Billings Better Bookstore & Brasserie by Fin J Ross
Author:Fin J Ross [Ross, Fin J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Historical
ISBN: 9780648848721
Publisher: Clan Destine Press
Published: 2020-08-31T00:00:00+00:00
Fidelia was right, as usual. The lad showed great talent. In a few short days, Lucas Billings had set up a studio for his young charge, alongside Jasperâs sculpting benches. He could rely on Godwin to keep an eye on the boy and ensure he made productive use of his time, for a boyâs mind easily wandered towards idleness or mischief. Godwin was happy with the arrangement. Joshuaâs occasional presence was a comfort.
After some venturing around town, Billings procured a lithography stone, ink, sponges, rollers and paper for Joshua.
âI can give you the wherewithal,â he told the boy, âbut I canât give you the know-how. For that, son, you might have to read up on it or find an artist who can show you the process. But if you can readily reproduce your drawings, I can readily sell them. Iâm sure of it. In time, if the arrangement is successful, you might forgo your position at the printers and earn your keep as an artist.â
Joshua was delirious with joy, not only because Billings had acknowledged his talent and was actively promoting its progress, but because he had referred to him as âsonâ.
Joshua could not remember ever having been called âsonâ and it gave him a sense of belonging. He had no recollection of his parents. When he was six, Mr Exon told him that they had died when he was not yet two years old, when their Cobb and Co stagecoach hit a kangaroo, overturned and crashed down an embankment on the road from Bendigo to Melbourne. Joshua had been protected by the enveloping arms of his mother as they were flung from the coach. She had broken her neck. His father had died slowly by the side of the road after crawling up the slope on his stomach. Joshua was the only survivor, along with one of the four horses. Following that unfortunate day in the autumn of 1864, his home had been the Melbourne Orphan Asylum.
His recollections of his early years there were hazy and not altogether happy, but since the arrival of Mr and Mrs Exon in 1869, his life improved. Mrs Exon was a kindly woman, able to share a piece of her heart with every one of the hundreds of individuals in her charge. She wasnât quite a mother, but Joshua had no notion of what a mother was. Nor a father. If a father laid down the rules and taught a boy what it was to be a boy and instilled in him the virtues of empathy, civility, industriousness and humility, he guessed Mr Exon was as close to a father as a child could ever want. He always wished to have more of him. More than a fleeting smile, an occasional hand on the shoulder or an even rarer word of praise. Those occasions were few and precious. At least now, he only had to share Mr Billings with Secret, and not 300 other children.
Despite sharing quarters with dozens of other children, life at the asylum had been lonely for Joshua.
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