Remember Me - Lesley Pearse [92]
‘Yeah, Bill and Nat can come,’ he nodded. ‘But why Sam Broome?’ he asked, looking at Mary with suspicion. He thought the man a rum sort of cove, he kept himself to himself, didn’t like drink, and he was as skinny as a rake.
Mary had taken a liking to Sam from the day she gave him water as he lay close to death on the wharf. She had visited him in the hospital tents until he was well enough to be moved to a hut, and they had become friends. She liked his gentlemanly ways and his reserve, and it was flattering that he obviously adored her.
While no one would describe Sam as handsome – he was too thin and his sandy hair was disappearing fast – he had a strong face, and there was determination in his tawny-coloured eyes. He was also practical, a good carpenter, and steady. Mary needed him as her safety net if Will failed her.
She wished she didn’t have these qualms about Will. In many ways he was the very best of husbands. But she had to be realistic, consider every possibility. If they were to reach a safe haven, and Mary was absolutely determined that they would, she couldn’t guarantee that the success wouldn’t go to Will’s head. He liked the drink and it made him belligerent. She had to have some sort of backup plan for that eventuality; she didn’t intend to risk her own life and those of her two children for a life that might turn out worse than anything she’d endured so far. She knew Sam Broome would step into the breach if need be.
‘Sam has skills we might need,’ she said firmly. ‘He’s a carpenter, remember. He’s also a calm, steady man who will get on well with everyone else.’
Will made a kind of snort, implying he didn’t agree, but he said nothing further.
Over the following days, Will asked each of the chosen men to the hut to put his plan to them singly. For now, he wasn’t telling any of them who else was in on it. Each one of them was wildly enthusiastic, grateful to be included, and made promises to bring things for the stores. Mary sat back while Will talked his way through it, never interrupting once. It wasn’t until each man was about to leave the hut that she gave them her warning.
‘You must swear that you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone,’ she insisted fiercely. ‘Not your best friend, your woman, no one. For if you do and our plan is discovered, I swear I’ll kill you.’
Bill Allen and William Moreton thought that it was crazy of Will to take a woman and two small children along on such a potentially hazardous escape bid, but even though they were both the kind who normally spoke up when they didn’t agree with anything, neither of them dared to with Mary sitting there. When they heard the passion in her voice and saw the chilling determination in her grey eyes, they soon realized that she was no sleeping partner. Without her spelling it out, they knew this was her idea, her plan, and she meant exactly what she said.
Towards the end of February the secret store under the floor of the hut was full of provisions. Two old muskets, ammunition, a grappling hook, various tools, cooking pots, a water cask and resin to caulk the water should the boat spring a leak were hidden in various places around the settlement. The plan was to make their escape after the Waaksamheyd had departed for England; that way there would be no other vessel left in the harbour capable of giving chase or informing anyone else that convicts had escaped.
Bennelong had readily agreed to swim out to the cutter on the chosen night and bring it in to the shore for them. There was only one thing left to do now, and that was to collect the compass and sextant from Detmer and pay him the money Will had agreed.
Will hadn’t had much problem getting his hands on money. He’d had some saved since he got here and there’d been nothing to spend it on. The rest he’d raised the same way he got the salt pork, rice and flour, by selling fish. A great many of the Marines were only too happy to buy fish,