Jemima’s mother how their plan had fallen through. ‘Do you think you could help us?’ she asked. ‘Introduce us to someone, perhaps?’

  ‘What do you think, Jim?’ Jemima’s mother turned to her husband.

  ‘Go to the Whalers Hotel,’ said Jim. ‘There’s work for women there.’

  Lavinia looked angry.

  He shrugged. ‘We’re catching the coach in an hour. We don’t have time.’ He began to climb down the ladder with Jemima.

  Jemima’s mother gave an awkward little wave. ‘Good luck!’ She went after Jim. Jemima was too busy talking to her father to say goodbye.

  ‘So much for your friends,’ said Lavinia sourly.

  Letty felt hurt – she had helped Jemima and her mother when they were in trouble. And she had been sure that Jemima wanted a best friend as much as she did. But perhaps, Letty realised now, Jemima only wanted a best friend who’d follow along. Jemima was not the kind of friend who helped when you were lonely or frightened.

  Letty and Lavinia were alone.

  THE bosun put Letty and Lavinia ashore late that afternoon.

  ‘Funny how you’re the last passenger to leave the ship, when you were the only one who wasn’t supposed to be there,’ said Lavinia.

  Letty didn’t think it was funny at all. And she couldn’t even find Abner to say goodbye. That made her sadder than parting with Jemima.

  The bosun slid the hope chest onto the wharf, and gave each of the girls a hand up.

  Letty thanked him. ‘Can you please tell Seaman Jones from me,’ she said, ‘that he’s a very nice friend and I’m very, very sorry to lose him?’

  The bosun chuckled. ‘With pleasure, Miss.’

  ‘A girl shouldn’t say such things to a boy!’ Lavinia hissed at Letty as the bosun rowed away. ‘The crew will laugh their heads off at him. And at you!’

  Oh no, thought Letty. She’d only meant to say goodbye well, and she’d done the wrong thing by him. It was too bad.

  Lavinia pulled her shawl close around her. ‘I don’t know what to do, Letty,’ she admitted.

  Close up, Sydney was hilly, dusty and noisy. Letty couldn’t help noticing that there were men everywhere and hardly any women.

  ‘But I’ll find something,’ said Lavinia. ‘Sit right there,’ she pointed to the chest, ‘and don’t move.’

  Letty remembered sitting on the hope chest on that other wharf, back in England. Lavinia had better come back this time, Letty thought.

  The warmth and friendliness were slipping away from Sydney with the setting sun. A couple of boys sauntered up the wharf and stood on either side of Letty.

  ‘What ya doing?’ said one.

  Letty didn’t answer.

  ‘Cat got ya tongue?’ said the other.

  ‘Is that pirate’s treasure, in there?’ said the first. ‘Ya want to share it with us?’

  ‘No,’ said Letty. ‘There’s nothing in it. It’s not yours.’ She did not like the boys. They had quick, shifty eyes like ship rats.

  ‘Nothing’s not ours, hey?’

  ‘No, it’s not!’ Lavinia marched towards them. ‘Get out of here before my employer knocks your heads together.’

  The boys ran off sniggering.

  ‘Did you find Mr Hutch?’ Letty asked hopefully.

  ‘I made that up,’ Lavinia said. ‘I went to the Whalers Hotel, but it won’t do, Letty,’ she continued. ‘Someone did say there are free lodgings for poor girls along the shore, to the left.’

  Lavinia looked at the hope chest. ‘I don’t know how we’re going to manage this.’

  ‘I’ll take one end,’ said Letty. She grasped the brass handle. The two of them half-carried and half-dragged the chest off the whar
f.

  ‘Good girl,’ puffed Lavinia. ‘We’re not leaving it behind. I’m not losing what’s inside.’

  Letty stood stock still.

  ‘Hurry up, Letty,’ Lavinia said. ‘I didn’t like the look of those fellows.’

  ‘Lavinia,’ Letty said.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Your hope chest is empty.’

  ‘What?’ Lavinia’s hand went to the ribbon and the key. It was still around her neck.

  Letty hung her head. ‘I gave all your things away to the Doctor so he would give me food and medicine. You needed them so badly.’

