Children of Toil ✔

Chapter Two

The crowded room seemed to get smaller. Meggy fought through the smoky haze, squeezed herself between and around the people who filled it. "Excuse me... yes I'm sorry... thank you." Meggy continued, nodded politely, her goal almost reached.

"Your pardon please." She smiled sweetly up at the tall bearded man who grunted and showed his displeasure as she pushed past him. He took hold of her arm. She instantly recognised the look on his face, and understood the thoughts that swam in his head.

"What's the hurry, miss? Pretty little thing like you. Lost are ya?"

"No, nay lost, thank you." She smiled once more and tried to pull her arm out of his grasp.

"Well, ya look lost ta me." He leered at her. "What ya reckon, Merv. She look lost to you."

Merv, a shorter, fatter man looked her up and down. "Yeah, I reckon she does, Otis." He grinned, nudged his friend and as he reached out toward her, he added, "I'll see if I can help find her."

Otis laughed and pulled Meggy closer as Merv's hand touched her backside.

"Let go of me ya filthy sods!" Meggy hissed, and then sank her teeth into Otis' hand.

He released her instantly so she bustled away. When at a safe distance, Meggy glanced back to see the two men laughing. Tears of frustration filled her eyes. She dashed them away.

*

"Now ye'll have to answer some questions, miss." Gilbert Jones pushed his spectacles onto the bridge of his nose as he spoke. She nodded uncertainly so he added, "They're not hard." The girl smiled and nodded again as Gilbert gave her one last look before he reached behind him for the immigration documents he needed. "It was Assisted Immigration you were wanting, Miss Dunn?" he said over his shoulder.

"Aye... there'll be nae problem with that will there?" Meggy fiddled with her basket and waited as he searched the desk for a pencil.

When Gilbert Jones looked up at her he smiled. "I shouldn't think so, Miss Dunn." He paused. "Women are in short supply in the colony. Especially in the north." He bent over the paper and began writing her name.

"The north?" Meggy queried.

Gilbert lifted his face and frowned. "You did say you didn't mind which ship, Miss Dunn."

"Nae I don't mind. I'm sorry, it's just, well... this is Australia I'm going to, isn't it?"

Gilbert chortled. "It's a big place, Miss Dunn and well... the Duke of Devonshire leaves in three weeks." He flicked through some papers which lay to his left. "Yes... she's headed to Cairns, Miss Dunn. Due to arrive there mid-April." He paused and added, "Cairns is in Queensland, Miss Dunn in the north of Australia." He flicked through the papers again. "Or there is the Gulf of Bothnia. She's not due to leave here for another two months and probably won't dock back in Australia for another month after the Devonshire but she will dock in Brisbane. That's in Southern Queensland. Both are carrying assisted immigrates." He turned his head in question.

Meggy twitched her lips. "Oh, the first will be grand, Mister Jones. It's just... I don't really know what to expect I guess."

Gilbert gave her a reassuring grin. "Not many do, miss. Not many do." He looked at the sheet of paper in front of him and continued to write down her name. "Now, Miss Dunn, how old are you?"

"I'm twenty-one." Meggy pressed her hand to her throat; she wasn't yet Twenty. "Yes... twenty-one, sir," she repeated so as to convince herself and hopefully him.

Gilbert wrote down her answer. "And your parents?"

"My mother was Jane Dunn. My father died when I was a bairn. My mother never told me his name, Mister Jones."

He nodded his understanding and added her mother's name to the document. "And is she still alive, your mother?"

"Nae. Consumption got her."

"Religion, Miss Dunn?" Gilbert waited for her answer. When she didn't reply he looked up at her.

Meggy shrugged. "Well, I'm nae real sure, Mister Jones. Mother never did take me ta church, though I did sometimes go myself and listen to Father O'Donnell's sermons at St. Peter's where I come from."

"And what religion was Father O'Donnell?"

"Catholic. Yes... he was Catholic."

"Well then, we'll put Catholic. What do you think?"

"Grand." Meggy beamed. "Grand, Mister Jones."

"Do you have any relatives in the colony?"

"Nae that I know of." She shook her head and grinned.

"Can you read and write, Miss Dunn." Gilbert scratched the side of his face with his pencil.

"I can write my name and add numbers, sir."

He screwed up his nose. "We'd better put no. Adding numbers doesn't really come into it."

Meggy waited for his next question.

"What's your trade, miss?"

She studied a spot on the wall behind his head. What to say?

"Trade, Miss Dunn. What you do for a living."

"Aye... I know what a trade is, Mister Jones!"

Gilbert Jones sat back in his chair and frowned at her tone.

Meggy blushed. "I'm sorry. It's just that I've worked at lots of things and I'm no sure how ta answer."

He leaned over his paperwork and wrote. "Best to put housemaid, which should cover everything." Gilbert looked up to check she was happy with this.

Meggy tilted her head and smiled at him. "Aye that should cover everything."

"And are you healthy?"

"Oh, yes." She beamed.

"And what is your probable usefulness within the colony do you think?"

Meggy raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "Ta even up the men, women numbers mayhap?" She hesitated. "You did say there were more men than women."

Gilbert Jones smiled. He liked Meg-Anne Dunn. She was pretty, a quick thinker and had beautiful hair. He knew as soon as her feet touched on new ground in the colony, she wouldn't take long to find her place. On the document he wrote House Whole Service.

I'm so proud of Meggy. She's taking real steps to improve her life. ♥

Photo - illustrated London news.