The Australians 11 - The Nationalists by William Stuart Long

Author:William Stuart Long
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780440203544
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1989-06-03T14:00:00+00:00

Bina had a solicitor put it into writing. At the signing she said to Clive, “The original three are partners in this enterprise. Treat them right, and they’ll be loyal. I suspect that in spite of their crocodile tears at my leaving they’re secretly relieved to have a man in charge of their lives again.” She touched him on the hand. “Don’t look down on them, Clive. Don’t steal from them. And don’t let some fancy man come along and talk them out of the money that I’ve saved for them from their earnings.”

“I think I should have married you,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows as if in mock shock.

“I’ll take care of them,” he said. “Drop us a line and let us know what you’re doing?”

“We’ll see,” she said, but Bina had no intention of ever keeping in touch with anyone in Cloncurry. She left without a backward look.

By the time she had reached the coast at Townsville and had luxuriated in a hotel bathtub big enough to hold a small ocean of hot water, her life in Cloncurry seemed un-bloody-believable. When she got out of the tub, she wrapped a huge towel around her and stood in front of a full-length mirror. She felt and looked cleaner. And she looked younger. She opened the towel: woman, standard issue, equipped with standard features, breasts, legs, and so on. More than good enough. Ready for a fresh start.

She wondered if it wouldn’t be wise — she was not wealthy, but she had enough money to provide a modest living for herself for many years — simply to find a nice little town somewhere on the sea and settle in. She’d become a churchgoer. God forgave, didn’t he?

But there was something in her that drove her to book passage on a coastal ship leaving almost immediately. Henry Lawson’s words kept coming back to her. She thought it would be rather nice to be “the freshest, the biggest thing” ever to hit Sydney, even nicer to follow the advice of old Hillel. To live comfortably with a little style was the goal she set before her.

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