  ‘You did?’ Lavinia looked very pale. ‘They were valuable,’ she said bleakly.

  Letty nodded.

  ‘I see.’ Lavinia swallowed. She paused, then reached across the chest and tucked Letty’s hair in her bonnet. ‘Just as well you came then. I’d do the same for you. So let’s forget the chest and get out of here fast.’

  Letty reached for Lavinia’s hand and held it.

  ‘We can’t leave the hope chest,’ Letty said. She didn’t want to abandon their only link with home. She looked along the shore. She couldn’t see any sign of buildings close by.

  The girls dragged the chest around the point in the dusk. The faint lights of Sydney disappeared. At the end of the path there was a cave smoothed out of the headland. Letty could see the remains of a campfire and an old mattress off a ship.

  ‘Hey, ship girls!’ The two boys from the wharf sauntered from the shadows behind them. The taller one was swinging a bottle in his hand. ‘How about we look after ya luggage while ya settle in with ya employer.’

  ‘No!’ said Letty, and she sat down on the chest very fast to stop them carrying it away.

  The boy with the bottle raised it above her head. ‘Get off, or I’ll whack ya,’ he threatened. ‘We’ll have ya nice dress too,’ he said to Lavinia. ‘Unless ya want to get hurt.’

  Letty’s heart raced. All she and Lavinia could do was run. But they were in the dark, in a strange place. They had nowhere to run to.

  ‘Help!’ Letty yelled. ‘Help!’ Her voice bounced off the rocks and the cave walls.

  The boy swung the bottle at her. Letty dodged. Then something hit him on the head.

  ‘Get you-er backsides away!’ A tall figure loomed out of the darkness.

  ‘What the devil?’ said the second boy. And they ran off, cursing.

  ‘Abner!’ Letty knew that sing-song voice and square shape.

  ‘Aye-aye.’

  ‘How did you get here?’ Letty was more glad of his company than ever.

  ‘Came after you, I did. It weren’t hard to find you. Too many people had noticed a pretty slip of a girl, with her sister, and a blinkin’ big box. Hold this.’ Abner passed a sack to Letty. He went to pick up the hope chest.

  ‘You needn’t bother,’ Lavinia told him wearily. ‘There’s nothing in there.’

  ‘They-re will be now,’ said Abner. ‘That’s a goodbye present in that sack. Cleaning bilge, I was, when you left ship. Under First Mate’s orders, or I would have given it then.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Letty, ‘but Lavinia and I have got nowhere to go.’

  ‘I thought as much,’ said Abner. ‘But I can help you find something for tonight at least – been paid for the voyage, I have.’

  When they reached the lights of the town, Abner took a rest. They sat on the chest and listened to the waves shushing on the beach. Abner looked at the stars.

  ‘Open the sack,’ he suggested.

  Letty did. She pulled out a large mat, made of ship’s rope twisted in loops and fancy knots.

  ‘You like pretty things, I know,’ Abner said. ‘I made it for you. To be the doormat for you-er new home, once you get one. For all you-er friends to step across.’

  ‘Oh, Abner,’ sighed Letty. It wasn’t fine linen, but it was something to put in the hope chest. Something for the future.

  ‘You must come and step across it,’ said Lavinia. ‘You’re the only friend we’ve got.’

  ‘Aye,’ said Abner. ‘I’ll remember that invitation. When I come sailing past some day.’

  Letty was suddenly sure there would be a ‘some day’. Abner was a true friend, her own friend. Letty’s heart opened out, like the sails on the ship that had brought them to Australia.

  They had nothing – no jobs, no home, no family and no possessions of value, thought Letty. But although the hope chest was nearly empty, Lavinia and Abner were worth more than all the linen in the world.

  I am an immigrant Australian girl too. I came on a plane from the USA, with my mum, dad and baby sister, for my dad to start a new job. We moved into a new house, in a new suburb, in the new city of Canberra.

  We owned more stuff than Letty, but not DVDs, a computer or a colour TV. Our backyard was a bare slope of orange clay, which my sister and I used for making mud pies. I also loved reading, playing dress-ups and pretending to live in the olden days. Nowadays I live in Melbourne.

