Read Online By Eastern windows by Gretta Curran Browne - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gretta Curran Browne
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Is that understood? So now …’ he nodded towards her breakfast tray, `carry on with your chota, carry on. ’
He left the room abruptly with Maria turning to follow at his heels. A wave of outrage swirled through Jane as she felt the injustice of his edict, the restraint of her freedom to even look at any person he did not approve of.
Minutes later she saw both of them again, walking in the garden, James still prattling non-stop and Maria nodding timidly in agreement with his every word. An incongruous couple in every way, a fifty-year-old man with his twenty-four-year-old wife. He looked and acted more like Maria’s father than her husband. Why on earth had she married him? Where or what was the attraction? But Maria had married him, and now she too was also was forced to put up with him.
She stood up and moved down the veranda, staring defiantly at the couple with her dark eyes. How dare they suggest that Lachlan Macquarie’s sole interest in her was due to her wealth, or as James always called it, her fortune ? How dare he demean Lachlan in such a way when she herself had already come to the realisation that no man in the world could be as mean or as money grabbing as her guardian.
She moved back into her bedroom, still thinking moodily. Well, if James Morley believed that he could order her in the same way he ordered his wife, then he obviously did not know her as well as he thought he did. She was a child of the Caribbean and she was not shackled with the petty prejudices of all these self-important civil servants in the East India Company. And she had not come to India to be ordered about like a slave by her odious brother-in-law.
Sitting on her bed, she slipped her hand under the pillow and withdrew the letter she had received from Lachlan Macquarie the previous evening. A smile shaped her lips as she read his words, even though she had already read the letter a dozen times. Moments later she walked over to her small desk and sat down to write a long reply, explaining in all honesty about her guardian’s mandate that she was to have no further contact with him.
‘Of course, there is a valid reason why they dislike all soldiers, especially young officers, and hopefully one day I will be able to explain that reason to you, when you will then realise why it is foolish to take their dislike of you now so personally, but in the meantime …’
Later that day, chaperoned by her trusted Ayah , Jane left the house for her afternoon walk, heading towards the small park of gardens where, she had told Captain Macquarie in her letter, she would be taking a stroll at four o’clock.
*
Less than a month later, James Morley felt compelled to once again enforce his rule, although he had already decided that Jane’s unsuitable behaviour was not really her fault. It was all due to the fact that she had been brought up on a small, uncivilised island, where her mother had died young, and so the child was left to run wild in the care of black slaves who had spoilt her. Thank God that Maria had been sent to England for her education as a lady. Although why the same arrangement had not been made for Jane was still a mystery.
He asked Maria.
Maria shrugged. ‘It was simply impossible. She was only ten years old and had become too attached to Mammy Dinah, refusing to leave her, crying and running away until Papa was forced to send me on without her.’
‘And her schooling?’
‘Oh yes, she was well schooled, Papa saw to that. She attended the Missionary school at St John’s.’
‘Well, I intended to be very mild in my remonstrations with her,’ James said, ‘but as she got out of going to England for her education simply because she refused to go, I see now that I shall have to be very firm with her indeed. She shall not be allowed to refuse me .’
Throughout dinner he kept his eyes fixed on Jane, but she seemed unaware of his gaze, her mind miles away, not even answering when he finally
He left the room abruptly with Maria turning to follow at his heels. A wave of outrage swirled through Jane as she felt the injustice of his edict, the restraint of her freedom to even look at any person he did not approve of.
Minutes later she saw both of them again, walking in the garden, James still prattling non-stop and Maria nodding timidly in agreement with his every word. An incongruous couple in every way, a fifty-year-old man with his twenty-four-year-old wife. He looked and acted more like Maria’s father than her husband. Why on earth had she married him? Where or what was the attraction? But Maria had married him, and now she too was also was forced to put up with him.
She stood up and moved down the veranda, staring defiantly at the couple with her dark eyes. How dare they suggest that Lachlan Macquarie’s sole interest in her was due to her wealth, or as James always called it, her fortune ? How dare he demean Lachlan in such a way when she herself had already come to the realisation that no man in the world could be as mean or as money grabbing as her guardian.
She moved back into her bedroom, still thinking moodily. Well, if James Morley believed that he could order her in the same way he ordered his wife, then he obviously did not know her as well as he thought he did. She was a child of the Caribbean and she was not shackled with the petty prejudices of all these self-important civil servants in the East India Company. And she had not come to India to be ordered about like a slave by her odious brother-in-law.
Sitting on her bed, she slipped her hand under the pillow and withdrew the letter she had received from Lachlan Macquarie the previous evening. A smile shaped her lips as she read his words, even though she had already read the letter a dozen times. Moments later she walked over to her small desk and sat down to write a long reply, explaining in all honesty about her guardian’s mandate that she was to have no further contact with him.
‘Of course, there is a valid reason why they dislike all soldiers, especially young officers, and hopefully one day I will be able to explain that reason to you, when you will then realise why it is foolish to take their dislike of you now so personally, but in the meantime …’
Later that day, chaperoned by her trusted Ayah , Jane left the house for her afternoon walk, heading towards the small park of gardens where, she had told Captain Macquarie in her letter, she would be taking a stroll at four o’clock.
*
Less than a month later, James Morley felt compelled to once again enforce his rule, although he had already decided that Jane’s unsuitable behaviour was not really her fault. It was all due to the fact that she had been brought up on a small, uncivilised island, where her mother had died young, and so the child was left to run wild in the care of black slaves who had spoilt her. Thank God that Maria had been sent to England for her education as a lady. Although why the same arrangement had not been made for Jane was still a mystery.
He asked Maria.
Maria shrugged. ‘It was simply impossible. She was only ten years old and had become too attached to Mammy Dinah, refusing to leave her, crying and running away until Papa was forced to send me on without her.’
‘And her schooling?’
‘Oh yes, she was well schooled, Papa saw to that. She attended the Missionary school at St John’s.’
‘Well, I intended to be very mild in my remonstrations with her,’ James said, ‘but as she got out of going to England for her education simply because she refused to go, I see now that I shall have to be very firm with her indeed. She shall not be allowed to refuse me .’
Throughout dinner he kept his eyes fixed on Jane, but she seemed unaware of his gaze, her mind miles away, not even answering when he finally
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