The Plantation - Di Morrissey [16]
Later she broached the subject with Adelaide. ‘Why do you think Mr Elliott hasn’t married? Do you think he has some native paramour?’
Adelaide was shocked. ‘Margaret! What do you know – or care – about such matters? It’s none of your business. I suggest you take less interest in a gentleman who’s shortly going to be leaving the ship, and whom you will never see again.’
Privately, Adelaide too had wondered why Mr Elliott was still unattached since he came from such a good background and was evidently well off. But he was courteous and affable so she supposed there was no harm in Margaret indulging in a small shipboard flirtation. Nonetheless Adelaide was aware of her responsibility in keeping an eye on her young charge.
Even though Roland talked a lot about his life in Malaya and his family, Margaret managed to keep her end of the conversation up too, as she described her life in Queensland. She told him how her father had taught her and her sister to sail a small wooden, single-sail dinghy on Moreton Bay and described the Great Barrier Reef, which she had seen when the family had holidayed in the Whitsunday Islands.
Roland and Margaret became something of a pair at the social events on board, dancing under the stars at pool deck soirees and at the jazz and tea dances in the ballroom. They played deck tennis and quoits regularly and occasionally made a foursome at cards in the writing room. Margaret now became a fixture at the outdoor pool on B Deck where she sunbathed while Roland and his friends played a version of water polo in the pool. He laughingly admitted Margaret could probably outswim him, but said that he preferred to watch her lounging in a deck chair.
‘You’re pretty as a picture, sunbaking,’ he said.
For Margaret it was a glorious time. She felt she’d been given membership to a glamorous club, where every one was her best friend, where she was admired and flattered and waited upon, where days were frittered away between music and laughter and dances. She knew she was falling in love with Roland as they meandered the quiet decks in the moonlight, pausing to watch the phosphorescence in the sea before he kissed her sweetly.
Adelaide noted Margaret’s possessive arm linked through Roland’s, the closeness as they sat together in earnest conversation, sometimes broken by Margaret’s trilling laugh.
‘Just enjoy the voyage,’ advised Adelaide. ‘But don’t get your hopes up that anything will come of this friendship.’
Margaret was cosseted in the world of the shipboard routine sprinkled with starry nights, an ocean breeze, and the warmth of Roland’s arms about her as they danced or kissed. Together they played and sang and enjoyed the frivolous fun of fancy dress balls, games, quiz nights and an hilarious talent contest. The outside world was excluded as the days at sea rolled on.
Roland and Margaret and three other couples had become good friends. They toured Port Said together, shopping in the marketplace and the bazaar, and ended up in a club of dubious repute where they ate strange spicy food with their fingers and were entertained by a bellydancer. But while Margaret acted with worldly sophistication she found it all rather tawdry and intimidating and clung to Roland like a limpet.
Adelaide watched the transformation in Margaret, who had always been so independent and outspoken. She started to become attentive to Roland’s every word as he held forth. Adelaide also observed the blossoming shipboard romances among the other couples and, in a quiet moment, mentioned it to her friend, the purser.
The purser smiled and shrugged. ‘Happens every voyage. Can’t blame these young fellows. Usually the young men are under contract, so they aren’t allowed to marry until they’ve put in several years work out in the East. So when the companies they work for allow them to settle down, they begin courting in earnest. There’s not much opportunity for wife hunting in the colonies so if they don’t find a wife on home leave they