Free Destiny's Path by Anna Jacobs

consignments, even?’
    Dougal grinned. ‘Thinking of going into trade?’
    ‘Wondering.’ For the first time he said it aloud. ‘I want to do more than work as a groom for someone else.’
    The discussions continued, each day teaching him something new. He was especially interested in finding out which items had sold well in the past in the Swan River Colony. Dougal was still paying off his ship, the first he’d ever owned, old but sound. He was expecting to pick up a cargo of sandalwood in Western Australia, as that fragrant wood sold well in the Orient and grew wild in the colony.
    Towards the end of the voyage Dougal said casually, ‘If you are thinking of setting up for yourself and you did happen to open a shop, I could sell my own stuff there and perhaps you’d take less commission than others do.’
    ‘Perhaps I would.’
    Kathleen coped with sharing a cabin by excluding her maid from it in the daytime. When she wasn’t attending her mistress, poor Orla sat on deck under an awning for hours on end, staring at the horizon. Kathleen sat under another awning, ignoring her.
    ‘She’s not an easy mistress,’ Ronan said one day as the two of them leaned on the rail.
    By now, Orla was comfortable enough with him to speak the truth. ‘She’s a terrible woman. You don’t know the half of it. If I can find another mistress, I’ll be leaving her.’ She clapped one hand to her mouth. ‘You won’t tell her I said that, will you, Mr Maguire?’
    ‘Not me. I heard nothing. Anyway, I don’t blame you. Why did you come here, then?’
    ‘I wasn’t given a choice. My family are tenants of the Largans. Mrs Kathleen said they’d be thrown out if I didn’t.’
    ‘What did Kieran Largan say?’
    She looked at him in puzzlement. ‘I never spoke to him.’
    ‘I doubt he’d have supported that threat.’
    Tears filled her eyes. ‘You mean . . . I didn’t need to leave my family?’ The tears overflowed and she bent her head, trying to hide her weeping.
    How dreadful! he thought. Kathleen takes no heed of other people’s needs. She’s like one of those automatons, doing what she’s been taught, not going beyond that. He’d noticed before that she was at a loss in new situations and grew flustered and upset when she didn’t know what to do.
    As the pilot guided the ship from Rottnest Island towards Fremantle, Ronan said quietly, ‘Not even three months, and yet this voyage seems to have been going on for ever.’
    No one answered him. All four of them stared at the flat shoreline in dismay. It looked untamed and not at all attractive, low-lying with scrubby vegetation.
    ‘Is this really the main port of the colony?’ Ronan asked.
    Dougal, who was leaving the pilot to his work, grinned. ‘Not much to look at, is it? Albany is about the same size. That’s where the mail ships call. It’s a coaling station, mainly, even less trade going on from there.’
    Bram nodded. ‘Someone told me on board the other ship that there are only about thirty thousand people in the whole of Western Australia – and yet it’s far bigger than England. He said there’d be even fewer if they hadn’t brought in the convicts and they’ve been a godsend to the colony, making roads and bridges. Their crimes have certainly benefited the locals, eh?’
    Kathleen breathed deeply and moved away from him, as if even to hear talk of convicts annoyed her.
    ‘I heard that too,’ Ronan said. ‘A few people on the first steamer were returning to the Swan River Colony and I made it my business to talk to them.’
    The ship came to a halt and with much yelling the anchor was dropped. The pilot returned to shore and a boat came for the passengers, who were invited to climb down into it by a rope mesh which formed a sort of ladder.
    Orla clutched Bram’s arm. ‘I can’t do it. I just can’t climb down there. It makes me dizzy even to look at it.’
    ‘You can do it, lass. Just remember how you used to climb trees when you were a