That Bligh Girl by Sue Williams

Author:Sue Williams [Sue Williams]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2023-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

While life in the colony goes on, Meg and Mary sometimes feel quite removed from it. The two women carefully pack most of John’s possessions to send to his family, along with a letter from Mary offering her deepest condolences, and her gratitude for what she calls the greatest gift she’s ever been given. Mary visits John’s grave daily. At other times, Meg brings her a chair, and she sits on the lawn in front of Government House by the bush of pink hibiscuses. The best of them have wilted, mostly shrivelled by the hot summer sun, but Mary tells Meg they remind her of John, and she loves to see them, and think of him, whenever she walks the grounds.

True to her word to Anna, Mary has been spending more time at the orphanage, and Meg often accompanies her. She’s genuinely impressed by Mary’s newfound zeal and the softness with which she talks to the girls and encourages them with their reading and writing. Mary even takes an interest in a new venture the orphanage is embarking on—the making of straw hats. A new couple, Mr and Mrs Marchant, had been appointed to run the institution, but they have only just taken charge when Mr Marchant suddenly dies. No one seems to know what happened. Mrs Marchant is so grief-stricken that no one can get any sense from her and rumours are swirling that he was perhaps murdered. Mary takes his death particularly hard, too. Thankfully, it isn’t long before another couple, who applied for the post from England, arrives on a ship. Their names are Mr and Mrs Perfect.

‘And let’s hope they are,’ Meg says to Mary. Certainly, on first impression, they seem to be.

Governor Bligh, meanwhile, seems to be trying to respect his daughter’s time in mourning and is making a herculean effort not to drag her into his arguments with Macarthur. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid them. On 20 January, thirteen days after the funeral, one of Macarthur’s servants calls at Government House to ask for a copy of his master’s indictment. He’s told to wait in the kitchen while the governor considers. Twenty minutes later, the servant is sent packing—the governor has simply refused the request.

Two days later, a letter from Macarthur is delivered to the governor. Mr Griffin confides in Meg that he’s protesting about having to appear in court in front of his debtor, Atkins. ‘But Governor Bligh has told Macarthur he doesn’t have the power to intercede in the running of the court,’ Mr Griffin says. ‘A governor just can’t do that.’

That night, there’s a dinner at the New South Wales Corps officers’ mess, and the governor donates a large quantity of wine for the occasion. Meg and Mary imagine the officers talking and laughing and shouting well into the night. The thought makes Meg shudder as she remembers the evenings Henry Mackey would get drunker and drunker before making for her shed.

Two evenings later, on 24 January, there’s

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