A Mother's Courage by Maggie Hope

Author:Maggie Hope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Chapter Seventeen

‘We are to go to Bau next month, there is a conference,’ Francis announced one morning in October. The ship carrying the post had come in on the early morning tide and there was a sheaf of business letters for Francis but none from home and she had thought there might be one from Fanny. Yet England and her family seemed so remote this last year or two, and not just geographically.

At first, Eleanor didn’t take in what he had said; she was gazing out to the horizon where the sea shimmered blue and silver and to one side the dark-forested hills rose into the sky. The missionary ship rode at anchor in the bay and bright orange and red parakeets flashed from tree to tree, calling raucously to one another while smaller blue and yellow birds sat close together in the branches.

The nesting season, thought Eleanor dreamily, and put a hand on her own stomach though she wasn’t far enough on in her pregnancy to show or even to feel any difference.

‘Perhaps this one will be a girl,’ she said and Francis looked at her over his letter, a little uncomfortable. He would never get used to the way she talked so openly about expecting a child; it wasn’t usual to mention them before they were actually born, not in polite society.

‘Did you hear what I said, Eleanor?’ he asked. ‘I was talking about the meeting next month, well, it is actually only two weeks away, the first week in November.’

‘Yes, of course, how long will you be away this time?’

‘Us, Eleanor, us. We are both to go, all the ladies are meeting there too, there is to be a discussion on the role of the women in the church, especially the Fijians.’

‘Francis, I can’t go to Bau, I can’t go anywhere, not when the children are so small,’ said Eleanor.

‘Of course you can, what’s to stop you? You have Prue, she looks after them very well, she’s devoted to them. I never thought she would turn out so well considering—’ He caught Eleanor’s expression and pulled himself up. ‘Well, she looks after them well, which is to her credit. And Matthew will be here, the house and the chapel will be left in good hands, very capable hands.’

‘I don’t know …’

‘We must go, Eleanor, and unless you intend trailing the children with us, you will have to trust Prue and Matthew to look after them.’

Eleanor regarded him thoughtfully. Francis was evidently determined she should go with him and it might not be a bad idea, now she thought properly about it. After all, she had not been away from Viwa since Francis was transferred there and she had never been to Bau. It was the most important of the islands, she remembered, for King Thakembau lived there, the king of Fiji, even if the title was self-bestowed and in dispute. It would be interesting to see the king at least. He had been a Christian since 1847,

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