She tried to pull away, but he dragged her to her feet, pressing his body against hers. She wasn’t having that. Stamping on his foot, she scraped her shoe down his shin, causing him to yelp, then she retreated to the other side of the table.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Protecting myself. And I’ll do worse than that if you ever grab me again. How dare you take liberties with me? What sort of person do you think I am?’
‘Aw, come on, Gracie. Don’t be stand-offish. Jane and Tommy have told me so much about you, I’ve been dying to meet you. You can’t blame a fellow for getting carried away.’
Dying to meet her? Alarm bells rang in her head. Just wait till she got her sister alone. She’d find out what was going on.
‘Isn’t Bert a nice fellow?’ Jane said brightly next morning after Tommy had left for work.
‘No.’
Jane looked so horrified, Gracie knew her suspicions were correct. ‘Did you invite me to Australia to pair me off with him? Jane? Answer me.’
‘My goodness, it’s going to be hot again today. I’d better go and water those tomatoes.’
Gracie barred the doorway. ‘You did, didn’t you?’
‘I thought it’d be nice if you lived nearby. And Mum’s been worried about you not marrying, with your young man being killed during the war. There are a lot of spare women now and Bert’s a really good catch. He’ll be foreman after Mr Minchin leaves, you know.’
‘I don’t care how much money he earns. He can only talk about himself and I never did like men with yellow hair and bright pink skin.’
‘Don’t say that to Tommy, please. Why don’t you just…you know…give Bert a chance?’
Gracie pretended to read the newspaper. She found an advert for an employment bureau and tore it out secretly.
The following day, ignoring her sister’s protests and pleas to wait another week or two, she put on her smartest clothes and her best hat. It had an upturned brim decorated by a fabric flower and was worn pulled down to the eyebrows. It showed off her eyes and she had loved it so much that she’d paid thirty shillings for it, a huge extravagance.
She found the employment bureau without difficulty and marched inside, refusing to give in to the butterflies in her stomach. They questioned her about her experience, then offered her a job.
She stared at the woman in dismay. ‘But I told you: I don’t want to work as a maid. I want something more interesting.’
‘There aren’t many other jobs for young women without clerical skills, so it’s either work as a maid or in a shop.’
Gracie had a quick think. If she worked in a shop, she’d have to pay for lodgings and she’d never save any money. Of course, she could stay at her sister’s, but that’d mean putting up with Tommy’s bossiness, not to mention facing Bert’s leers and fumbling hands.
With a sigh, she agreed to consider a live-in maid’s job. But, she vowed to herself, it’d only be for six months. She’d save and look around for something more interesting once she got used to Australia.
‘I have a vacancy on a country homestead in the southwest, working for Mrs Gilsworth. She’s an excellent employer, pays top wages and even provides the uniform.’
Gracie fanned herself. ‘Is it cooler there?’
‘It’s always cooler in the south.’
‘And is there a town nearby? I’ll take it, then.’
‘When can you start? Mrs Gilsworth is rather desperate for help.’
‘Would tomorrow be too soon?’
‘I’ll telephone the local post office and they’ll send her a message. I can find out within two hours, but I’m sure she’ll engage you.’
When Gracie got home, her sister took one look at her and burst into tears. ‘You found a job, didn’t you?’
‘Yes.’ She tried to ask Jane if she knew anything about the southwest but all her sister could do was worry about what Tommy would say.
Tommy said a great deal that evening, like ‘ungrateful’ and ‘taking advantage’, as he chomped his way through an overloaded plate.
Gracie only had to think of Bert to know she was doing the right thing. In the end, she went to bed early to escape the chilly atmosphere.
But she found it hard to sleep, tossing and turning in the narrow, creaking bed. She was more than a bit nervous about going to live over a hundred miles away from the only people she knew in Western Australia.
The next morning Gracie followed the porter into Perth railway station and watched her trunk and suitcase loaded onto the train. Jane had insisted on coming with her and, even at this late stage, tried to persuade her to change her mind.
‘For goodness’ sake, stop nagging! I’m taking this job and that’s that!’
‘But you came all the way to Australia to be with me and—’
‘To make a new life near you! Not for you to marry me off to one of your husband’s friends. I lost one man to the war and if I ever meet another I like enough to marry he’ll be my choice, not yours. And he won’t have yellow hair.’
Gracie was relieved when the train chugged out of Perth station in a cloud of steam. She felt very alone as she stared at the grass, burned beige like straw by the hot Australian sun south of the city, so different from England. She missed the greenery, missed her other brothers and sisters, too.
It was so hot, she took off her gloves and fanned herself with her hat. There wasn’t much to see and she was alone with only her thoughts and worries for company.
She arrived at Bunbury, a hundred miles south, in the early afternoon. She got out of the train smiling determinedly. The other passengers hurried away, but she waited to be met.
A tall man dressed as a chauffeur strode across to her. ‘Miss Bell?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m Finn. Mrs Gilsworth is waiting over there.’
‘I’ve got a trunk to pick up, a blue one.’
‘I’ll see to that.’
His eyes were admiring and Gracie felt flustered. He was nice-looking, with dark hair, twinkling grey-blue eyes and an upright way of holding himself, like many ex-soldiers.
Mrs Gilsworth was plump and expensively dressed. Her eyes narrowed as she looked Gracie up and down. ‘I see Finn found you, Bell. The car is this way.’
Gracie sat in the front next to Finn, who barely said a word, while Mrs Gilsworth never stopped talking about what she had bought at the shops in Bunbury and the dinner party she was giving next week. To hear her talk, Bunbury was a big town. It seemed very small to Gracie.
They drove along country roads, which seemed to get narrower and dustier by the mile. Occasionally, they passed through small clusters of houses. Talk about the ends of the earth! Then at last they turned off on to a long drive to a sprawling wooden house surrounded by verandas and a cluster of farm buildings. Gum trees shaded the house, the leathery leaves a faded green.
It looked very different from the English countryside. Gracie swatted a fly. The scenery wasn’t nearly as pretty here.
Finn drew up at the front door of the homestead and opened the car door for Mrs Gilsworth, then got back in and drove round to the back of the house. He removed his chauffeur’s cap and tossed it on the front seat, rubbing the mark it had made on his forehead. ‘Welcome to Fairgums, Gracie.’