The Light Between Oceans(51)

‘More,’ Lucy insisted.

‘More what?’

‘More “ever”. “Ever and ever and ever and ever …”’

Isabel laughed, and ‘ever and ever and ever and ever’ trailed like a caterpillar across the page. ‘What comes next? Shall we say, “From your loving daughter Lucy”?’

‘From Lulu Lighthouse.’

The little girl started shaping the letters with her mother, but got bored and climbed off her knee in mid-stroke.

‘Mamma finish it,’ she commanded casually.

So Isabel completed the signature, and added in brackets, ‘(Per Isabel Sherbourne, scribe and general factotum of the above-mentioned signatory.)’

When Tom unwrapped the parcel, a difficult manoeuvre with Lucy’s hands over his eyes, he said, ‘It’s a book …’

‘It’s a antless!’ shouted Lucy.

Tom took in the present. ‘Brown’s Star Atlas, showing all the bright stars, with full instructions how to find and use them for navigational purposes and Board of Trade examinations.’ He smiled slowly, and turned to Isabel. ‘Lucy’s a clever girl, isn’t she, organising this?’

‘Read, Dadda. Inside. I did writing.’

Opening the cover, Tom saw the long dedication. He still smiled, but there was something about the words ‘For ever and ever and ever and ever and ever …’ that stabbed him. Forever was an impossible concept, particularly for this child, in this place. He put his lips to the top of Lucy’s head. ‘It’s just beaut, Lulu Lighthouse. The loveliest present I’ve ever had.’





CHAPTER 19



‘AT LEAST IF we can win this one, it won’t be a complete washout,’ said Bluey. The Australian cricket team had lost the first four test matches of the 1928/29 Ashes series on home ground, and the March boat arrived while the final test was still going on in Melbourne. Bluey had been regaling Tom with highlights as they did the unloading. ‘Bradman got his century. Still not out. Gave Larwood all sorts of trouble, the paper said. I tell you what, though – the match’s been going four days already. Looks like we’re in for a long one this time.’

While Ralph went to the kitchen to deliver another of Hilda’s regular presents to Lucy, Tom and the deckhand finished stacking away the last of the flour sacks in the shed.

‘I got a cousin works there, you know,’ Bluey said, nodding at the stencil of the Dingo brand on the calico.

‘Up at the flour mill?’ asked Tom.

‘Yeah. Reckons it pays good. And all the free flour he wants.’

‘Every job’s got its perks.’

‘Sure. Like I get as much fresh air as I can breathe, and as much water as I need to swim in.’ Bluey laughed. He looked round, to be sure there was no sign of the skipper. ‘Reckons he can get me a job there any time I want.’ He paused. ‘Or sometimes, I think of working – in a grocer’s, maybe,’ he said, making the jump in subject with a studied, casual tone.

This wasn’t like Bluey. Occasionally he’d discuss the Sheffield Shield results, or report winning a bit of money on the horses. He’d talk about his brother Merv, who’d died on the first day at Gallipoli, or the formidable Ada, his widowed mother. Tom sensed something different today. ‘What’s brought this on?’

Bluey gave one of the sacks a kick to straighten it. ‘What’s it like, being married?’

‘What?’ Tom was startled at the change of tack.

‘I mean – is it good?’

Tom kept his eyes on the inventory. ‘Something you want to tell me, Blue?’

‘No.’

‘Righto,’ Tom nodded. If he waited long enough, the story would make sense. It usually did. Eventually.

Bluey straightened another sack. ‘Her name’s Kitty. Kitty Kelly. Her dad owns the grocer’s. We’ve been walking out together.’

Tom raised his eyebrows and gave a smile. ‘Good for you.’

‘And I – well, I don’t know – I thought maybe we should get married.’ The look on Tom’s face prompted him to add, ‘We don’t have to get married. It’s nothing like that. Struth, we’ve never even – I mean, her dad keeps a pretty close eye on things. And her mother. So do her brothers. And Mrs Mewett’s her mum’s cousin, so you know what the family’s like.’

Tom laughed. ‘So what’s your question?’

‘It’s a big step. I know everyone does it eventually, but I just wondered – well, how you know …’

‘I’m hardly a full bottle on it. Only been married the once and I’m still getting the hang of it. Why don’t you ask Ralph? He’s been hitched to Hilda since Methuselah was a boy; raised a couple of kids. Seems to have made a fair job of it.’

‘I can’t tell Ralph.’

‘Why not?’

‘Kitty reckons that if we get married I’ll have to give up working on the boat, and come and work in the grocery business. Reckons she’s too scared I’ll get drowned one day and not come home from work.’

‘Cheery sort of soul, eh?’

Bluey looked worried. ‘But, you know, seriously. What’s it like being married? Having a kid and all that?’