Page 159 of The Pearl Sister
‘Whatever you feel is best. I’d love to know what happened to Kitty, and Charlie and Drummond.’
‘Of course you would, and it was through Kitty that I met my wife, Sarah . . .’
Kitty
Tilbury Port, England
January 1949
29
‘Goodbye, dearest sister. I can’t tell you what a joy it’s been having you here with us,’ Miriam said as they stood by the gangplank that would soon separate them once more. ‘Promise to come back as soon as you can, won’t you?’
‘You know I certainly intend to, God willing,’ Kitty said. ‘Goodbye, darling, and thank you for everything.’
With a final wave, Miriam made her way down the gangplank.
Milling around Kitty were relatives reluctant to let go of their loved ones who were departing for Australia. Even though she had made this journey many times over the past forty years, witnessing the human pain of separation still affected her deeply.
She felt as if she was drowning in a storm of tears as the ship’s engines roared into life and the horn hooted a final warning. Amidst the crowd, a few faces stood out, despair clear on their features: a woman weeping inconsolably and hugging her infant to her, and a gaunt, grey-haired man, panic clear on his face as he watched the gangplank being hauled up.
‘Where is she? She was meant to meet me here on the ship! Excuse me, madam,’ the man said, turning to her. ‘Have you by any chance seen a blonde-haired woman boarding the ship in the last few minutes?’
‘I couldn’t say,’ Kitty replied honestly. ‘There were so many people coming and going, but I’m sure she’s on board somewhere.’
There was a second hoot of the horn as the boat edged away from the dock and the man looked over the side as though he might jump.
‘Oh God, whereareyou . . . ?!’ he screamed to the wind, the sound of his voice drowned out by the engines and the screeching of the seagulls.
Another human being trounced by love,Kitty thought as she watched the man stagger away. He looked like an army boy, with his prematurely grey hair and haunted eyes. She’d seen many of them in England in her year-long stay. Those who had survived six years of fighting may have been termed ‘lucky’ to have come back – she had sat next to an army captain at dinner who had laughed it off by telling stories of the fun they’d all had – yet Kitty knew it was all a facade. These men would never fully recover, and neither would the loved ones they’d left behind.
Kitty shivered in the brisk breeze that was whipping up as they eased out of Tilbury Port and along the Thames Estuary. Inside, she made her way along a thickly carpeted corridor to her cabin. Opening the door, she found a steward setting up afternoon tea on the table in the drawing room.
‘Good afternoon, ma’am. My name is James McDowell and I’ll be attending to your needs on the voyage. I thought you could do with something to eat, but I wasn’t sure what you like.’
‘Thank you, James,’ Kitty replied, soothed by the young man’s soft voice. ‘Have you travelled to Australia before?’
‘Me? No, it’s a real adventure, isn’t it? I used to be a valet to a wealthy gentleman over in Hampshire, but then he died, and since the war ended folk have no need of a valet, so I thought I’d try my luck in Australia. Have you travelled there before?’
‘It’s my home. I’ve lived there for over forty years.’
‘Then I might be picking your brains on what to do when I get there. It’s the land of opportunity, so they tell me.’
And the land of broken dreams,thought Kitty. ‘Yes.’ She forced a smile. ‘It is.’
‘Well now, I’ll leave you to it, ma’am. I’ve unpacked your trunk, but you’ll have to tell me what you wish to wear this evening. You have an invitation to dine at the captain’s table, so I’ll be back at six to draw your bath. Just press the bell if you need me sooner.’
‘Thank you, James,’ she said as he shut the cabin door behind him. His strong features and blue eyes had reminded her so of Charlie.
During those dark days at the outbreak of war in Europe ten years ago, her son had been busy in Broome, working with the Australian navy to fit out the requisitioned luggers that would transport the soldiers to fields of battle in Africa and Europe. Soon after, the Japanese crews had been interned and with no luggers to sail, Charlie had written to tell her it felt as if the town was slowly and quietly dying.
At least Charlie’s safe in Broome,she had thought at the time. She herself had already moved to live at Alicia Hall in Adelaide, so that her son – and Elise, his wife – would not feel as though a shadow was following them on their every business and domestic move.
Then, in the March of 1942, Kitty had opened her newspaper to headlines of an unexpected attack on the northwest coast of Australia. Casualties were recorded in Broome. When she finally managed to get through by telephone, she was not even surprised to hear that Charlie had been one of them.
‘Are you determined to take everything I love from me?!’ she had railed at the gods above her, walking the gardens at Alicia Hall in her nightdress as the servants looked on at their hysterical mistress. There had been no Camira beside her to comfort her, for she had left Kitty too.
Elise had survived the air raid and it had taken only six months for Kitty to receive a letter from her daughter-in-law announcing that she was marrying a mining magnate and moving to the town of Perth. There had been no children in the marriage and Kitty had felt curiously empty at the news. She knew she had thrust Elise under her son’s nose twenty years ago, wishing to take his mind from Alkina. She doubted Charlie had ever loved his wife, simply gone through the motions.
