Tears of the Moon - Di Morrissey [117]
She missed her father, too. His laughter and teasing and the great stretches of time they spent together ‘out in the world’. While her mother had been part of this outback world, her father belonged to another world. She remembered the noise and smell of the shell sheds; sitting on the deck of a beached lugger while the men worked; playing on the floor of Tyndall’s office with her own toy lugger; seeing the streets of Broome from her father’s shoulders; holding onto his curling hair with one hand, the other resting over his ear with the pearl.
While these memories were vivid initially, they were soon relegated to the nether regions of her mind while she focused on the daily events of life around her. Being part of a family group was a revelation for her, as was having playmates and so many aunties and uncles and grandmothers. She walked obediently beside the girl designated her big sister, played with the other children when they rested at a waterhole, and at night, sleepily climbed into the nearest ample lap as the women grouped themselves around the campfire after eating.
As the weeks passed, the thought of losing Maya gnawed at Tyndall and he tried again to send word via his Aboriginal friends to find where they might be. He’d learned that the people he and Olivia had befriended down the coast had moved on.
Monsieur Barat wasn’t due for a few more weeks and Olivia and Tyndall had kept tight-lipped about their pearl find, though there were rumours circulating. Olivia was well aware that collectors and serious buyers wouldn’t buy a pearl that had been ‘shown’ or shopped about.
‘We’ll just have to keep quiet. At least the gossip isn’t about us.’ He gave her a playful grin.
‘Do you think they will? Talk about us? Surely not. No one knows anything.’
Tyndall laughed at her worried look. ‘You ashamed of me or something?’
‘It’s not that. I am still officially in mourning and you aren’t unattached.’ Olivia finally voiced the thought that had disturbed her most about their relationship. ‘What will you do if Niah comes back?’
‘I’m not sure that she will.’ He looked distressed. ‘It’s not Niah I want back, but Maya. Niah is delightful, but she can’t give me what you can, Olivia. I can talk to you, we share a common background and that counts for such a lot. You make me feel a whole person. I treasure that.’ He spoke hesitantly and almost shyly.
‘Where are we going, John?’ she asked softly.
‘We need time, Olivia. We need to go slowly down this path we’re following and avoid the glare of gossip and interfering outsiders. I’m afraid we’re going to have to be devious.’
‘I understand. I’m not ready to rush into anything, John. And I have Hamish’s feelings to consider.’
So the new turn in their relationship remained their secret. The closeness with which they had worked and supported each other over these trying months was maintained and no one in the community noticed any change.
But they stole opportunities to be together and, in a flash of inspiration, Tyndall suggested they go away to Perth together. ‘I cabled Monsieur Barat to see if we can meet him there. It is the logical thing to do—to see him there and arrange the sale of the pearls. We’ve tried to keep it quiet but enough people know to understand why we’d make a business trip south.’ Tyndall suddenly became quite demonstrative, waving his arm in the air. ‘Oh Olivia, just think, we can stay in a nice big hotel in Perth, visit good restaurants, do things together and stay anonymous.’ For a few moments he was just like an excited schoolboy.
For Olivia, the thought of a romantic interlude with Tyndall was bewitching. ‘Let’s do it!’ she agreed with equal excitement.
They decided to wait till the end of the season to take the trip. Everything was arranged—Minnie would care for Hamish, Captain Evans would supervise the refit of the luggers, and Ahmed the sorting and packing of the shell.
Once on board the steamer to Fremantle, they put their precious parcel of pearls in the captain