  Writing Letty’s story felt a lot like those games I used to play with my sister and my schoolfriends. Writing is another way of travelling by imagination back into the past.

  I was born and grew up in Italy, a beautiful country to visit, but also a difficult country to live in for new generations.

  In 2006, I packed up my suitcase and I left Italy with the man I love. We bet on Australia. I didn’t know much about Australia before coming – I was just looking for new opportunities, I guess.

  And I liked it right from the beginning! Australian people are resourceful, open-minded and always with a smile on their faces. I think all Australians keep in their blood a bit of the pioneer heritage, regardless of their own birthplace.

  Here I began a new life and now I’m doing what I always dreamed of: I illustrate stories. Here is the place where I’d like to live and to grow up my children, in a country that doesn’t fear the future.

  Although Letty is a fictional character, experiences like hers were very real.

  In 1841 Australia was changing fast. New South Wales had a population of 130,000 white people and these settlers didn’t want to live in a prison society anymore. In 1840 they persuaded Britain to stop sending convicts to Sydney. Instead, the government paid British people to come out as free settlers, like Lavinia does.

  Travelling to Australia was tough in those early days. Several hundred people were crowded onto a sailing ship about 35 metres long and 10 metres wide, for many months. If a ship got stuck without wind in the part of the ocean called the Doldrums, or if it was pushed off-course by storms, the voyage might take half a year. Illnesses such as typhoid spread quickly on board and killed many people. Thirty-three children died of scarlet fever on one ship. Fresh water was scarce, so passengers had to wash their clothes in salt water and wipe their plates with old rope. Sometimes the food was so bad children starved to death.

  When emigrants got to Australia life wasn’t always better. The early ‘Jemmy Grants’, as they were called, had to look after themselves – nobody arranged a job or a home for them. The caves around Farm Cove in Sydney were used as shelter by groups of women who had nowhere to go.

  In four years, from 1838–1841, forty thousand men, women and children emigrated to New South Wales in this way. Meet Letty is the imagined story of one of them.

  This is an advertisement printed in England in 1834. By 1841 the government had gone a step further and was paying for people to come out to Australia, as Letty’s sister does. This was called the ‘bounty scheme’.

  DID YOU KNOW THAT IN 1841 …

  Britain made New Zealand a colony separate from New South Wales.

  * * *

  A Scottish surgeon pioneered hypnosis.

  * * *

  The ballet Giselle was first performed in Paris.

  * * *

  There was a census in the colonies of Australia.

  * * *

  Edgar Allen Poe wrote the first modern detective story.

  * * *

 
; The word ‘dinosaur’ was invented.

  * * *

  The first Australian children’s book was published.

  * * *

  The first steam engine was tested in America.

  * * *

  Britain occupied Hong Kong.

  * * *

  The French painter Renoir was born.

  * * *

  ‘I need you to go to Cribbs Lane, in the Rocks,’ Bridget said to Letty the next morning.

  Letty knew now that the Rocks was the name for the headland above the wharves. She and Lavinia had walked up through its close, jumbled buildings to get to Cumberland Street.

  ‘I want six loaves from Fry’s bakery,’ Bridget instructed. ‘They’re cheaper there, but he won’t deliver.’

  Letty didn’t like going around Sydney’s streets by herself. The thought of their first night on land made her shiver. But Letty didn’t dare refuse. Bridget made Letty a bit nervous. With big arms in sleeves as puffy as boxing gloves, Bridget handled laundry, cooking pots and young women with equal speed.

  Letty took Bridget’s sack and set off. She dodged the military men whisking past on their fast horses and made a wide circle around a pack of stray dogs. She stopped for a while on the jetty, looking for Abner’s ship, the Duchess. But there were too many ships in the harbour; they were too far away, and Letty was sad that she couldn’t even pick which one he was on.

  Letty was proud of herself when she finally found the corner of Cribbs Lane and Cumberland Street. She knew she was in the right place by the wafting smell of baking bread. The door was slightly ajar. Letty knocked.

  There was no answer. Not even when Letty took a deep breath and knocked again. Maybe the baker is out the back, thought Letty. Surely, since this was a shop, she could go in and wait for him. She pushed the door open across a broken tiled floor, and stepped in.