A Man of Honour by Simon Smith

Author:Simon Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, historical fiction, colonial, political assassination, Sydney, Australia, royal, true crime, royalty, political, historical crime, royal family, Queen Victoria, Duke of Edinburgh, Clontarf, Henry James O’Farrell, Henry Parkes, history, New South Wales, Darlinghurst gaol, Burial Rights, Hannah Kent, Secret River, Kate Grenville, The Drover’s Wife, Leah Purcell, The History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey
ISBN: 9781760687861
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2022-12-14T01:34:07+00:00

Preparing for the Battle

On a vessel travelling north, 24 March 1868, early morning

‘I think I see it. Yes, I see it! It must be Eden!’

‘Yes! How beautiful it looks.’

They glimpse it. The mist has parted just long enough to reveal the town, on the headland to the right, and on the left, perched on the cliffs, Benjamin Boyd’s Tower, an ivory sandstone folly of massive height, facing Twofold Bay to the north and the ocean to the east. The tower is a godsend for whalers in these parts, in the season. Its ramparts glow crimson with the first light of dawn. Then the fog rolls in again, and it is gone.

Caroline Allan and Christina Lane stand near the heaving prow of the clipper City of Adelaide, bracing themselves against the wind. They have barely slept, but talked for most of the night. These two sisters, always close, are closer than ever now. They sailed from Port Phillip yesterday. They hope to reach Sydney tomorrow. So here, now, they are in a white-shrouded limbo, between those very different towns, in a realm of time suspended.

They know that beyond this mist, on one side, lies the endless land of the continent. On the other, the endless sea. And here, in the centre, just the two of them, sailing north, for family.

The sisters are on a quest. Their brother is in a terrible predicament. He needs them.

It is not the only time they have dashed to his aid. A year ago, telegrams came, they dressed quickly, had hurried conversations, and shared a train compartment out to Ballarat. They found their brother in a state, distraught and disorientated and near death. It took all their love and all their practical skills to nurse him back to health. It also took several doctors, a priest and a banker. Such was his need.

But this time it is different. There is so much more at stake. For him, for everyone. And this time, it is all so public. This affair is all anyone is talking about.

At home, in Melbourne, are their husbands, and the children. It has been agreed that they will stay behind. The children know what has happened. The sisters decided that this thing was of such magnitude, there was only one way to face it. With truth. All of them – the Allans, the Lanes and what is left of the O’Farrell family – desperately need words of truth. But how to say them?

How do you tell your children that their favourite uncle is the most reviled person in all the colonies? How do you tell them that the gentle soul who took them to concerts and plays and cricket matches is the same man who pulled a gun and shot the prince they adore? How do you prepare a boy of ten and a girl of thirteen, already damaged by their parents’ abandonment of them, for lives that may be tainted by this scandal forever?

The answer: you just do your best. And that is what you ask of your children.

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